Editor

BY FORMER BROOMFIELD MAYOR, PATRICK QUINN

On April 4, 1997, the Broomfield open space community could breathe a sigh of relief. After four contentious years, the battle for the 115-acre parcel affectionately known as “The Field” was now over. The purchase of the property was closed, and the Field was owned by the City and County of Broomfield, purchased with “open space” tax dollars. 

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE PURCHASE

The battle for The Field had included several nights of public testimony in 1993 public hearings that went past midnight, two elections to approve an open space tax and bonding, a court battle with the developer that wanted to put 433 housing units on The Field, and finally a condemnation of the land by the City. 

In the four years leading up to the purchase of the Field, the open space community spent countless hours testifying at public hearings, talking to neighbors, and knocking on doors to pass the open space tax and related bonding in November 1994. The voters approved the bonding in 1993 but did not approve the sales taxes that were needed to repay what had been borrowed. According to Rick Erickson, the 1993 sales tax initiative failed by 28 votes, partially because of misinformation included in the blue book provided to voters to inform them on ballot initiatives.

THE 1994 ELECTION

In early 1994, Rick and others, including Ellie McKinley, Jean Patterson, and Gordon McKellar, were not discouraged. They were determined to succeed that year. Ellie recalled in July 2021, “We were battling against some very influential people
. . . nobody worked as hard as we did to get something passed.”

One important tweak was made to the wording for the 1994 tax initiative. In 1993, the tax was to be used solely for open space, but in 1994, the wording was revised for the initiative to have broader appeal:  “80% of the proceeds of the [sales tax] increase is to be spent on the acquisition of land for open space and 20% of the proceeds of the increase to be spent on acquisition of lands for parks and for park development.”  The Field was purchased with the open space portion of the sales tax. 

To the open space community, the definition of open space was clear: land that is intentionally left free from future development, including active sports activities such as soccer, football, or baseball fields. Broomfield had a goal to set aside 40% of the city for open lands in its 1995 Master Plan, but open lands is a broader category that includes open space, golf courses, and ball fields. However, I served on Boulder County’s Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee from 1988 to 1993, where it was crystal clear that the definition of open space does not include active recreation of any kind. 

So on April 4, 1997, the entire community learned that it could continue to enjoy the peacefulness of the Field, walk their dogs, and appreciate nature. 

Or so they thought. 

RECREATION FIELDS ARE NEEDED TOO

Six months later, on October 4, 1997, the Broomfield Enterprise reported that “A coalition of sports advocates last week asked the city to turn part of the property south of Midway Boulevard into a sports complex containing four baseball diamonds, six soccer/football fields and parking. The project would cost taxpayers an estimated $3 million.”

Broomfield is renowned for its dedication to youth sports; since 1997, Broomfield High School has won 11 state championships in soccer alone. To prepare boys and girls for high school soccer, baseball and other sports, Broomfield has recreation leagues run by the City, as well as several nonprofit organizations like the Broomfield Soccer Club (“BSC”) formed in 1974. According to its website, BSC offers six different soccer programs: “Recreational,” for kids 4 to 14 years old; “Competitive,” commonly known as Broomfield Blast, for kids 13 to 19 years old; and “Academy,” “representing the highest level of boys programming.”  This is also true for baseball, where in 1997 we had two competitive leagues competing for limited playing fields.

In a September 2025 interview, John Ferraro, a past director of Broomfield Parks and Recreation Department, said that in 1997, 

Soccer went from 6 to 8 teams in 1975 to 2,500 to 3,000 kids in the 1985 programs, same thing for baseball and basketball. . . . I can tell you for sure, every field in Broomfield was used every day. . . . this included city fields and school district fields where we had a joint use agreement. We had a substantial number of fields but not enough.

Paul Derda, who was the Parks and Recreation Director in 1997, and for whom a Broomfield recreation center is named, concurred. The demand for ball fields prior to the mid-1990s was for baseball and softball. In a November 2025 interview, Derda said that at the time the Field was acquired, “the demand for soccer fields had taken off.”

Gary Brosz was the fields director for the BSC in 1997. Gary was one of the principal people behind the proposal to construct athletic fields on the Field in 1997.  

