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    First the Indians claimed Bent County. The Cheyennes occupied Big Timbers, that area north of the Arkansas River and below the mouth of the Purgatoire. The Kiowas were opposite them on the south side of the river. The Arapahoes were about fourteen miles up the Purgatoire. This territory had the mildest winters in the region, the severe winter storms going mostly to the north and east.
    Through the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 the United States bought all the country south of the Arkansas River. When it came time for U.S. citizens to move in, the Indians claimed the land as theirs, so the government paid for parts of it again, in peace treaties and in rations to local tribes when they became wards of Uncle Sam.
    South of the Arkansas was Spanish territory. Kearney's expedition of 1846-48 secured this area to the United States. In 1806 Zebulon Pike first saw the peak that bears his name from Bent County. In 1820 Major Long camped in the Valley of the Souls in Purgatoire.
In about 1828 the Bent brothers built a fort and trading post on the north bank of the Arkansas in what is now eastern Otero County. This was the center of trade with the Indians. William Bent married a Cheyenne girl, thus becoming a member of the tribe. Through him the peace was kept and a period of peace and friendly relations were maintained.
    With the ending of the Mexican War and the gold rush to California in 1849, Bent's Fort was the center of increased activity. But by 1853 William Bent abandoned his fort and moved forty miles down the Arkansas where he built a new Fort Bent. This fort never achieved the importance of the first one. The government bought this later fort, called it Fort Wise, later Fort Lyon.
    The Arkansas River flooded this fort in 1866 and caused the government to abandon it and move west to the present site of Fort Lyon in 1867. The communities of Caddoa, East Las Animas, and Boggsville were established.
    Thomas C. Boggs, through his wife, Rumulda Luna Boggs, secured a grant of land from the Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant of about 2040 acres. This was on both sides of the Purgatoire three miles south of the Arkansas. Since 1860 Tom Boggs had been bringing sheep from New Mexico to pasture during the summer and returning in the fall. In 1866 Boggs and some companions built a large adobe house south of Las Animas which still stands. The Boggs house became a community center. It was at Boggsville that the rich agricultural empire of the Arkansas Valley had its beginning. Boggsville was first in irrigation, cattle raising, sheep feeding, and in general farming.
    Thomas Boggs was born in Indian Territory among the Osage Indians August 22, 1824. He first came to the Arkansas Valley in 1840 and was associated with William Bent for about six years. During the Mexican War he carried messages to Fort Leavenworth and to California. In 1846 he married Rumulda Luna Bent, a step-daughter of Charles Bent, first governor of New Mexico under the United States. In 1858 he was employed by Lucien Maxwell at Cimarron.
    When Fort Lyon moved to its present location in 1867 Boggs launched into farming in a big way. The fort was a market place for everything he could grow. His specialty was sheep. In 1875 he had about 17,000 head. At shearing time he would sheer his own sheep and about 40,000 for his neighbors. Mr. Boggs was known as a kindhearted man. When his friend Kit Carson died, leaving seven small children, Mr. and Mrs. Boggs took them into their house and reared them as their own.
Mr. Boggs was the first sheriff of Bent County. He was elected to the state legislature in 1871. The Boggs family left Colorado in 1877 to live in Springer, New Mexico, where he became territorial governor. Mr. Boggs died at Clayton, New Mexico, in 1894. Mrs. Boggs died in 1906.
    Kit Carson, Tom Boggs, John Prowers, these were the greatest – a crafty, resourceful scout, a merchant prince, and a plainsman of the best type.
    The Carson family came to Boggsville about Christmastime 1867. They moved into three rooms of a six-room adobe house of Boggs'. Kit owned two tracts of land given him by Ceran St. Vrain. When he came to Boggsville, Carson had just returned from Washington where he had been called by the U.S. War Department for a conference on how best to prevent Indian uprisings. He was in very poor health, as was his wife who died in April 1868. Kit died the next month, May 23, 1868, at the age of 56.
    As surely as Tom Boggs was the father of the sheep business in Bent County, John Prowers was the first to go into the cattle business on a large scale. It was at Boggsville that his small herd he had built up first at Caddoa developed into a herd of 16,000 by 1880. He brought in the first American cattle (Herefords) in 1862 to improve the quality of his herd.
    John W. Prowers came to New Fort Bent in 1856 at the age of 18. Soon after his arrival he met Amache, a Cheyenne princess, the daughter of Chief Ooh Kenee. They were married at Camp Supply Indian Territory in 1860. This young couple, knowing the obstacles in their path, strove to overcome the difficulties, and their marriage was a success. She had to learn the white man's ways. He first took her east to Westport in 1862 that he might show her to his friends. Prowers spent many hours in the kitchen helping her with the cooking.
