otero county: a demographic history of a colorado high plains county, 1889–1987

Otero County: A Demographic History of a Colorado High Plains County, 1889-1987

KENNETH R. WEBER* University of Colorado

Otero County, situated on the High Plains of eastern Colorado, typifies many rural agricultural counties. This article surveys its history, demography, and social economy during the period from its formation in 1889 to 1987. It compares the county's demographic changes with those of the state and presents the county's changing age composition and net migration patterns. Population composition correlates with economic opportunity. The demographic and economic trends present in Otero, and most other out-lying Colorado counties, run counter to those of the state as a whole.

The standard history of Colorado presents fascinating and often well-told accounts ot early miners and mining towns, cattlemen, railroad magnates, politicians, and developers) The early history often focuses on the mountains and in particular the mercurial figures associated with the mining induslry. This perhaps should be expected given the location of the nation's population centers, a long term romanticization of "The West," and other prevailing attitudes encapsulated in the notion of the "mythic West. ' '2 The last hundred years, however, seem to lack the glamour and color of the earlier periods. This, in addition to the relative recency of the period, may account for the more limited amount of research done on this period.

Just as there are periods of greater and lesser historic interest, so are there areas ot greater and lesser interest. The Colorado plains, the "other part of Colorado," certainly qualify as an area of "lesser historic interest" notwithstanding James A. Michener's engrossing historic novel, Centennial, set in rural Weld County? This lack of interest is even more true for the southern Colorado plains. Nearly all of the limited historical litera- ture on the southern Colorado plains deals with the period before extensive permanenl

*Direct all correspondence to Dr. Kenneth R. Weber, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado, 80309. Telephone: 303-492-150 I.

The Social Science Journal, Volume 26, Number 3, pages 265-275. Copyright © 1989 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 0035-7634.

266 THE SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL Vol. 26/No. 3/1989

Anglo settlement: that is, the periods encompassing the fur traders and trappers, the Santa Fe Trail travelers, and the Sand Creek Massacre? Recent historic and socioeconomic in- quiry on southeastern Colorado's Otero County, a part of the other part of Colorado and site of important Colorado historical locations including Bent's Fort and the Santa Fe Trail, has been very modest?

This article introduces the history, demography, and social economy of Otero County since its formation in 1889 to 1987. Set in their economic and historic context, these demographic variables demonstrate the ties between the economy and the population. The demographic and economic trends present in Otero, and most other outlying Colorado counties, run counter to those of the state as a whole. Until recently the vibrant growth of the ten Front Range counties has masked the declining economic and demographic circumstances long present in the rural counties. ~

The demographic variables used here constitute one means to quantify the county's relative economic status. As has been shown for other locations, areas of perceived economic stability or growth attract population from areas less economically fortunate. Areas in economic stagnation or decline lose population to more dynamic locations. Thus the direction and amount of net migration indicate an area's relative economic status. Fur- thermore, migration is selective in that young adults (fifteen to thirty-nine years of age) are most mobile.

Otero county typifies a common pattern for eastern Colorado counties (and most western Colorado counties, too) outside the Front Range corridor. 7 Moreover, it is like many other counties throughout the High Plains from the Rio Grande to the Canadian bor- der. With its location along a major highway, U.S. Route 50, and the presence of a division point of a major railroad, Otero's mixed economy of fanning, ranching, transportation, and services, has provided economic diversity that is not present in many High Plains counties? Although Otero may have been somewhat more favored economically than more isolated and agrarian counties, the general patterns of the region hold and ex- emplify well the case of rural, outlying areas largely based on an agricultural economy during a period when state and national economies have become increasingly centralized, industrialized, and urbanized.

DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOGRAPHY TO 1920

Initial filing of homestead and pre-emption entries in old Bent County (presently Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Otero, and Prowers counties) occurred in the 1870s and the claims were located predominantly along the bottomlands of the Arkansas River or adjacent to its per- manent tributaries (Map 1). These claims were limited in number and agricultural development was both later and slower here than in Pueblo County, the area immediately upstream. During the 1870s cattlemen largely occupied the Arkansas Valley below Pueblo County; they were generally content to graze the open range without filing land claims and incurring the consequent tax liabilities?

