Established
on May 5, 1910, by a young entrepreneur named Oliver Toussaint Jackson,
Dearfield served as an agricultural colony for Black Coloradoans about
twenty-five miles southeast of Greeley. For two decades nearly 700 Black families
worked to transform the rolling desert hills into a thriving farm community.
The Great Depression and a major drought drove most of these
farmers away, leaving only Jackson and his niece by the 1940s. Today Dearfield
is a ghost town with only a handful of buildings remaining, but the Black American West Museum and other groups are working to improve preservation and
historical interpretation at the site.
Join us
for an overview of the history of Dearfield and current efforts to preserve the
site for future generations.
Presenter: William “Bill”
Garcia, former Weld County Commissioner, local attorney and passionate advocate
for the preservation of Dearfield.