In the late 1800s, an unknown Yuma Indian railroad teamster died during a construction accident and was buried next to the tracks. According to local lore, he became the namesake for the nearby town of Yuma, Colorado (which he never saw). The marker also describes the farming heritage of the area as well as the Battle of Beecher Island and local wildlife and attractions.
Yuma
Yuma takes its name from a teamster who died while working on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and was buried beside the tracks. He never saw the town, which rose in 1886 as a cattle and shipping center. But homesteaders started fencing the range, and the dry summers through the 1890s thinned the herds, so that by 1900 Yuma had evolved into a farming community. It prospered through the World War I years, aided by ample rainfall and high demand for grain, but struggled through the Great Depression, reaping just enough good harvests to survive. Better irrigation techniques put local farmers on a more stable footing, and Yuma emerged as the anchor of one of Colorado’s richest agricultural regions. By the early 1990s Yuma County ranked among the nation’s leaders in corn production.
Dryland Farming
"You can make 14 inches of rain go as far as 25 or 30 inches.... We do not lose any of the rain—we have the full benefit of it. We keep it stored where the roots of the plants can reach it when they need it." - Hardy Webster Campbell, 1905
The first theory of dryland farming—"rain follows the plow"—was merely wishful thinking, and upon settling this area in the 1880s farmers looked for ways to manage scarce rainfall. Some turned to Hardy Webster Campbell’s scientific moisture management methods (introduced in 1902). Others conserved moisture by practicing "summer fallowing" wherein a field was left unplanted one year, and cultivated the next. The area’s first irrigation wells were dug in the early 1950s and small-scale sprinkler systems watered the fields. Today, pivot sprinklers have replaced most other methods. This system conserves both labor and water—wells that required 1500 gallons per minute to irrigate now require less than 700 using pivot sprinklers. Over time area farmers have worked to overcome the West's oppressive aridity, using resourceful methods to wrest harvests from a land once deemed barren.
Battle of Beecher Island
In September 1868 fifty civilian scouts left Fort Wallace, Kansas, to fight Cheyenne and Sioux warriors, on the theory that experienced frontiersmen could defeat any enemy force. On September 17 the scouts approached the Arickaree River, twenty-five miles southeast of here, where Indians attacked them. Retreating to a sandbar, the command held off repeated charges for four days. In the fierce combat, the besieged unit suffered eighteen wounded and five men killed, including Lt. Frederick H. Beecher. The great Cheyenne war leader Roman Nose fell on the first day, but otherwise Indian losses were minimal. On September 25 the Tenth Cavalry—the famed African American "Buffalo Soldiers"—rode to the scouts' relief. The frontiersmen had battled heroically, but never again did the army send an independent civilian command to fight Indians.
Buffalo Soldiers
During the American Civil War, 180,000 African American soldiers participated in 449 engagements, suffering over 38,000 casualties. After the war, Congress continued all-black units, creating two infantry and two cavalry regiments. Sent to the frontier West, black soldiers won the respect of Plains Indians, who called them "Buffalo Soldiers," probably for their remarkable courage and for the resemblance of their hair to that of a buffalo's (an animal the Indians revered). Black troopers of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, who comprised 20 percent of all cavalry stationed in the West, proudly accepted the title. The soldiers escorted wagon trains, chased outlaws, guarded railroad work crews, and fought Indians—and fourteen of them earned the Medal of Honor. Yet white officers always commanded black units, and African American soldiers faced racial prejudice in towns and posts across the West. That the Buffalo Soldiers succeeded—magnificently so—in their assigned duties is testament to their bravery, determination, and skill.
Greater Prairie Chickens
Welcome to the sandhill prairie region of Colorado. At first glance, this landscape seems to support only sand sagebrush and grasses. But a sharp-eyed observer can spot box turtles, pronghorn antelope, deer, a soaring hawk, or Colorado's state bird, the lark bunting. And early on a spring morning, you may hear a strange, low-pitched coo. It's the mating call of the greater prairie chicken.
This bird's courtship ritual is one of nature's most fascinating revues. From late March through the end of April, male greater prairie chickens congregate in broad clearings (called leks) and strut their stuff in hopes of attracting a mate. They swagger and bob, preen and parade, dancing to the music of their own "booming" (the sound made by large air sacs on the birds' throats). It's quite a production—and, for the hens, an irresistible summons.
Colorado's population of greater prairie chickens peaked in the early 1900s, then dwindled steadily as their habitat was increasingly plowed under for agriculture. By 1970 there were only a few hundred of the birds left in Colorado, landing the species on the endangered list. The state Division of Wildlife, working in cooperation with private landowners, launched both habitat restoration and prairie chicken reintroduction programs. Today Colorado has several thousand greater prairie chickens, the vast majority of which live in Yuma County. Thanks to this public/private conservation effort, the birds’ bassoon-like booms will echo across northeastern Colorado for many years to come.
Source: Colorado Historical Society, Lee C Zion