Keota (including cemetery), CO
03/08/2003

Found Online NAME: Keota
COUNTY: Weld
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 1
CLIMATE: Cold and snow in winter, hot in summer.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Accessible all year long, roads very muddy when wet.

COMMENTS: Head east off I-25 at Ft. Collins exit and Highway 14 approximately 50 miles past the town of Briggsdale to County Road 103, north 5 miles. Last known residents will be leaving September, 1999. Novelist James Michener used Keota as his center of operations while writing his novel "Centennial". The area around here was also the base for the TV series by the same name. An 11 miles side trip to the Pawnee Buttes is worth the trip - Michener referred to these buttes as Rattlesnake Buttes in his book. Keota lies in the center of the Pawnee National Grasslands which covers thousands of acres of public land. Keota is not the traditional 'ghost town' one thinks of in Colorado because it is not in the mountains. However, it played a big part in the settling of the state and was a center for the vast cattle industry and later agriculture. Best times to visit are spring and fall - summer and winter can be very hot and cold respectively. You get a great feel for what it was like to be a pioneer on the Great American Desert. The prairie blooms in the spring and is truly beautiful. There aren't any facilities within 15-20 and make sure your gas tanks are full when you leave Briggsdale. A trip to the cemetery is worth the trip - 1.6 miles out of town on the main street heading east.

REMAINS: The old grocery & general store and later the post office still stand along with a few other abandoned buildings. The old water tower is still standing. A few old foundations are scattered around. Elevation is 4961' above sea level. 'Keota' is an Indian word meaning "Gone to visit" or "The fire goes out". It was a station stop on the 'Old Prairie Dog Express" on the Colorado-Wyoming Division of the Burlington-Missouri Railroad. Keota was established as a homestead in 1880 by two sisters, Mary and Eva Beardsley and sold to the Lincoln Land and Cattle Co. in 1888. The railroad (used mainly for cattle shipping) was abandoned and the trackage removed in 1975. The Dean Bivens family, who maintained the roads, are the last two residents and will be moving in September, 1999. Keota lost its incorporated status in 1990. There were four different newspapers at four different times from 1908-1975. The last operating post office closed in 1990. The school foundation is still there and was established in 1888 and closed in sometime in the 1930's. Submitted by: Jay Warburton

This previous information was taken from http://www.ghosttowns.com

Our Investigation Date: 03/08/2003
Time: 1:30pm to 3:30pm
Conditions: Windy
Temp: 37°F to 40°F (2.7°C to 4.4°C)
Winds: 12 mph to 21 mph W

This was a very eerie place with a unique cemetery. From the looks of it, there was one maybe two people still living there. There are remains of buildings and old foundations scattered about, a water tower, and the foundation of the old school at the top of the hill. We stopped at the cemetery for a while, taking pictures and stuff. Unbeknownst to me, Christine was hearing distant "Indian" drumming. Some of the headstones in the cemetery looked like sandbags had been filled with cement, dried, taken out of the bags, and placed where people were buried. There were no inscriptions on these. Also someone had placed teddy bears at quite a number of the headstones there. There was a grave of a little girl on the north west corner of the cemetery that had quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies all over the flat headstone. After the cemetery, we took the "side trip" to Pawnee Buttes. Absolutely beautiful!! When we drove back to Keota, we first drove past the water tower and checked out the old school foundation. From the hill where the school foundation was, you could see for miles. After checking that out, we drove (maybe 300 feet) down to "downtown" (if you could even call it that). There were remains of old buildings and foundations scattered about. Walking out to one of the partially standing structures (two walls standing), I took about three pictures, then through the wind heard something. It was distant "Indian" drumming to the south west. Christine heard it too. From where it would have originated, there was nothing but empty plains. As the wind died down a bit, so did the drumming. It seemed the louder the wind was, so was the drumming. It was the same drumming that I heard while standing on the bridge at CR50 & Kiowa Creek, Bennett, CO.

Photo Link
(Click on photos to enlarge.)
http://www.xobic.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=keota