Howbert, Colorado

Howbert is a defunct community that existed from 1887 to 1933 in southeastern Park County in central Colorado. Begun as an outpost of the former Colorado Midland Railway, it was named for Irving Howbert, who was an organizer and officer of Colorado Midland, a former member of the Colorado State Senate, a banker, silver mine owner, and a founder with General William Jackson Palmer of Colorado Springs. Irving Howbert never lived in the community. Howbert and two nearby communities were fully submerged under Eleven Mile Reservoir in Eleven Mile State Park.

Howbert was a ranching outpost, where an eight-thousand-head cattle sale was concluded in August 1907. The community was first called Dell's Camp, presumably for B. R. Dell, who had opened a general store there before the arrival of the railroad. The United States Post Office opened in Howbert in December 1887. The next year, 125 lots were platted on land owned by James M. Petty. To accommodate growth in the community, Dell constructed a three-story building in 1888. The store and post office operated on the ground level. The basement was used for storage and the upstairs as a church and meeting hall.

The South Park Hotel, owned by Hardy and Josephine Epperson, also opened in Howbert in 1888; it included a restaurant and an adjoining shop for shoemaking. Howbert had many town services, a railroad depot, a school, a drugstore, a telegraph office, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, two or three saloons, and originally twenty-five houses. The town also had a cemetery the location of which is unknown. Presumably, at least two prostitutes lived in a house by the railroad.

The 1910 United States Census showed 35 households in Howbert; in the 1930 census, which was the last, there were 107 residents in 31 households. Festivities were important to Howbert. Nearly everyone attended the annual ball. In November 1888, there was an elaborate election party, with a barbecue and a dance, when Benjamin Harrison upset U.S. President Grover Cleveland. The party was the result of a bet; whichever side lost the wager paid for the festivities. Both beef and mutton were served.

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