This cache is part of the larger Santa Fe Trail GeoTour. Be sure to visit www.santafetrail.org/geocaching to learn about the PASSPORT ACTIVITY to accompany this Geo Tour.
Containers on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail Geo Tour are military ammunition canisters, or Brochure-Holder boxes, with an identifying Santa Fe Trail Association yellow sticker on the top of the box, under the handle and the dark green geocaching.com ID is on the side of the boxes with the information that provides coordinates, who set the cache and who to contact for information. Each cache contains a logbook to sign, a variety of items that provide information about the Santa Fe Trail as well as swag items. If you are participating in the Passport activity, the code word is located on the inside of the box, on the top of the lid and is clearly identified as Code Word. Permission to set caches has been obtained. We ask that all cachers please respect all property at the sites where our caches are set.
Boggsville was founded in 1862 by Thomas O. Boggs and was the last home of the famous frontier scout Kit Carson. In 1840, Thomas Boggs, son of then Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs and great-grandson of Daniel Boone, came to what would eventually become Colorado Territory to work with the Bent Brothers at Bent’s Old Fort along the Arkansas River. In 1862, he settled along the Purgatoire (Picketwire) River south of present-day Las Animas and began a settlement known as Boggsville, which was the first white non-military outpost in this wild country. Boggsville thrived during the next decade and served as a center of trade, agriculture, education and culture and soon became an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail via the Boggsville Branch. In 1870, after the creation of Bent County, Boggsville became the county seat of Bent County. At it's pinnacle, Boggsville boasted about 20 buildings, the first schoolhouse in Bent County, a stage stop and trading house. It was a hub of activity until 1873, when the Kansas Pacific Railroad established the town of Las Animas two miles north. Boggsville started to decline, and by 1877 Thomas Boggs moved from the area.