Chivington, Colorado
Encyclopedia
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
in Kiowa County
Kiowa County, Colorado
Kiowa County is the second least densely populated of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 1,622 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Eads...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The U.S. Post Office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
at Eads
Eads, Colorado
The Town of Eads is a Statutory Town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Kiowa County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 747 at the 2000 census...
(ZIP Code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
81036) now serves Chivington postal addresses.
Chivington was named for the Reverend/Colonel John Chivington
John Chivington
John Milton Chivington was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the American Indian Wars during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War...
, who was celebrated as the hero of the 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass
Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Confederate forces to break...
and commanded the Volunteer Militia of the Colorado Territory
Colorado Territory
The Territory of Colorado was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 28, 1861, until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado....
that perpetrated the Sand Creek massacre
Sand Creek Massacre
As conflict between Indians and white settlers and soldiers in Colorado continued, many of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, including bands under Cheyenne chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope, were resigned to negotiate peace. The chiefs had sought to maintain peace in spite of pressures from whites...
, a slaughter of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
in a nearby gulch during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Chivington was lauded as a hero at first for Sand Creek, but as details of the massacre became known, he was officially reprimanded and Territorial Governor John Evans
John Evans (governor)
John Evans was a U.S. politician, physician, railroad promoter, Governor of the Territory of Colorado, and namesake of Evanston, Illinois; Evans, Colorado; and Mount Evans, Colorado...
lost his job for encouraging Chivington.
History
Chivington (est. 1887) was one of several railroad towns in Kiowa CountyKiowa County, Colorado
Kiowa County is the second least densely populated of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 1,622 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Eads...
on eastern Colorado's plains along the Missouri Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
line, and in the late 19th century, eastern Colorado had a lot of agriculture and related commerce. Railroad workers also briefly contributed to the local economy as the Missouri Pacific extended into Colorado Springs, Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
, Palmer Lake, and eventually brought service into Denver.
As new towns along this railroad line formed, they were named alphabetically, which might explain why "Chivington" was chosen—with the massacre site only about 9 miles away, "C" brought the name "Chivington" to mind. And in Colorado, the massacre was not as infamous as in the rest of the nation.
During Chivington's early days, it supported a number of local businesses, the crown jewel being the $10,000, 60-room, 3-story Queen Anne styled Kingdon Hotel—but when the railroad realized that Chivington's water had too high an alkali content to use in the locomotive boilers, a nearby town in Kansas (Horace) instead became an important watering stop for the railroad. The Kingdon Hotel was disassembled (its intended purpose was to house railroad workers), and its materials shipped to two other Colorado communities for constructing buildings there—a common fate in Colorado, in the era.
The dust bowl
Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl, or the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936...
and Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
days of the 1920s and 1930s proved sustained agriculture on Colorado's eastern plains
Colorado Eastern Plains
The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range.-Geography:...
unsupportable, and Chivington (like many other nearby towns) mostly died somewhere in those decades.
Today's Chivington
A few newer homes are still occupied in Chivington, but the town consists mostly of a few abandoned but still-standing ruins, more partially-collapsed buildings (the former school house degrades, year-by-year), and many piles of bricks mark where the town once stood.Standard green highway markers ("Chivington") identify what these ruins once were. The post office existed into the 1980s but nearby Eads
Eads, Colorado
The Town of Eads is a Statutory Town that is the county seat and the most populous town of Kiowa County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 747 at the 2000 census...
today offers the nearest postal service and amenities like stores and gas stations.
Lamar
Lamar, Colorado
The City of Lamar is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Prowers County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 8,869 at the U.S...
is the closest remaining "significant" town on Colorado's eastern plains. Chivington appears to be returning, like much of eastern Colorado, to its sparse grassland
Grassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
and prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...
land origins.
Geography
Chivington is located at 38°26′12"N 102°32′32"W (38.436649,-102.542095).See also
- Sand Creek Massacre National Historic SiteSand Creek Massacre National Historic SiteSand Creek Massacre National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in Kiowa County, Colorado, near Eads and Chivington in Kiowa County commemorating the Sand Creek Massacre. The site is about southeast of Denver and about east of Pueblo. A few basic park facilities have been opened at this...
- List of cities and towns in Colorado