Homesteading and settlement increased in the 1880s and by the end of the decade 3,507 claims were filed in 162 of the 190 townships in old Bent County. Several historic and climatological events common to the High Plains were crucial to this general expan-

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Map 1. Old Bent County and Contemporary Counties, Colorado, 1987

sion into southeastern Colorado. A general drought during the spring of 1886 was the fin'st major climatological event; it was followed by duststorms and the poorest season for grass in at least thirty years. Snow and cold weather arrived earlier than usual that winter and a series of blizzards with severe cold and wind continued from December through March. Across the High Plains, stock losses of 80-90 percent were common. These devastating losses marked the climax and sharp decline of the open range cattle industry. The summer of 1887 was again hot and dry and the following winter was as severe as the previous one. Following that disastrous period, open range grazing was rapidly supplanted by stockfarming done in conjunction with the growing of crops. By that date irrigation


projects had been initiated in southeastern Colorado and speculation on even larger amounts of not yet irrigated land was common. Land booms were one consequence of the transition from range cattle country to irrigation farming.1°

Yet as with many other High Plains areas experiencing initial range and agricultural expansion, the coming of the railroad provided the impetus for sustained economic development, community formation, and population growth. The area that became Otero County differed little from this larger pattern. As the railroads moved west they created instant boomtowns offering economic opportunities to those following the railroad’s development and to those attracted to the area. Railheads simultaneously provide employment where none had previously existed, became transshipment points into the hinderlands, and encouraged local economic development through the ability to move produce east and set- tlers west. Construction end-points on the railroad were lively towns whose demise was often as quick as their birth. In an effort to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the railroad and its construction, merchants would erect instant towns, conduct local and transshipment trade while the area was the railhead, then move their establishments (often literally the buildings and all) to the next railhead. To those not moving with railroad construction often fell the mom tedious tasks of building a community. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad’s arrival in La Junta in 1876 provided much of the initial economic stimulation for what became Otero County just as the Missouri Pacific’s construction across the northern portion of old Bent County in 1887 did for that area.lr

La Junta, early to become the economic and population center of Otero County, had an inauspicious beginning. It did not suffer the usual demise of a railhead, however, as it became a division point with many shops and offices. The railroad and supporting services provided an important economic buffer not present in many other High Plains com- munities which were largely reliant on the vicissitudes of an agricultural economy in an environmentally marginal area.‘2

Table 7. Population, Percent Change from Previous Decade, and Percent of Colorado

Population, Original Otero County and Contemporary Otero County, 1890-l 987

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1987

1 Original Otero County

Pop. % %of

Change co/o. Pop.

4,192 1 .o 11,522 174.9 2.1 20,201 75.3 2.5 29,006 43.6 3.1 30,324 4.5 2.9

2 Contemporary Otefo County

Pop- % %of

Change co/o. Pop.

22,623 2.4 24,390 7.8 2.4 23,571 -3.4 2.1 25,275 7.2 1.9 24,128 -4.5 1.4 23,523 -2.5 1.1 22,567 -4.1 0.8 21,381 -4.3 0.7

Source: U.S. Census (1890-1980); Colorado Division of Local Government, 1987.

Notesz ‘Otero County as organized in 1889. Presently Otero and Crowley counties. *Present day Otero County as redefined in 1911.


