San Luis Valley Historical Society

09/22/2022

Photos from Homelake Veterans' History Museum's post

09/22/2022

Photos from Homelake Veterans' History Museum's post

07/12/2022

Come join the fun this week!

06/01/2022

Photos from Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area's post

05/20/2022

Colorado Voices | La Sociedad: S.P.M.D.T.U.

Antonito and the SPMDTU

The S.P.M.D.T.U. (La Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos) was founded in Antonito in 1900 and led the region’s Indio-Hispano and Latino settlers...

04/01/2022

Garcia is an unincorporated community in Costilla County less than a mile from the boarder of New Mexico. Although San Luis, was established in 1851 it is known has the oldest town in Colorado, Garcia and its environs could arguably be considered as the oldest occupied area in the state. Originally called Plaza de los Manzanares for the two brothers who were among the first colonists of the Sangre de Cristo land grant in 1849, the community of Garcia earned its name in 1915 when another pair of brothers, Guillermo and Agipito Garcia, were granted permission to establish a post office in their store. The farming community of Garcia was founded in the early 1800’s.
The community at Manzanares was built on a plan, which was typical of later settlements. The colonizers erected their homes around a central plaza.

02/23/2022

SANFORD HISTORIAN – Sanford History Museum

SANFORD HISTORIAN – Sanford History Museum

SANFORD HISTORIAN The Sanford Historian is a newsletter of the Sanford History Museum. It features museum news and biographical information about people in our local history. Click here to receive future issues via email. Sanford-Historian-Issue-6-February-2022Download Sanford-Historian-Issue-5-Nove...

02/18/2022

Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5 Million for Groundbreaking Digital Project Focused on Enslaved Native Americans | School for Advanced Research

Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5 Million for Groundbreaking Digital Project Focused on Enslaved Native Americans | School for Advanced Research

Mellon Foundation Awards $1.5 Million for Groundbreaking Digital Project Focused on Enslaved Native Americans by operations | Feb 17, 2022 | Blog The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1.5 million grant to fund Native Bound-Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Americans Enslaved, an unprecedented....

02/01/2022

Photos from Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area's post

01/31/2022

Photos from Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area's post

01/10/2022

Photos from Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area's post

10/23/2021

Community Cuentistas – Mapping the Storytellers in Juan B. Rael’s ‘Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico’

Community Cuentistas – Mapping the Storytellers in Juan B. Rael’s ‘Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico’

One of the core lessons I learned from my grandmother was that the best storytellers are those that have mastered the ability to lean in and to listen. In this, I think of the work of now renowned …

10/18/2021

The creation of Moffat & Hooper Colorado - Crestone Eagle

The creation of Moffat & Hooper Colorado - Crestone Eagle

Driving US territorial expansion west, a philosophy of the nation called “manifest destiny “made expansion a divine mission.” Coined in 1845, Manifest Destiny took the wheel, driving progress, telling those looking for a fresh start and those wanting to make big bucks this was the time and the...

09/26/2021

Meet Dr. James Brooks, and artists jetsonorama and Gregg Deal

Meet Dr. James Brooks, and artists jetsonorama and Gregg Deal

This week in southern Colorado Join us in southern Colorado this week for two community gatherings with scholars and artists We hope you can join us for some upcoming Borderlands of Southern Colorado events in person and online and meet Dr. James Brooks and artists jetsonorama and Gregg Deal History...

07/29/2021

07/07/2021

Sanford Museum-Sangre NHA

Sanford!

06/25/2021

06/12/2021

The San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa thanks the Maestas School Desegregation Committee for the great set of posters and flyers. Frames have been ordered to display them as part of our school exhibit. The museum would like to have Spanish language school books as part of our permanent display. Photos are also needed.

The San Luis Valley Museum in Alamosa thanks the Maestas School Desegregation Committee for the great set of posters and flyers. I ordered frames to display them as part of our school exhibit. The museum would like to have Spanish language school books as part of our permanent display. Photos are also needed. I can make copies so folks can keep the originals unless they wish them to be kept in acid free storage for the future. The display should be up in a week or so.

