By Mike Bowen, co-author, We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
The short lived town of Water Valley had a newspaper, the Water Valley Clarion. To our knowledge, there was only one issue, July 7, 1887. It’s possible there were more. The Clarion documented the location of Water Valley, which turns out to be quite significant to the Lost Sand Creek site discovery.
(Click on photos below to expand).
The last remaining building at the townsite, the Water Valley School House, is now at the Bowen Meadow Ranch. It stands as a testament of truth. See a blog about it here: [WaterValleySchoolHouse]
From our book:
1887
23 years after Sand Creek
The Missouri Pacific Railroad steamed ahead into Bent County from Kansas. The trains stopped regularly for water. Developers went ahead of the railroad platting townsites hoping theirs would be chosen for the next water stop—a lot of money could be made. Bent County originally included over 10,500 square miles. Several counties were partitioned out including nearly 2,000 square miles for the newly formed Kiowa County in 1889.
There were three proposed townsites near Sand Creek—Chivington to the south, Water Valley seven miles northeast of Chivington, and New Chicago, two miles north of Water Valley.
The Water Valley Clarion embellished the truth to promote the town.
Water Valley will soon have three railroads—the Denver branch of the Santa Fe, the Pueblo branch of the Missouri Pacific and the Great Bend, Water Valley & Western railroads and in consequence of which our town is having a big boom…The valley is one of the most picturesque I have seen on the plains of Colorado and stretches to the east and north as far as one can see. Little bunches of cottonwood skirt the course of the creek, looking as if they had all been neatly trimmed, and resemble old apple trees.
The water in this valley is something to be proud of. We have two wells in town, and travelers who stop at our wells to water their teams and quench their own thirst are heard to remark: ‘This is the best water I have drank since I have been in the west.’
Unfortunately for Water Valley, the railroad took the southern route, choosing the Chivington site. After only three months, Water Valley rode off into the sunset.
The first and perhaps only issue of the Clarion said this about the short-lived 1887 town:
Water Valley
The Future City Of Eastern Colorado
The town of Water Valley is situated in the noted Water Valley of Eastern Colorado, about one mile east of Big Sandy creek, which has numerous springs of clear sparkling water along its banks…The town was located on sections 4, 5, 8 and 9, township 18 south, range 45 west of the 6th principal meridian, in Bent county, Colorado.
Today we have twenty-six buildings in town and nine more being erected, besides quite a number of buildings under contract to be erected in the near future.
We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site
The first county seat of Bent County was the small settlement of Boggsville. The seat moved to the newly formed Las Animas in 1873—a fire in the courthouse on January 10, 1888, destroyed the records for Water Valley and the proposed townsite of New Chicago.
However, the Clarion published the location of Water Valley. It stated that Water Valley’s western edge was about a mile from Sand Creek, located on sections 4, 5, 8 and 9. “New Chicago was located about two miles north of Water Valley,” the Kiowa County Press stated January 16, 1917.
During conversations with National Park Service Sand Creek personnel, including the NPS Sand Creek Superintendent, Chuck and Sheri Bowen were promised credit for making their Sand Creek site discovery. Privately, the NPS would do so, but publicly, the Bowens were thrown under the bus.
On separate visits in 1999, NPS historian Jerome Greene and NPS archaeologist Dr. Doug Scott, visited the Bowens’ home and viewed hundreds of Sand Creek artifacts. The NPS historian and archaeologist acknowledged privately that Chuck and Sheri indeed found artifacts that were from the 1864 Sand Creek event. See our blog of Dr. Scott viewing artifacts here: [DougScottNPS]
A few years after visiting the Bowens, Greene and Scott wrote a book, and instead of giving credit as they should have, they claimed Chuck and Sheri found the settlement of New Chicago.
“The NPS placed an X on their special resource study map on section 14 where they say New Chicago was located” (We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site).
Interestingly, at the very place the NPS placed an X on their map, Chuck made a monumental Sand Creek discovery—the biggest one he made. He found battle artifacts that could only be from the Sand Creek event. The full account of what he found is in our book. It is an amazing archaeological discovery.
The Kiowa County Press stating the proposed New Chicago was located two miles north of Water Valley debunks the claim by Greene and Scott. They didn’t provide any citation or proof for their claim. The proposed townsite was three miles east of their X. The Bowens also didn’t find artifacts that would be from any townsite.
New Chicago was only a plan on paper. It never came to fruition. And if it were to exist, per artifacts, the Clarion and Kiowa County Press, it would have been three miles from where the NPS claimed it was.
The Lost Sand Creek site discovery has been minimized and lied about. This discovery also disproves the massacre story which claims the Indians were camped below the bluff at the NPS Sand Creek historic site where the monument sat. No village or battle related artifacts have been found below that bluff. That’s problematic for that story. This discovery actually verifies the running battle account from Irving Howbert. This is explained fully in our book.
The artifacts do not lie. Their story has now been told in We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
It’s commonly said that battles and wars are written by the victors. Why is Sand Creek the exception? And why has an unverified story been told for 160 years?
The record for Sand Creek needs to be set straight.
Make sure to get a copy of our book.
Seeking truth is being cancelled, and accurate history is being erased. Help keep history alive and read about the discovery of the real location of Black Kettle’s village and battle locations in We Found the Lost Sand Creek Site.
Truth matters—truth wins.
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You can learn more about the Lost Sand Creek Site discovery on this website. The truth about Sand Creek needs to be known and needs to be shared.
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