In a May 18, 1999 article in the Rocky Mountain News, staff writer Maryls Duran wrote that  “Soccer is so popular among metro-area youths that some clubs are turning away youngsters for lack of playing space and others say they are stretched to the limit.”  Gary Brosz is quoted, reacting to the City Council not allowing soccer fields on The Field: “That’s a real disappointment for us. It doesn’t begin to address the need we have . . . We are right now at saturation. If I had to add two more teams I have no idea where I would put them.”

Council and the Parks and Recreation Department hired Winston and Associates to prepare and present to Council a final master plan for The Field. To that end, Winston held several public meetings in 1999 “to discuss the fate of The Field, a focal point for controversy for nearly a decade,” according to Monte Whaley in the March 4, 1999 Broomfield Enterprise newspaper. The article goes on to state, “the two sides clashed February 24 over preliminary plans. . . . One favored little development, while the other called for most of the southern portion to be turned over to soccer and baseball.”  Kris Von Wald, a parent and soccer coach, spoke at the meeting “I hate like crazy that we don’t have more options for kids in this town. And I hate we have a field in the center of town that’s plowed dirt.” Ellie McKinley also spoke: “I also know we need some unique parts of Broomfield without a ball field on every corner. We need open space as a restful part of our lives.”

Monte Whaley wrote a follow up article in the Enterprise on May 5, 1999, summarizing the final Winston recommendations. He opens by saying that

Residents wanting “The Field” to remain free of any development dislike a plan to turn almost half of the 115 acres of vacant land in the middle of Broomfield into ball fields and other recreational uses. Youth sports enthusiasts, meanwhile, consider the proposal . . . too meager to meet Broomfield’s growing recreational needs.

OPEN SPACE COMMUNITY RESPONDS

Clearly the public policy debate was set. Both sides worked to lobby City Council to their point of view.

In a Letter to the Editor published June 5, 1999,  Ellie McKinley and three other members of the Broomfield Open Space Committee argued, “The committee is for soccer fields and knows the need. However, open space is not a land bank waiting in reserve for a need or good causes to draw on. If this is allowed now, open space will forever be up for grabs, because laying claim on it will be easy.”  

It is safe to say the open space community viewed the recreational enthusiasts’ efforts to put soccer and baseball fields on The Field as existentially overturning their hard preservation efforts over the past decade. They had a point. 

During the summer of 1999, advocates for open space formed an ad hoc committee called Citizens for Broomfield County Open Space (“CBCOS”). Its members included Ellie McKinley, Rick Erickson, Dan and Jean Wilkie, Rob Bodine, Jean Patterson, Gordon McKellar, and me. 

CBCOS debated and eventually proposed five recommendations to the City Council “that would go a long ways towards mitigating the effects of rampant growth in our community”:

• Recruit a full-time Open Space Director who reports directly to the City Manager’s office. 

• Extend the .25% O.S. tax beyond 2015 and authorize a November, 2000 ballot issue to approve the additional bonding necessary to acquire Open Space in a timely fashion. 

• Authorize a November, 2000 ballot issue to approve a City Charter Amendment to protect Open Space in perpetuity. (Ensuring that City Council cannot sell Open Space when a financial need arises.)

• Define and pursue a trail system.

• Support and acquire funds for the “enhancement of the Field.”

Of no minor significance, 1999 was an election year for the Broomfield Mayor and five of the City Council seats. CBCOS lobbied most of the candidates that year using Dan and Jean Wilkie’s home as their base. In what became one of the more contentious mayor races in Broomfield history, Larry Cooper, a sitting council person, opposed the incumbent mayor, Bill Berens. There were allegations of stolen signs and a fake press release faxed from Kinkos—where, notably, there were security cameras. 

BROOMFIELD INVESTS IN THE FUTURE

During the nineties, Broomfield was working hard to shed its bedroom community image. To that end, Broomfield initiated several major public works projects including construction and completion of the 96th street exchange on US 36. In 1999, Broomfield established the Northwest Public Highway Authority with Lafayette and Weld County to pursue construction of a 9-mile segment of the metro Denver beltway. This was required to connect Interlocken, a high-tech Broomfield business park, to the new Denver International Airport and improve access to a planned regional mall at 96th street. Notably, Sun Microsystems, a Fortune 500 company, announced its relocation to Interlocken in 1996.

