Huerfano County Colorado ~  1870

This county lies immediately south of Pueblo county, having Bent county on the east. Las Animas on the south, and Fremont on the west. It is named from the Huerfano River, which passes through it, and which, with its tributaries, the Cucharas and Apache, forms a stretch of sixty miles of exceedingly fertile valley land. It has a population of over 2,500, about one-half Americans and the other half Mexicans, or of Spanish-Mexican descent.

Stock raising is the principal interest in this county, its grazing capacities being almost unlimited. Cattle and sheep are raised by thousands every year, and the business is highly remunerative. Agriculture is by no means neglected, the numerous valleys being adapted to the production of the various cereals in the greatest perfection. Corn, in particular, grows with great luxuriance in Huerfano, and thousands of bushels are produced annually, with very little outlay of husbandry. In the mountainous portion of the county, the precious metals exist, but not in such quantities as to make mining more profitable than agriculture, and they are accordingly neglected.

Rocky Mountain Directory & Colorado Gazetteer

Source: Rocky Mountain Directory and Colorado Gazetteer, 1871, S. S. Wallihan & Company, Compilers and Publishers, Denver, 1870.