Otero County was organized from a part of the old Bent County in 1889 and its In'st census in 1890 registered a population of 4,192 persons (Table 1). From this base, the county's population grew rapidly and posted increases of approximately 175 percent and 75 percent for 1890-1900 and 1900-1910, respectively. The county's growth rate was considerably larger than the state's own rapidly increasing population and during these two decades Otero County's percentage of the state's population grew from 1.0 (1890) to 2.1 (1900) and reached 2.5 percent by 1910.13

This substantial population growth came from land promotion and development schemes associated with irrigation agriculture. Construction of irrigation canals in this portion of the Arkansas River Valley began with the Rocky Ford Canal in 1874; the county's eight major canals originated prior to 1891. Although it was early shown that a variety of grains, alfalfa, and numerous vegetables could be grown successfully, the county's economic and demographic take-off awaited the arrival of a high value, labor in- tensive cash crop that could be processed locally. That crop was sugar beets. Each acre of beets cultivated required 100 hours of labor and seventy-five of those hours were per- formed by hand. Construction of the processing plants required a wide variety of skills ranging from the local manufacturing of building bricks to the design and local construction of the milling equipment. The plant's operation also brought additional employment opportunities as the processing campaigns extended into the fall and winter and offered farmers wage work during slack seasons. Supporting industries (transportation, mercan- tile, service, and so forth) likewise expanded as a result of the agricultural boom. With the direct and indirect demand for labor resulting from beet growing and processing the population of Rocky Ford went from less than 500 persons in 1899 to nearly 2,000 the following year. Simultaneously, Sugar City sprouted from a patch of dry prairie across the Arkansas River from Rocky Ford. This new community's name aptly portrayed its sole reason for existence. 14

The beet boom was on and each community in the valley wanted to reap its part. By the end of 1905 mills were built in Lamar and Holly. The mill and community of Swink, six miles east of Rocky Ford, were completed in 1906 and the Las Animas mill was built the next year. In all, six mills operated by four different companies were located between Rocky Ford and the Kansas line. At this time the demographic growth and economic prospects of the northwestern portion of Otero County were deemed sufficient to support the creation of a new political unit and Crowley County was established. A parallel and even larger agricultural and demographic boom occurred in northern Colorado between Longmont and Sterling during this period) 5 Although the country's population continued to grow during the 1910s and 1920s, neither the total increases nor the percentage increases approximated those of the 1890s or 1900s. Percentage change figures plummeted from the triple digit figure of the 1890s through the double digit figures of the 1900s and 1910s to a single digit percentage increase in the 1920s. Up to 1920 the growth rate of Otero County had been greater than that of the state and Otero County, as originally defined, peaked as a percentage of total state population at 3.1 percent in 1920.

POST 1920 HISTORY

As noted for other western areas, the United States' involvement in World War I and its


support of the Allies brought about a general expansion in western agriculture with better markets, higher prices, and additional land brought into production. This period of stronger markets coincided with a period of better than average rainfall and combined to produce a period of economically good times. With the armistice came a related series of economic jolts: a sharp reduction in demand, falling prices, less rain and snow, marginal areas became uneconomic and went out of production. The agricultural bubble burst. Grain and livestock prices, inflated by war, fell 60 percent within three years. A drought and an agricultural depression combined to devastate Western agricultural areas in the early 1920s, years before the national depression. 1~

Although the presence of irrigation tempered this general Western agricultural scenario slightly, the Arkansas Valley, too, was greatly affected by these international, national, and climatological events. The First National Bank in Rocky Ford failed in 1924 and the People's Home Bank failed two years later. Depression and drought characterized the hard years of the 1930s; Otero County was located along the western margins of the Dust Bowl. In the early 1940s, international events again proved pivotal in local economic history. The Second World War, like the First, dramatically increased demand for agricultural production and the agricultural economic picture was much like that experienced slightly more than two decades earlier. The railroad's heavy war-induced freight and passenger increases resulted in added employment in both the local industrial and support sectors. In addition, an army airfield was constructed near La Junta to train British crews. And as the war ended, the parallels with World War I continued--the agricultural market softened and prices fell. The local industrial and business sectors also suffered with the closing of the military base and the reduction in tonnage hauled by the railroad. Even more significant to the local economy were the technological changes the railroad initiated in the late 1940s- early 1950s. Well before the end of the 1940s, the Santa Fe completed its conversion from steam to diesel-electric locomotives. Like the steamers, the diesel-electric locomotives required two crewmen to operate, but, unlike the steamers, multiple diesel-electric units could be coupled together and operated by two crewmen. This allowed longer and heavier trains and a consequent reduction in the number of crews required. The diesel-electric locomotives also had significantly smaller maintenance demands and La Junta's backshops and roundhouse became idle. Rail passenger traffic also fell with the increasing popularity of air travel. Passenger train crews were cut, and the Harvey House (one of a chain of large hotels along the Santa Fe) closed in 1948. In the early 1950s mechanical refrigeration replaced ice-cooling on refrigerated cars and the ice plant in La Junta closed. Although a few industrial plants, such as a mobile home manufacturing plant and a copper fittings manufacturing plant, did more into the area in the 1950s, their employment demands were generally unable to match the reductions brought about by the changes associated with the railroad. Both of these plants have closed subsequently.

