Evans
⎯⎯⎯
Dearfield
⎯⎯⎯
Colonies and Crusaders
⎯⎯⎯
Evans Country
–Rocky Mountain News, August 5, 1871
Bands played and banners flew when the first Denver Pacific Railroad engine steamed into Evans in December 1869. The town had good reason to celebrate. As the railroad's end point (and, at that time, the closest depot to Denver) it became Colorado's main transportation hub, the very center of the action. But the party ended abruptly the following spring, when the railroad bridged the South Platte and headed toward Denver, taking most of the commercial activity with it. Evans stood nearly empty until the following summer, when the St. Louis-Western Colony brought four hundred settlers to the area. For the next several decades Evans made a steady living as an agricultural supply town and highway service
this page online
The Denver Pacific
Railroad
On June 22, 1870, former territorial governor John Evans presided over ceremonies in Denver to mark the Denver Pacific Railroad's completion. The silver spike intended for the occasion was misplaced, forcing Evans to substitute an ordinary iron one wrapped in white paper. That gesture aptly symbolized the Denver Pacific-not the glittery first choice, but a workable alternative. It was built only because the transcontinental railroad bypassed Denver, threatening to turn that young and ambitious town into a commercial backwater. The well-connected Evans helped save the day by marshaling the funds for the Denver Pacific, a 106-mile branch linking Denver to the transcontinental line in Wyoming. Though briefly headquartered here, in Governor Evans's namesake town, the DP was always Denver's road. As much as anything else, it enabled that city to become the region's economic capital.
We want our people to get back or the land, where they naturally belong, and to work out their own salvation from the land up.
–Dearfield incorporator, Denver Post, June 1909
Though it shared most of the aspirations of other colonies, Dearfield carried one additional promise. Oliver Toussaint Jackson, the Denver businessman who launched the settlement, considered it nothing less than "a foundation for the future of the race."
Colorado's dozen or so agricultural "colonies" belied the Western lore of rugged individualism. These communal enterprises, most of them founded between 1869 and 1872, pooled labor, capital, and other resources (most notably water) for the mutual benefit of their members. Many also imposed strict moral guidelines, seeking not just to farm the West but to cultivate a more perfect society. Perfection ultimately lay beyond their grasp, but settlement did not. The Union and Chicago colonies
Temperance
As a temperance community, Evans failed to distinguish itself–its prohibition law of 1874 was lifted after just two years–but it hardly deserved its reputation as a drunkard's paradise. That stigma came largely from critics in teetotaling Greeley, which banned alcohol in 1870 and remained dry for the next century. The temperance crusade, one of the most potent national reform movements in U.S. history, was particularly active in the West, where drinking led too often to gun violence, domestic abuse, and other social ills. Many Coloradans heartily embraced the cause; the voters even approved a statewide liquor ban in 1915, five years before national Prohibition
{Map of Evans area highlights}
Erected 2002 by the Colorado Historical Society, Colorado Department of Transportation.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Agriculture • Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical date for this entry is June 22, 1870.
Location. 40° 22.325′ N, 104° 41.725′ W. Marker is in Evans, Colorado, in Weld County. It is on CanAm Highway (U.S. 85) 0.1 miles north of 42nd Street, on the right when traveling north. Located in a pullout on the northbound side. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Evans CO 80620, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Colorado’s Front Range. It is also in the American Mountain West and on the Great Plains. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 4 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Evans (here, next to this marker); #3 Ditch Marker (approx. 3.2 miles away); Weld County Court House (approx. 3.6 miles away); Replica of the Statue of Liberty (approx. 3.6 miles away); Buckingham Gordon Building (approx. 3.6 miles away); Immigration (approx. 3.6 miles away); Greeley Business District (approx. 3.6 miles away); Greeley Union Pacific Railroad Depot (approx. 3.6 miles away).
Credits. This page was last revised on September 24, 2019. It was originally submitted on September 24, 2019, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 938 times since then and 68 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. submitted on September 24, 2019, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.
