Colorado Town, Now Underwater, Beckons Former Residents and Their Descendants to Reunite on the Shore

(Photos provided)

By Genevieve Johannsen

In Las Animas County, in Southern Colorado, a trinity of mountain streams begins high in the Sangre de Cristo Range, and the three become one to form the Purgatoire River, just to the west of Cordova Plaza, on State Highway 12. The name reflects folklore of Spanish travelers who had been in the area when a sudden flood swept several members into the rushing waters, drowning them. The survivors named the river “Río de las Animas Perdidas,” which translates to “River of Lost Souls,” because they had no hope of a final blessing or an opportunity for reconciliation.

As the river flows east along the highway, it passes through the many small coal camps and farms established in the late 1800s and early 1900s, one of which was Sopris — a series of neighborhoods where families and competing companies mined coal.

One Catholic church served the neighborhoods, built on land gifted to Father Charles Pinto by Thomas Martin, one of the founders of the neighborhood nearest the river. Perhaps in gratitude, the church and the community became known as St. Thomas. As the community grew, the church grew, soon requiring the addition of a wing to accommodate the growing membership.

Three neighborhoods had grocery stores where parents shopped for needed items and children could purchase luxuries like small candies, baseball cards and ice cream treats. Local taverns were much more than drinking establishments; they were where families came together as a community center, women visited and children played, while the men played bocce in the alleys outdoors. Children were raised to respect their elders, help whenever possible, do well in school, show kindness and expect kindness in return.

Each new generation was welcomed through Baptism, brought up to know the faith, and receive the sacraments. When children reached young adulthood and were preparing to graduate and go into the world, the community gathered with them to celebrate their Baccalaureate Mass. Stories about swinging from the rope to ring the bell on Sunday mornings and altar server training abound. Fond memories recall Sunday School at the local school, often taught by high school friends, who probably spent their entire allowance on rewards to give to their young students when prayers were learned and Scripture was recited.

Love stories abounded, and the community was tightly woven with family ties stretching back generations. As new immigrants from Europe, Scandinavia and Mexico arrived in Sopris to work in the mines, and, if unmarried, to court locals, relationships and families formed. The children of those immigrants began life knowing classmates and friends. To look at the households linked by generations of marriage would be a tightly woven pattern of many colors. The grandparents, many of the first to marry, were blessed with long and fruitful lives, often living to celebrate their 60th and even 70th wedding anniversaries.

Through all of these years, the Purgatoire River was both friend and foe, giving and taking away, bringing water to the fields and providing abundance, then coming through the neighborhoods too fast and too full, filling the fields and destroying the crops, washing away the roads and train tracks, and moving on to nearby Trinidad, wiping out every bridge and causing millions of dollars of damage.

Eventually, the decision was made to “build a fortress” to protect the area, so plans began to form, and it was decided that Sopris would be sacrificed, bought out and reduced to rubble.

By 1970, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers had purchased all properties in the neighborhoods that made up Sopris.

Guided by Father Jim Koenigsfeld and those who remained in the area, the first Sopris Reunion was held on the Saturday of the Fourth of July weekend, beginning with a Mass at St. Thomas Church. The people of Sopris have remained connected and are still a community united by love, family and memories, despite their distance from each other.

This summer, the Sopris community will gather again on the south shore of the reservoir to worship, break bread and rejoice together. All who once lived in Sopris and their descendants are invited to join with family and friends, beginning around 8:00 a.m. and continuing until participants must leave. Shelter and seating will be provided, and box lunches can be purchased in advance. Registration packets can be requested by sending an email to soprisreunion2025@gmail.com.