Broomcorn Express

This park with a spectacular view of the Front Range was dedicated in 2013 to longtime community activist and volunteer, Anne Crouse. Anne was a woman of many talents and interests. She settled in Broomfield with her husband, Pete, in 1957 and together they raised four children in the new Broomfield Heights neighborhood. A partial list of her accomplishments includes working as a reporter for the Broomfield-Star-Builder and The Broomfield Enterprise; helping found theUnited Church of Christ, FISH, and the Broomfield Community Foundation; and serving on the Broomfield Town Council. The park site with its sweeping vista is an appropriate location to commemorate this woman who held such an expansive view of community.

The park overlooks an area of presumed prehistoric and Native American campsites. Preliminary archeological investigations in the open space area below discovered a woodland projectile point and evidence of Native American campsites. Scan the vista in front of you and imagine a long ago past.

Explorers Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long’s early 1800s expeditions to Colorado’s Front Range gave a false impression of an unoccupied wasteland. Their reports created the myth of “The Great American Desert.” In fact, this land has been the home of many different peoples, beginning most likely with the nomadic hunters who crossed the land bridge into Alaska from Asia as long as perhaps 25,000 years ago. They gradually migrated onto the northern Great Plains and then southward along the Rockies. 

By the end of the ice age, around 10,000 B.C., early inhabitants, designated Clovis peoples, occupied the now wetter and cooler plains. They were excellent hunters who took advantage of the abundance of game in the Pleistocene era including Mammoths. 

As the climate became drier and warmer, the type of flora and fauna that could flourish here changed and the inhabitants appeared to have moved on. After about 8,500 B.C., another group, the Folsom peoples were found on the plains hunting the Bison antiquus, a much larger version of the modern Bison. Evidence of their hunts have been found in several Colorado locations. 

Beginning around 5,000 B.C., as the climate became even warmer, Paleo-Indian hunter gatherers continued to live along the Front Range. The land at the base of the mountains was lower than the high plains to the east so some protection was provided from winter winds. The wetter conditions there from mountain streams also meant more vegetation available for food sources and fuel. They hunted the Bison bison, a smaller version of the earlier animal, and ventured into the mountains for other game. 

From 500 B.C. to 1,000 A.D. the nomadic Plains Woodland peoples ranged over this area following the game and flora through the seasons and creating projectile points like the one found here. They traveled in small family groups, living in temporary camps, and traded with other groups further east and south. 

Around 700-800 A.D. the weather changed, becoming wetter.  Early forms of agriculture emerged, including variations of the “three sisters” cultivated by native peoples across North America: maize, beans and squash. This was a short-lived period. As the climate became drier again, new migration patterns arose among the various peoples, some moving further east, others south.

According to their oral traditions, the Ute peoples have always lived in Colorado. When the Spanish explorers arrived in Colorado in the 1500s, they found the Utes already here. Various Ute bands occupied an area stretching from what is now Utah to across the Nebraska and Kansas border. Unlike many tribes, they have no migration story as part of their culture. Apache bands also roamed the eastern plains at this time.

Native peoples were greatly impacted by European and American incursions into their homelands; from the Spanish explorers to French trappers, early American explorers, miners, the railroads and farmers. As white settlement moved westward, native peoples were displaced, leading them to migrate west into territory occupied by other native groups. By the 1600s the Commanche tribe had moved onto the High Plains. They were joined by the Lakota Sioux in the 1700s and in the early 1800s by the Arapaho and Cheyenne. The adoption of the horse by these groups gave them great mobility and the ability to more effectively hunt buffalo and other game. However, as more white settlements occupied the land, inevitable conflicts arose with the native tribes resulting in their eventual expulsion. By 1869 the native peoples of Colorado had been forcefully removed to reservations. 

Sources:

MacMahon, Todd. Archeology In Broomfield: A Gateway Landscape. History Colorado, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, 2015. [PowerPoint]

O’Meara, Sean. Indigenous Connections: Native American Ethnographic Study of Golden, Colorado and the Clear Creel Valley. Anthropological Research, LLC, 2022

Rock Creek Grasslands Management Plan. Boulder County, Open Space Department, 2011.

Turner, Carol. Legendary Locals of Broomfield. Arcadia Publishing, 2014.

Ubbelode, Carl, Duane Smith and Maxine Benson. A Colorado History, 9th ed. Pruett, 2006.

