HEREFORD

NAME: Hereford
COUNTY: Weld
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 1
CLIMATE: Cold, windy in winter, hot is summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Accesible all year long, best in spring and fall
COMMENTS: Go north of Briggsdale on Highway 14 about 25 miles. There are a couple of occupied houses in the area but mostly abandoned. Located in the heart of the Pawnee National Grasslands which are beautiful in the spring when the prairie is blooming. Plenty of wildlife on the prairie from antelope to golden eagles (keep a sharp eye out for rattle snakes.
REMAINS: There are a few old buildings and an old grain storage bin.

The elevation is 5269 ft. aka Devon and New Hereford. Hereford became the new site of the section house and flag station on the Sterling to Cheyenne branch of the Colorado-Wyoming division of the Burlington-Missouri River Railroad in 1888. It was moved across the Colorado-Wyoming state line from Wyoming at that time. First proposed to be named Devon then was changed to New Hereford and was 8.7 miles northwest of Grover and 5 miles southeast of Carpenter, Wyoming just northeast of Crow Creek on Weld County road 77 and 390. Frank Benton's ranch home was nearby in the late 1890's and because of his cattle ranch they changed the name to Hereford because of the thousands of Hereford cattle he raised and shipped out of the town. Along with the largest rancher in the territory, John Wesley Illiff who owned most of the land between 1872 and 1878 literally thousands of cattle were shipped out of here to the markets back east. After Iliff died the ranch still operated as the Iliff Land and Cattle Company. The surrounding area not under government control as the Pawnee National Grasslands, is still a farm and ranch community. At one time the Frederick Andersen family operated and controlled almost every business and in 1920 it was the sight of the famous Hereford Inn.

The only newspaper published in Hereford in The Crow Creek News as a weekly in 1919-1920 by Mrs. C.D. Crouch who was a farm housewife and also wrote poetry and articles for eastern magazines. The Hereford school was first built in 1914. It lasted until 1919 when a new school was built to match the Hereford Inn. A deed from H.B. Werder was for three acres at the corner of Atlanta and Hereford street dated July 19, 1921. The school was bandoned in 1940 and students were bused to Grover. Teachers included: Mary Dillon, Ina Efner, Imogene Fox, Maude Gabriel, Levere Dillon, Esther Swope and a few others that are not of record. Submitted by: Jay Warburton

Hereford Inn
Courtesy Josh Houtchens

 

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