Hale
Colorado
Like so many little burgs off the
main highway, the community of Hale has disappeared into the dim reaches of
memory. Situated on the Republican River
in Eastern Colorado, almost to the Kansas border, Hale had been a busy little
place back in the late 1800’s. The Republican
River was a busy route to the Colorado gold fields in late 1800’s. Freighters used this route for a number of
years hauling to the mountains, Wagon trains of 100 wagons or so were quiet
common. For brief time a stage line
operated through the area in 1859-60.
This is the stage route Horace Greeley rode to Colorado, of “Go West young man, Go West.”
The French had been in this area
since the 1600’s trapping and exploring, they had established outposts along
the river. The Spanish traveled through
the area also, looking to see what the French were up to. It was an area of intrigue between the
European rivals until the French sold it to the United States in 1802, The Louisiana
Purchase. This brought more explorers
and curious people to the New West. Zebulon
Pike traveled the area in 1812, exploring and charting the newly purchased land
of the United States. At the time the
early Europeans had gotten along with the native Indian tribes, using some
Indians as their guides and trading with them.
The history of the French and Spanish in the area is pretty slim and a
lots has to do with the interest lying in US history, not other countries.
So when gold was discovered in the
Rocky Mountains, lots of the trails West had been laid out and mapped. With large wagon trains rolling through,
small trading posts were built by the road and a few settlers settled in. The bottom land was rich for crops and
grazing cattle. Dotted along the
Republican River from the Kansas border to its headwaters were numerous
communities, mostly no more then a dozen souls living there. With the homesteaders, the area became a bit
more civilized and Post Offices came into being along the river.
The Hale Post Office was established
in 1887 until 1945 when it was moved to another location a few miles away. On the map from the early 1900’s, there are
several other communities listed as being in the area. One of these communities was Bonny, which
lent its name to the new dam/reservoir being built in the 1950’s. Bonny Dam gave some new life to the general
store at Hale. The store became a bait
and tackle shop also selling items to the visitors of the lake and there were
gas pumps.
Things change and Hale lost lots of
its clientele as people changed the way they lived and then Bonny Lake was
forced to be drained by the state of Kansas and that sealed the fate of the
little country store.
What had been a nice flowing river
had trickled into a tiny stream, the drought dried up lots of springs and
tilling changed the run off. There is
still plenty of water but it is way down in the ground. When Bonny was drained, lots of the close to
surface water disappeared also. The
woods are thick offering forage and protection for the abundant wildlife in the
area.
Hale still has its road sign, the
old store still stands and there are a couple houses in the area. For now it is the occasional rancher going
through the area checking on the cattle.
The stagecoach that stopped nearby is no more. The boaters and fisherman now go other
places. High overhead floats the Eagle,
a reminder that some things do not change.
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