Other major projects were moving forward as well. Here is some of the backstory:

Karen Stuart, who was born in London to two British parents, moved to Broomfield in 1983 with her husband, a veterinarian, and three kids. She immediately committed herself to Broomfield, volunteering for everything from school committees to the Library Board. In 1993, she considered herself a newcomer, but successfully ran for City Council. In reflecting on Broomfield’s effort to get Flatirons Mall, Stuart stated, 

It’s important to remember that Broomfield was in competition with the Stevenson Development Company (whose  property was in southwest Denver ) to land a Nordstrom store. We knew a Nordstrom anchor at our mall would draw regional shoppers to Broomfield that would contribute to the tax base that would help build the coffers for open space acquisitions. With the help of the Broomfield Economic Development Corporation, I asked Nordstrom’s for 500 blank credit card applications and stamped them with a red header that said ‘Bring your next Nordstrom’s to Broomfield’ and passed them out to every woman I knew who was a fan of Nordstroms.

She doesn’t know if that helped, but indeed, Nordstrom decided to anchor the Flatiron’s Mall. In 1998, the City annexed the land where the Flatiron’s mall now sits and agreed to provide $79 million in tax incremental financing (“TIF”). According to the June 11, 1998, Broomfield Enterprise, “$35 million of the TIF will go toward on-site work such as grading, a circular road around the mall, parking and utilities. . . . The remaining $44 million will be earmarked for off-site improvements,” including interchanges along U.S. 36. Westcor, the developer, would pay for the improvements but Broomfield would rebate Westcor 50% of the 3.5% city sales tax collected at the Flatirons mall. The quarter-cent open space sales tax, approved in 1994, was not included in the TIF and according to the article, was to generate more than $1 million a year. In 1999, the Mall was under construction and opened in August 2000. The grand opening was August 11, 2000. Raquel Welch, a legendary star in the 60s and 70s, attended the opening in support of her husband, who opened Richie’s Neighborhood Pizzeria in the food court. Longterm residents were heard saying, “this is Broomfield?”

BROOMFIELD BECOMES A COUNTY

In 1964, at age seven, Larry Cooper and his family moved to Broomfield from Brooklyn. While he graduated from Fairview High school, he met his wife Tryna in 9th grade in Broomfield. They were both 18 when they married, and they established firm roots here. Cooper was first elected to City Council in 1989. Larry and Tryna were also avid volunteers for everything and concentrated on teen programs in the early nineties, including Connections, a nonprofit benefitting Broomfield teens that they helped start. They, along with others in the early nineties, worked with the National Civic League to complete a community needs assessment. By 1994, Broomfield had expanded out of Boulder County into bordering Jefferson, Adams, and Weld Counties. The needs assessment conclusion was that not one of the four counties provided meaningful services in Broomfield, and that was a problem in accessing funding for youth and other programs.

Counties are a subdivision of the states, and there hadn’t been a new county formed in the US in nearly a hundred years. The only way to become a city and county was through statewide approval at the ballot.

Hank Stovall, Larry Cooper, and others lobbied for the city of Broomfield along with George DiCiero at the state capital for weeks to get the city/county measure on the November 1998 ballot.

A group called “Citizens for Better Local Government” was formed to help lobby statewide for the County issue.  According to Cooper, this political group worked with 180 citizen volunteers to campaign state wide. The Co-Chairs were Al Jeffreys and Larry Cooper. The Vice Chairs were Hank Stovall and Gary Grenier, and the Treasurer was Shirley Orr.

According to Cooper, Al Jeffreys was an executive from Ball Aerospace. His skills in organizing people were essential. Larry Cooper called himself “the outside team member [who] gave over 105 campaign speeches around the state of Colorado.” Others campaigned statewide as well. 

The Rocky Mountain News featured an article on Broomfield County on September 6, 1998: 

Parts of Broomfield are in Adams, Boulder, Jefferson and Weld Counties. . . . Broomfield police officers coordinate with district attorney’s offices in four counties, depending where a crime occurred, and transport prisoners to the jail. Mayor Bill Berens and other city leaders have complained for years about the confusion of dealing with 14 county commissioners and four differing sets of county regulations.

The statewide ballot initiative passed in November 1998. Broomfield was then tasked with implementing an ambitious plan to become a city that ran a county. On November 15, 2001, Broomfield officially became a county separate from Boulder, Jefferson, Weld and Adams counties.

