34 on 34: Tribune photojournalist chronicles life along U.S. 34

But while it's in Weld County, the route is filled with history.

It follows the natural route of the South Platte River, which means that even in the prehistoric times, man and animals followed the water. Arrowheads and other artifacts along the route show man was here up to 25,000 years ago, hunting the mammoth, bears, even prehistoric pigs the size of today's cattle.

Indians followed the river route, past what would become Sterling and Fort Morgan, into Weld County; the white man would come later, and the Indian wars would begin.

Later, the stageline and the railroad took their routes along the river, east to west, building and growing.

In 1914, the Lincoln Highway was built, named like many roads that led west out of Lincoln, Neb. Towns along the highway grew stronger -- Greeley and Kersey -- and towns started and disappeared, such as Hardin and Masters and Dearfield.

Dearfield was a town unique to Colorado and one of the few "Negro colonies" in the United States. It was founded in 1910 by Oliver T. Jackson as a colony for former slaves and other blacks who wanted to settle together. At one time, 700 people lived in the town in eastern Weld County -- it had two lodges, a post office and school.

But drought, the Depression and indifference by leaders in the county and state spelled the end of the town, and it was abandoned in the late 1940s. Today, Dearfield is simply a highway sign and a small collection of worn-down buildings.

And today along U.S. 34, this ribbon of history, the farmers and ranchers still work their cattle and crops, the townspeople of Greeley and Kersey use the highway to connect the plains to the mountains, and those who study our history still remember.

-- Mike Peters