Established on Colorado’s southeastern plain around 1891, this Otero County ghost town stands between the small towns of Rocky Ford and Manzanola. The settlement sprang up around a railroad siding bearing the name Weitzer. Its namesake, Frederick Weitzer, was an American of German descent who lived in Rocky Ford with his family. Weitzer had managed a sugar beet factory in Norfolk, Neb., and by 1901 was managing the newly opened American Beet Sugar Co. factory in Rocky Ford.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, which had run trains through the area since 1876, helped the fledgling town develop. The post office, which doubled as a general store, opened in 1908, and a blacksmith started up beside the railroad station. Weitzer served mainly as a beet dump (or drop point for beet shipments) for American Beet Sugar. As farming and ranching flourished, Weitzer and surrounding towns grew. By the time Weitzer got its post office, Rocky Ford’s population was approaching 3,000, and Manzanola’s stood at around 400. (Weitzer’s population is unrecorded.) The crop from these towns helped Colorado remain the nation’s leading beet sugar–producing
state for much of the 20th century. • During World War I, due to anti-German sentiment, town officials dropped the name Weitzer in favor of Vroman (Dutch in origin), after businessman and eventual Otero County commissioner John C. Vroman (1847–1926). Vroman is buried alongside family members in the Manzanola Mountain View Cemetery.
Following the closure of two previous schools, Vroman School—offering classes through eighth grade for the sugar beet farmers’ children—opened its doors in 1918. The Denver architectural firm of Mountjoy, French & Frewen designed the two-story brick building in Mediterranean Revival style.
At its 1930 peak Vroman had a population of 605, but the Great Depression fnancially devastated the area, and the town spiraled into decline. The post office closed in 1954, and the school followed in 1971, its students shifting over to the public schools in Rocky Ford. Rocky Ford and Manzanola managed to survive hard times.
Today the largest town within a 50-mile radius of the Vroman townsite is Pueblo (pop. 108,000). In 2005 a fre gutted the Vroman School building, leaving just a partial framework. Few other structures remain. Foliage has claimed the rest.
To reach Vroman from Pueblo, drive east on U.S. 50 about 50 miles. The townsite, accessible year-round by passenger car, stands just north of the highway about 4 miles east of Manzanola and 5 miles west of Rocky Ford.
Originally published in the June 2015 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
