Evans

The board honors John Evans as governor and railroad builder and leaves out why he stopped being governor. In 1864 he issued the proclamations that urged settlers to pursue hostile Indians and keep their property; after Sand Creek, congressional investigators found his testimony evasive, and he resigned at President Johnson's request in 1865. A Northwestern University study in 2014 found no evidence he planned the massacre and judged his conduct after it a deep moral failure. Governor Polis formally rescinded the proclamations in 2021. The railroad town kept his name, and lost the county seat to Greeley in 1877.

What the plaque says

Evans Construction of the Denver Pacific Railroad, linking Denver and Cheyenne, stopped here for the winter of 1869, and a town was begun. It was named Evans in honor of the second territorial governor, John Evans, builder of the Denver Pacific. According to tradition, the first church services were held in railroad passenger coaches. The townsite was part of a 900,000 acre land grant the railroad received from the federal government to help finance construction by selling land to settlers. The St. Louis Colony, a cooperative agricultural community, brought enough settlers to Evans to create a "boom town," which was the Weld County seat until it lost the honor in the seventies. A stage line ran between Evans and Denver until the completion of the railroad in 1870. Erected by the students of Evans Junior-Senior High School and by the State Historical Society of Colorado from Mrs. J. N. Hall endowment.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Fort Vasquez — 14 mi
• Fort Lupton — 20 mi
• Fort Junction — 21 mi
• Namaqua — 23 mi