FLOOD08463

• County: Las Animas
• Community: Las Animas and Vicinity
• Stream Name: Arkansas River
• Basin: Arkansas
• Title: Arkansas River and Tributaries, Las Animas, Colorado, and Vicinity
• Date: 2/18/1964
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: COE
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Project

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50. Las Animas, one of The oldest Towns in the Arkansas Val ley,
first sprang up as a settlement across the river from the Fort Lyon
Army Post wh ich was bu i It in 1867 on the north bank of the Arkansas
River just below its confluence with the Purgatoire River. The town-
site was surveyed two years later and named for the Las Animas
(Purgatoire) River. For a few years, the vi I lage flourished as an
important freighting and trading center for pack trains travel ing the
Santa Fe Tra ii, and was noted for its large sh i pments of buffa 10 meat;
but when the Kansas PacificRai Ii-oad brought in its I ine six mi les to
the west in 1873, the original townsite was abandoned and the inhabit-
ants resettled adjacent to the rai Iroad. The new town became the
county seat of Bent County, which Vias establ ished in 1874, two years
before Colorado was admitted to statehood. Las Animas continued to
prosper as the hub of the vast cattle industry unti I the latter part
of the century when the years of drought and severe winters took .a
heavy to I I of the stock, and the open range had become drast i ca I I Y
reduced by homestead claims. During subsequent years, farming surpassed
ranching and cattle raising waned to sma I I-scale enterprises. At the
present time, about 80 percent of the land in Bent County is uti lized
for irrigated farming, dry farming, and grazing of livestock.

51. In 1870 about 590 people resided in the area which, a few
years later, was organized into Bent County. By 1920, the county
reached a peak population of 9,705; however, by 1960 the population
decl ined by about 25 percent to 7,419. Conversely, Las Animas has
shown a slow but steady increase from a settlement of 52 persons in
1880 to a total of 3,402 in 1960, which conforms to the general trend
of migration from rural to urban areas. A comparison of 1920 and 1960
census figures shows that during this period the rural population
decl ined about 46 percent but the Las Animas population increased about
51 percent, at a rate of 1.0 percent per year compounded annua II y.
Factors which have influenced this trend are the years of drought, the
tendency toward larger farm units, increased mechanization of farming
and ranChing, and better employment opportunities in the cities.

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52. Agriculture is the most important industry in Bent County,
with crop production and the livestock industry providing the chief
source of income. Croplands comprise about 120,000 acres, of which
49 percent or about 59,000 acres, is irrigated. Dry farmland is planted
mostly to winter wheat and grain sorghums and is highly productive under
favorab Ie weather cond it ions. Since th i s sect i on of Co I orado is sem i-
arid, farming by irrigation to assure profitable yieids has been
practiced since the days of the pioneers __ first by means of sma I I
ditches leading from the river to the val ley lands, and later by the
development of elaborate canal systems. The Fort Lyon Canal, one of
the largest in the United States, conveys water diverted from the
Arkansas River near La Junta to many thousands of acres of land in Bent
County. Other irrigated lands in the county are supplied by several
sma I ler ditch systems. Supplemental irrigation water is pumped from