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One hundred and forty years is a long time. When George Hosmer published the first issue of the Springfield Herald in the spring of 1887, Baca County had not yet been organized. There was no courthouse, no county government, and many of the communities that would eventually dot the High Plains had yet to be…
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Few men embodied the spirit of southeastern Colorado more fully than Alfred A. Arraj. Born far from the windswept plains of Baca County yet forever shaped by them, Arraj rose from small-town lawyer and civic booster in Springfield, Colorado, to become one of the most respected federal judges in the American West. Today, his name…
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History and Stories
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The 1939 Plesiosaur Discovery in Baca County In March 1939, one of Colorado’s most remarkable fossil discoveries emerged from the eroded banks of a remote creek in Baca County, about 13.5 miles north of Pritchett. A recent flood had carved away a 20-foot shale cliff on the Earl Kern’s farm which was occupied by Vernon…
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NOTE: A couple years ago, I released Letters, Stories and Incidents on the Santa Fe Trail : The Bent’s Fort Years. Recently, someone asked me if the book was any good. My answer? Oh yes. It has the best discussion of the “innumerable” buffalo herds of the American West you’ll find anywhere outside the writings…
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In 2025, nearly a century after my grandparents first opened their hardware store on South Main Street in Springfield, Colorado, the building’s aging wooden facade was removed by local resident and current owner Jessica Caricato. What she uncovered wasn’t just brick and mortar—it was memory. For the first time, I was face to face with…
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When I give talks about technology and innovation, I often draw on an unconventional example. One of my favorites is broomcorn—that old-fashioned crop which was a cash crop staple for many years where I grew up and was once essential for making hand-tied ‘straw’ brooms. At first glance, it seems like a footnote in agricultural…