Through the decades the county's irrigated lands helped buffer the effects of droughts and continued to yield bountiful crops of sugar beets, onions, alfalfa, melons, tomatoes, and other produce that supplied local canneries and a frozen foods processing plant. Ranching and livestock sales through La Junta's sales barns also contributed to the economy. Yet, with farm and ranch mechanization, agriculture's labor requirements dropped. By 1967 all of the valley's sugar beet processing plants except Rocky Ford's had


closed; it was able to continue until January, 1979, when it, too, closed forever. The high cost of labor and equipment, and inadequate supply of beets, low sugar prices, and vacil- lating federal policies and regulations on sugar all combined to see the termination of sugar beet production and processing in Colorado's Arkansas Valley? 7

DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE SINCE 1930

Contemporary Otero County's population peaked in 1930 and 1950 and has since shown a continuing decline. By 1987 Otero's population had fallen to approximately 85 percent of its 1950 peak. is These losses occurring on the county level contrast sharply with the substantial population gains the state was experiencing. One effect of the diverging demographic fortunes of the county and the state may be seen in an analysis of their changing median age figures. Over the last half century Otero's median age increased by 3.0 years and the county's median age changed from being a year younger than the state's average in 1930 to 0.7 years older in 1980. Areas with median ages increasing faster than the norm, as well as decreasing populations, indicate out-migration and, by inference, a weak local economy.

As might be expected, not all age groupings were equally affected by the socioeconomic and demographic changes occurring between 1930-1980. While the youth (0-14 years) and the older adult (35-54 years) categories showed roughly approximate percentage declines for the county and the state, the performances of young adult (15-34 years) and the elder (55+ years) categories clearly distinguish between these two demographic units. During this period of considerable population growth for Colorado, the state's young adult population proportioned increased by approximately 23 percent while Otero's young adult proportion decreased by approximately 3 percent. The elder category was the only Otero age grouping to register a proportional increase; its population proportion was up by 112 percent, significantly larger than the corresponding state's increase of 21 percent. The proportional losses by Otero's three younger age categories, the consequent swelling of the elder proportion, and a declining total population indicate selective local out-migration. They also suggest potentially accelerated future rates of total population decline with the impending demise of the relatively large elderly population. These differences in age distribution patterns further support the notion that the county has experienced different economic circumstances than the state and that these economic circumstances have had different effects for the various age groups.

The preceding analysis of the last fifty years of Otero County's demographic history shows an aging and generally decreasing population base. The total population figures, however, do not indicate the magnitude of local demographic change as they do not con- trol for changes due to net migration (the net population change attributable to migration, births, and deaths) or the impact of migration on various age cohorts. A consideration of net migration yields population change figures greatly in excess of those presented in the decennial censuses. During the period 1950-1959, Otero County's population dropped by 1,117 persons (4.4 percent). An analysis of net migration, however, shows a much more considerable loss of 5,474 persons (18.5 percent) from its 1950 population base. This loss occurred in a decade when Colorado gained 163,736 persons (10.3 percent) through net in-migration. The significance of the differences between the county's and the state's per-


