FLOOD06515

• County: Las Animas
• Community: Las Animas County and Unincorporated Areas
• Basin: Arkansas
• Title: FIS - Las Animas County and Unincorporated Areas
• Date: 9/1/1977
• Prepared For: Las Animas County
• Prepared By: FEMA
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Current FEMA Regulatory Floodplain Information

All of the stream reaches described were chosen with
consideration given to existing hazards and forecasted
development and construction through 1981.

2.2 Community Description

The Las Animas County seat is located in south-central
Colorado, 197 miles south of Denver, the state capital.
The county encompasses an area of approximately 4870
square miles and lies within the upper end of the
Arkansas River basin. The Apishapa and Purgatoire
Rivers serve as major tributaries whose headwaters
extend up to elevations of 14,000 feet in the Rocky
Mountains and drain approximately 1125 square miles
and 3500 square miles, respectively. The waters of
both the Apishapa and the Purgatoire Rivers have been
appropriated for municipal and irrigation usage.

The history of Las Animas County is closely linked
to the rugged Sangre De Cristo mountains, foothills,
and canyons and to a famous pass called Raton. The
eastern two-thirds of the county are mainly rolling
prairies, broken here and there with sharp canyons
and gullies caused by occasional heavy downpours and
rushing waters from the mountains. Recorded history
in Las Animas County dates back to the early 1540s
when the Spanish conquistadors marched through the
area in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Gold;
although they found no gold, they left evidence of their
passing in Spanish surnames, subsequent architecture,
and geographical names. The area saw few other inhab-
itants, except the native Indians, until the period
of the Civil War. While the area now known as New
Mexico was being settled, the Las Animas County area
went relatively unnoticed. During this time, Spanish
sons and large land and cattle barons began moving
herds across what is now Raton Pass and down the
Purgatoire Valley. Soon the area saw the movement
of northbound Texas cattle herds and the influx of
settlers travelling the mountain branch of the Santa Fe
Trail, which roughly paralleled the Purgatoire River,
into the valley where the Town of Trinidad was being
built. In 1878, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
Railroad reached Trinidad, forecasting the end of
Santa Fe Trail commerce and also the community's trans-
formation from a typical western frontier settlement
to a booming center of coal mining activity. The
region's vast coal deposits had long been known, and
the availability of rail transportation made large

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