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Sand Creek Massacre Site

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9 miles northeast of Colorado 96 via Kiowa County 54 and W

A small historic marker is the only structure commemorating the site, now on private farmland, that once held an encampment of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly old men, women, and children. They were massacred on November 29, 1864, by the Third Colorado Regiment, under the command of Col. John M. Chivington, a former minister. When asked by a subordinate if they should kill children, Chivington responded, “Nits make lice.” Of almost 900 soldiers, 10 were killed and 38 wounded. Of some 500 Indians, more than 137 were killed and many of their bodies mutilated.

The unincorporated town of Chivington (1887, 3,890 feet), named for the colonel, was at one time a freight division for the Missouri Pacific. Today Chivington is on the edge of the grave, if not a ghost town, with only birds and rodents attending the ruins of a two-story Italianate schoolhouse.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Sand Creek Massacre Site", [Eads, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-KW02.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 396-397.

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