Small group weighs in on Dearfield preservation
Open comment period closes Feb. 23
Chuck Banks’ family owns property in Weld County bordering Dearfield, the former Black agricultural community established in the early 20th century. The deed to Banks’ grandmother’s land dates to 1914, and Banks wants to reestablish a homestead on the 160 acres.
Banks is not the only person in northern Colorado and beyond with a deep interest in an old rural townsite that saw its short life end with the Dust Bowl and Depression. Oliver Toussaint Jackson established Dearfield in 1910, and the town became the largest Black homesteading settlement in Colorado.
Representatives from the National Park Service on Wednesday evening solicited opinions on Dearfield’s potential inclusion in the national park system at a public meeting at the Greeley History Museum, 714 8th St. Banks and about two dozen others who attended the meeting had in-person access to park service personnel as the federal agency considers whether Dearfield meets the criteria to become a national park site.
Banks wanted to learn how to secure better access to his family’s land and register his support for Dearfield joining the National Park Service.
“My grandmother had so many great memories of Dearfield,” Banks said. He recalled one such memory of his grandmother Jessie Marie Collins was venturing into fields and picking up hardened manure pucks to use as a heat source during the winter.
“I think it’s great to bring history back into the area,” Banks continued, adding he wants to help in any way he can to be part of the development of a park site at Dearfield.
The National Park Service is in the early phase of its evaluation, known as the Dearfield Special Resource Study. The park service will use the study to determine if the site merits recommendation as a national park.
The study and the National Park Service’s work on Dearfield was authorized in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 signed by President Joe Biden in December 2022.
Wednesday’s public meeting in Greeley, a Tuesday evening meeting attended by about 20 people in Denver and a virtual meeting Friday were scheduled by the park service to gather information for the study. NPS personnel took notes, answered questions and provided information on the study process.
The virtual meeting Friday will run from 10 a.m. to noon. The link to the meeting is accessible on the Dearfield project page on the National Park Service website, bit.ly/npsdearfield23. A recording of the meeting will remain available at the same link.
Charles Lawson of the National Park Service said the agency will have its evaluation completed in about a year, in mid to late 2025. The recommendation will go to the Secretary of the Interior — the National Park Service is a bureau within the Department of the Interior in the U.S. government — and then to Congress.
With the recommendation, it’s then up to Congress to act — or not. Congress may or may not act on or follow the recommendation, and there is no timeline for its action based on the study. The study will be made public once it’s received by Congress.
The public comment period closes Feb. 23. The National Park Services encourages comments. Lawson said the best way for the public to share thoughts is online. Those comments may be entered on the study project page. There is an “open for comment” link on the left side of the page.
“Now, Congress is asking the National Park Service for an opinion on an addition to the service,” Lawson said at the meeting. “More parks are created through grassroots efforts of the public than a recommendation of Congress.”
Under a 1998 act establishing the process for identifying and authorizing studies of new national park units, an area must meet all four criteria to be recommended for inclusion in the park system:
1. Contain nationally significant natural or cultural resources;
2. Represent a natural or cultural resource that is not already adequately represented in the system or is not comparably represented and protected for public enjoyment by another land managing entity;
3. Must be of sufficient size and appropriate configuration to ensure long-term protection of the resources and visitor enjoyment and capable of efficient administration at a reasonable cost; important feasibility factors include: land ownership, acquisition costs, life cycle maintenance costs, access, threats to the resource and staff or development requirements; and
4. Require direct NPS management that is clearly superior to other management approaches.
“We heard a lot of ideas, and the turnout was fantastic,” Lawson said near the end of the evening. “Nobody goes to public meetings. People care about this place.”
According to the park service, about 1 in 3 completed congressionally authorized studies have led to a finding where the study area has met all of the criteria. Many of the studies determine resources do not meet the required criteria or existing management, technical or financial assistance, or local, state or private initiatives are preferable to the establishment of a new national park unit.
Breanna Wilson and her family live within the Dearfield subdivision not far from the buildings that remain standing from O.T. Jackson’s day. Wilson’s family attended the meeting in Greeley to hear what was being said about Dearfield. Wilson is taking a wait-andsee approach to the possibility of a national park site being in her backyard.
If a national park were to be created at Dearfield, Congress would legislate a boundary that may or may not conform to the study area. The study area is about 162 contiguous acres broken into 90 privately owned parcels.
Land within the boundary of the study area could remain in private hands, or Congress may authorize the service to acquire property within a park boundary in the future. The properties generally may only be acquired by purchase from willing sellers or through donation or exchange.
“We think it’s a great idea to preserve Black history,” Wilson said. “I’m not against it, and I’m not 100% for it. It’s the first home I ever bought, and if it’s potentially bought by the park service, it’s alarming and exciting.”