COUNCIL WEIGHS IN

Hank Stovall was born in Kansas in 1930 and attended a one-room grade school in Arma Kansas. After serving in the Air Force during Korea, where he was trained in airborne electronics; he was eventually recruited by Western Electric in Kansas city and later transferred by Western Electric to the Westminster facility located on 120th Avenue. Stovall had served on a city council in Nebraska and believed it was important to be involved in local government. He told me in an August 17, 2021 interview that “You can’t complain unless you get involved.” Stovall moved to Broomfield in 1969. He said he first got involved in open space by being named to the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan committee. Boulder County did not want “urbanization” of the county and wanted to push growth through open space to the cities, which then included Broomfield. Stovall was first elected to City Council in 1977 and told me in that same interview, “I was in favor of the open space tax the whole time, in both 1993 and 1994.”

Stovall had been a coach and involved in recreation sports so he understood both sides of the issue. He thought the attempt to put three ball fields on The Field was “shortsighted.”

The battle was to come to a head on October 12, 1999, where the Council would formally review the recommendations from Winston. I reviewed a video of the meeting provided to me by the City Clerk’s office. Kirk Oglesby presented Winston’s report along with six separate maps showing different levels of athletic fields on The Field. Kirk summarized the process by saying, “the Consultant and I wanted everyone to agree and unfortunately that didn’t happen. Today we have very strong views.”

Oglesby also stated that “Our revenues are now projected to be far greater than we thought. We may have some additional money to meet the need for additional athletic complexes other than The Field.”

Kathy Brown, a councilwoman who helped create the acclaimed Broomfield Community Foundation, said “the consultant was impartial, I think a fair recommendation was made, fair to all of the taxpayers. . . . It is a crying shame if southern portion isn’t available for teens to use as playing fields.”

Hank Stovall stated that night:  “We have to do something fairly dramatic; we handicapped the consultant by not looking at the need for the entire city. We limited their scope.”  Stoval was opposed to the southern portion having ball fields because “it would take $2.5 to $3 million to irrigate plus $1 million to reimburse open space and it wouldn’t solve our long-term athletic field problem.”

Stoval, Cooper, and Stuart had worked on an alternative resolution (from Staff) which would not allow athletic fields on The Field but instructed the City Manager to work with the newly formed Open Space and Trails Committee to come up with plans for The Field consistent with the definition of Open Space by March 31, 2000, and the now separate Parks and Recreation Committee to come up with recommendations for a new athletic complex by April 15, 2000. 

The resolution passed 8 to 1 with council member Cathy Brown opposing it.

OPEN SPACE TAKES OFF 

And the battle was over. Open space and parks and recreation goals were addressed in rapid succession during the next several years.

A catalyst in all of this was hiring Kristan Pritz as Open Space Director that reported into the City Manager’s office, not to the Parks and Recreation Director.

Kristan started her public service career in planning. She was interested in community engagement so early on she worked for a design company that helped prepare community plans for a variety of small communities like Lyons. This led to a planning position in Vail. Kristan states in an October 31, 2025 interview:

I was a pretty outdoorsy person, loved skiing, so it was great to live in that community and further my career
. . . . In that position we had a lot of legal issues come up so it caused me to want to go to law school, which I attended at CU Boulder starting in 1994. . . . My husband saw the advertisement for the Broomfield (Open Space Director) job which was exactly what I wanted to do. . . . I could still be involved in planning and really liked community engagement. The position combined everything in a perfect position.

Kristan, who remains the Open Space Director to this day, states, “when I started here in July 2000, it was made very clear what my marching orders were and what was open space and what were parks.”  Her top three priorities were to develop a prairie dog policy, develop an overall master plan for open space, and to help acquire land in section 30, known now as Broomfield County Commons (“BCC”). I will note that I served on the Open Space and Trails Committee (“OSTAC”) during this period. 

All three goals were achieved fairly quickly in Broomfield’s own unique style. 

The Prairie Dog policy was adopted by Council in 2001. The policy, in essence, was to inventory the open space in Broomfield, relocate prairie dogs from where they aren’t wanted to open space where they can flourish. And once those lands are saturated, extermination is allowed.

Next was the acquisition of the land for BCC.

