Genesis of Mistrust, Southeastern Colorado & The Federal Government
- Anne Boswell Taylor
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
~Norman Kincaide
Mistrust towards the federal government is endemic in southeastern Colorado. What is the source of this wariness by rural residents in relation to federal government? Skepticism was not rife when the region was settled. Irrigated and dry land farming induced expectations of broomcorn and wheat crops while vast prairie pastures held the vision of breeding herds to fill livestock commissions with feeder calves and bred stock. But over production, the stock market crash of 1929, Depression and Dust Bowl produced a mass exodus from southeastern Colorado, western Oklahoma and southwestern Kansas resulting in the establishment of the National Grasslands.
The United States Army established Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) in 1984 through a combination of willing sellers and eminent domain. In 1991 the Army transferred 16,000 acres of the Purgatoire River Canyon to the Comanche National Grassland.
In 2003 the Army wanted to expand PCMS by 6.9 million acres owned by private citizens and the Comanche National Grasslands, disclosed to the public through a leaked expansion map. As a result of this expansion 17,000 residents of the area would be displaced and 400,000 acres of Comanche Grassland would be incorporated into PCMS. Opposition came from Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition and Not One More Acre. The Army dropped its grandiose plans down to purchasing only 418,000 acres from willing sellers. This was opposed as another means to expand. The Army said that Pinon Canyon would never be expanded nor would live fire exercises on site, which began in 2004. The Army cancelled PCMS expansion in November 2013.
Canyons and Plains of Southeastern Colorado (C&P) announced on February 14, 2013, at the Fowler Golf Course Club House, their organization had developed to the extent it could step up to the next level of becoming a National Heritage Area (NHA). This would cover Baca, Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero, and Prowers counties. The same region coveted by the Army to expand PCMS. Kimmi Lewis, owner of the Muddy Valley Ranch, stood up and challenged C&P board members and NPS employees, how dare they seek this designation while the residents of southeastern Colorado were in the process of defeating PCMS expansion.
The NHA grew out of the Heritage Tourism Pilot Project, initiated in 2003 through the Colorado Office of Economic Development and Tourism Office and the NPS. Four areas were targeted for NHAs: San Luis Valley, Park County, Southwest and Southeast Colorado. Park County and San Luis Valley (Sangre de Cristo NHA) became NHAs. Originally Southeast Colorado Tourism Group was formed, then Southeast Colorado Regional Heritage Task Force which became C&P. Canyons & Plains board, on which NPS employees served, had been prepping the region for ten years, promoting heritage tourism before announcing its true intentions for an NHA.
Kimmi Lewis formed Southeast Colorado Private Property Rights Council (SECPPRC) in January 2014, held public meetings in opposition, the mood in which ranged from shock, to sullen anger, to agitated anger, then to humor as C&P and NPS became incompetent laughing stocks. All seven boards of county commissioners passed resolutions opposing the NHA, causing C&P to issue a press release on July 18, 2014, that it was no longer pursuing a feasibility study for the NHA. Exposed here were: failure to disclose, lack of transparency, the appearance of impropriety, potential conflicts of interest, Park Service failure to adhere to a signed agreement with C&P, and outright disrespect by Park Service employees toward residents of the region who opposed the NHA.
No sooner had this threat passed, the Army notified a Las Animas County Commissioner in January 2015 of a Ranching Resources of the Purgatoire River Region, Colorado, Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF) with study map, that was about to be submitted to the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), which facilitates nominations to the National Register. This study map included, in large part, eastern Las Animas County, southern Otero County and smaller portions of Huerfano and Pueblo Counties and bordered Highway 10, I-25, Highway 109 and the Colorado New Mexico border between I-25 and straight south of Kim, CO. This MPDF was based upon material, copied almost verbatim, from Historic Context Study of the Purgatoire River Region and Cultural Resources Survey of the Purgatoire River Region completed in the fall of 2011, all prepared by Colorado Preservation, Inc. (CPI).
