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Baca County

Added by yongli on 04/17/2015 - 13:42, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 22:15

Baca County

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Baca County is a rural, agricultural county on the southern plains encompassing an area of 2,557 square miles in the southeast corner of Colorado. It borders Bent and Prowers Counties to the north, Las Animas County to the west, the state of Kansas to the east, and the states of New Mexico and...

Bison

Added by Nick Johnson on 11/19/2022 - 09:57, last changed on 11/21/2022 - 09:26
The American Plains Bison ( Bison bison ) are large mammals in the Bovidae family, recognizable for their large head, shaggy coats, pronounced hump, and close association with the American West. Bison are commonly and incorrectly referred to as "buffalo," which are Asian and African animals. North...

Bridger Fire

Added by yongli on 01/21/2021 - 13:04, last changed on 02/01/2023 - 09:40
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 acres of grassland in Las Animas County ...

Cheyenne County

Added by yongli on 06/27/2016 - 13:37, last changed on 11/27/2022 - 09:13
Cheyenne County is a sparsely populated county on Colorado’s eastern plains, covering 1,781 square miles. It is named for the Cheyenne, one of many nomadic Native American groups that lived and hunted bison in the area throughout the nineteenth century. Cheyenne County is bordered to the north by...

Colorado Climate

Added by yongli on 04/27/2017 - 16:20, last changed on 04/07/2023 - 07:38
Colorado’s combination of high elevation, midlatitude, and continental interior geography results in a cool, dry, and invigorating climate. The average annual temperature for the state is 43.5 degrees Fahrenheit (F), which is 13.7 degrees below the global mean. The average statewide precipitation...

Colorado: An Overview

Added by yongli on 06/19/2018 - 12:08, last changed on 06/02/2023 - 09:39
Colorado, “the Centennial State,” was the thirty-eighth state to enter the Union on August 1, 1876. Its diverse geography encompasses 104,094 square miles of the American West and includes swathes of the Great Plains , southern Rocky Mountains , and the Colorado Plateau. Colorado has an average...

Crowley County

Added by yongli on 11/04/2016 - 16:15, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 22:24
Formed in 1911, Crowley County covers 800 square miles on Colorado’s southeastern Great Plains near the Arkansas River . It is bordered to the north by Lincoln County , to the east by Kiowa County , to the south by Otero County , and to the west by Pueblo County . A heavily agricultural county,...

Irrigation in Colorado

Added by yongli on 02/03/2017 - 11:48, last changed on 10/18/2022 - 06:48
The tension between aridity and irrigated agriculture has been a defining characteristic of Colorado for much of its modern history. On average, the state receives less than fifteen inches of annual precipitation, making it the seventh driest state in the country. To complicate matters, the...

Kit Carson County

Added by yongli on 11/14/2016 - 16:10, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Kit Carson County, named for fur trapper and Army scout Kit Carson , covers 2,162 miles of the Great Plains in eastern Colorado. One of the state’s most productive agricultural counties, Kit Carson is bordered to the north by Yuma and Washington Counties, to the east by the state of Kansas, to the...

Last Chance Fire

Added by yongli on 01/21/2021 - 13:52, last changed on 04/12/2023 - 18:38
The Last Chance Fire started on June 25, 2012, when sparks from a motorist’s flat tire set the prairie ablaze near the town of Last Chance in eastern Colorado. The fire was 100 percent contained in nearly twenty-four hours, but in that time the wildfire scorched 45,000 acres and destroyed several...

Lincoln County

Added by yongli on 09/29/2016 - 15:29, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Lincoln County, named after President Abraham Lincoln, covers 2,586 square miles of Colorado’s Great Plains southeast of Denver. It is bordered to the north by Washington County , to the east by Kit Carson and Cheyenne Counties, to the southeast by Kiowa County , to the south by Crowley County ,...

Logan County

Added by yongli on 09/29/2016 - 15:57, last changed on 11/12/2022 - 10:04
Logan County, named for Civil War General John A. Logan, covers 1,845 miles of the Great Plains in northeast Colorado. It is bordered to the north by the state of Nebraska, to the east by Sedgwick and Phillips Counties, to the southeast by Yuma County , to the south by Washington County , to the...

Medicine Lodge Treaties

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:40, last changed on 11/20/2022 - 22:09
The Medicine Lodge Treaties were a series of three treaties between the US government and the Comanche , Kiowa , Plains Apache , Southern Cheyenne , and Southern Arapaho American Indian nations, signed in October 1867 along Medicine Lodge Creek, south of Fort Larned, Kansas. By treating with...

Phillips County

Added by yongli on 09/30/2016 - 11:11, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Phillips County covers 688 square miles on the Great Plains of northeastern Colorado. It has a population of 4,349, more than half of whom live in the county seat of Holyoke . Other communities include Haxton (pop. 946) and Amherst (58). Frenchman Creek is the only source of surface water for the...

Prowers County

Added by yongli on 11/15/2016 - 08:57, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Prowers County covers 1,644 square miles of the Great Plains and Arkansas River valley in southeastern Colorado. The rectangular county is bordered to the north by Kiowa County , to the east by the state of Kansas, to the south by Baca County , and to the west by Bent County . Prowers County has a...

The Great Die Up

Added by yongli on 02/16/2021 - 13:40, last changed on 11/01/2022 - 23:42
“The Great Die Up” is one of three nicknames for the winter of 1886–87, when hundreds of thousands of cattle across the Great Plains died in harsh weather. The event changed the cattle industry forever, ending the practice of open-range grazing. Ranchers also called this weather event “The Big Die-...

Treaty of Fort Laramie

Added by yongli on 06/09/2020 - 11:50, last changed on 11/23/2022 - 03:42
Signed in 1851, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was made between the US government and several Indigenous nations of the Great Plains —including the Cheyenne , Arapaho , and Lakota —who occupied parts of present southern Wyoming and northern Colorado. The treaty was part of the government’s efforts to...

Washington County

Added by yongli on 09/30/2016 - 11:23, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Washington County, named for the first US president, is a county of 2,524 square miles on Colorado’s eastern Great Plains . It is bordered to the north by Logan County , to the east by Yuma County , to the south by Kit Carson and Lincoln Counties, and to the west by Arapahoe , Adams , and Morgan...

Yuma County

Added by yongli on 09/30/2016 - 12:30, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 16:38
Yuma County covers 2,369 square miles in northeast Colorado. A part of the state’s Great Plains region, the county includes the lowest point in Colorado: 3,315 feet, along the Arikaree River at the Kansas border. Yuma County is bordered to the east by Cheyenne County, Kansas, to the south by Kit...

“Great American Desert”

Added by yongli on 09/30/2016 - 09:37, last changed on 11/02/2022 - 12:43
Early nineteenth century Army explorers Zebulon Pike and Stephen H. Long conceptualized the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains as the “Great American Desert.” Long’s report called it “unfit for cultivation,” while Pike compared it to “the sandy deserts of Africa.” The myth of the Great...
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