Charles Ozaki was the Deputy City and County Manager during this period. In a June 12, 2025 interview, he stated he met George DiCiero when he was working for the City of Westminster. Ozaki left Westminster and served as “circuit riding manager” for the small towns of Norwood, Nucla, Colborn and De Beque in Southwest Colorado. He got married and “had to move back to the Front Range.” That was when he connected with George DiCiero again in 1982. He went to work in Broomfield because of “knowing George.” Ozaki says, “George and I were partners.”

That partnership was mentioned throughout the interviews I conducted for this article. They were good partners and good negotiators by all accounts. 

As instructed by Council and the new citizen committees, the new athletic complex, which would include plenty of playing fields, a recreation center, and open space, was to be located east of Sheridan Boulevard, north of Midway and south of 136th Avenue. Ozaki said the man who developed Aspen Creek (a large development in town) controlled most of the land: “They wanted to develop it—they were developers but they were willing to entertain the idea of selling to us.”

Substantially all of the land was acquired by the end of 2000. 

In 2003 and 2004, the OSTAC and Parks and Recreation Committees prepared the Open Space Parks and Recreation Master Plan (“OSPRT Plan”), which was adopted in its entirety by City Council as part of the 2005 Comprehensive Plan update.

The OSPRT Plan not only identifies lands that could be potentially acquired to meet our open land goals, but it also specifically addresses the funding shortfall and identifies ways to finance this shortfall. Additionally, OSPRT provides recommendations for community trails. The plan is very thorough and includes maps of potential open space acquisitions and recommends trail alignments.

In November 2001, Ballot issue 2B, extending the .25 cent combined open space and recreation sales tax in perpetuity,  passed with 78% of the vote. In November 2006, Ballot issue 1A, preventing the City from selling open lands without a specific process, passed with 70.1% of the vote.

So remarkably, in November 2006, all of the goals Citizens for Broomfield County Open Space sought had been met. 

As of today, according to City and County of Broomfield’s website, “Broomfield has a total of 8,607 acres of open lands, within a planning area of 23,887 total acres, which equals 36%.”  Broomfield is confident it will achieve our 40% open land’s goal. Broomfield also has 350 miles of trails.

In his interview Paul Derda notes, “People move to Broomfield because of its open space, parks, recreation facilities and trails.” I agree.

It is also significant that Paul Derda and Ellie McKinley became friends. Paul was the MC at her 90th birthday party a few years back. 

Bibliography

Broomcorn Express 5.1, The Battle for “The Field.”

Broomfield Enterprise, October 4, 1997, page 9.

Interview by Pat Quinn with John Ferraro on Zoom dated September 18, 2025.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Paul Derda on Zoom dated November 20, 2025.

Rocky Mountain News, May 18, 1999, pages 36A and 37A.

Broomfield Enterprise, May 04, 1999, page 1.

Broomfield Enterprise, June 5, 1999, page A15.

Summary prepared by Pat Quinn for Citizens for Broomfield County Open Space.

Email from Karen Stuart dated November 23, 2025.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Karen Stuart on Zoom dated January 11, 2022.

Email from Larry Cooper dated November 23, 2025.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Larry Cooper on Zoom dated August 19, 2021.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Hank Stovall by Zoom dated August 17, 2021.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Charles Ozaki dated June 12, 2025.

Broomfield Enterprise, June 11, 1998, page 1 and Rocky Mountain News, September 6, 1998, pages 35A and 36A.

October 12, 1999 DVD provided by City Clerks.

Interview by Pat Quinn with Kristan Pritz on Zoom dated October 31, 2025.

Open Space, Parks, Recreation and Trails Master Plan City and County of Broomfield dated February 8, 2025.

City and County of Broomfield website on November 20, 2025.

June 2025 | The Battle for the Field

BY FRED MARTIN

LINK: Be sure to watch the video of Fred Martin’s presentation on Wottge Farm on the Broomfield Historical Society’s YouTube channel.

The Broomfield Historical Society sponsored a special presentation on the 200-year history that led to the Wottge open space. Mayor Guyleen Castriotta said, 

“Broomfield, Colorado has been built by pioneers, historic visionaries, veterans, farmers, ranchers, and more recently, technologists. Among our important agrarian pioneers is the Wottge-Stonehocker family. Their story is an amazing journey from a 200-year family farm in Germany, the loss of that farm and family fortunes in World War II, forced migration through the ruins of post-war Germany, and their courageous resettlement in America; in Broomfield. They made a new start in a strange land as farm laborers until they could again build a family farm that has become the Broomfield-Wottge open space at 144th and Sheridan. Now Broomfield enjoys this recreational resource, wildlife preserve, and open landscape. With much pride, we thank the Wottge family—Ben Wottge, and sister Rose Stonehocker, who lived this heroic history.”