formances is hard to over-emphasize. While the state was experiencing net in-migration for every age cohort, the county suffered net out-migration in every age cohort except the eldest one. That cohort, aged seventy-five years and older, registered a net in-migration of forty persons. Perhaps the most telling difference between the state and county migration statistics is shown in the period of maximum migration. For both the state and the county the period of maximum migration is the ten years between ages 20-29, typically the years when young adults leave their parental homes and seek to become established economically. The migration rate generally falls after this ten year period as people become more encumbered, less willing to relocate, or, perhaps, more accepting of an area's opportunities and lifestyle. For Otero County these two five year age cohorts, ages 20-24 and 25-29, showed a net out-migration rate of 48.4 and 40.3 percent (1,140 and 857 persons), respectively, while the state registered net/n-migration rates of 16.9 and 18.0 percent (16,232 and 17,215 persons). ~9

A similar pattern of migration holds for these two census units for 1960-1969. As in the preceding decade, the Otero County cohorts aged 20-24 and 25-29 registered the highest out-migration rates, 48.0 and 37.9 percent, respectively. Although these rates were down slightly from the previous decade, the total number of net out-migrants in these two age cohorts increased by ten persons. The state recorded its maximum in-migration rates (22.3 and 22.0 percent, respectively) for these same cohorts; both the percentages and total number of net in-migrants were in excess of those of the preceding decade. During the 1960s, the county lost 3,362 persons (12.5 percent) to out-migration while the state gained 210,483 persons (10.5 percent) through net in-migration. 2° With but few excep- tions, the predominant impression given by the net migration data is that the migration characteristics of the county and the state present almost mirror images of each other with increasing migration rates ages 0-19, maximum migration rates ages 20-29, and then generally declining migration rates after thirty years of age. Critical to this observation of mirror images is the location of these two units on opposite sides of the zero net migration line, that is, the county registers net out-migration while the state registers net in-migration. The use of migration rates as one lagging indicator of perceived economic opportunity provides a sharp contrast between the demographic and economic circumstances of Otero County and that of the state of Colorado.

A comparable analysis of out-migration rates by age cohorts is not available for the decades 1970-1979 and 1980-1987. Other measures of net migration, however, indicate that the county and state migration patterns in place by at least the 1950s continued through the 1970s to the present. During the 1970s Otero County showed an out-migration rate of 10.9 percent (2,553 persons) while the state posted a net in-migration rate of 9.6 percent (212, 840 persons). For the period 1980-1987, Otero's out-migration rate was 10.0 percent (2,253 persons) and Colorado's net in-migration rate slowed to 5.5 percent (162,542 persons).21

Data on income distribution supports the hypothesized association between demographic change and relative economic conditions. Median family income figures provide one useful measure of income distribution available for a period sufficient to il- laminate contemporary trends. During the period of extensive out-migration described above, Otero's median family income also experienced considerable erosion. In 1950, Otero ranked thirty-fifth of the fifty-five reporting counties; by 1980, Otero's median


family income rank had fallen to fifty-fifth of the sixty-three reporting counties. Over this same thirty year period Otero's percentage of the state median family income tumbled from 84 percent (1950) to 66 percent (1980) for an effective loss of over one-fifth of their relative median family income. Per capita income figures are not available for this same time period but those for 1980 suggest that Otero is doing even less well economically than the median family income figures would indicate. In 1980, Otero ranked fifty-eighth among the sixty-three Colorado counties in per capita income, three positions lower than its median family income ranking." The county's weak and declining economic and income structure further demonstrate the ties between economy and local demography and suggest a continuation of the existing pattern of population decline and out-migration into the future.

