Las Animas County Colorado ~  1870

Lies along the southern boundary of Colorado, and takes its name from the principal stream running through it, the Las Animas, or Purgatoire (sometimes vulgarized into "Picketwire").

The Las Animas ("The Spirits") valley forms one of the most magnificent tracts of farming land in Colorado, while the mesas or table-lands, outlying, furnish unequaled grazing grounds for thousands of cattle and sheep. Tts population cannot fall short of 5,000, the official canvass in June, 1870, registering 4,276 names in the county.

Trinidad is the county seat and principal town. It is situated on the Las Animas, but a few miles north of the territorial line, and is the centre of a large trade from New Mexico and the celebrated Moreno mines. The place contains a population of nearly 1,200, largely composed of people of Spanish and Mexican descent.

Rocky Mountain Directory & Colorado Gazetteer

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