2024 - Kit Carson Museum

Описание: When the Bent County seat moved from nearby Boggsville to Las Animas in 1876, the city constructed a small brick building to serve as the jail. The building was witness to what was considered one of the earliest hangings in Colorado statehood when James “Jimmy” Miller, a Buffalo Soldier stationed at nearby Fort Lyon, was convicted of murder and subsequently
hanged. The larger adobe building, constructed sometime around 1940, was home to a Prisoner of War (POW) camp for German officers during World War II. POWs were sent to neighboring farms to be agricultural workers. The crop yield eventually exceeded expectations, and many German POWs employed their learned farming techniques in their own homes when they returned after the war. This building is one of the few remaining German POW camps in Colorado. The barracks were also home to one of four Jamaican migrant farm working camps in Colorado. Brought to the United States through a guest worker program, 99 Jamaican farmers worked in the fields of Colorado, where, unlike the German POWs, they were not welcomed or appreciated for their work. Mexican laborers and the Bracero program eventually replaced the Jamaican workers. The barracks are believed to be the last standing building directly linked to the underrepresented and under-researched Jamaican presence in Colorado.

The buildings served as Las Animas’ museum from 1961 to 2009. Since the opening of the new John W. Rawlings Museum a few blocks up the road, the buildings have sat empty, exposed to the elements. They are owned by Bent County and utilized by the Road and Bridge Department. The adobe barracks are crumbling and need serious repair. CPI hopes to partner with Bent County and the Bent County Historical Society to stabilize, rehabilitate, and return the buildings to serve the community and advocate for untold and underrepresented stories in rural Colorado.

Colorado Preservation, Inc: https://coloradopreservation.org/

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