Fort Chambers / Poor Farm Site Planning

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A farm with rows of vegetables growing in a field and the historic Queen Anne style house behind.

The City of Boulder is collaborating with Tribal Representatives and seeking input from community members to design an interpretive experience at the Fort Chambers / Poor Farm site. The interpretive experience will share the history surrounding the site and provide spaces for learning and reflection.

The 113-acre Fort Chambers/Poor Farm property is historically significant due to its ties to the Sand Creek Massacre, and is also rich in ecological and agricultural value.  Detailed information about the site’s background can be found on the Fort Chambers / Poor Farm Site Information Story Map.

The City of Boulder is currently Identifying a vision for the Interpretive Experience along the proposed “Healing Trail”, a key element of the Concept Plan developed with Arapaho and Cheyenne Tribal Representatives last year.

This phase of the project builds on community input gathered earlier this year where community members shared ideas, stories, and perspectives for interpretative elements and helped determine which ideas, stories or themes were most important to be featured along the planned “healing trail.”  Previous input can be viewed in the August 2025 Open Space Board of Trustees Memo Packet.

To provide input during this phase of the project, please take this questionnaire prior to October 6th.

The City of Boulder is collaborating with Tribal Representatives and seeking input from community members to design an interpretive experience at the Fort Chambers / Poor Farm site. The interpretive experience will share the history surrounding the site and provide spaces for learning and reflection.

The 113-acre Fort Chambers/Poor Farm property is historically significant due to its ties to the Sand Creek Massacre, and is also rich in ecological and agricultural value.  Detailed information about the site’s background can be found on the Fort Chambers / Poor Farm Site Information Story Map.

The City of Boulder is currently Identifying a vision for the Interpretive Experience along the proposed “Healing Trail”, a key element of the Concept Plan developed with Arapaho and Cheyenne Tribal Representatives last year.

This phase of the project builds on community input gathered earlier this year where community members shared ideas, stories, and perspectives for interpretative elements and helped determine which ideas, stories or themes were most important to be featured along the planned “healing trail.”  Previous input can be viewed in the August 2025 Open Space Board of Trustees Memo Packet.

To provide input during this phase of the project, please take this questionnaire prior to October 6th.

Share Your Fort Chambers / Poor Farm Story:

In order to share your idea or story, start below by adding a title.  Full text formatting is available, and you are able to share links, images and videos by clicking on the icons shown here:  

Labelled icons of the link, image, and video functions in this submission form.

Old photographs, diary entries, and historical writings are also welcomed to help us broaden our understanding of Boulder’s history and the land.  

The goal of this exercise is to understand what teachings and experiences people desire for the new Healing Trail.  

All submissions should be relevant to the history or context of the area and acceptable for sharing publicly. No threats, forms of intimidation, obscenities or racial epithets will be accepted (historic, primary sources excepted). Unacceptable responses will be rejected (you will be invited to revise your submission and resubmit following these guidelines). 

If you are interested in sharing general feedback about this project or the design process, please use the Comment Form instead of this webpage.  Questions or concerns can be directed to the Fort Chambers / Poor Farm project team, whose contact information is located on the top-right of this page. 


Thank you for sharing your story with us.

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.
  • Share Chief Niwot’s observation on Facebook Share Chief Niwot’s observation on Twitter Share Chief Niwot’s observation on Linkedin Email Chief Niwot’s observation link

    Chief Niwot’s observation

    by Decolonizationisnotametaphor, 6 months ago

    Chief Niwot is often attributed for placing a “curse” on the Boulder valley. This is a long-standing misinterpretation of his words, which coupled with some exotic sense of “Indian magic” has become something that white people have often attributed to their return to or inability to leave this area. I heard it often as I grew up in Boulder.

    This is the quotation: “People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty.”

    Reportedly, Chief Niwot was saying this to the first prospectors he encountered. The native population had... Continue reading

  • Share Another name for the residence/farm on Facebook Share Another name for the residence/farm on Twitter Share Another name for the residence/farm on Linkedin Email Another name for the residence/farm link

    Another name for the residence/farm

    by Patricia Hertzler , 6 months ago
    I am opposed to the continuing use of “Poor Farm” when speaking of this site. It Served that function for only 6 years according to this website. A much more appropriate title would be something like “living history 1900 farmstead” or Early Colorado farm in Queen Anne style” or something similar. Why emphasize only 6 years when the site’s historical significance is much broader. ? Changing the terminology now will be easier now than it would be to wait any longer with regard to printed material. Signage and general usage. The history of the fort and the Sand Creek Massacre... Continue reading
  • Share Healing Across Generations; Healing Heart, Land, and Soul on Facebook Share Healing Across Generations; Healing Heart, Land, and Soul on Twitter Share Healing Across Generations; Healing Heart, Land, and Soul on Linkedin Email Healing Across Generations; Healing Heart, Land, and Soul link

    Healing Across Generations; Healing Heart, Land, and Soul

    by A J, 6 months ago
    Farm and historic Queen Anne House first came about and the stories of both the people who served there and were helped there as well. Where are their descendants now? Are they still in the area? Do they have stories to share? What were the conditions like back then? It would also be healing to have one day each year that the community gathers on the site with a healing City held event that is lead by as many of the people who are direct descendants of each of these pivotal time periods.
  • Share Manifest Destiny on Facebook Share Manifest Destiny on Twitter Share Manifest Destiny on Linkedin Email Manifest Destiny link

