The History of Our Home Town and the Surrounding Area
By Fowler Historical Society and Museum
History memorabilia is collected from the files of the Fowler Historical Society and Museum. The Museum is located at 114 Main Street in Fowler, Colorado.
On the southeastern plains of the State of Colorado is the prairie town of Fowler. It is located on the south side of the Arkansas River on U. S. Highway 50 in Otero County, just 34 miles east of old Fort Pueblo.
Who did this land first belong to? The Early People, wanderers and gatherers who hunted wild animals and gathered food; the American Natives, Arapahoe, Commanche, Kiowa, and the Ute Indian Tribes.
The land seemed like a barren waste, overgrown with cacti and sagebrush, but The Arkansas River, flowing from the Rocky Mountains in the west, gave Indians a valley where buffalo could roam, trees with which to build shelters, and water for the survival of animals and humans alike. A mild climate, wide open spaces, and canyon country with rock cliffs for petroglyphs and protection drew roaming tribes for their temporary inhabitation.
The Spanish came next by virtue of discovery and exploration in 1520. Explorers came: Coronado, Zebulon Pike in 1806, and Colonel Fremont in 1845. Finally, in 1848, the United States acquired a vast area of land, including what is now Fowler, as a result of the Mexican War. It was time then for trappers, fur traders, and explorers like Ceran St. Vrain, Charles Bent, Kit Carson, and "Uncle Dick" Wooten to pave the way for new settlers, farmers, and ranchers.
The Arkansas River beckoned early settlers who established way stations, homesteads, farms, and ranches. Among early settlers, surnames were: Hungerford, Hollis, Nancreed, Garland, Ramsey, Cox, and True in 1871; Schmit and Schneider in 1874; Rains, McDaniel, Davis, Owens, Poteet, Farnsworth, Simpson, Sauer, and Mock in the 1890s; and later in the 1890s, Weiland, Norton, Hutchinson, Harris, Taylor, Robinson, Enderud, Waddington, Barnard, Bevard, Mitchell, and Lawler; and Fellhauer in 1894.