April 8: Boggsville Clean-up Day

Boggsville clean up day is rapidly approaching, Saturday, April 8^th, and I am hoping for a warm day to get the site ready for this season’s visitors. For you who have not been to Boggsville as of late you will have a pleasant surprise. Both houses have had some major remodeling done, even new roofs. Most of the smaller trees that blocked the view of the site have been removed so the site is very open. There are still some small trees around the rental house that need to be removed, and that is our task for this year. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but if we get a few people there with chainsaws we can have the work done in a couple of hours. All we have to do is cut them down and cut them into 6 foot lengths. There is going be a youth group there to drag the trees off and stack them up out of the way to be hauled off later. Most of these trees are only 8 inches thick, but there are few bigger ones.

Both the Boggs house and the Prowers house need cleaning as usual along with the restrooms. Work is being done on both houses so some rooms may not be able to be cleaned.  There will be coffee and donuts to start off the day, and a meal served at lunch in appreciation for all your hard work.  Bring your chainsaw, gloves, cleaning supplies or whatever so we can do our part in keeping this historic site looking good.

By Larry Bourne

Boggsville, located on the Purgatoire River, was first used as a campsite by the Plains Indians. With the fur trade vanishing, many former mountain men found work raising livestock. Through his wife’s government land grant connections, Thomas Boggs started his ranch near the river on a branch of the Santa Fe Trail. It became known as Boggsville after he and his wife, Rumalda Luna Bent Boggs, built their first home. John Wesley Prowers moved to the Boggs’s ranch in 1867 along with frontiersman Kit Carson and his family. A year later, with Carson in poor health, his wife, Josefa, died from childbirth complications. Kit died several weeks later at nearby Fort Lyon. Thomas Boggs was the executor of Carson’s will.

Site Information:  Location (two miles south of Las Animas on Colorado Highway 101)

MANAGED BY: Boggsville National Historic District