Person:Glenn Murray (1)

Open Land...Cooleys & Miles

Climate in Lincoln County is typical of that found throughout thesouthern high plains. It is a region of light rainfall, with severalyears of drought often occurring in succession. Temperatures vary greatlyas the seasons change.

In a study of land use of Lincoln County one of the striking features isthe large amount of open land....

Eddy Webb, Who's Who in Colorado 1938

Established in April 1889 from parts of Elbert and Bent counties, andnamed for Abraham Lincoln, the county was a path to the gold fieldsduring the 1859 gold rush, and to grazing and homestead land during theremaining decades of the 1800s. Lincoln County consists almost entirelyof grazing and dry farming land, although there is a small percentage ofhay meadow and irrigated pasture land.

The well-traveled Smoky Hill Trail traversed the county. Stage companiesmade a stop at Willow Springs Station. In the mid-1860s the stages wereoften attacked by Indians, as were the stage stations. Passengers got theride of their lives; several station hands were killed.

Later the Kansas Pacific railroad, laid along the Smoky Hill Trail,ensured shipping and supply facilities. As late as 1900 the EasternColorado Plainsman reported that "A lone robber held up the Calistoga andClear Lake Stage and secured $4.50 from the Wells Fargo Express box."

Horace Greeley, riding the new Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Co.stage through Lincoln County in 1859, did not give the area a goodreview: There was "a thin, alkaline incrustation [on the BigSandy]...Hence I infer that the water of its stagnant pools must beprejudicial to man or beast."

It wasn't quite that bad. The two main characters in Larry McMurtry's"Lonesome Dove" are based on Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, whodrove longhorns from Texas over Trinchera Pass (thus avoiding the toll onDick Wootten's Raton Pass road), across the Purgatoire, Apishapa andArkansas rivers to near present-day Fowler, then up through Lincoln (thenpart of Elbert) County to the South Platte, where they sold their herd toJohn Wesley Iliff in 1866. The fictional disasters did not occur inLincoln County.

Hugo was named county seat when the county was established, and electedthe permanent county seat in November 1889. Hugo was the only village inthe county with a newspaper, essential for publishing legal notices.

The first meeting of appointed county officers was held in Hugo on April29, 1889, at 2:35 in the afternoon. Addison K. LaDue resigned as countyassessor and was appointed county clerk and recorder. The following daythe Board "ordered...the County Clerk's office to be located in theoffice of the Lincoln County Ledger until further notice." Whether thatwas for convenience, or because LaDue had a connection to the paper, isunknown. Other county officials were housed in part of the school house.Eddy Webb was county superintendent of schools.

The first election, in November, brought out 228 voters.

In 1900 the Lincoln County population was 926, rising to 8,273 in 1920before a steady decline to 4,529 in 1990.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Jeannie Mullin.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} Obituary.
3. ↑ 1885 Iowa State Census, Emmet County, Armstrong Grove Township, Volume 183, Page 8.
4. ↑ 1900 U.S. Census, Iowa, Emmet County, Armstrong Grove Township, T623 431, Book 2, Page 2.
5. ↑ Obituary of Grace Murray Inman.
6. ↑ 1920 U.S. Census, Colorado, Lincoln County, Arriba Town, T625 167, Page 2B.
7. ↑ 1930 U.S. Census, Colorado, Lincoln County, Arriba, District 8, T626 246, Page 2A.