Virgo, Vincent and Stephen Grace. Colorado: Mapping the Centennial State Through History. Globe Pequot, 2009.

West, Elliott. The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado. University Press of Kansas, 1998.

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It’s summer—it’s time to go outside and enjoy all of the open spaces in Broomfield. And in case you are wondering why there are so many open spaces in Broomfield, here is a short history for you to enjoy.

But before we get into the history of open space in Broomfield, let’s take a quick look back at why open space is important. Some theorists say that open space is valuable because it contributes to the social, political, and physical health of urban communities. Other theorists say that these spaces in neighborhoods are beneficial to interpersonal connections. Still others have looked the benefits of urban open space from an even broader perspective and believe that open spaces in urban areas create a “public sphere” where democracy is strengthened by encouraging exchange and understanding among diverse groups. They theorize that urban open spaces allow for contact between different ethnic and class groups, thus generating healthy psychological, social, and political development of the citizenry. And last, but not least, health experts who have studied the impacts of urban open space have found that it improves the health of the populace.

Beginning in the 1950s and continuing into the 1970s, urban planners typically had bought into the concept of a city center surrounded by residential neighborhoods and an outer ring of open spaces that included agricultural areas and undeveloped land. In addition, this outer ring served as a means to delineate one community from another. The City of Boulder was an early adopter of this open space concept and systematically created a green belt surrounding their town. The concept then expanding to other communities in the county, and Boulder County proceeded to create open areas between each of their cities.

As the 1970s became the 1980s, the concept of creating open space as a tool for urban shaping expanded to include the concept of using open space as a means to preserve areas that were ecologically sensitive and/or had environmental value. Boulder County then proceeded to pass legislation that would guarantee funding to allow them to continue to be a trendsetter in the preservation of open spaces.

In the early 1990s, few communities had permanently undeveloped areas other than those that might be ecologically or environmentally sensitive. But to the surprise of urban planners and community development offices, grassroots contingencies of citizens began to campaign for the inclusion of open spaces within city limits simply for the purpose of having areas of “relief” from urbanization. And this is exactly what happened in Broomfield.

Much of the Boulder County open space bordered on Broomfield, so as Broomfield was beginning to grow and thrive it was not a far leap for some of the citizens in Broomfield to think that open space would be a positive component of their city as well. But there is an interesting twist in the open space story in Broomfield. There were several people in Broomfield who considered open space to be wasted space. Their arguments were basically three-fold. The first was financial. Land in Broomfield was (and still is) expensive and many thought the city should not be spending limited resources on this “wasted space.” The second, somewhat similar argument was that land in Broomfield was not only expensive, it was also a finite resource. Therefore, leaving some of it in its natural state could deprive the city of businesses, residences, parks, playing fields, and eventually curtail the amount of sales and property taxes the city/county could collect.

And the third argument was that some people felt it was not government’s role or responsibility to tell anyone what they could or could not do with a piece of property, including leaving it open and “wasted.”

As previously mentioned, open space was not a foreign concept to people in Broomfield. In fact, there actually already was an open space in the city (Lac Amora was the first open space, dedicated in 1977). But creating open space on prime development property in the middle of town—now that was a totally different can of worms. On the other hand, a small, but adamant group of people in town came together to convince the rest of the citizens and the elected officials that open spaces would not be a detriment to development and in fact, it would be one of the primary things that made Broomfield great. What they undertook was not easy. Some involved in this experience would say it was a contentious battle – combating developers, a conservative city government, and a somewhat apathetic population in order to pass legislation that added a small amount to sales tax to fund the purchase and restoration of open space. And in many respects, it was contentious. First came a campaign and vote to pass an open space sales tax, with accusations of purposeful spreading of misinformation and fear mongering about the dire impact of increased taxes. When this measure lost by a very few votes, those who had worked so hard to get it on the ballot were very disheartened. But after a few deep breaths, some of those individuals revitalized the cause and got the measure reworded and put up for election a second time and, wonder of wonders, it passed. Victory was theirs (and ours).

So there we have it. Because of that persistent group of people, Broomfield is full of permanent open spaces. Now it’s time to get out there and show our appreciation as we walk, and jog, and ride our bikes, and just enjoy the natural areas that surround us and make our lives better.

Featured image: Brunner Farmhouse garden with open space, “The Field” in the background