Laserfiche WebLink
<br />:002422 <br /> <br />Bent's fort. built in the La Junta area. orovided tradinc with the historic Indians. Peoole <br /> <br /> <br />Iivinc in the fort were some of the first white settlers iD !he area. <br /> <br />Settlers arrivina in the area relied on cultivated croos. <br /> <br />Three of the first crops grown were alfalfa, first grown in 1875; watermelon, first grown <br /> <br />in 1878~,and cantaloupe, first grown in 1884. In 1896, the Rocky Ford Melon Growers <br /> <br />Association was organized to bring producers together into one marketing group. <br /> <br />Melons were shipped with the brand name "Rocky Ford" cantaloupe, a name that <br /> <br />remains widely known across the country. <br /> <br />By 1905, four seed companies had developed businesses in Rocky Ford. By 1907, one <br /> <br /> <br />of these, the Rocky Ford Seed Breeders Association, was selling 30 tons of cantaloupe <br /> <br /> <br />seed per year to growers in the Imperial Valley of California. The honeydew also had <br /> <br /> <br />its origin in the Arkansas Valley. By 1925, 90 percent of the cucumber seed and 75 <br /> <br /> <br />percent of the cantaloupe seed planted in the United States were grown in Otero <br /> <br /> <br />County. However, the perishability of these commodities and price fluctuations led <br /> <br /> <br />farmers to seek a more diversified irrigated agriculture. <br /> <br />The crop introduced to fill the void turned out to be the sugar beet. Much of the original <br /> <br /> <br />irrigation development has been tied to the sugar beet industry. At the peak of the <br /> <br /> <br />industry, 22 sugar beet processing facilities operated in southeastern Colorado. <br /> <br /> <br />Ultirnately, the valley had more factories than the farmers and land were able to <br /> <br /> <br />support. This, coupied with lower yields. caused by poor quality irrigation water, sugar <br /> <br /> <br />pricing problems, and outbreaks of beet blight ("curly top") resulted in sharp decline and <br /> <br />~*5 <br />