Boone

Boone is a very small town in eastern Pueblo County

History

Albert Gallatin Boone (a grandson of Daniel Boone) settled on the Arkansas Valley route in the early 1860s and opened a post office there in 1863. Over the late 19th century Boone functioned as a small river-valley service point and stage/railroad stop—its fortunes were tied to transportation (stage lines and later the Santa Fe and Missouri Pacific railroads) and the agricultural trade that those lines carried to and from Pueblo and the plains. The post office name was shortened to Boone in 1891 and the town incorporated much later, on September 22, 1956. Boone never became a large industrial center; rather its peak local importance was as a 19th–early-20th century rural hub for mail, stage/rail service and farm/ranch shipments, with the railroad depot (built in the early 1900s) serving as a community landmark. • The town was named for Albert G. Boone, who at various times served as the local postmaster and briefly as an Indian agent to Cheyenne and Arapaho people in the valley—linking the place directly to the Boone family legacy. • The old Santa Fe railroad depot (built in the 1910s) still stands and has been a focal historic building for the community; it has served different civic roles over time. • Boone had importance as a stage station on the Arkansas Valley immigrant route before the railroad arrived, so its history predates many later rail towns in the region.

Geography

Geographically Boone sits along the Arkansas River in eastern Pueblo County at roughly 38.2486° N, 104.2564° W (elevation ≈ 4,465 ft). The town’s official area is about 1.006 km² (≈0.39 sq mi) of which a very small portion is water (around 0.025 km²), giving a compact, small-town footprint. Boone’s recorded population was 305 in the 2020 U.S. Census (recent estimates place it close to that figure), and demographic breakdowns show a mixed community with a substantial Hispanic/Latino portion alongside non-Hispanic white residents; median age and income figures reflect a small, older-skewing rural population. For present-day planning and visitor purposes Boone is a tiny statutory town within the Pueblo metro area with population density measured in the several hundreds per square mile because of its small area.

Comment

Given the History of the Boone family / name, it was only after I got home and began researching Boone, Colorado that I learned of the ties to the legendary Daniel Boone. Somehow the town is missing an opportunity to capitalize on this piece of trivia!