Ghost Town

Keota’s population began to decline in the 1930s during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. By 1958, only 15 people lived in the town. The railroad tracks were pulled up in 1974, and Keota lost its incorporated status (meaning it was no longer considered a town) in 1990. 

Though Keota is mostly gone, nearby towns such as Ault preserve rural Colorado’s way of life. Many neighboring towns are small--about the size of Keota in its heyday--but they’re important to Colorado’s rural and urban mix. City populations depend on rural livestock, produce, and the goods that come from small towns. 

Most of the land around Keota is part of the Pawnee National Grassland. The United States once pushed homesteaders to farm the prairie, but after the Dust Bowl, the government started buying back acres too unreliable for farming and allowing them to revert back to prairie. Today the Grassland preserves a piece of the delicate ecosystem and is a popular hiking and camping destination in eastern Colorado.

“It’s part of our historical life. We grew up here, and you can’t erase that, ever.” --Winonna Speaker Hart

Where others saw a barren prairie, the people who came to Keota and stayed saw the Arcadia of the West. That vision remains, even though the town no longer exists. Many of the people who moved away have stayed connected to Keota because of what it represents--the hard work, courage, and determination of ordinary people with big dreams. Towns come and go, but the spirit that animated them never dies.