At the end of World War II, after the horrific crimes of Nazi Germany, there was a mass expulsion of ethnic Germans from homelands annexed to Poland, which has been chronicled in documentaries by National Geographic, Britannica, and others investigating this period of forced migration of enormous scale and tremendous human cost. Future Broomfield family, Alfons and Klara Wottge and five children, including Ben and Rose, lived this history. 

For over two hundred years, the Wottges lived a stable and reliable family life on their farm: about the same length of time Americans have enjoyed the freedoms and stability of democracy. Then, suddenly, it all changed. People with longstanding traditions and loyalty to their homeland were subsumed by radical political change they did not believe in or support. Despots and their followers sowed division and fear-of-the-other. Society was splintered. The Wottges then lived through the upheaval of World War II. The Normandy D-Day was about to occur, beginning the Allied sweep through Europe into Germany. Russian forces were pressing in from the east. After Nazi depredations in their invasion of Russia, Russian soldiers were brutal to German soldiers and civilians alike. The Wottges were surrounded by combat in the final months of the war as Russian troops pillaged the countryside. The family patriarch, Alfons Wottge, who later started the Broomfield farm, was drawn into the war. A neighbor in their small village of Rathmannsdorf reported to the authorities that Alfons was not flying the Nazi flag, nor was he participating in party activities. Alfons was subsequently drafted into the German Army in December, 1943, and sent to the brutal Russian front.

While Alfons was away, war closed in on the family. Ottmachau, a few miles to the northeast was bombed. Fires lit up the night sky. On February 13 came the Allied firebombing of Dresden, west of Rathmannsdorf, with 80,000 killed. The family was threatened by patrolling fighter planes. In these last months of the war, with the Luftwaffe suppressed, American fighter bombers were roaming the countryside seeking targets of opportunity. At times they dropped leaflets warning people where bombs would be dropped. Yet, unleashing their firepower was just as common. Trucks, trains, barns, and farmhouses might be hiding retreating Nazi troops and were considered fair game for the Allied pilots. 

Fearing the low-flying fighter planes, the family left the farm in March, 1945, on hay wagons to nearby towns. In the evenings they returned on bicycles to take care of the animals and gardens, but they had to leave again by morning, fearing the fighters. By the end of April, they returned home to the farm, but just as they started to get back into daily routines, the front again moved closer. Every day the “Stalin Organ” (what they called the Russian cannons and guns) came nearer. On May 9 they had to leave again, fearing the Russians. They headed into the hills and in the evening stopped, not knowing what to do. A farmer came and said “You can’t just stand there. If you are satisfied with the barn, come with me. The house is already full of other refugees.”                                                                               

The next day, the Russians came. The farmer offered them a very small room saying, “Come, you can no longer stay in the barn.” In this room lay 15 people on the floor, packed like herrings. During that night the Russians molested and harassed the women in the house. They beat hard on the door with their rifle butts but did not break down the door. The family prayed. Klara cried, saying, “If they get in, they will trample the children.” They felt the guardian angels watched over them that night. The next day, propaganda fliers and Hitler pictures were floating in the river. Silver crosses were given by the Nazi government to a mother after the birth of her 6th child. The mothers threw them in the river so the Russians would not find them. They spent two nights in that small room. The next afternoon they began the trek back to Rathmannsdorf. Now it seemed it was over and there would be a new beginning. But that was not to be. The next day, Russian and Polish hoodlums came and took everything they could use: food, clothing, sewing machines, farm machinery. The plundering lasted three weeks. 

In late April, the Reichstag in Berlin was overrun by Russian troops, Hitler commited suicide and Germany surrendered May 8. War in Europe ended, but the Wottge’s tribulations were just beginning. At war’s end, Germany was cut up into occupation zones. Stalin along with the allies, with little consultation with Poland and likely almost none with the defeated Germans, made a deal to partition a 200-mile section of east Germany to Poland. The Wottge farm was now in Poland. 