    This writer remembers as a small child, when Amache had married Dan Kesspee and they lived across the street, the visits of the blanketed Indians, her people from Indian Territory, and how he would hide under the bed in fear. Our oldest brother spent nights looking after the house while they were away on trips. Mrs. Prowers died February 14, 1898, at the age of 51, leaving ten children. Leonard "Chief" Hudnall is a grandson and Mrs. Inez Nelson is a granddaughter of the Prowers.
    John Prowers was an outstanding businessman and a leader in business and political affairs. He was born at Westport, Missouri, on January 29, 1838, and was first employed as a clerk to the Indian agent at New Fort Bent. Later William Bent hired him to clerk in his store and to captain freight wagons. After he married Amache, they went to live at Old Fort Bent, where they had a few cattle and they managed the stage station on the Barlow Sanderson stage line. In 1863 they moved to Caddoa, where they occupied the three store house, which the government had built for the Caddoa Indians. When Fort Lyon moved to its present site they moved to Boggsville. Mr. Prowers first built a large two-story house of twenty-four rooms, which was occupied as living quarters, a store, a private school, and county offices after Bent County was organized in 1870. It was also a stage station. The house was built in two sections, connected by a single wall. Only one section stands today.
    The success he met in farming, in livestock, and in business encouraged him to extend his operations. When the Kansas Pacific Railroad came in from the north in 1873 it crossed the Arkansas and stopped at Las Animas. Seeing his opportunity, Mr. Prowers moved to Las Animas and built the first substantial residence at 715 Carson Avenue. He erected a store building where the First National Bank now stands. In the rear was a large warehouse which handled freight from the railroad for transfer to freight wagons going on west. At the time of his death in 1884 he owned about 40 miles of fenced river front and 16,000 cattle. Two years previously he had been offered $740,000 for his cattle outfit. He died at the age of 46 and is buried in the Bent County Cemetery.
    John Prowers, during his lifetime and partly influenced by his guidance, saw Kansas Territory, as it was then known, divided, the west part being organized as Colorado Territory. At first Pueblo County extended east to the Kansas line; there was no Bent County. In 1870 the Colorado legislature formed Bent County, extending eastward from about two miles west of Fowler to the state line – a territory about 100 miles long and over 80 miles wide. In 1889 Bent County was divided into six counties – Bent, Prowers, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Lincoln, and Otero – of approximately a million acres each. West Las Animas had been organized after the Kansas Pacific came in 1873. It was made the county seat. East Las Animas (Old Town) was abandoned and Boggsville lost its importance as the center of activity.
    Probably William Bent was the first outstanding personality with the greatest influence in his time. John Prowers was correspondingly great in his time.
    Steve, Jim, and Peyton Jones founded the JJ brand. These young Texans gathered a herd of Texas Longhorns in 1869 and started their drive together with their families for Colorado. These were seven men to handle the cattle and fight off hostile Indians if necessary. They followed the trail blazed by Charles Goodnight in 1866. The Indians had taken several herds away from cow outfits along this trail in previous years.
    The Joneses left the Concho near where San Angelo, Texas, is now, crossed the eighty-mile stretch of no water to the Pecos, followed it to its head, then north across the Canadian and Cimarron Rivers, and were in the Folsom, New Mexico, country in the late fall. It was slow going from there, with snow, blizzards, and cold. Camping out, they endured many hardships. They crossed the Trinchero Pass into Colorado and down the Purgatoire to Nine Mile Bottom (Higbee), their destination. The Jones made another drive in 1871.
    In 1881 they sold their JJ outfit to the Prairie Cattle Company for $625,000. This included about 300 horses, 55,000 cattle, and 1 ¼ million acres of range, running from the Arkansas River on the north, the Purgatoire on the west, to the Cimarron on the south, an area of 3500 square miles.
    The Prairie Cattle Company also bought out the Hall Brothers on the Cimarron, consisting of about the same spread, and Colonel Littlefield's outfit at Tascosa of 35,000 cattle and range. Thus the Prairie's range extended from the Arkansas on the north to Tascosa on the south – 300 miles. This company sold more cattle on the Kansas City market than any other outfit. It was organized in 1881 and closed its books 1915. Their outstanding manager, Murdo McKenzie, has been called the "King of the Cattlemen." A native of Scotland, McKenzie became active about 1886. In the Nineties the Matadores secured his services. Later he went to the Brazil Land Cattle and Packing Company, one of the largest ranches, with headquarters at Sao Paulo. He improved their facilities for handling cattle and modernized their ranches. He maintained a summer home above Trinidad at Stonewall. Murdo McKenzie went to the roundups in the buckboards. He never carried a gun, even in that troublesome era, and acquired the know-how to operate a large spread successfully.