05/29/2021

The museums of Colorado's Museum Trail are opening up starting this Memorial Day Weekend!! Get out and explore the history of the Mystic San Luis Valley!

04/10/2021

Photos from History Colorado's post

01/19/2021

The Los Caminos Antiguos Scenic and Historic Byway driving tour app is ready for your enjoyment and just in time for some leaf peeping! There's a Story Here!

Download the app:
https://www.travelstorys.com/download/

Thanks to the partnership with the Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area and their funding; as well as funding from the Colorado Tourism Office @ Visit Colorado, San Luis Valley Federal Bank, and the SLV Tourism Association @ Visit San Luis Valley, Colorado

11/20/2020

10/19/2020

Smithsonian Associates Streaming

Art historian Nancy G. Heller traces Kahlo’s brief life to examine the influences that shaped her art. She looks beyond the famous self-portraits to also include landscapes, still-lifes, and other Kahlo subjects.

Smithsonian Associates has been educating and entertaining audiences for more than 50 Years.

10/19/2020

Photos from Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area's post

10/17/2020

Colorado’s historic graves: the good, the bad, the ugly and where to find them

Colorado’s historic graves: the good, the bad, the ugly and where to find them

Historic graves can be found across Colorado. Here's where to find the burial sites of famous people, from John Denver to Doc Holliday.

08/05/2020

We are pleased to announce that Pike's Stockade will reopen to the public on Friday, August 7!

The historic site, seventeen miles southeast of Alamosa along the Conejos River, will be open daily through September. The grounds include walking trails, picnic tables, and plenty of space for social distancing. It is located at 22862 Co Rd 24, Sanford, CO.

The stockade was damaged by fallen trees in 2018 and was closed until it could be made safe for visitors. Guests should heed all posted signage and remain a safe distance from the damaged portion of the stockade. For questions about the site, contact the staff at Fort Garland Museum at 719-379-3512.

06/04/2020

La Placita de San Rafael

La Placita de San Rafael, located in Conejos County just south of Antonito

“La Placita de San Rafael” “What good is a hometown when everyone you know is gone?” -John Nichols, “Milagro Beanfield War” The truth is, you never outgrow w...

06/03/2020

History Buff - Free Memberships for Fourth Grade Students | History Colorado

History Buff - Free Memberships for Fourth Grade Students | History Colorado

Roam free, history buffs! Beginning June 1, 2020, History Colorado will offer a free year-long membership to all fourth grade students in the state. Benefits will include admission to all eight of our museums for students and their families*, one free child ticket to the Georgetown Loop Railroad (wi...

05/19/2020

The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley

The 'Secret Jews' of San Luis Valley

In Colorado, the gene linked to a virulent form of breast cancer found mainly in Jewish women is discovered in Hispanic Catholics

05/14/2020

Photos from Fort Garland Museum & Cultural Center's post

05/01/2020

2020 Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month Poster Contest | History Colorado

2020 Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month Poster Contest | History Colorado

Calling all Future Archaeologists and Historic Preservationists! May is Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month (AHPM) and for several years, professionals from around the state came together to design a poster to honor and celebrate Colorado’s preservation work. While professionals a...

04/21/2020

COauthored | History Colorado

Listen in as Luther Bean of Alamosa chews the fat with San Luis Valley resident Emilio Lobato at his home in tiny Chama, Colorado. This vintage conversation from 1962 comes courtesy of History Colorado Studios’ COauthored podcast. You’ll feel like you’re at Lobato’s kitchen table, eavesdropping on old-time ranching history straight from the old-timers themselves. https://www.historycolorado.org/coauthored?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=listen%20in&utm_campaign=member%20Enews

COauthored is an oral history podcast featuring community-recorded oral histories from around Colorado. It was born out of the Museum of Memory at El Pueblo History Museum. You can also listen on SoundCloud and download through iTunes or Google Play. Be sure to also check out oral histories for the....

