Boggsville is a former settlement in

Bent County, Colorado Bent County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,650. The county seat and only incorporated municipality is Las Animas. The county is named in honor of frontier trader William Bent. Hi ...

, USA near the

Purgatoire River The Purgatoire River ( es, Río Purgatorio) is a river in southeastern Colorado, United States. The river is also known locally as the Purgatory River or the Picketwire River. ''Purgatoire'' means Purgatory in French. French trappers named the ri ...

about above the Purgatoire's confluence with the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

. It was established in 1866. The surviving structures are among the earliest examples of

Territorial architecture Territorial Style was an architectural style of building developed and used in Santa Fe de Nuevo México, popularized after the founding of Albuquerque in 1706. Reintroduced during the New Mexico Territory from the time of the Mexican and American ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Boggsville was the last home of frontiersman

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and n ...

before his death in 1868 at

Fort Lyon Fort Lyon was composed of two 19th-century military fort complexes in southeastern Colorado. The initial fort, also called Fort Wise, operated from 1860 to 1867. After a flood in 1866, a new fort was built near Las Animas, Colorado, which oper ...

. The

U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

at Las Animas ( ZIP Code 81054) now serves Boggsville postal addresses. Boggville lies along

Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drums) ...

about 2 miles south of Las Animas.

History

The village was a stagecoach station on the Purgatory Branch of the

Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...

. With the establishment of Bent County in 1870, Boggsville became the county seat. The town was named for Thomas O. Boggs (b. 1824, an Indian trader from the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

and cattle dealer. In 1846 Boggs married 14-year-old Rumalda Luna Bent, the stepdaughter of

Charles Bent Charles Bent (November 11, 1799 – January 19, 1847) was an American businessman and politician who served as the first civilian United States governor of the New Mexico Territory, newly acquired by the Military Governor, Stephen Watts Kearny, ...

, first American governor of

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, who was an heiress to land grants in Colorado. In 1866 Boggs built an adobe house on the grant. The next year

John Wesley Prowers John Wesley Prowers (January 29, 1838 – February 14, 1884) was an American trader, cattle rancher, legislator, and businessman in the territory and state of Colorado. Married to Amache Prowers, a Cheyenne woman, his father-in-law was a Cheyenne ...

built a two-story 14-room house at Boggsville that functioned as a house, a school, a stagecoach station, and after 1870 as the Bent County seat. In 1867 the citizens of Boggsville dug the Tarbox Ditch from the Purgatoire to about of irrigated land. The ditch was the first such irrigation project in southeastern Colorado. In 1873 the county seat was relocated to Las Animas City. At that time Boggsville had 97 voting citizens. The same year, the town was bypassed by the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

and the

Kansas Pacific Railroad The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontine ...

. Prowers moved to West Las Animas and became a cattle rancher and politician. Boggs, who was the first sheriff of Bent County and who was elected to the territorial legislature in 1871, moved to

Springer, New Mexico Springer is a town in Colfax County, New Mexico, Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. Its population was 1,047 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History In 1877, William T Thornton, representing the Maxwell Land Grand and Rai ...

in 1877 after his wife's land grants were contested. After the departure of Prowers and Boggs the property was sold, becoming the San Patricio Ranch of under the Lee family.

Description

The Boggsville site is at the center of a large farm, of which were donated to the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County containing the Boggs and Prowers houses, which are the only remaining historic structures. There had been at one time thirteen permanent buildings in the village, one of which was the home of

from December 1867 until Carson's death in May 1868. The Carson House was destroyed in a 1921 flood. The Boggs House has been unoccupied since 1975. It is U-shaped but was originally L-shaped. The one-story adobe structure combines features of

and

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

characteristics. The Prowers House was last inhabited in the 1950s The rectangular house was partly collapsed by the 1980s, with portions removed as early as the 1920s. The Powers House is adobe, with interior woodwork brought to the site from St. Louis. There are a further five outbuildings associated with the Boggs House. The Boggs and Prowers houses have been restored by the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County, and the site is open to the public. Boggsville was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on October 24, 1986.

Notable person

Amache Prowers use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , rest ...

, Native American activist, cattle rancher, advocate, and storeowner.

References

External links

Boggsville Historic Site
at the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Bent County, Colorado Unincorporated communities in Colorado Museums in Bent County, Colorado Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado 1866 establishments in Colorado Territory National Register of Historic Places in Bent County, Colorado Former county seats in Colorado

History

Description

Notable person

See also

References

External links