Eastern Plains
Prowers County
15 Porch Notes tied to Prowers County — the local details that change from one part of Colorado to the next.
Money and taxes (1)
Home and property (1)
Water and land (2)
Water and land
Around Lamar, ditch water and tap water are two different things
Farm and rural parcels in the Lower Arkansas Valley often carry irrigation ditch shares that are separate from the household water supply.
Read note ->Water and land
In the Arkansas Valley, a Prowers County well sits in a busy water basin
Prowers County is in the Arkansas River basin, where the state administers groundwater closely and some wells must be measured.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire (4)
Outdoors and wildfire
A State Wildlife Area in Prowers County is not the same as a park
State Wildlife Areas in Prowers County have their own access rules and generally require a hunting or fishing license or an SWA pass to enter.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Each winter, snow geese rest on the plains near Lamar
Prowers County's reservoirs and grain fields near Lamar are a winter stop on the Central Flyway, where flocks of snow geese roost and feed during migration.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Lamar throws a four-day festival for the snow geese each February
Every February, Lamar hosts the High Plains Snow Goose Festival, a four-day birding event with guided field trips, expert talks, a photo contest, and a craft fair built around the winter migration.
Read note ->Outdoors and wildfire
Two Buttes Reservoir rises and falls with the rain
Two Buttes Reservoir, in the State Wildlife Area south of Lamar, depends on heavy rain to fill, so its water level and fishing can change a lot from year to year.
Read note ->Cars and driving (1)
History and culture (6)
History and culture
Amache, near Granada, is a place to visit with care
Near Granada in Prowers County, Amache is the site of a World War II incarceration camp for Japanese Americans, now part of the National Park System.
Read note ->History and culture
Big Timbers and Bent's New Fort: history near Lamar
The Arkansas River near Lamar was once a cottonwood grove called Big Timbers, the site of Bent's New Fort and a meeting ground rich with deep history.
Read note ->History and culture
Big Timbers Museum gathers the Prowers County story
A mile north of Lamar on US 50, the Prowers County Historical Society's museum pulls Santa Fe Trail, Dust Bowl, and military history into one low-cost indoor stop.
Read note ->History and culture
Lamar's gas station built from petrified wood
On Main Street in Lamar, a 1932 service station built from local petrified wood makes a free, two-minute stop where the walls themselves are a geology lesson.
Read note ->History and culture
The Madonna of the Trail stands in Lamar
In Lamar, the Madonna of the Trail statue marks the Santa Fe Trail's story and sits near a welcome center where you can learn the area's history.
Read note ->History and culture
The name Prowers, and the Cheyenne woman behind Amache
Prowers County is named for rancher John Prowers, and the name Amache traces to his wife, the Cheyenne woman Amache Ochinee Prowers.
Read note ->