04/20/2020

Saint Joseph’s Church is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places!
Built in 1912-13 in Capulin, St. Joseph’s is associated with the Hispano families who emigrated from northern New Mexico to the San Luis Valley beginning in the 1840s.
The church was originally cared for by Jesuits as a mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Conejos. It expanded under Theatine fathers in the 1930s, becoming an independent parish. When their first Father Peter Ribas arrived in Capulin, he advocated for local public schools, which were only operating two or three months a year due to limited finances. Father Superior of the Theatines in Colorado offered to staff the public schools with Benedictine sisters, who lived at this church and taught until 1965.
The church's distinct Gothic Revival architecture includes rock-faced sandstone walls, original stained glass windows, Gothic-arch windows and entrances, stone buttresses, and a square tower with shingled belfry. Old St. Joseph’s Cemetery has many gravestones, dating back to 1861.
: St. Joseph's in 1913, 1934, and 2019.

04/16/2020

Colorized postcards by the Auburn Post Card Company, Auburn Indiana. They were known for their Blue Sky cards manufactured between 1913 and 1929.

04/13/2020

La Jara/Alamosa Buddhist Church was located in La Jara, Colorado. The temple was organized on March 8, 1931, founding members were: Yoshie Inouye, Kichigoro Ono, Eichi Yoshida, Hideichi Yoshida, Wasaku Nishikawa, Yojiro Hattori, Mitsumasa Miyake, Tokuzo Takahashi, Katsusaburo Fujii, Seitairo Den, Jasaku Mayeda, Eijiro Kakiuchi, Chieto Fujii, Kunisaburo Uyemura, Sadaichi Oba, and Hisayo Fujii. Construction on the temple was completed in January of 1937. The church was built by Roy Davis Construction Company. On February 6, 1937, the Dedication Ceremony was held. Throughout the years the Temple was a special place to gather for religious services, weddings, funerals, and Japanese Cultural training. The temple building was sold, is now used as a tri-plex.

La Jara/Alamosa Buddhist Church was located in Lajara. The temple was organized on March 8, 1931, founding members were: Yoshie Inouye, Kichigoro Ono, Eichi Yoshida, Hideichi Yoshida, Wasaku Nishikawa, Yojiro Hattori, Mitsumasa Miyake, Tokuzo Takahashi, Katsusaburo Fujii, Seitairo Den, Jasaku Mayeda, Eijiro Kakiuchi, Chieto Fujii, Kunisaburo Uyemura, Sadaichi Oba, and Hisayo Fujii. Construction on the temple was completed in January of 1937. The church was built by Roy Davis Construction Company. On February 6, 1937, the Dedication Ceremony was held. Throughout the years the Temple was a special place to gather for religious services, weddings, funerals, and Japanese Cultural training. The temple building was sold, is now used as a tri-plex.

04/13/2020

John Alnutt: The 1918 Pandemic in Colorado

John Alnutt: The 1918 Pandemic in Colorado

This episode is the oral history of John Alnutt, recorded circa 1968. The focus of the oral history is the 1918 flu pandemic and Mr. Alnutt’s memories of his family’s mortuary and funeral home in Gree

03/10/2020

Monument to historic school desegregation suit to be celebrated

Monument to historic school desegregation suit to be celebrated

The San Luis Valley is just coming into some well-deserved fame and a grand kickoff-fundraiser is being prepared for March 15.

03/04/2020

Alamosa News | Frances Marie Worley McCullough, 91

Having studied journalism at the University of Colorado, Fran had a deep interest in researching and documenting the history of the San Luis Valley. She spent many years as the editor of The San Luis Valley Historian, carefully gathering history and curating many issues of the periodical to preserve the rich history of The Valley for generations to come.

MONTE VISTA — Frances “Fran” Marie Worley McCullough passed away on Feb. 19, 2020 at River Valley Inn in Del Norte, Colorad. She was 91 years old.