Little Town on the Plains: Keota, Colorado
Eastern Plains of Colorado, Late 1800s
Background Knowledge
Windmill in Watkins, Colorado. Between 1937-2000, DeHarport photographed the southwestern United States, specifically focusing on Colorado and the Four Corners region. Much of his work focused on abandoned agricultural and mining towns in Colorado, as well as landscapes of the state's eastern plains.
Why was the town of Keota settled by homesteaders?
The Eastern Plains is the name for the region of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and the population centers of the Front Range. Part of the Great Plains of the United States, the Eastern Plains were primarily shortgrass prairie, covered in buffalo grass and blue grama. Once homesteaders came, they began to change the landscape to grow crops, despite the lack of rainfall in the region.
The completion of the Denver Pacific railroad in 1870 connected the city of Denver to mining towns in the Rocky Mountains and homesteading towns on the Eastern Plains.
In an average year, the Eastern plains get about 12 inches of rain - this is barely enough to raise a crop. Some years there is even less rain. The summers are blistering hot, winters are freezing and winds howl year-round.
Native American tribes like the Cheyenne and the Arapaho still lived on and traveled throughout the Eastern Plains. These were a part of their traditional lands, and the tribes hunted bison throughout the region.