Baca County, Part of the COGenWeb Project

Some History of Baca County

BACA COUNTY (formed 1889) was mamed, at the suggestion of Senator Barela, for the Baca family of Trinidad. A member of this family had been the first settler on Two Buttes Creek. (Map modified with permission of Ray Sterner from the Color Landform Atlas of the United States.)

From the Internet Archive - "Cattle Trails & S.M. Konkel

No single county saw towns mushroom faster than did Baca County on the plains between 1885-1888. Americans were moving across the plains to cast their lot with the soil. They settled on land under the homestead, preemption and tree claim acts. [A "tree claim" required a certain number of trees be planted each year.

Unlike the gold rush, when only the men scurried to the hills hoping to gather nuggets and quickly return home, this venturesome movement was one of families intending to establish homes on virgin land and grow with the prairie country.

The land settlement reached its peak in 1888. In three years more than 6,000 persons moved into the area. Drought struck the region in 1889 and successive years of crop failures started an exodus. By 1893 only 700 persons remained. All the towns except Springfield, Stonington and Vilas disappeared.

Ralph C. Taylor, "Colorado South of the Border""

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Baca County is the southeasternmost of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 4,517 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Springfield."

"Baca County was created by the Colorado legislature on April 16, 1889, out of the eastern portions of Las Animas County. Baca County was named in honor of pioneer and Colorado territorial legislator Felipe Baca." [For more information see the entire article.]

A Brief History of Baca County

A Place Called Baca, by Ike Osteen. Available from the Baca County Historical Society, 400 W 7th Ave, Springfield, Colorado 81073-1241

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