    When John Prowers moved to Las Animas, he took with him a close friend, P.G. Scott, who taught the first school under territorial government in Boggsville in 1871. Mr. Scott was born in Scotland, came to Canada when a boy, and moved to Colorado in 1871. He was Mr. Prowers' right-hand man. When Mr. Prowers started the Bent County Bank in 1876, Mr. Scott became its bookkeeper. He soon became cashier and remained to become president until his death August 18, 1930.
    Following Tom Boggs' time there was a lull in the range sheep business due to the antagonism of the cowman, who was in control of the range. The minutes of the Bent Prowers Cattle and Horse Growers association on August 27, 1892, show a motion by R. M. Moore, seconded by M. R. Hightower, that the secretary write to C. H. Brown asking him to recommend that the Atchinson, Topeke and Sante Fe Railroad arrange to ship all sheep from Lamar, and not receive any sheep for shipment from the Las Animas stockyards. The motioned carried.
    When the Prairie Cattle Company bought the outfit in 1881, they fixed the price paid various smaller ranchmen, whom they soon bought out. The company paid a dividend of 20 1/3 per cent in 1883, which encouraged other cattle companies to form, with mostly Scotch and English money. The Twenty-Four Circle Ranch, with headquarters at Prowers, began operation about 1916, with John Clay the head of the firm. This outfit carried on farming operations, getting water from the Arkansas for irrigation. This ranch was a forerunner of what was to come; that is, raising winter feed and pasture. They closed out in 1922. Claude Vance, of Kansas City, was the last president.
    The Bent County Stock Association was organized in 1870 for the protection of the cattle business. Steve Jones was the first president, and was re-elected in 1871. John Prowers was elected president in 1874 and continued in that capacity until his death in 1884.
    For many years the Bent-Prowers, as the association was later named, practically ran the cattle business in Bent County. The members elected their officers, who in turn selected their executive committee. The roundup captains were selected, the route, winter camps, and time of the roundups were determined. Inspectors were appointed to take care of the association business. If a cattleman did not belong to the association his cattle were not gathered and he was blacklisted. According to the Bent-Prowers minutes of 1884, the Prowers estate branded 4000 calves; R. C. Bloomfield, 4000; the Prairie, 12,000; J. N. Beatty, 4000. In 1884 the Prairie listed 44,000 cattle; Reynolds Cattle Company, 6000; W. A. Towers, 8400; S. S. Tillett, 17,650; J. N. Beatty, 18,000; H. S. Holly, 12,5000; Prowers Estate, 16,000. These numbers totaled 199,262 belonging to association members.
    This association is still the large range cattle leader in Bent County. Its Secretary, Melva Ham Busbey, operates one of the largest commercial Hereford herds in Bent County. Her father, A.B. Ham, is 96 and the oldest living member. The descendents still carry on the cattle business.
    At the 90th annual meeting February 21, 1959, the Bent-Prowers joined in the Colorado Centennial of the Rush to the Rockies by having a barbeque dinner, chuck wagon, rope corral, dutch ovens, pot racks, cow chips for fuel, horses packed with bed roll, and old buckboards. The old-timers were especially recognized, and the history of their lives is being recorded in book form for future reference.
    P. G. Scott served the association the longest – 46 years – from 1884 to 1930. His first year in Bent County he witnessed an Indian scalp dance. The Utes had stopped at Boggsville to visit Tom Boggs. After a few days they went on down to the river and ambushed six Cheyenne, killing five and taking their scalps and also their horses. They got back to Boggsville about midnight, where they pranced around a pole chanting their war dance.
    A. S. Dean has been an officer in the association for 40 years.
    The Bent-Prowers worked to protect their members in their range rights and keep out the free riders and those with no land holdings. The minutes of September 7, 1866, recorded the resolution "that we warn all persons who contemplate bringing in and turning look cattle on the range occupied by members of this association, that steps will be taken to protect ourselves in our legal and long established rights. 'Self preservation is the first law of nature,' and while we make no threats, we mean business."
    The McIntosh brothers, Donald and John, had the most influence in the sheep business in Bent County. John was born in Scotland in 1858 and came to Colorado in 1885 to work for his brother William, who had a sheep ranch at Estancia, New Mexico. Donald, who had mine holdings, invested his money in sheep. At one time the McIntoshes had 40,000 sheep.
    In 1893, due to drought, the McIntosh brothers moved their flocks of about 12,000 from Estancia and located on Carrizzo Creek in southern Colorado. About this time John Cameron, who had been in Cox's army, started working for them. Later Pete and Alex joined him. These men and several other ranch employees were given ewes on partnership basis; a percentage of the increase and of the wool was paid back to the McIntoshes. In this way the Camerons, James Smith, James Murray, Sam Collins, C. A. Norwood, and Miguel Etchart were started in the sheep business.
    In 1893 a lamb feeding operation was started in Sylvia, Kansas. Two years later they transferred to Las Animas and about 10,000 lambs were fed annually. The ranch was sold in 1907.
