American Agriculture History Minute: Railroads Helped Change Colorado Agriculture

I’m Mark Oppold with an American Agriculture History Minute.

After a long dry trek across what is now Nebraska and Kansas, early settlers saw little or no value when crossing over to what is now Colorado. The soil was even sandier than that in western Kansas, western Nebraska. Rivers were unnavigable.

That all changed in the late 1800s when word of gold and silver strikes spread. Much of early Colorado agriculture, in fact, got its start serving the expanding mining industry. Railroads finally reached Denver in 1870 and newcomers arrived by railcars and not by wagon trains.

That’s today’s American Agriculture History Minute. I’m Mark Oppold. Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next time.