Lamar, Colorado
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Lamar is the
home rule municipality Statutory city may refer to: * Statutory city (Austria), an Austrian municipality acting as a district administrative authority * Statutory city (Czech Republic), a Czech city with special privileges * Statutory city (United States), a city in the ...
that is the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
and the most populous municipality of Prowers County, Colorado. The city population was 7,687 at the 2020 United States census. The city was named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a Confederate soldier and diplomat who wrote the Mississippi Secession Ordinance, and after the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of the Interior and
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
Justice. Lamar is the home of Lamar Community College, and is the largest city in southeastern Colorado.


History

Lamar was founded on May 24, 1886, by Issac Holmes. It was named after Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the author of the Mississippi Ordinance of Secession, and a Confederate officer and diplomat. The first town elections were held in December, and C. M. Morrison became the town's first mayor. In 1889, Prowers County was established, and Lamar was elected to house the county's government. Throughout its history, Lamar has suffered from fires and floods. The town was also greatly affected by the
Dust Bowl The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...
, and as such, participated in projects led by the Civil Works Administration,
Federal Emergency Relief Administration The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was a program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, building on the Hoover administration's Emergency Relief and Construction Act. It was replaced in 1935 by the Works Progre ...
, and the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
. The northern site of the
Pierre Auger Observatory The Pierre Auger Observatory is an international cosmic ray observatory in Argentina designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays: sub-atomic particles traveling nearly at the speed of light and each with energies beyond . In Earth's atmosphe ...
of ultra-high energy cosmic rays is planned to be built near Lamar.


Geography and climate

The city lies in southeastern Colorado in northwestern Prowers County on the south side of 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 ...
floodplain. Las Animas is about twenty miles to the west. The antipode of Lamar is Saint Paul Island (French island in the Indian Ocean). Lamar is one of the rare American places with an antipode located on land and not in the open sea. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , all land.


Transportation

Lamar receives intercity passenger rail service at the Lamar Amtrak Station via
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's
Southwest Chief The ''Southwest Chief'' (formerly the ''Southwest Limited'' and ''Super Chief'') is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and American Southwest ...
, which runs between Chicago and Los Angeles. An intercity bus service is also provided by Bustang. Lamar is the last eastbound stop of the Lamar-Pueblo-Colorado Springs Outrider line. Highways * US 50 is an east–west highway running from California to Maryland. It is also the main route to
Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
and Las Animas. * Prowers County Road 196 (the state has abandoned the highway) is an stretch that connects around Lamar to Wiley. *
US 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind U.S. Route 281, US 281. The highway is broken into two segments by Ye ...
/ 385 are two concurrent highways that run south through Lamar. They connect Lamar to Springfield. US 287 runs from
Texas State Highway 87 State Highway 87 (SH 87) runs for between Galveston, Texas (at a terminus shared with Interstate 45 and Spur 342) to U.S. Highway 59 and U.S. Highway 84 in Timpson, Texas. Highway 87 has a notable stretch between Sea Rim State Park and ...
in
Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in the state of Texas, United States of America, located east of metro Houston. Part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, the city lies primarily in Jefferson County, with a small extension in Orange County. ...
, to US 89 at Choteau, Montana. US 385 runs from
Big Bend National Park Big Bend National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topograph ...
in Texas to US 85 in Deadwood, South Dakota.


Climate

According to the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, Lamar is located in a
cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...
(Bsk)


Demographics

, there were 7,804 people, 3,102 households, and 1,980 families living in the city. The population density was . There were 3,666 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 78.6%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.7%
African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 1.0% Native American, 0.4% Asian, 0.0%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 16.3% from other races, and 3.0% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 39.7% of the population. There were 3,102 households, of which 42.2% were married couples living together, 15.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 31.8% of all households were made up of individuals living alone, and 12.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.07. In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.8% under the age of 18, 10.4% from 18 to 24, 23.4% from 25 to 44, 24.3% from 45 to 64, and 14.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $31,521, and the median income for a family was $43,588. Males working full-time and year-round had a median income of $31,621 versus $30,148 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the city was $16,944. About 21.4% of families and 24.6% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 34.1% of those under age 18 and 15.1% of those age 65 or over.


Education

Lamar is part of School District RE-2, and it is home to Lamar Community College.


Economy and health care

Lamar initially had an agriculture-based economy. In 1981, German bus manufacturer Neoplan opened a manufacturing plant employing 650, but it closed in 2006. Lamar has increasingly relied on tourism. Prowers Medical Center, a critical access hospital, serves Lamar and Prowers County. The hospital has an emergency department that is a level IV trauma center.


Notable people

Notable individuals who were born in or have lived in Lamar include: * Gordon L. Allott (1907–1989), U.S. Senator from Colorado * Marvin Ash (1914–1974), jazz pianist * Ken Curtis (1916–1991), actor, singer * Scott Elarton (1976- ), baseball pitcher * Curt Gentry (1931–2014), journalist, non-fiction author * Gerald Gregg (1907–1985), illustrator, book cover artist * Wayne R. Grisham (1923–2011), U.S. Representative from
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
* Floyd D. Hall (1916–2012), pilot, airline executive * Sharon Herbaugh (1954–1993), war correspondent for the Associated Press * Stanley O. Ikenberry (1935-2025), President of the University of Illinois System 1979-1995, 2010. * Wesley Tuttle (1917–2003), singer-songwriter, guitarist * Sandy Vance (1947- ), baseball pitcher


See also

* Madonna of the Trail'' monument * National Old Trails Road * Santa Fe National Historic Trail *''The Lamar Ledger''


References


Further reading

* ''The National Old Trails Road To Southern California, Part 1 (LA to KC)''; Automobile Club Of Southern California; 64 pages; 1916. (Download 6.8MB PDF eBook)
/small> * Thomas Lamar Coughlin "Those Southern Lamars"


External links


City of Lamar

Lamar City Map
CDOT
Lamar School District RE-2
{{Authority control Cities in Prowers County, Colorado Cities in Colorado County seats in Colorado Colorado populated places on the Arkansas River Populated places established in 1886 1886 establishments in Colorado