Badito, Colorado
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Badito is a historic
ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
along the Huerfano River in Huerfano County,
Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, United States. ''"Huerfano"'' is a
Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...
noun meaning "orphan". Badito is located at the intersection of Colorado State Highway 69 and County Road 520.


History

The long-abandoned community, located at the crossing of the Huerfano River, marks a path used by the
Ancestral Puebloans The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southe ...
during the Basketmaker era. A Spanish expedition led by General
Juan de Ulibarrí ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Phili ...
is the first known recorded journey through Badito. He documented the journey through Cuchara Pass, west of the Spanish Peaks in 1706. Juan de Ulibarrí's command reached the Rio de San Juan Baptista (currently named the Huerfano River) at Badito. In 1819, Jacob Fowler noted an abandoned Spanish adobe fort at the location. Later, the Taos Trappers Trail, joining the
Santa Fe Trail The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the ...
with the Cherokee Trail, passed through this location. On February 28, 1861, Territory of Colorado was organized. The Little Orphan, Colorado Territory, post office opened on May 1, 1865, but the name was changed to Badito on September 12 of that year. Badito served as the seat of Huerfano County, Colorado Territory, from 1868 until 1874, when the county seat moved to Walsenburgh. Colorado became a state on August 1, 1876. The Badito, Colorado, post office finally closed on November 15, 1910.


See also

* List of county seats in Colorado *
List of ghost towns in Colorado This is a list of some notable ghost towns in the U.S. State of Colorado. A ghost town is a former community that now has no year-round residents or less than 1% of its peak population. Colorado has over 1,500 ghost towns, although visible remai ...
*
List of post offices in Colorado A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


References


Further reading

* Whiteley, Lee. (1999). ''The Cherokee Trail: Bent's Old Fort to Fort Bridger''. Boulder, Colorado: Johnson Printing. * Historic Marker #13. Posted by the Territorial Daughters of Colorado, Badito, Colorado. *
Juan de Ulibarrí ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. The name is of Hebrew origin and has the meaning "God has been gracious." It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking countries around the world and in the Phili ...
. Juan de Ulibarrí's Diary. Translated and posted by the Territorial Daughters of Colorado. * McKenna, Thomas (2023) True Southern Colorado;Gateway to the American Southwest. Pages 165-170. Posted by Thomas McKenna, KDP Publishing BOBp9wrg38


External links


State of Colorado

History Colorado
{{authority control 1865 establishments in Colorado Territory Former county seats in Colorado Former populated places in Huerfano County, Colorado Geography of Huerfano County, Colorado Ghost towns in Colorado History of Colorado Populated places established in 1865 Pre-statehood history of Colorado