Background Statement
The Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County was founded in 1959. Seventy volunteers and two part-time staff work continuously to showcase the John W. Rawlings Heritage Center & Museum and the Boggsville Historical Site, Bent County's National Treasure. Both sites are along the historic Santa Fe Trail. The Heritage Center & Museum replaced the old, "Kit Carson Museum" and is the community's pride in downtown Las Animas. The Museum opened officially in 2012 in the former IOOF building that originally housed the Las Animas Elders Lodge, No. 11, that was dedicated in 1898. The museum building was rehabilitated by funds from a Colorado State Historic Fund and other funders. Exhibits include early 1900's storefronts of a post office, barber shop, jewelry store, candy shop and the Bent County Bank. The second floor's stunning Grand Hall is available for events and special exhibits and also contains a kitchenette and heritage library. Visitors enjoy more history outside in Bell Park, just east of the museum.
Boggsville was established in 1866 as a bustling farming/ranching community and was a stage coach station. Boggsville was the last home of frontiersman Kit Carson before his death in 1868 at Fort Lyon. It was the first County Seat, first Bent County school, and its presence on the prairie was a unique combination of cultures that came together to create an atmosphere of tolerance rarely seen in those turbulent times. Located on a spur of the Santa Fe Trail on the banks of the Purgatoire River, several cultures combined to make a thriving community: Anglo, Hispanic, and Native American. From the white settlers traveling through, to the Cheyenne relatives of Amache Prowers, who would pitch their teepees near her house, all were welcome at Boggsville. The town was named for Thomas O. Boggs, a trader and cattle dealer. In 1846 Boggs married 14-year-old Rumalda Luna Bent, the stepdaughter of Charles Bent, first American governor of New Mexico, who was an heiress to land grants in Colorado. In 1866 Boggs built an adobe house on the 2,040 acres grant. The next year John Wesley Prowers built a two-story 14-room house at Boggsville, on land granted to his wife, Amache, after the massacre at Sand Creek. In 1867 the citizens of Boggsville dug the Tarbox Ditch from the Purgatoire 7 miles to about 1,000 acres of irrigated land. The ditch was the first such irrigation project in southeastern Colorado. The Prowers and Boggs houses remain today for tours. Rumalda Boggs and Josefa Carson brought Mexican influences from their privileged upbringing in Taos. Amache Prowers contributed traditions from her life in a Cheyenne village. Prowers and Boggs built homes and successful businesses and the Prowers and Boggs houses remain today for tours.