Eastonville, Colorado

Eastonville was a town in eastern Colorado from c.1880-1935. [Eberhart, Perry. Ghost of the Colorado Plains. Swallow Press, Athens, Ohio, 1986. p. 50] It is currently no longer incorporated. The area in which it occupied is now taken over by urban sprawl from Colorado Springs. The former town limits now reside in El Paso County, in the Colorado Springs metro area.

The latitude of Eastonville is 39.061N. The longitude is -104.561W.It is in the Mountain Standard time zone. Elevation is 7,234 feet. [ [http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=9446 Eastonville, Colorado CO, profile (El Paso County) - hotels, festivals, genealogy, newspapers - ePodunk ] ]

The area around Eastonville began settlement around 1872 when a post office was established a mile to the south of its eventual location on Squirrel Creek. The area was found to be suitable for potato farming and many pioneers homesteaded in the vicinity. In 1881 the Denver and New Orleans Railroad (later the Colorado and Southern Railroad)laid their tracks through the area and created a stop named "McConnellsville" near what is now Eastonville. Shortly after, in 1883, the area post office was moved north and named "Easton" for a local pioneer, John Easton. The town soon became Eastonville. At the behest of the railroad, the town moved a short distance to its current sight. [Eberhart, 50]

By the 1900s the town had 350-500 people. It had three churches, three hotels, a newspaper, a school house, race track, ball field,and many businesses. Nine to ten passenger trains passed through everyday, and with at least that many freight trains using the tracks a constant rolling of locomotives could be heard day and night in the burgeoning city. It had become the self proclaimed "potato capital of the world" and some years couldn't find enough workers to harvest the crops. Colorado Springs newspapers would print large advertisements offering work at respectable wages on the potato farms of Eastonville. It was one of the most prosperous farm centers in eastern Colorado that are now ghost towns. [ibid, 50]

Eastonville continued as a stable town until the 1930s when drought and depression hit the west. In 1935 the area endured a potato blight and flood which washed away many of its buildings. The town couldn't recover. [ibid, 50] Little remains of Eastonville today but a few buildings and the cemetery. [ibid, 51]

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