The foregoing illustrates well the effects of technological change (whether the intro- duction of irrigation agriculture or the retirement of steam locomotives) on local populations. Otero County's turn of the century irrigation agriculture-based economic boom brought with it a demographic growth spurt that greatly surpassed the state's averages and by about 1920 had established the county's subsequent "base" population. By that time the local irrigation agriculture technological niche had filled and no other major technological or industrial additions have subsequently come to the county. As one consequence, the county's rates of demographic growth dropped drastically; in five of the last seven decades (1920-1987) the absolute growth rates have been negative. When consider- ing net migration the population losses have been even greater. The local economic and demographic effects of external events (wars, railroad-related technological changes, changes in agricultural demand, etc.) also are apparent; it is clear that the local economy is locked into the national and international economy. Similarly, the local demographic structure is locked into its regional and national structure. As shown, population follows the economy and generally moves from areas of lesser to areas of greater perceived economic opportunity. As the regional and national economies moved into industrial and post-industrial phases, the local economy remained firmly rooted in its traditional agricultural base and was unable to achieve the economic (and demographic) gains registered in other areas. The county's demographic history is one testimony of those local, regional, and national economic changes.

Like Otero, all seventeen other eastern Colorado non-Front Range counties experienced net out-migration during the 1950s and all but one again experienced net out-migration in the 1960s. In fact, Otero County represents something of a bright spot in recent eastern Colorado demographic history as fifteen and twelve of the other seventeen counties had greater out-migration rates in the 1950s and 1960s, respectively. '~ While the economic and demographic growth of the Front Range corridor counties propels Colorado's future, the counties in the "other part of Colorado" provide stark contrast and show that the recent economic downturn along the Front Range has become a long term way of life in eastern Colorado.

NOTES

*Frederick D. McEvoy and Nathaniel S. Bohannon, Jr., read an earlier version of this article. The author wishes to thank them for their helpful comments.


1. See, for example: Carl Abbott, Colorado: A History of the Centennial State (Boulder: Colorado Association of University Presses, 1976); Robert G. Atheam, The Coloradans (Al- buquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976); Carl Ubbelohde, Maxine Benson, and Duane Smith, A Colorado History (Boulder: Pruett Publishing Co., 1972); Le Roy R. Hafen, Colorado: A Story of the State and Its People (Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1945).

2. For an interesting exposition of the place of "The West" in American attitudes and culture, see Robert G. Athearn, The Mythic West in Twentieth Century America (Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1986).

3. James A. Michener, Centennial (New York: Random House, 1974). 4. See, for example: Robert G. Atheam, "Colorado and the Indian War of 1868," The Colorado

Magazine, 33 (1956): 42-51; George Bent, Life of George Bent Wrinen from his Letters (Nor- man: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968); Raymond G. Carey, "The Puzzle of Sand Creek," The Colorado Magazine, 41 (1964): 279-298; Morse H. Coffin, The Battle of Sand Creek (Waco, Texas: W.M. Morrison, 1965); Stan Hoig, The Sand Creek Massacre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961); George E. Hyde, The Life of George Bent (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968); Harry Kelsey, "Background to Sand Creek," The Colorado Magazine, 45 (1968): 279-300; David S. Lavender, Bent's Fort (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1954); Irving Werstein, Massacre at Sand Creek (New York: Scribner, 1963).

5. Two dissertations, two theses, and five articles comprise the scholarly work on Otero County since 1930. They are Joseph O. Van Hook, "Settlement and Economic Development of the Arkansas Valley to the Colorado-Kansas Line, 1860-1900," Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado (1933); Joseph O. Van Hook, "Develop- ment of Irrigation in the Arkansas Valley," The Colorado Magazine, 10 (1933): 3-11; Dena S. Markoff, "The Beet Sugar Industry in Microcosm: The National Sugar Manufacturing Company, 1899-1979," Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University of Colorado (1980); Dena S. Markoff, "The Sugar Industry in the Arkansas Valley: National Beet Sugar Company," The Colorado Magazine, 55 (1978): 69-92; Dena S. Markoff, "The Beet Hand Laborers of Sugar City, Colorado, 1900-1920," in Germans from Russia in Colorado, edited by Sidney J. Heitman. Western Social Science Association Monograph Series Study. (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1978) pp. 84-103; Dena S. Markoff, "The Entrepreneurship of Francis King Carey," in Essays in Economic and Business History, edited by James H. Soltow. (East Lansing: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Ad- ministration, Michigan State University, 1979) pp. 66-77; Dena S. Markoff, "A Bittersweet Saga: The Arkansas Valley Beet Sugar Industry, 1900-1979," The Colorado Magazine, 56 (1979): 161-178; Ruby Buhrmester, "A History of the Spanish-Speaking People of Southern Colorado Especially those in Otero County," Master's thesis, Department of History, Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado (1935); William Wilson Bundy, "The Mexican Minority Problem in Otero County, Colorado" (Master's thesis, Department of History, University of Colorado, 1940).

