The Colorado Great Plains including Fort Collins, Greeley, Burlington, La Junta, and Trinidad

Preview: “Colorado? Ah, high peaks! Mountain towns! Skiing!” This is how many easterners, southerners, and midwesterners describe their idea of a state that has mountains on its license plates. Even Europeans know about the Rockies. The plains—especially Colorado’s eastern plains, the farmer’s domain—come as a surprise. Yet, much of the land belongs to agriculture. As you drive east from Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, or Trinidad, the country takes on the flat character of Kansas and Nebraska, with which Colorado shares its eastern border. The names turn rural: Punkin Center, Wild Horse, Deer Trail. Communities like Wray, Holyoke, and Yuma all got their start through homesteading. About 94 percent of Colorado’s land consists of dry or irrigated farmlands, rangeland, and forests. Eastern Colorado was first settled during the middle and late 1880s. Little agricultural communities like Haxtun, Kiowa, and Eads sprang up. Oats, barley, wheat, and corn were planted; harvesting was done with primitive machinery. Some of the farms were the result of the early railroads selling cheap tracts of land to immigrants. The homesteaders fought hard financial battles when the droughts hit in 1890. But the Homestead Act, which presented volunteer farmers with 160 free acres, was a big incentive in Colorado. Many of the settlers demanded few luxuries from their homesteads. They tilled, planted, harvested, and faced blizzards and hailstorms, grasshoppers, and more droughts. The worst ones hit during the 1920s. Still, through the years, eastern Colorado produced not just corn and wheat but also dry beans, alfalfa, potatoes, onions, rye, sorghum, and commercial vegetables. In Rocky Ford, year after year, the citizens grew watermelons and cantaloupes. The farmers endured the summer heat and dust storms. World War II was good to the Colorado farm economy. New well-drilling techniques and irrigation improved the situation. During the 1960s wheat sales hit record figures. The 1970s brought prosperity. The export trade flourished. Land prices soared. Farmers splurged on newfangled $100,000 machinery. When exports shrank, as everywhere in the Midwest and West, the Colorado farmers suffered. The 1980s were harsh to the eastern part of the state. Prices dropped for crops, while everything else cost more. The above description is an excerpt from "Colorado: Off the Beaten Path." Whether you're a visitor or a local looking for something different, this chapter from the Off the Beaten Path series will help you take the "road less traveled" and discover hidden attractions, unique finds, and unusual locales that most tourists miss.
© Copyright Curtis Casewit; revised and updated by Alli Rainey published by Insiders' Guide all rights reserved.

This travel guide comes from:
Colorado Off the Beaten Path Guide Book