Prowers County, Colorado

Sponsored by Prowers County, Colorado

• Location: Colorado
• Travel Type: Driving
• Tour Duration: 2 hours
• Language:

About This Tour
The vast, open High Plains of southeastern Colorado are fertile with American history. As you drive through the beautiful landscape of Prowers County, this mobile audio tour reveals the significant roles the region played in human history dating back thousands of years.

Native Americans forged a route through this wilderness that later became the Santa Fe Trail. Explorers, gold-seekers, homesteaders, and other adventurers followed the Santa Fe Trail — and later, rode the railroad— through Prowers County. Some decided to end their journeys here and settle down. Ranchers claimed the expansive grasslands for their cattle, and rural communities formed strong bonds that endure today.

That’s the classic transformation tale of the American West. But the stories of this iconic countryside are more complex than that. This tour takes you to places of both triumph and tragedy, meeting the people of yesterday and today in a direct, unfiltered light. And it explores events that made this place unique. For example, did you know that:

·      The 20th-century sugar empire Holly Sugar started right here in Prowers County, thanks to the hard work of local sugar-beet farmers?

·      An ocean covered this area 100 million years ago?

·      More than 7,000 innocent men, women and children were imprisoned here during World War II?

On this tour, you’ll learn about these events and more, while getting a taste of the Old West — including a bona fide 1920s bank robbery that, of course, led to a manhunt and, eventually, a gun fight.

Tour Highlights
Some of the fascinating sites this audio tour features include:

·      The Madonna of the Trail Monument honoring female settlers’ unsung perseverance

·      Camp Amache, where people with Japanese ancestry were held during World War II, and the Amache Museum, which offers a deeper encounter with the honest history of Japanese internment

·      The former site of Fort Lyon, where Cheyenne and Arapaho members came to negotiate peace with the U.S. government, only to be relocated and brutally attacked in the horrific Sand Creek Massacre, just 40 miles away

·      Big Timbers Museum (full of exhibits on Native Americans and the Western frontier) and the Tri-State 9/11 Tribute memorial

·      Santa Fe Prairie Engine No. 1819, a giant steam engine that helped to boost local industries by shipping goods to Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco

·      The Petrified Wood Building, a 1930s gas station made out of local wood petrified by an ancient seaway

·      And much more!
 
Tour Sponsor
This tour is brought to you by Prowers County, Colorado.
 
Find More Tours Near You
If you are interested in more audio tours in and around Colorado, check out Highway of Legends, Garden of the Gods, Santa Fe, Bighorn Sheep Canyon, Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain, and Los Caminos Antiguos. To find more tours in the Mountain West — or wherever your travels may take you — visit TravelStorys.com. Every place has a story!