    Manifest Destiny

    by Sallie, 6 months ago
    Manifest Destiny encouraged what is called westward expansion basically taking over lands where plains tribes had lived in balance for hundreds of years in the Boulder Valley. People believed incorrectly that they had this divine right to expand. Protestant rhetoric said the land of Turtle Island was divinely destined to be expanded to spread democracy and civilization. Ignoring the current civilization of indigenous peoples living in harmony with the land. Land became a thing rather than a living ecology of plants, animals and people thriving together. The indigenous people in the area: Arapaho, Cheyenne and Ute, lived so in balance... Continue reading
  • Share Need for Reckoning before Healing on Facebook Share Need for Reckoning before Healing on Twitter Share Need for Reckoning before Healing on Linkedin Email Need for Reckoning before Healing link

    Need for Reckoning before Healing

    by Laurie Rugenstein, 6 months ago

    A Healing Trial is important, but we need to reckon with the difficult past before we can begin healing

    When entering the Fort Chambers site people should encounter things that lead them to reckon with the difficult past that took place here. This includes to greed for land and power on the part of some settler/colonizers and the false information they spread to create fear in the local settler/colonizers. Fear an effect way to control people, This dynamic still plays out in our country, and telling the truth about our past is one way to keep this from happening again.

    ... Continue reading

  • Share Outcomes of the Sand Creek Massacre on Facebook Share Outcomes of the Sand Creek Massacre on Twitter Share Outcomes of the Sand Creek Massacre on Linkedin Email Outcomes of the Sand Creek Massacre link

    Outcomes of the Sand Creek Massacre

    by Paula Palmer, 6 months ago
    At Fort Chambers, more than 100 Boulder men trained and drilled and then joined Col John Chivington's Volunteer Cavalry in committing the Sand Creek Massacre. What are the outcomes of this massacre for the Arapaho and Cheyenne people, and for the people who have lived in Boulder since then?


    What happened to the Arapaho and Cheyenne people? How have they suffered as a result of the actions of the Boulder settlers? How do they live today? How would they like to relate to the land and people of the Boulder Valley? What presence would they like to have here?


    How... Continue reading
  • Share Who were the settlers of the Boulder Valley? on Facebook Share Who were the settlers of the Boulder Valley? on Twitter Share Who were the settlers of the Boulder Valley? on Linkedin Email Who were the settlers of the Boulder Valley? link

    Who were the settlers of the Boulder Valley?

    by Paula Palmer, 6 months ago

    Who were the Euro-American people who settled in the Boulder Valley in the mid01800s? What were their ethnicities, relitions, genders, social class? Where did they come from? What were their attitudes about Native peoples, Manifest Destiny, the treaties (and violating them), land ownership? How did they relate to Chief Nawath's band of Arapaho who lived in the Boulder Valley? What drove them to join the US Cavalry and commit the Sand Creek Massacre? After the massacre, what did they say or write about it and its aftermath? How did they envisioin the future population of Boulder?

  • Share Restore native and Native habitat on Facebook Share Restore native and Native habitat on Twitter Share Restore native and Native habitat on Linkedin Email Restore native and Native habitat link

    Restore native and Native habitat

    by John Webb, 6 months ago
    It seems appropriate that in addition to commemorating the actions around the Sand Creek Massacre, that we acknowledge the people, the cultures, occupations and traditions that existed on the site before the arrival of white settlers/colonists. There must have been hunting and living encampments on this land for hundreds and thousands of years. The CU Museum has a cache of Clovis artifacts recovered from along Boulder Creek at a property up against the foothills. In addition, some of the earliest white settlers lived in peace with the indigenous people in the Ft. Collins area.


    Could we develop a trail at... Continue reading

  • Share Mark Gershman on Facebook Share Mark Gershman on Twitter Share Mark Gershman on Linkedin Email Mark Gershman link

    Mark Gershman

    6 months ago
    perhaps apocryphal, but I am guessing there is a grain of truth here.

    Because of its open space values, former Real Estate/Open Space, Open Space/Real Estate, OSMP director Jim Crain had his eye on the property when it was open by Mary Wells (sp?). Although Ms. Wells made it very clear she had no interest in selling to the city, Jim would periodically visit the property to check in with Ms. Wells. As the story goes, at one point she threatened to shoot him (in some stories shot at him) if he ever came back. Probably not suitable for any... Continue reading

  • Share A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence on Facebook Share A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence on Twitter Share A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence on Linkedin Email A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence link

    A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence

    by Morey Bean, 6 months ago

    A Historical Story From the Future: Regenerating An Island of Coherence

    By Morey Bean

    Boulder Community Artist (Soldiers’ Veil, 2020)


    Inspired by the work of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, Scottish storyteller and Traveler Jill Smith, and First Nations friend and storyteller Solomon Ratt, this is a fictional ‘idea’ story, told by a fictional Arapahoe/Shoshoni/Scottish elder, told to his grandchildren and other young ones gathered around a campfire in Boulder, Colorado in the warm summer of 2035. It is written with the utmost respect for Indigenous People from around the world, living today, whose stories of... Continue reading

Page last updated: 16 Sep 2025, 08:54 AM