World War I

WWII destroyed farms across Europe, American wheat was in high demand

Spanish Flu Pandemic

Census shows more Americans live in cities than rural areas (for the first time)

Dust storms across the plains of the US

It's now 1910, what is happening on the continent and around the world?

The Keota News shuts down, but publisher Clyde Stanley continues various magazines and the Wayside Press. 

(Image is a reenactor playing Clyde Stanley).

Keota News shuts down

Many Keota farmers had gone into debt during the good years to buy new equipment and farm more land - and they were now in trouble.

Public Sale

The dry conditions require deep drilling to access water, so well drillers risked greater exposure to toxic gases. Garey becomes the first burial in the Keota Cemetery.

This is an iron hand pump. It has been restored with new parts and is painted bright red. Inscription: Dempster Mill MFG CO | 210 F | 229F | 33 | 7 | Beatrice NEB.

Hand Pump, windmill component

History Colorado

George William Garey dies while digging a well in Keota

The Colorado government released a report that the entire state is at least 50 percent below its usual snowmelt levels. In some areas, like the high plains of Weld County, the snowmelt is gone entirely.

Photograph, Men in Cornfield

Water Availability Issues

Eventually, 1 out of 4 young men will serve in the war.

Outdoor portrait of a man in World War One Army uniform with a rifle over his shoulder in (probably) Denver, Colorado. Sign reads: "Private Property - Keep Off."


Negative, Man in WWI uniform holding rifle

World War I draft starts

The Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act authorizes the United States government to buy back “sub-marginal” farmland, including the entirety of the Keota area.

Buy Back of Land

The first issue of the Keota News rolls off the presses.

Clyde L. Stanley inside the "Wayside Press" in Keota, Colorado. Clyde standing on a rug. Wearing jeans, a short-sleeve shirt, right hand on a stack of paper. Press in front of him, pedal on the floor. Stacked boxes behind the press. Pot-belly stove with a pot of water, covered pot, both sitting on an up-side-down aluminum plate. The coal bucket sits on floor. The door left side of the photo with hanging light blub for light.

Inscriptions; *Stamped on side of box, black ink: "STORE IN COOL / DRY PLACE / PROTECT FROM FREEZING."
*Stamped on box under the above, up-side-down: "Fiberboard Products Inc. Pure-Pak"
*Hand written, cursive, back, black ink: "Uncle Clude, Wayside Press / Keota, Colo 80638 / Dean Hand / 11-1956"

Photograph, Clyde Stanley printing on his press

Photograph, Clyde Stanley, printing on his press

Keota News

The railroad builds a new depot in Keota.

A black and white photograph of the Keota Depot at the Burlington. Stock Yard are right. Wood storage shed and water tank on left. Two powerline poles, three men, railroad cart, wooden barrels, and equipment outside front. Handwritten on reverse side (not shown): The Keota depot on the Burlington. Stock yards to the right and the round wooden water storage tank and well was to the left. The storage tank was moved to a farm south of Keota and for many years could be seen from Highway #14. When we passed there Dec. 2nd, 1981 the old tank had recently fallen in heap. Cream cans at end of depot. Summer 1923


Photo, The Keota Depot

Keota Railroad Depot

According to the Colorado Yearbook, Keota’s population falls to just 15 people.

A color photograph of Keota in the evening taken from the water tower. Old wooden buildings, red, and yellow buildings, telephone poles, roads, trees, and fields.

Handwritten on front: Evening views from the 2nd rung of the water tower in Keota. / May 22nd, 1994.


Standards for Timeline of Events (1910s-1930s)

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework