Rocky Ford, Colorado
![One of downtown Rocky Ford's restaurants is housed in the first floor of a two-story hotel from the 1920s](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford02.webp)
The El Capitan Restaurant in downtown Rocky Ford
There was a time when railroad sidings were installed every ten miles or so along the mainstem for steam locomotives to stop and take on water. Towns grew up around some of them. Rocky Ford was most likely one of them, although the town is named after an actual trail crossing the Arkansas River here. Today, the Rocky Ford is billed as the "Melon Capitol of the World" because of the prolific cantaloupe production in the area. There's a lot of truck farms around: in mid and late summer you can find some of the smaller local farmers scattered all over the countryside with trucks and stands displaying lots of beautiful veggies and melons for sale.
This is another town that shows evidence of having been more prosperous in the past, although Rocky Ford doesn't seem to be doing too badly these days.
![Rocky Ford's Masonic Temple'](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford01.webp)
The Masonic Temple in downtown Rocky Ford
![Rocky Ford Boys and Girls Club](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford09.webp)
An irrigation canal through Rocky Ford
![Methodist church](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford10.webp)
I think this is a Methodist Church
![church in Rocky Ford, Colorado](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford15.webp)
Another church in Rocky Ford
![Carnegie Library](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford16.webp)
The original Rocky Ford Carnegie Library, now a museum
![A former church conveted to a private residence](a-colorado/otero-county/rockyford18.webp)
A former church in Rocky Ford (1st Church of Christ, Scientist), now a private residence
Otero County Related Pages
Cheraw - Fowler - La Junta - ManzanolaRocky Ford - Swink - Otero County
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