    John McIntosh was one of the founders of the First National Bank in Las Animas in 1901. He served as director and was president from 1921 until his death in 1941. His son Angus manages the ranch and serves as director of the bank.
    The people of Boggsville pooled their interests and in 1867 dug a seven-mile irrigation ditch, the first in Bent County. It tapped the Purgatoire above the settlements. This effort showed that irrigation was the key to successful farming in Bent County. Soon other ditches were dug, such as the Consolidated (Jones), the Consolidated Extension, the Town Ditch, the Highland, and the Fort Lyon Canal. This latter ditch began as a small one, irrigating land north of La Junta. In 1887 T. C. Henry started construction eastward through Bent County. It is the longest canal in the state and has three large reservoirs for storage: Timber Lake, Blue Lakes, and Thurston.
    The farmers own all the ditches in Bent County. They vote their own water assessment to pay expenses, elect their directors, who in turn appoint their superintendent. It has always been a successful operation, in spite of floods down the river washing out dams, headgates, and portions of the canal. Pum irrigation was increased as a supplemental water supply for intensively cultivated crops, such as sugar beets, onions, and other vegetable crops. The primary irrigated crops in Bent County are alfalfa, corn, maize, beets, sorghums, wheat, barley, oats, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. Some years on the dryland, maize, sorghums, wheat, and barley yield enough to pay off, but the operation is marginal.
    Mr. E. R. Sizer came to the Purgatoire in 1865. He filed on 320 acres of land where Adolph Hansen now lives and farms. He had a congressman from Colorado send him seeds from the government supply, so actually he was running an experiment farm under government patronage. Mr. Sizer was the first man to raise grain in Colorado. He planted plums, grapes, cherries, 1700 apple trees of 26 varieties, and 6000 shade trees. He had about 75 acres of corn. He tapped the Purgatoire for water. The government called on him to do experimental work in growing alfalfa. This was his pride and joy, and alfalfa has become the leading crop in Bent County.
    The 47th annual meeting of the Arkansas Valley Stock Feeders Association was held in 1959. John Anderson has been the able secretary of this association for many years.
    There are about 200,000 lambs on feed in Bent County each year. In 1902 there were 625,000 lambs on feed from Pueblo to the state line.
    Cattle feeding has steadily increased until it is competing with lamb feeding.
    While hogs are raised and do well in Bent County, they are raised mostly in small droves.
    Turkeys and chickens have become specialty enterprises and are handled by a few operators on a large scale. The climate is ideal for poultry.
    Bent County north of the Arkansas River valley is largely a series of rolling plains and benches with outcrops of shale and limestone in breaks along most of the drainway. South of the valley there is an extensive area of rolling hills and benches until we reach the southern portion of the county, covering about 1/3 of the countty's area. The topography of the southern portion becomes more broken with bluffs, canyons, and sandstone mesas. Most of the area is covered with brushy cedar and juniper. The land adjacent to the Purgatoire is especially rough and broken.
    The largest acreage in pasture is 708,000 acres, with 129,000 acres non-irrigated and 53,786 irrigated. There is a total of 575 farms and ranches, with 397 farms under irrigation. The growing season runs about 161 days. Annual precipitation is 12-15 inches. Elevation at Las Animas is 3,901.
Usually the best is saved until the last. This is no exception, and our native sons are the best.
    Colonel George M. Powell was attending physician to President Eisenhower at Fitzsimmons Hospital in Denver and to     General  George C. Marshall at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
    Our ambassador to Russia, Lewellen Thompson, was born in Las Animas.
    State Senator Wilkei Ham represents Prowers, Baca, and Bent Counties. At the last election the opposing party thought enough of him not to oppose him.
    Dr. Roy B. Dean, a resident of Mexico for thirty-eight years, organized and was first president of the Sailfish and Tarpan Club of Mexico City, which at this time holds the lead in International Tournament fishing. Probably the Figure Seven horses he broke as a youth contributed toward his ability to make a go of it with our neighbors to the south.

1.     Boggsville in 1873. San Patricio Ranch, near Las Animas, Colorado, with Thomas Boggs' house on the left, John W. Prowers' home on the right, and Kit Carson's small house close by the barn in the foreground. The men of Boggsville pioneered the cattle and sheep business, irrigation, and farming. The numbers of bulls represent the numbers by which they were known on the registers at Kansas City.
2.     The Boggs house, built in 1866, has been occupied continuously since that time. It was social center of the Cowboy World that extended for miles around.
3.     Modern Conservation Practices. Farmers and ranchers are getting increased yields while maintaining soil fertility by practicing conservation methods. The Bent Soil Conservation District has been operating since 1942, locally governed and operated for the mutual assistance in solving soil and water conservation problems.

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