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Boggsville

Founded in 1866 near the confluence of the Arkansas and Purgatoire Rivers, Boggsville became the first permanent settlement in southeastern Colorado. Its residents pioneered irrigation and large-scale farming and ranching in the Arkansas Valley. The town…

Bridger Fire

On June 10, 2008, lightning sparked the Bridger Fire in a US Army training area in southeast Colorado, about twenty-five miles south of La Junta. Also known as the Piñon Canyon Fire, the blaze went on to become a significant wildfire, burning 46,612…

Hispano Settlement in the Purgatoire Valley

Adobe buildings in towns such as Trinidad and the remnants of plazas or villages attest to early Hispano settlement along the Purgatoire River in southern Colorado. Today, Hispanos—descendants of Mexicans who lived in what became the US southwest after…

Las Animas County

Las Animas County, the largest county in Colorado, covers 4,775 square miles in the southern end of the state, east of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It was originally part of a larger Huerfano County that encompassed all of southeast Colorado. Today,…

Otero County

Otero County is located in southeastern Colorado and covers 1,270 square miles of rolling plains and the fertile Arkansas River valley. It is bordered by Pueblo County to the west, Crowley and Kiowa Counties to the north, Bent County to the east, and Las…