The 17th annual Dearfield Day was held Saturday in southeast Weld County, an event celebrating the former predominantly Black townsite dating to the early 20th century.

Located about 25 miles east of Greeley, Dearfield was founded as a Black agricultural community by entrepreneur and businessman O.T. Jackson. An Ohio native, Jackson spent much of his professional life in Colorado. He worked for Gov. John Shafort in the early 1900s before finding his way to Weld County.

In its time, Dearfield was the largest Black homesteading settlement in Colorado. The settlement had anywhere from 200 to 300 residents and was active from 1910 to the early 1930s.

Dearfield Day, starting in 2008, is about awareness and preservation of the former community that is also deeply connected to Black migration in the western U.S.

University of Northern Colorado professors George Junne and Robert Brunswig have been instrumental since the 1990s in studying, preserving, restoring Dearfield while telling the community’s stories and advocating for its significance.

Junne is a professor of Africana studies at UNC. Brunswig is a retired professor of anthropology. They were active participants in Saturday’s Dearfield Day, as they’ve been since the day started in 2008. Approximately 100 people participated in the day this year.

“It’s fantastic,” Junne said. “The more we know about Dearfield, the better it is. It’s enjoyable to see all these people. Old and young, bringing their kids out and learning about Dearfield.”

Dearfield preservationists have used grant funding over the years in their efforts to renovate and rebuild the site. Dearfield is currently benefitting from a $100,000 grant from the Weld Community Foundation for infrastructure work at the old filling station.

“I think we have enough momentum and I think it will continue,” Brunswig said of work at the site and Dearfield’s future. “It’s going to be slower. It takes a lot of funding and it’s becoming scarce.”

There are also two active grants in the works from the National Park Service. One for about $743,000 was awarded in June 2024. The funding from this grant will also go toward work at the filling station. Another NPS grant of about $700,000 was awarded in July. The money from this grant will go toward work at the O.T. Jackson House, Brunswig said.