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

Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act into law. This Act encouraged Americans to move west and farm. For a small filing fee, any head of a household could apply for 160 acres (later 640 acres) of land. To keep it, you had to live there for a certain number of years and improve your claim by building structures and raising crops or animals. 


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Abraham Lincoln

The Homestead Act

The Keota area experienced its first peak period of settlement. Sixty-four homesteaders proved up their claims: 51 men and 13 women.


This is an example of a typical homestead certificate issued in the 1880s. It was signed by a clerk in the land office on behalf of Chester A. Arthur, President of the United States. It was filed at the land office in Pueblo, Colorado.

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Certificate, David Calderon Homestead certificate

First settlement period

Keota’s second and last peak year of homesteading under the Enlarged Homestead Act, which increased the size of homesteads to 320 acres. One hundred and seventy-seven homesteaders, including 28 women, took advantage of an unusually rainy decade.


Text on back reads: "I thought you would like to see my shack so here it is and you can see Keota to the wind was blowing pretty hard see my xxx... Postcard is signed "Frank Trumbo."


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Frank Trumbo in carriage and women in front of homestead

Second settlement period

The United States officially entered World War II on April 17, 1917. Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, marked the end of World War I--a conflict that remained fresh in the memories of Keota’s families. Many lost young men in the war, or saw family members die in the flu epidemic that the war helped spread. Compared to cities such as Denver, Keota sent a larger proportion of its residents into World War I service--29 men were listed as veterans in the 1920 census, out of 200 records from the area. 


OTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) cadets march at Broadway and Maple Streets as part of an Armistice Day parade in Denver, Colorado. The teenagers carry rifles, wear hats and are dressed in uniform. Signs read: "Green," "Far-Go," and "Motel." Shows commercial buildings.

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Armistice Day Parade

World War I

 The influenza epidemic of 1918 claimed 20 million lives worldwide. In Colorado, 50,000 people got sick and almost 8,000 died. The flu overwhelmed hospitals across the state. Schools and public buildings became clinics, staffed by teachers and soldiers. The flu hit Keota in October. Dr. Olson got it right away. Then Mr. and Mrs. Barnes died of it, leaving eight-year-old Willie an orphan. The flu spared almost no family in the area. The Keota cemetery, like so many others in Colorado, is filled with headstones from 1918. 


Canon City high school students wearing masks during the Spanish flu pandemic.

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Students wearing masks during the Spanish Flu

Spanish Flu

The southern U.S. plains were covered in a massive dust storm known as “Black Sunday.” Planes crashed and highways came to a halt in southern Colorado. Keota was somewhat spared at the edge of the storm and reported only a “light” dusting. For more on the Dust Bowl, check out the Water Quest resource kit. 


Dust storm in southeastern Colorado circa 1940s

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Dust Storm

Black Sunday

One of the last guardians of Keota’s legacy, Clyde Leslie Stanley died in Greeley, Colorado, 


Photo found with letters (from Ray Fisher) to Auriel Sandstead

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Harold Hemphill, Clyde Stanley and Ray Fisher (left to right) in front of Clyde Stanley's Store, Keota 1973

Clyde Stanley

Descendants of Keota homestead families such as the Stanleys still hold reunions in the town, and those who still live in the area maintain the cemetery and some of the buildings. The energy boom has brought new traffic and even a few new residents.
Media


Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Little Town on the Plains: Keota, Colorado

Timeline

1862 CE

1891 CE

1914 CE

1917 CE

1918 CE

1935 CE

1976 CE

2021 CE