Then came a big group of Poles—every one picked a farm and took possession of the property. The Poles confined the Wottge family to two rooms in their own home. On August 18, 1945, Alfons Wottge arrived home and found a 17 person Polish family had taken over the house. It had taken Alfons many weeks to get home from the war. On May 4, he was taken prisoner by the Americans and not released until June 16. He was taken by truck to the Russian Army border, but he had walked the rest of the way home.        

September 2, 1945, happened to be the day the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, finally ending World War II. It was on a late summer Sunday. The Wottges, still living as guests in their own home, were at church. When they came out, notices had been posted that all Germans must be out of Rathmannsdorf that day by 4pm. The Poles had stolen their car, tractor, wagons, even carts. There was nothing left with wheels. They walked away only with what they could carry, without a destination in mind, part of a great migration of thousands of East German refugees. 

During this time, they survived by begging. They were also expected to help clean up the burned rubble and bombed building debris with shovels and wheel barrows. Alfons was forced into service as a mechanic because the Poles did not know how to use the diesel farm machinery they had stolen from them. 

After many months of this, Alfons learned of the last train scheduled to carry refugees to western Germany. In the general perception of World War II German history, loading people into cattle boxcars is a frightening icon of the Holocaust. Yet these were post-war refugees traveling west. Still, the travel conditions were no better. At the designated boarding area they were plundered and robbed again, then loaded into boxcars with 25 to 30 people and headed west. The train stopped often in open areas. In Marienborn they were deloused and given their first food to eat. Very hungry, some overstuffed themselves and many vomited, their bellies not used to food. They were on the train several days, arriving in West Germany June 2, 1946, and given shelter in a hunting lodge, sleeping on straw where many other refugees before them had lain. The next day wagons took the Wottges to a farm near Adenstedt. From 1946 to 1952, Alfons found work on the German railroad operating track gates while the family worked on a farm. Klara and the children worked in the fields. 

The cursory history most hear about post-war Germany is that the Allies liberated everyone and then they lived happily ever after. But life was very difficult in post-war Germany. Forty percent of homes had been destroyed. The ruined European economy could not absorb these huge, displaced populations, so humanitarian organizations looked to the United States as the site of new homes for the refugees.

It was in church that Alfons and Klara heard of the Catholic War Relief Services. US bishops played a role in this process of resettlement, working with the US government on a public relations campaign to persuade lay Catholics to open their communities to refugees. This is how Alfons and Klara Wottge were able to plan the family’s migration to America. They had captured the dream of finding a new life in America. They began a laborious application process with other families. The process was so difficult that the other families gave up, but Alfons said, “We’re not on a boat yet!”  So Alfons and Klara persevered. At last, Catholic relief services provided passage to the port of Bremerhaven and they boarded the USS General C.C. Ballou. The Ballou was built and outfitted as a troop ship. After the war she served around the world in refugee relocations and made a number of trips between Bremerhaven and New York. The voyage lasted ten days. 

They arrived in America June 10, 1952. Along with so many thousands of others, the Wottge family sailed past the lady, who is, as Emma Lazarus wrote, “A mighty woman with a torch whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name: Mother of Exiles.”  Perhaps, in our modern contentious politics we should be re-inspired by her words that are a foundational principle of America and that for the Wottge family was lived experience:                                                                    

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Before departure from Germany, they had to secure work in America, but it was not until processing in New York that they discovered they were headed to Colorado. There was no delay in New York; two days later they arrived by train in Denver, then by bus to Ft. Collins. They were met by rancher Floyd Combs who put them on his cattle truck and headed north past La Porte, past the first foothills near the Wyoming border, where there was a small house in the middle of nowhere. That was their first home in America. In those days, up the dirt roads into those dryland, hardscrabble foothills, it looked nothing like the green fields back home in Germany. The family were not yet proficient in English. There was serious consideration given to finding a way back to New York. The General Ballou was likely still in port there. Could they get train tickets?  Hitchhike?  It was unimaginable disappointment bordering on despair that Alfons and Klara turned into determination to survive and succeed as strangers in this strange new land. 

