The Broomcorn Express, Quarterly Publication of the Friends of Broomfield History
Vol. 4, No. 2, January-March 2024
Local historians know that Arapaho and Cheyenne bands wintered along the northern Front Range in the1800s. Some of their campsites were located along the Big Dry Creek. To view a site that provides the particular features that they required in a campsite, follow the Metzger Farm Open Space Trail to the Dry Creek overlook on the east side. Looking at the area spread out below, you will see what could have been a possible location for a Native American campsite.
A suitable site needed to include fresh water, cottonwood trees and willows for fuel and shelter, game trails for hunting, some shelter from winds and forage for their horses. All these features are present in this site.
Small bands consisting of a few families lived a nomadic life, settling in foothills draws and canyons in the winter and then joining up with other bands in the summer for buffalo hunts on the eastern prairie. While buffalo and other game were a major food source, they also made use of native plants for food, medicine and ceremonial uses. Some of these included:
- Western Yarrow Ragweed Milkweed
- Wild Onion Sage Dogwood
- Wild Strawberry Wild Geranium Thistle
- Wild Mint Wild Buckwheat Raspberry
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 resulted in the forced removal of the Arapaho and Cheyenne from Colorado. Contemporary tribal members, however, still consider Colorado’s Front Range to be their homelands and remain connected through historical events, traditions and ceremony.
The Metzger Farm Open Space is located at 12080 Lowell Blvd., Broomfield.
Sources:
Broomfield Trails Map. City and County of Broomfield, Open Space and Trails, 2021.
O’Meara, Sean. Indigenous Connections: Native American Ethnographic Study of Golden, Colorado and the Clear Creek Valley. Anthropological Research, LLC, 2022.
Ubbelode, Carl, Duane Smith and Maxine Benson. A Colorado History, 9th ed. Pruett, 2006.
Featured image: Metzger Farm, December 2023, by Roberta Depp