History Colorado

Learn more about the people of Keota throughout the rest of their lives. 

More About the People of Keota

Water tower in Keota. Photo taken November 8, 2010 by History Colorado staff. 

Ghost Town

Explore key local, national, and global events that impacted the town of Keota.  

Timeline

Around the Homestead: The Barn

No one in Keota had indoor plumbing. Outhouses (also known as privies) were a fact of life for homesteaders--even town folk. Enjoy these pictures of historic outhouses and appreciate how fortunate most of us are to have modern plumbing!

Around the Homestead: The Outhouse

At Keota's peak in the 1910s and 1920s, enough people lived in the town that the elementary school and high school were separate buildings. As families moved away during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the schools were once again combined in the same building. 

Keota School

Although Keota was always a small town, by 1920 it had grown enough to be counted on the national census, with 129 people living in the town itself. In this activity, meet six of Keota’s residents and learn about what they do everyday.


Meet the People of Keota

Keota was a dryland farming community on the Eastern Plains of Colorado that began in the 1860s after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act granted Americans 160-acre plots of public land provided they lived on it, improved it, and paid a small registration fee. Explore the map of Colorado to learn more about the land around Keota. 

Little Town on the Plains

Detail of map showing the stops on the Burlington Railroad line in Colorado. 

The CB&Q Railroad and the Telegraph

Some women embraced homesteading as a symbol of independence, and most female homesteaders in the Keota area proved up their claims alone. A minority shared claims with male relatives or husbands. Mary Beardsley proved up her claim on what is now Keota in 1889. In this activity, explore objects around one house in Keota -- that still stands today -- and the importance of women's work on the homestead. 

Around the Homestead: The Yellow House

There’s always something going on at Clyde Stanley’s store. He sells groceries and hardware, publishes the newspaper, files homestead claims and takes catalog orders, brings the mail in and sends it out. Short on cash? Not to worry; you can pay your bill with spare eggs or cream from your farm. If you want to do business, swap gossip or just see a friendly face, Stanley’s is the place.  Check out the goods Clyde Stanley sold at the general store and learn about the long history of brands we still see on shelves today!

General Store

Anything you might have needed--and many things you probably didn't--could be ordered from one of Chicago's huge mail-order companies. Both Montgomery Ward (1872) and Sears (1888) catered especially to rural families. When Rural Free Delivery began in 1896, people living in towns like Keota had access to everything in the catalogs. But they didn't always have the money needed to make purchases. Farmers traded goods and services more often than they used cash. The average family in Keota made three catalog orders a year, spending about $5 an order.

Look through a selection of items from the Montgomery Ward catalog and discover how much they cost in the 1920s!

Montgomery Ward Catalog

It’s flat, windy, and dry--the middle of nowhere. The Eastern Colorado prairies look pretty bleak to most people. But to new homesteaders, they look like heaven. 

A family can prosper here and build for the future. There’s plenty of land (it’s free--just stake a claim), a railroad, a good school, and a strong community. Folks can support themselves, build some savings, maybe leave something behind for the next generation.

Keota doesn’t have everything, but it has all the things that matter. Freedom. Independence. Opportunity. Community. Those are the blessings that fill these empty prairies. 


This resource kit addresses the essential question 

How was life in Keota different from life today? How is it similar? 

Supporting questions addressed by specific activities include:

What was daily life like in Keota 100 years ago?

How did technology differ from what we use today? 

What national and global events shaped Keota’s history? 

For more, visit History Colorado's Primary Source Set: 

https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/keota_primary_resource_set.pdf

Little Town on the Plains: Keota, Colorado

U.S. History

Social Studies

As one old-timer wrote, an outhouse is “a little house behind a big house, about 100 yards away. In wintertime, it’s 100 yards too far. In the summertime, it’s 100 yards too close.”


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Outhouse in Boulder County

Outhouses were sometimes built with more than one place to sit. So-called "two-holers" probably weren’t occupied by two people at the same time; one hole could be made slightly smaller for children to use. However, hotels could have 

People using these outhouses in Cope, Colorado, were probably grateful that they didn't have to share.


David DeHarport shot this 120 mm negative on April 26, 1987 near Cope, Colorado. The negative depicts two wooden outhouses. Both of the outhouses' doors are ajar, revealing wooden seats inside. A neighborhood street is visible in the background. There are cars parked on the street. The side of a white house is also visible. Leafless trees grow behind the outhouse on the right. And a large overhanging branch is visible it the right upper corner of the image. Trees off-camera cast shadows along the ground in front of the outhouses.
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David DeHarport (1921-2001) was a photographer, archaeologist, and anthropologist. 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. This photograph is part of the David DeHarport collection.

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Two Outhouses in Cope

The crescent moon symbol is one of the most recognizable symbols associated with outhouses, but where did it come from? Some stories suggest that the crescent moon marked women’s outhouses, while a sun shape was for men’s, but historians haven’t found the moon shape on doors any earlier than the 1960s. Regardless, the cutout would have been pretty practical for ventilation and to cut down on the smell. 


Everyone at Auriel Oram's house probably used the same outhouse regardless of their gender. 

Auriel Oram and Ray by the Outhouse near Auriel's House in Midway, Colorado

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Although toilet paper was invented in 1857, it wasn’t very common -- or soft -- until 1935. Instead, homesteaders used pages torn out of Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs and Farmer’s Almanacs. 


Part of the bottom of this outhouse in Cope, Colorado has lifted off the ground, revealing the filled-in hole beneath. Plants grow from the piled dirt. 

This 120 mm film negative was taken by David DeHarport in Como, Colorado on June 11, 1995. It depicts a house-shaped outhouse that is leaning backward at an extreme angle. The part of the bottom of the outhouse has lifted off the ground, revealing the filled-in hole beneath. Plants grow from the piled dirt. A white house with a chimney and dark trim is visible in the distance to the right of the outhouse. A ladder leans against it. A telephone pole appears behind the house. To the left of the outhouse, open fields are visible. Mountains can be seen on the horizon beyond the fields.

David DeHarport (1921-2001) was a photographer, archaeologist, and anthropologist. 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. This photograph is part of the David DeHarport collection.

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Outhouse in Como

An outhouse at Cheese Ranch, located in Douglas County, Colorado. 

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Outhouse at Cheese Ranch

Although it may seem gross, studying what’s left behind from outhouse pits can tell archaeologists a lot about who lived there. People often threw their trash and broken household objects in the outhouse, and sometimes children might drop toys accidentally (or on purpose!) 


Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Little Town on the Plains: Keota, Colorado

Around the Homestead: The Outhouse

Going the Distance