Alfons went to work as a farm laborer on this ranch that raised crops and had a dairy farm for a salary of $125 per month. Klara and the children also worked on the farm. Rose tells of having to dig fence post holes with tuna cans. They had no idea where they were, what schools might be available, or how to get to the nearest town, Ft. Collins, about 18 miles away. On a Sunday morning, Klara and Rose, 16 at the time, hitched a ride with a milk truck to Ft. Collins and found the Catholic church. They met some helpful people and were introduced to a farmer from south of Ft. Collins, Mr. Fatz, who spoke some German. He advised that they could not stay at the Combs place since there would be no way the children would get to school during the winter; they would be snowed in. So, he assisted the family in getting a new job on a farm about four miles south of Ft. Collins. Rose worked for a priest’s family for a dollar per day.                                                                            

Wealth and success are common in America, but what is most admirable, and more rare in history, are self-made people, especially those who have recovered from near-total loss. The Wottges lost that 200-year farm in Germany, then survived terrible years in post-war Germany, then migrated to Colorado as farm laborers, which isn’t exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. Just four years after arriving in this new country, Alfons and Klara mustered the down payment for a Broomfield farm. All five children pitched in. Rose recalls the negotiations. There was no help from the government, no grants, and they couldn’t afford feed. Banks turned them down and were telling them, “That’s dry land, there’s not enough water for livestock. And, you’re not citizens.”  Rose tells the charming story that her father Alfons had dropped a nickel in the collection plate at church and then entered the expenditure in his financial ledger. A third banker was impressed with that level of accounting detail and decided Alfons knew how to manage money. The farm was 80 acres costing 23,000 dollars. 

When they bought the farm, there was no Broomfield. There was a whistle-stop train depot called Zang’s Spur, with grain elevators and the Grange Hall that is still here. 144th was a dirt road, as was Lowell. Sheridan came much later in the future. The farm had a couple of horses and a milk cow. To make a living on the farm, they had to start a dairy. So, in 1956, with a loan from the Farmers Home Administration, they bought 28 milk cows. By doing water-witching they located a stream about 80 feet deep and found sufficient water to run a dairy farm. They became quite successful, ending up with about 60 head of cattle, 40 milk cows, and 20 yearlings of cattle on average. It was not easy, but with the whole family working together, they overcame the obstacles.                                               

The family has made two pilgrimages back to the old homeplace in Rathmannsdorf. What an evocative experience this must have been for them! They met and dined with the descendants of the Polish family that took their house and evicted them. An elderly woman was a young girl in World War II and remembered them. She cried with feelings of remorse when she met the Wottges.                      

Alfons and Klara achieved their dream of regaining self-sufficiency with the Broomfield Farm, raising the children in the three-bedroom farm house. They retired comfortably to a home they built in Thornton. Rose married Walt Stonehocker, known in Adams County farming history, and had seven children. She worked for CF&I, and with Walt, farmed in the Northglenn area until the city bought their farm, after which they purchased a farm in the Brighton area where Rose still lives. They also purchased a ranch near Granby where their kids and 17 grandchildren love to work and play.

Ben has four kids. He worked for Power Equipment Company for 44 years as a construction machinery mechanic and supervisor until retirement. Now he and Pam live on four acres of the original farm in Broomfield. Brother Konrad lived and worked on the farm, working part time for the railroad. He graduated from CU Boulder, has worked in oil and gas engineering throughout the world, and is currently living in Ecuador. He has five children. Ursula and her sister Renate left together for California. They stopped in Las Vegas, where Ursula remained for 50 years. She raised two sons, worked in the hotel industry, and then became a stock investment wizard and a happy dog caretaker. Renate became a US citizen in 1960. She married Gary Burkett, an Air Force veteran, and worked for Xerox Corporation. They had two daughters and four grandchildren and live in southern California.

For twenty years, Ben and Pam fostered children with Boulder County. From 1992 to 2012 they had 147 placements from newborns to preteens. That’s a lot of children to care for in your home. The farm was a wonderful place for these kids to be cared for. Josiah, their first foster child, they adopted.

So, consider how many lives this immigrant family, who were driven from their home in Germany, then came to America for a new life, have impacted and bettered in our city, county and nation. The Wottge name is now on this new land because of all these journeys of Klara and Alfons, Ben and Rose, and family. It’s now a permanent part of Broomfield’s heritage with this open space under development for everyone. 

Fred Martin provides WWII aviation presentations to museums and civic groups at no cost. Visit his website: FredTMartin.com

Read also “A Short History Of the Open Space of Broomfield,” by Annie Lessem in the Broomcorn Express.