Historic images from the "Borderlands of Southern Colorado" explore daily lives of people

[turbinetree]

who have called the region home

By JOHN WENZEL | [e-mail] and PATRICK TRAYLOR | [e-mail] | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: February 4, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: February 4, 2021 at 11:34 a.m.

History Colorado’s “Borderlands of Southern Colorado” project is more than an exhibition, although it’s most certainly that. The historic photographs selected for the show, which opened at 1200 N. Broadway on Feb. 2, trace the outlines of the land and the people who have moved through it with stunning intimacy and scale.

But the show is also a project that spans multiple History Colorado museums, and it plans to stick around for quite a while.

“The Arkansas River in Colorado (or Rio Nepesta) once carved the border between the United States and Mexico,” History Colorado officials wrote. “Our El Pueblo History Museum marks the site of the original El Pueblo, established in 1842 along the border.”

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/02/04/borderlands-of-southern-colorado-historic-photos/

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

1. Fun history information, thanks. nt

[turbinetree]

2. Your welcome....................

[abqtommy]

3. Thanks, love the old photos and captions. I was especially moved by the caption* to the

photo of Josefa Jaramillo Carson. It illustrates what people have been up against whenever
there is "progress".

*Courtesy Kit Carson Home and Museum via History Colorado
Josefa Jaramillo Carson (1828-68) became immersed in two cultures when she married Kit Carson. Like other borderlands women, she assumed leadership in the absence of her husband, raised children, and depended on other strong women to survive. She faced a loss of independence, no longer able to own land and or have a voice in court, after Americanization.

[turbinetree]

4. Your welcome....................

And most people do not know that what is now called Pueblo was started by a black man:

James Pierson Beckwourth (1798-1866) was an emancipated slave, an independent fur trader, mountaineer, adventurer, and a founder of El Pueblo. He wrote: “We reached the Arkansas [River] about the first of October 1842, where I erected a trading post . . . I was joined by from fifteen to twenty free trappers with their families. We all united our labors, and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square. By the following spring we had grown into quite a little settlement, and we gave it the name of Pueblo.” Photo ca. 1860-64. n