Autobees, Colorado

Autobees, also known as Autobees Plaza, is an extinct town located in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1853, Autobees Plaza was the original seat of Huerfano County, Colorado Territory from its creation on November 1, 1861 until 1868. In 1868, the county seat moved to Badito, which was on a main trail along the foothills.[1][2] When Autobees was the county seat, Huerfano County was almost the entire southeastern portion of the state.[3] Now, the site of the former settlement is within Pueblo County, Colorado.[1][4]

Autobees
Extinct settlement
The Autobees site in 2023
The Autobees site in 2023
Autobees is located in Colorado
Autobees
Autobees
Coordinates: 38.2100°N 104.2872°W / 38.2100; -104.2872 (Autobees)
CountryUnited States
StateColorado
CountyPueblo
Nearest townBoone

History

Fort Huerfano

Charles Autobees had a small encampment about 1845 or 1846 on the Huerfano River. The site later became the county seat of Huerfano County.[5][6] The encampment has been called Fort Huerfano.[7] Across the Arkansas River from the mouth of the Huerfano River was an old Cherokee trail and campground, which is now the town of Boone, Colorado.[8]

Settlement

He left Taos, New Mexico and settled in the area in 1853, establishing a ranch two miles from the confluence of the Arkansas and Huerfano Rivers.[1] He built the ranch within the four million acre Vigil and St. Vrain Land Grant, a Mexican land grant.[9] His goal was to establish a colony near his ranch.[1] There were Native American and Mexican people living at his ranch.[10] The settlement was also called New Huerfano.[11]

He and other residents of the settlement farmed the land, using irrigation ditches for watering the plants.[12][13] Autobees ran a ferry service across the Arkansas River, which was used by soldiers of the nearby Fort Reynolds.[14] He remained at his ranch until his death. There are no remains of the ranch due to floods and other issues, but there is a monument to Charles Autobees near the site.[1]

See also

References
  1. Jessen, Kenneth (February 24, 2018). "Autobees Ranch, a county seat abandoned". Loveland, Colorado. Retrieved June 6, 2018 – via Reporter Herald.
  2. Thomas J. Noel (May 29, 2015). Colorado: A Historical Atlas. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 74, 160. ISBN 978-0-8061-5353-7.
  3. Federal Writers' Project (October 31, 2013). The WPA Guide to Colorado: The Highest State. Trinity University Press. p. PT296. ISBN 978-1-59534-205-8.
  4. Frank Hall (1895). History of the State of Colorado, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races and Their Remains. Blakely print. Company. p. 191.
  5. Frank Hall (1891). History of the State of Colorado, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races and Their Remains. Blakely print. Company. p. 446.
  6. Colorado Magazine. State Historical Society of Colorado, State Museum. 1966. p. 281.
  7. Phil Payette; Pete Payette. "Colorado forts - Fort Huerfano". American Forts Network. Retrieved June 6, 2018.
  8. Elliott Coues (September 22, 2013). The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike To Headwaters of the Mississippi River Through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, During the Years 1805-6-7. Library of Alexandria. p. PT840. ISBN 978-1-4655-8627-8.
  9. Thomas J. Noel (May 29, 2015). Colorado: A Historical Atlas. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 52, 53. ISBN 978-0-8061-5353-7.
  10. Frank Hall (1895). History of the State of Colorado, Embracing Accounts of the Pre-historic Races and Their Remains. Blakely print. Company. p. 74.
  11. Perry Eberhart (June 1986). Ghosts of the Colorado plains. Swallow Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-8040-0832-7.
  12. Charlene Garcia Simms; Maria Sanchez Tucker; Jeffrey DeHerrera; Pueblo City-County Library District (January 16, 2017). Pueblo. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. PT28. ISBN 978-1-4396-5912-0.
  13. Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918). History of Colorado. S. J. Clarke. pp. 478–479.
  14. Kay Beth Faris Avery (December 5, 2016). Along the Huerfano River. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4396-5872-7.

Further reading
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