Black Towns

A Forgotten Piece Of African-American History On The Great Plains

By editor • Apr 12, 2017

Blink while driving on Highway 34, east of Greeley, Colo., and you might miss the former town of Dearfield.

All that's left of the once-thriving town on Colorado's eastern plains are a rundown gas station, a partially collapsed lunch counter and a former lodge. They are the only indication that there was once a community here. The grass around these buildings is crispy and straw-colored, whipped back and forth by relentless winds. The snowcapped Rocky Mountains barely peek through the haze to the west.

Ghost Towns: All Black Oklahoma Towns

By Quinton Chandler • May 23, 2014

For the final part of our ghost town series we resurrect the history behind not one but dozens of settlements spread throughout the state. The all black towns of Oklahoma. KOSU’s Quinton Chandler reports most of these towns were small unorganized rural communities that are almost all dead and gone. But there are a few left to give us a hazy picture of the past.