6. The Front Range corridor counties include: Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, E1 Paso, Jefferson, Larimer, Pueblo, and Weld.

7. The eastern Colorado non-Front Range confdor counties include Baca, Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Elbert, Huerfano, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, Otero, Phillips, Prowers, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma.

8. The Santa Fe Railroad closed its division offices in La Junta in late 1987. Jack Kisling, "La Junta's railroad fades away," The Denver Post, December 15, 1987, p. 7B.

9. Van Hook, "Settlement... " op. cit., p. 134. 10. Van Hook, ibid., pp. 133-136; W. Eugene Hollon, The Great American Desert (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1968), pp. 135-137.


11. Miguel Antonio Otero, My Life on the Frontier, 1864-1882 (New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1935); Robert R. Dykstra, The Cattle Towns (New York: Knopf, 1968).

12. Van Hook, "Settlement... "op. cir., pp. 369-375. 13. Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Population. Vol. II

(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913), p. 224; Bureau of the Census, 1980 Census of Population. Number of Inhabitants, Colorado. (Washington, D.C.; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981), pp. 7-8.

14. Van Hook, "Settlement . . . " op. cit., pp. 285-310; Markoff, "The Sugar Industry in the Arkansas Valley," op. cir., pp. 161-165, 171.

15. Markoff, "The Sugar Industry in the Arkansas Valley," op. cit., pp. 164-170; Markoff, 1980, op. cir., pp. 24-30; Ubbelobde, et al., op. cit., pp. 286-296.

16. Thomas G. Alexander, "The Economic Consequences of the War: Utah and the Depression of the Early 1920s," in A Dependent Commonwealth: Utah's Economy from Statehood to the Great Depression, edited by Dean May. Charles Redd Monographs in Western History, no. 4 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1974), pp. 57-105.

17. Van Hook, "Settlement . . . " op. cir., p. 481; John Doll, The Story of Early Rocky Ford O'he Rocky Ford Archaeological Society, n.d.); Paul Bonnifield, The Dust Bowl: Men, Dirt, and Depression (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1979); Donald Worster, Dust Bowl (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979); Kisling, ioc. cir.; Markoff, "The Sugar In- dustry in the Arkansas Valley," op. cir., pp. 172-178; Ubbelohde, et al., op. cit., pp. 324-329.

18. Population figures 1980-1987 are from "County Prof'fle Data Base," Demographic Section, Division of Local Government, State of Colorado, Denver.

19. Gladys K. Bowles and James D. Tarver, Net Migration of the Population, 1950-1960, by Age, Sex, and Color. Part 6 (Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Printing Department, 1965).

20. Gladys K. Bowles, Calvin L. Beale, and Everett S. Lee, Net Migration of the Population, 1960-1970, by Age, Sex, and Color. Part 7 (Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Printing Department, 1975).

21. Figures for the 1970s are derived from the U.S. Census and U.S. Public Health Service Natality and mortality data. The 1980 data are found in "County Profile Data Base," loc. cit.

22. Bureau of the Census, US. Census of Population. Characteristics of the Population. Vol. 1/, Part 6, Colorado. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1952), pp. 6-27, 6- 28. Bureau of the Census, US. Census of Population. Characteristics of the Population: General Social and Economic Characteristics. Vol. I, Ch. C. PC80-1-C7, Colorado (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983), pp. 7-14-7-16.

23. Bowles and Tarver, loc. cit.; Bowles, Beale, and Lee, loc. cit.

otero county: a demographic history of a colorado high plains county, 1889–1987

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