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Standard Atlas of Kit Carson County Colorado Plat Book Maps of the county's six towns - Burlington, Flagler, Stratton, Vona, Bethune and Seibert - show the original plats as well as the additions that became the major sections of one town in later years and were completely forgotten by others. According to Ogle & Co.'s maps, the original site of Burlington was a 35-block square area bordered on the south by Rose Avenue and on the north by Webster Avenue and running east from First Street to its westernmost boundary of Eighth Street. Then, a Cleveland Addition one block wide and seven blocks long joins that parcel of ground on the north. New Burlington abuts the old town on the west and runs through to 18th Street with the familiar east-west avenue names of Rose, Donelan, Lowell, Senter, Martin and Webster, and from 18th Street begins the First Addition, with street names reading west as Cherry, Oak, Pomeroy, Lincoln, Sycamore, Madison, Genessee, Harrison, Frederick, Robertson, Hollowell, Eldridge, Vine and Marion; adding another avenue - Colfax - north of the railroad tracks. But how many Burlington residents are aware of Brown's Addition, which was located north of the railroad tracks and running along the west side of the present Highway 385? It was bordered on the west perimeter with the north-south Castle Street and, with Warren Avenue running adjacent to the north side of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad tracks, included Fort Wayne, Mount Etna, Stout, Wallace, Florence, Knowles, Thornton, Gilmore, Randolf and Muncie Avenues. Flagler, located north of the railroad tracks, began with just a four by three (total of 12) block area in the original town which sported the usual Third, Fourth and Fifth street names while avenues were B, C, etc., with the exception of Main Street. To the north and east of the original town was White's first addition, and White's second addition was directly north. McGonigal's addition ran east of the original town and three more additions were noted to the east of White's first: Seal's Addition, Kruchten's Addition and Buck's Addition, with four blocks in each, including a Center Street between Seventh and Eighth streets. Surrounding the original town of Stratton are Messenger's and the Wade and Fritz Additions to the west; Collin's Addition to the east and Stegman's and Leoffier's Additions to the south; while the original town of Vona was enlarged by four more blocks in a resurvey and Hayne's Addition was added to the east, with Saggau's Addition south of that. Bethune, three city blocks from south to north, was bordered on the south by the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, followed by First, Second and Third Avenues while streets were "A", Main; "B", etc. Seibert, with a First and Second Streets, named its avenues much like those of Stratton: Chicago, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Ohio, Iowa and Texas, running north and south. Population of the county in the early 1900s was high, due mainly to the small homesteaded parcels of land and farm houses literally just a "stone's throw" away from each other. The population of Kit Carson County in 1900 was counted as 1,580 and leaped to 7,483 in just 10 short years. By 1920 the county's population was 8,915 and reached its peak in 1930, with an all-time high of 9,725 residents. |
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