By April M. Washington
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

DEARFIELD -- Twenty-five miles southeast of Greeley, where U.S. 34 widens across the northeastern drylands, a small clutch of weather-beaten buildings stands as the lone remains of one of Colorado's most idealistic social experiments.

Speeding down the two-lane highway, most motorists miss the once thriving, all-black town identified by a solitary highway sign as Dearfield.

As the 20th century dawned, all-black colonies sprang up in many areas around the country and in Colorado in places such as Akron, Craig, Rocky Ford and near Cortez.

Only Dearfield, founded in 1910, survived for any length of time, said Kris Christensen of Colorado Preservation Inc.

"Even though there's not much left of the buildings, it's a place where you know something neat took place," said Joanna Stull, administrative specialist for the Greeley Museums. "You can imagine people living there, laughing and making a new life."

At its peak in 1921, Dearfield had about 700 people who owned land and livestock valued at about $950,000. For years, homes, a general store, restaurant, cannery, two churches, gas station and dance hall dotted the land.

But in the next two decades it was battered by the Great Depression, dust storms and grasshopper plagues.

Eventually, only one man was left.

Oliver T. Jackson had hung on to his original dream of a black farming community.

It was Jackson's hope to start the "colony," as many called the town around the turn of the century.

Born in Ohio in 1862 to former slaves, Jackson settled in Colorado in 1887 and took up farming in Boulder, where he also owned a restaurant.

Jackson was a disciple of Booker T. Washington, who rose from slavery to emerge as one of the most influential black leaders of his generation. The founder of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama urged blacks to achieve self-reliance and economic independence.

Jackson set out to carve his slice of the American Dream in 1906 when he began looking for location that "would accommodate 200 colored families."

"O.T. Jackson was a brilliant man with a great deal of foresight," said Karen Waddell, historic preservationist for the Rocky Mountain regional office of the General Services Administration.

"Denver was quite segregated at the time, and blacks saw this new settlement as an opportunity to own their own land."

The undertaking proved challenging. After Jackson found the the site, he had problems getting people to take a black man seriously.

After campaigning for Democratic candidates during the 1908 state elections, Jackson was appointed to a messenger post in the governor's office. He shared his idea for the settlement with then-Gov. John F. Shafroth, who helped Jackson file a desert claim on 320 acres in Weld County.

Dr. J.H.P. Wesbrook, an early settler from Denver, came up with the town's name at a meeting late in 1910. The physician said of the fields surrounding the settlement, "They will be very dear to us."

"The land they got was better for grazing than farming," Waddell said. "There were ditches all around them, but they had no water rights. So they were forced to eke out a living dry-land farming."

The first seven families endured brutal cold in tents, dugouts and caves, not to mention snakes. But they and future Dearfield settlers beat the odds to grow a prospering community. Like an estimated 100 other dryland farming communities in northeastern Colorado, Dearfield withered after World War I during the Dust Bowl years.

Jackson scratched out a living, running the gas station and transforming the town into a resort for blacks, until just before his death at 84 in 1948.

He passed on the town's land to his niece, Jenny S. Jackson, after he was unable to persuade young black men returning from World War II to abandon the city and carry on his legacy.

Jenny, clinging to his vision, hung on to Dearfield until she died in 1973.

"The town has a romantic scenic quality even in its state of despair," Christensen said. "Those of us who grew up in Colorado have been denied some interesting information about places like Dearfield."

Preserving what's left of Dearfield also has proved daunting.

Unbridled winds and harsh winters have destroyed all but the blackened shells of four hollow buildings, including Jackson's crumbling home.

Pigeons roost in the old cafe. Its sign read "Dearfield Lunchroom. Short order and Quick lunches" before it was stored at the Greeley museum.

Dearfield was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The designation, which does little to protect the town's remaining structures from the harsh climate, vandals and encroaching development, was achieved after nearly a decade of research and political negotiations, Waddell said.

Earlier this year, the farming colony was named to the list of Colorado's Most Endangered Places.

Colorado Preservation Inc., which created the list two years ago, especially wants to preserve sites reflecting the state's ethnic history.

"The structures sit on land owned by several people," Christensen said of Dearfield. "We're faced with raising funds to buy and restore them.

"With development starting to come that way because of its close proximity to Greeley, that creates a whole other set of issues."

The only pending preservation project in Dearfield is Jackson's home.

The house was originally owned by the Rushing family, who planned to tear it down until they learned about the town's rich history.

The Rushings, a white family, swapped the homestead for a piece of land purchased by the Black American West Museum in Denver.

The museum purchased several plots of land two years ago with an $85,000 grant from the Colorado Historical Society.

Darlene Rushing since has grown frustrated by the museum's efforts.

"O.T. Jackson's home is falling in and the front porch is almost collapsed," the 45-year-old real estate agent said. "No one is out there taking care of it like they promised."

The museum's executive director says the lack of resources and free labor has stalled its plans to restore the property until the spring.

"People like to see things happen quickly, but you have to ask people are they willing to pay for it?" Wallace Yvonne McNair said.

The goal is to restore the town to some of its original glory as a living reminder of blacks' historical contributions, McNair said.

"Until you witness it, you don't have a true appreciation for what O.T. Jackson accomplished," Rushing said. "Once it's all gone, we won't be able to replace it."

Colorado Milestones, which appears Tuesdays, is part of a yearlong project by the Denver Rocky Mountain News, News4 and the Colorado Historical Society. Digital and print copies of historical images are available at the Colorado Historical Society, (303) 866-2305.

Online: InsideDenver.com, keyword "2000."

On TV: at 10 p.m., Colorado History: An entertaining search for the underground treasures of downtown Denver.

October 19, 1999

Colorado Millennium 2000 is a yearlong project by the Denver Rocky Mountain News, NEWS4 and the Colorado Historical Society
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