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

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