Kiowa County, Colorado
Kiowa County is located on the eastern plains of Colorado. Named for the Kiowa Nation of Native Americans, Kiowa County contains 1,771 square miles of land and 15 square miles of water. The county seat is Eads.
Kiowa County was first settled at a time when the railroads were all building westward to the mining regions of central Colorado. Crossing this area with the deep grass and herds of bison... they thought this would make a great agricultural addition to the country. Little did they know they were in a time of good rainfall and the drought that keeps coming back would shortly dry the area and force most settlers to move on. These days, as if the drought weren't bad enough, the growing cities along the Front Range are busy buying up all the water rights and that is further serving to return this area to being an arid grassland devoid of anyone other than nomads again...
Kiowa County is where the Sand Creek Massacre (the outright slaughter of more than 400 unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children, physically-and-mentally-challenged adults, and tribal elders) took place on November 29, 1864. The national scandal that erupted over this event eventually cost Territorial Governor John Evans his job for his part in the incident. Colonel John Chivington, commander of the US forces involved, was castigated by Congress and his reputation is still tainted by what happened that day under his command. In 2005, the National Park Service finally designated the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and in 2007, set a stone plaque in place as a memorial (but it seems the plaque is in the wrong place).