Dearfield, Colorado, is one of the last standing towns started by Black homesteaders in the Great Plains. Now, property in the ghost town has changed hands, ensuring that key sites will be protected.
The national homebuilding company Clayton Homes had originally planned to build houses on some of the remains of the historic town center, as the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau reported last year.
Dearfield is farming colonies in the West founded by Black homesteaders, a movement the National Park Service an 鈥渆pic tale of African American achievement鈥� that was 鈥渘early lost鈥� but for the efforts of groups like the Denver-based Black American West Museum & Heritage Center. Only two sites, including Dearfield, still have original buildings standing. At its height, the African American farming colony had hundreds of residents, most of whom left amid the double whammy of Dust Bowl and Depression.
The Black American West Museum & Heritage Center owns pieces of the town. Denise Leadon, vice chair of the museum鈥檚 board of directors, said Clayton Homes began to buy up lots that weren鈥檛 owned by the museum with the goal of building prefabricated houses there.
鈥淯nbeknownst to us, they had purchased all these lots in the historical townsite from individuals and they actually owned more lots than we did,鈥� she said.
Leadon says they鈥檇 been trying to get key properties for years, an effort that became more urgent when it became clear the company had imminent plans to build, and was seeking permits for a well and septic system on a property that contained an unexcavated general store.
Last week, the museum and Clayton Homes finally came to an agreement.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have the funding to actually buy them out of the lots [in the historical town center],鈥� said Leadon. So, the museum sold Clayton Homes 12 blocks of less historically significant property, comprised of former farmland (shown below in yellow). With funding from that sale, the museum was able to purchase property in the center of the historic townsite (shown below in blue) and still had $180,000 left over.
The Black American West Museum & Heritage Center 鈥渘eeds a lot of help,鈥� said Leadon. 鈥淪o this will be helpful for that.鈥�
The museum also retained mineral rights on their former property.
Leadon added that the museum would have held onto all their Dearfield property if finances had allowed.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a relief that we own the lots,鈥� said Leadon. 鈥淲e鈥檙e happy that we鈥檙e protecting it.鈥�
Homesteading began in 1862, but it wasn鈥檛 until four years later, when Black Americans were declared U.S. citizens, that they could join others in moving West to claim 160 acres apiece of what was considered 鈥溾€� in the West. They founded communities like Blackdom, New Mexico, Empire, Wyoming, and Nicodemus, Kansas. As researchers have pointed out, among the of Black homesteaders were people who had gone from being property to owning property in their lifetimes. They also their own education systems, some beginning with classrooms dug out of a hillside.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a fantastic day now, with the museum being in control of the core townsite. That was key,鈥� said Charles Nuckolls, who produced, wrote and directed a two-hour https://vimeo.com/385906094">historical documentary about Dearfield that came out earlier this year. 鈥淭his is a victory for historic preservation.鈥�
Currently, archaeologists and volunteers are excavating the remains of a blacksmith鈥檚 workshop, which was recently totaled by strong winds. Bill Garcia and his daughters were among the volunteers this field season, taking notes on some of the artifacts excavated from the smithy, which has so far included Mason jars, a bead, a container for pickling vegetables and pottery that looked like it could be a family heirloom.
鈥淚 think that it鈥檚 important not just to talk about what we鈥檙e facing today but also to preserve the history of what has gone before, and those great people that lived and made a homestead out in the middle of nowhere,鈥� said Garcia, an attorney based in Greeley and a former Weld County Commissioner, who has focused local efforts on preserving Dearfield since driving past the site in 1990.
Garcia and others were concerned to learn that Clayton Homes was accumulating slivers of land with the intent of developing them.
"In fact they even got started with the well permit and septic to do that,鈥� said Garcia, who prepared the museum鈥檚 sales contract. 鈥淭his really turns out to be a win-win, for Clayton Homes to be able to get a nice size collection of parcels where they could build some homes that are not in the historic area and provide the museum with the opportunity to further preserve and interpret those sites.鈥�
There aren鈥檛 yet plans to excavate the property that holds the ruins of the general store, but archaeologist Bob Brunswig expects it will be revealing.
鈥淒uring the 1930s, when most of Dearfield was pretty much abandoned, it became a dance hall for area residents,鈥� said Brunswig, professor emeritus with the University of Northern Colorado and a member of a consortium called the Dearfield Preservation Partnership. 鈥淭he local blacksmith, who continued to live there until his in 1951 -- he and his brother-in-law would play the mandolin and the fiddle for people. White people, Hispanics, and the few remaining Black families would come there for recreation during the Depression.鈥�
Brunswig said there鈥檚 evidence the land newly acquired by the museum may have once housed homes and businesses. The swap, he said, 鈥渁llows us access to those so that we can put together a better picture of the entire town and how it evolved and changed over time.鈥�
The town went through rapid growth. According to Brunswig, there鈥檚 evidence that in 1910 and 1911, when the very first residents of Dearfield arrived, they dug shelters out of a sandy hillside and toughed out 鈥渁 brutal winter鈥� there before they could muster supplies to build houses. Five years later, a dance hall, restaurant, grocery store and boarding house and crops like sugar beets and cantaloupes.
鈥淭hrough the efforts and work of these people, they got to the point where they were a functioning, thriving, agricultural and social community,鈥� said Charles Nuckolls, the documentarian. And the residents didn鈥檛 even have water rights.
鈥淭hat is a success story anywhere,鈥� he said, but especially so during Jim Crow.
Nuckolls continued: 鈥淒uring this transformative time in American history, when many monuments that were created to glorify slavery are being dismantled both by governmental doctrine and by citizens spontaneously demanding their immediate removal by tearing them down, it鈥檚 noteworthy that this important African American history is being preserved. As it should be.鈥�
He hopes future archaeology on the new properties will shed some light on a burning question: What was a regular day in Dearfield really like?
This story was updated July 1, 2020 with a map of the properties exchanged, and a link to a list of Black homesteader communities in Colorado compiled by George Junne, a professor at the University of Northern Colorado, and inclusion of Bob Brunswig's affiliation with the Dearfield Preservation Partnership.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau is provided in part by the .
