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Could the once-thriving town of Dearfield become a national park?

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Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Surrounded by encroaching Black Honey Locust trees, the fallen-down remains of the Squire Brockman House in Dearfield lay a short walk west from the Dearfield Lodge. Brockman was the town blacksmith and car mechanic, and a skills violinist who drew audiences, including white folk from Dearfield and surrounding communities.

In the early 1900s the little farming community of Dearfield on the plains east of Denver embodied the dreams of the Black people who homesteaded there. Now, U.S. representatives Joe Neguse, who’s a Democrat, and Ken Buck, a Republican, are co-sponsoring a bill to explore making the town site a national park.