Furthermore, two homesteads, the Hils, Frank and Doll, Christina Homestead and the Charles E. Coy Homestead, were nominated for the NRHP in September 2014, without notification or consent of the owners and were about to be confirmed.
The survey within the project was selective, limited to participating private property owners and resources visible from public roadways. Those who did not participate in the study area were still mapped in without their permission and some of their properties became part of the study regardless of their lack of consent. Those who did participate in the Historic and Cultural Surveys signed a CPI, Cultural Resources Survey Access Agreement which states: “The landowner consents to CPI’s use of such data for research and educational purposes after the survey is complete. To the extent permitted under applicable laws, CPI shall use reasonable efforts to maintain confidentiality of the landowner and of the data collected from the Property.” These studies were now used by CPI for a different purpose, to create the Purgatoire River Region MPDF for the NRHP, without notification or permission of the landowners within the study and survey area, contravening the use of such data for “research and educational purposes.”
Korry Lewis, Esq., representing SECPPRC, personally called Carol D. Shull, Interim Keeper of the NRHP in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 2015, expressing property owners’ concerns about the MPDF. As a result of a demand notice to remove property owner references and the threat of litigation, CPI withdrew the MPDF while the homestead nominations, after objection by the owners, were returned to the Colorado State Historic Preservation Officer.
Private property rights ensue when state or federal government has increased administrative or regulatory influence over what property owners do with their property. When federal funds are involved with a National Register property Section 106 compliance review is required, which still compromises land owner property rights. National Register listing affects the property owners’ freedom to lease a parcel for a cell phone tower or erect a stock tank wind mill if they affect the historic integrity of the viewshed.
As a result of these issues, Rep. Kimmi Clark Lewis introduced House Bill 19-1078 for the purpose of ensuring that each private property owner within the land described of a MPDF are properly notified and consent given prior to the filing of the MPDF with the Keeper of the NRHP. Signed into law April 12, 2019.
Colorado’s Conservation Easement Tax Credit scam has not been touched upon here, nor the clear title issues of perpetual conservation easements. The issues enumerated above represent the cumulative suspicions of private property owners in southeastern Colorado. They have been well tested in dealing with covetous designs upon their private property. But they are always playing catch up, almost too late to confront and rectify through legal, legislative and media outreach avenues.
Barb Leininger, La Junta, explained the latest threat of Comanche Grassland Draft Assessment issues to Colorado state legislators at the Unwin ranch, Las Animas County, October 13, 2025. Southern Colorado Livestock and Colorado Independent CattleGrowers Associations sponsored a rural school and ranch legislator tour. Representatives Ty Winter, HD 47, Bob Marshall, HD 43, Chris Richardson, HD 56, Jennifer Bacon, HD 7, Cecelia Espinosa, HD 4, and Gretchen Ryden, HD 38, toured Kim School, conducted by Chris Locke, Superintendent/Principal and the Unwin Ranch, conducted by Harold Unwin, where lunch of Unwin grown beef hamburgers were served. Legislators heard about Forest Service communication failures toward County Commissioners and Grassland allotment owners reference the Draft Assessment and the potential Wild and Scenic River designation for the Purgatoire River.
That state and federal governments seek to acquire more control in spite of the almost forty percent of Colorado already encumbered is troublesome in the extreme, particularly to those whose property is affected. In light of the above, it is little wonder that residents of southeastern Colorado have become disaffected with the federal government.
Norman L. Kincaide, Ph.D.
Sources
Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Wikipedia
Norman L. Kincaide, Ph.D., Viewshed, Defeating a National Heritage Area, Amazon, 2025, pp. 7-8, 12, 30, 187.
George Wayne Thomas, (Chief, NEPA and Cultural Management Branch DPW-Environmental, Fort Carson) CIV USARMY USAG, to Mack Louden, Las Animas County Commissioner, January 6, 2015.
Norman L. Kincaide, Ph.D., “Homesteads Nominated for National Register Absent Owner Consent,” AG Journal, April 3, 2015; Rocky Ford Daily Gazette, April 7, 2015.
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