Kendrick – Colorado Ghost Town
by local author & historian: John LaBorde
About 6 miles South of SH 94, along the El Paso County – Lincoln County line, is the community of Kendrick – Colorado Ghost Town. The community church and few homes are all that’s left of this rural community. The church is located at the junction of CR K and CR 3. Here are some reminders of when more people lived in the area.
There is a stem wall still standing from a barn or shed, a well house, windmills, and other foundations. The church is a good sized compound of the church, pole building, parsonage, and other shed structures.
The church still is open and appears to be thriving, nestled under some tall trees on the NW corner. A dog guards the front yard of the parsonage and the grounds are well maintained.
Across the road is a forlorn mail box collecting rust, and a tree providing nice shade for the mail carrier passing by. There is a small drive thru next to the tree and a few weeds sprout in the path among the grasses. The Kendrick Post Office closed years ago and now the mail comes from a neighboring town.
Near by are numerous farms and some memories of the “Dirty 30’s. Abandoned homesteads sit next to the roadway, roofs gone, sheds falling over, piles of rubble, and drifts of blow dirt in the windbreaks. The lament of the settler can be heard in the whistling breezes of time.
Flying along the ground, the wind lifts the dust swirling it over the land. The groans skid across the dirt, as the grasses bend to be buried. Sand builds in the stock tank and the land thirsts for moisture.
Here one can see the ghosts of hope, the ghosts of destruction and the ghosts of renewal and determination. Many a family left their dreams in the 30’s. But others tenaciously hung on till the 50’s when the next drought rolled out of the sky. Life ebbs and flows with the weather. The land nourishes the soul or drains the life out.
Across the field they walk, looking for hope, determination etched on their countenance.
Kendrick is a classic look at the life of the pioneer with their struggles and triumphs. The song of the prairie echoes over the trees, bounding on the plain.