Collection M 001, Record Group 21:
Farm & Agricultural Experiment Station
(Hesperus, Colo.)
 

RG 21 Farm and Agricultural Experiment Station (Hesperus, Colo.)

• Historical note:  on October 7, 1960, the State Board Agriculture approved leasing the 6,318 acres of land comprising the Fort Lewis reservation at Hesperus, Colorado, to the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station at the rate of $10,000 per year for the period November 1, 1961 to July 1, 1963; the lease to continue at the same rate thereafter unless changed by Board action.
• The Hesperus site served as the Colorado State University San Juan Basin Research Center (SJBRC) until 2010. Any records acquired from the SJBRC are also placed in this record group for continuity.
• Visit the "Old" Fort Lewis College Web site at http://oldfort.fortlewis.edu

(see Series 20.F.4.6 for payroll records; see Series 20.C.9 for hourly/temporary employee records; see Sub-group 14.2 for faculty employment records; see Series 11.D.7 for veterans on-the-farm training program records)

21.1    Printed materials, 1915-61,  (includes flyers and newspaper clippings and other publicity for the former annual Farmer's Institute, which was also known as the Farm Institute; also includes the publication Colorado Farm and Home Research, which was distributed as a report of progress at Colorado's Agricultural Experiement Station in Fort Collins and other stations in the state of Colorado, including Fort Lewis College)

From the October 28, 1950 Colorado State Board of Agriculture meeting:

"The Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station, which is an Agency of Colorado A & M College, is the agricultural research organization for the State of Colorado.  It is the policy of the State Board of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Experiment Stations, to conduct research at the main experiment station located at Fort Collins, Colorado, and at experiment stations located in various agricultural areas of the State of Colorado."

• Historical note: the 15th annual Fort Lewis Farmer's Institute was held in 1961.

21.2    Farm reports, 1930-64, (includes long range development planning records from the 1950s)

21.3    Farm logs, 1916- 1939, 1 document case.

21.4    Memoranda and correspondence, 1917- 1957, 1 document case. Includes records and correspondence (December 1945 - 1946) of the Research Advisory Committee -- also referred to as the Fort Lewis Substation Advisory Committee. San Juan Basin Research Center director correspondence, 1980-1984.

21.5    Experiment Station annual reports, 1948- 1959,   1 document case.

21.6    Experiment Station monthly reports, 1920- 1941,  1 document case.

21.7    Herd record books, 1937-1951 (15 volumes),  1 document case.  

• Historical note: on October 7, 1960, the State Board of Agriculture approved selling the college dairy herd (amounting to 85 animals) at a special public auction.

21.8    Livestock inventories, 1918, 1948-54, .5 document case.

21.9    Budgets, 1954-58,  .5 document case.

These collections are located at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College.  Interested researchers should phone the archivist at 970/247-7126 or send electronic mail to the archivist at: archives@fortlewis.edu.   Click here to use our E-mail Reference Request Form.  The Center does not have a budget for outgoing long-distance phone calls to answer reference requests, so please leave an email address if you wish to receive a response from us.