Histories

• Photos
• The Smoky Hill Trail

Photos

1922 Kiowa Baseball Team

Kiowa after May 1935 Flood

Contributed by BJ Jorgensen Molineway@aol.com

The Smoky Hill Trail

The Smoky Hill Trail, operated by the Butterfield Overland Despatch from 1859 until 1871, passed through east central Colorado on its route from Missouri to Denver. It skirted the Arapahoe and Cheyenne reservation which once occupied the south-eastern corner of present-day Elbert County generally from the Big Sandy south to the Arkansas River. Branches of the trail broke off at Big Sandy near Limon, and at Cedar Point now in the county, to serve early-day settlers. No "BOD" posts which marked the route have been found in Colorado, but there are some in Kansas. The service ended in 1871 when the railroad reached Denver.

---