Boggsville, Colorado on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Boggsville is an extinct town located in Bent County,
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
State of Colorado
History Colorado
Boggsville Historic Site
at the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County
{{authority control 1866 establishments in Colorado Territory Former county seats in Colorado Geography of Bent County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Museums in Bent County, Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Bent County, Colorado Populated places established in 1866 Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Unincorporated communities in Bent County, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, United States. The town was located near the Purgatoire River 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 Colorado, specifically ...
. It lies along Highway 101 about 2 miles south of Las Animas.
History
It was established in 1866. The surviving structures are among the earliest examples of Territorial architecture inColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
. Boggsville was the last home of frontiersman Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
before his death in 1868 at Fort Lyon.
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, the ...
. With the establishment of Bent County in 1870, Boggsville became the county seat. The town was named for Thomas Oliver Boggs (1824-1894), an Indian trader from the Indian Territory
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 States, ...
and cattle dealer. In 1846 Boggs married 14-year-old Rumalda Luna Bent, the stepdaughter of Charles Bent, first American governor of New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
, 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 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 largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996.
The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...
and the Kansas Pacific Railroad. 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 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.
Boggsville never had a U.S. post office. The U.S. Post Office
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...
at Las Animas ( ZIP Code 81054) now serves Boggsville postal addresses.
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 Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
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 Territorial architecture and Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on October 24, 1986.
Notable persons
* Thomas Oliver Boggs, Indian trader, businessman, sheepherder and sheriff *Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
, frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer.
* Amache Prowers, Native American activist, cattle rancher, advocate, and storeowner.
See also
*List of county seats in Colorado
This is a list of the county seats of the U.S. State of Colorado and its two predecessors: the extralegal Territory of Jefferson and the official Territory of Colorado.
__TOC__
Territory of Jefferson
On August 24, 1859, voters of the Pike' ...
*List of ghost towns in Colorado
This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
* List of protected areas of Colorado
References
External links
State of Colorado
History Colorado
Boggsville Historic Site
at the Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County
{{authority control 1866 establishments in Colorado Territory Former county seats in Colorado Geography of Bent County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Museums in Bent County, Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Bent County, Colorado Populated places established in 1866 Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Unincorporated communities in Bent County, Colorado