Photograph of Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site — Photograph by Plazak at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Sand Creek Massacre Site

Built in 2007. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

From the record

“Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site is a National Historic Site in Kiowa County, Colorado, commemorating the Sand Creek massacre that occurred here on November 29, 1864. The site is considered sacred after the unprovoked assault on an encampment of approximately 750 Native people resulted in the murder of hundreds of men, women and children.”
Wikipedia article Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Kiowa County · listed in 2001 · category: Site · built in 2007.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Near jct. of Cty Rd. 54 and Cty Rd. W, Eads, 81036
When was it listed? September 2001
Category. site
Census division. Sheridan Lake
When was it built? 2007
National Register reference number. 01001055 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

1 since 2016

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Sand Creek Massacre Site in 2016, burning about 455 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
17 July 2016	Natural	455 acres	Kiowa County	BIG SANDY

Every fire recorded in Kiowa County

Storms near this property

60 of 144 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Eads, the town this property stands in, in 144 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 95 hail, 23 tornado, 14 thunderstorm wind, 6 funnel cloud. The reports record 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	3 hurt, $10,000	Three semi-trailers were blown over on US Highway between 1 and 3 miles north of Eads.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	$7,000	Numerous powers poles knocked down.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	$1,000	Slight roof damage to a house.
April 2010	Tornado (EF1)	Eads	$1,000	Tornado occurred over open country, but totally destroyed a small storage barn 10.3 miles southwest of Eads. Debris from the barn was carried as far as 1500 feet to the north-northeast.
April 2025	Hail	Eads	-	Images Shared From Emergency Management Of Large Hail.
August 2025	Hail	Eads	-	Hail measured to 1.5 inches occurred in south central Kiowa County.
May 2024	Hail	Eads	-	A CoCoRaHS source reported hail of 1 inch in diameter.
May 2023	Tornado (EFU)	Eads	-	Brief ground circulation beneath funnel cloud.
June 2023	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	-	Power poles snapped.
July 2022	Heavy Rain	Eads	-	Heavy rainfall of 2.3 inches.
March 2021	Heavy Rain	Eads	-	Heavy rain of 1.54 inches.
July 2020	Hail	Eads	-	Eleven miles west northwest of Eads. 0.40 inches of water.
June 2020	Hail	Eads	-	Public report of 1 inch hail.
May 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Large hail reported by storm chaser south of Eads, CO.
May 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Large hail reported by Kiowa County Emergency Manager in Eads, CO.
May 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Large hail reported by storm chaser south of Eads, CO.
May 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Large hail reported by trained SKYWARN spotter west of Eads, CO.
May 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Large hail reported by storm chaser south of Eads, CO.
May 2019	Tornado (EFU)	Eads	-	Trained SKYWARN spotter reported a brief tornado, lasting about a minute, south of Eads, CO. No damage was reported from this tornado. An NWS damage survey was not conducted given the lack of damage indicators so a proper EF rating could not be concluded.
August 2019	Hail	Eads	-	Ping pong ball size hail was reported.
July 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	-	Four inch diameter tree limbs broken.
July 2017	Flash Flood	Eads	-	Th underpass at US Highway 287 and State Highway 96 was flooded with over 2 feet of water. County Road 40 was also flooded.
April 2016	Tornado (EFU)	Eads	-	Storm chasers captured video of a tornado across open country. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.
April 2016	Tornado (EFU)	Eads	-	Storm chasers captured video of a tornado across open country. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.
April 2016	Tornado (EFU)	Eads	-	Storm chasers captured video of a tornado across open country. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.
May 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	-	Multiple trees downed.
May 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	A tornado produced no known damage as it tracked across mostly open country.
July 2014	Flash Flood	Eads	-	A nearly stationary strong storm produced over 5 inches of rain in and around Eads. Numerous roads and a viaduct were flooded. US Highway 287 was closed for a time.
July 2014	Flash Flood	Eads	-	Strong storms with heavy rain caused flash flooding in the south central section of the county. Numerous roads were flooded with washouts reported.
July 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Eads	-	Gusty winds caused no known damage.
June 2012	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	A tornado occurred over open fields south of Eads causing no known damage.
June 2012	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	A large, slowly rotating tornado occurred over a field, and caused no known damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country with no damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
July 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	A tornado occurred over open country...causing no damage.
July 2010	Funnel Cloud	Eads	-	A funnel cloud stay well above ground.
April 2010	Tornado (EF0)	Eads	-	Tornado occurred over open country and caused no damage.
July 2009	Funnel Cloud	Eads	-	A very weak, short-lived funnel cloud quickly dissipated.
May 2003	Tornado (F0)	Eads	-	A brief tornado over open country caused no known damage or injures.
August 2002	Tornado (F0)	Eads	-	A small, weak, short-lived tornado caused no known damage.
May 2001	Tornado (F0)	Eads	-	A brief touchdown occurred with no known damage.
July 2000	Tornado (F0)	Eads	-	A long lasting supercell moved south across Kiowa, Bent, Prowers, and Baca counties over a three and a half hour time frame. The main damage was caused by high winds and large hail. The majority of the damage was around the mesocyclone, which tracked across central Kiowa, eastern Bent, and western Baca counties. From time to time, the mesocyclone produced brief tornadoes. Tornado paths were not found during a damage survey, owing to the lack of trees, crops, fence line, and roads. Photographic evidence and eyewitness accounts of the tornadoes was helpful in estimating the path lengths and size of the tornadoes. The first reported tornado was short-lived and over open country of north-central Kiowa county and caused no known damage.
July 2000	Tornado (F0)	Eads	-	The supercell cycled another tornado. The nearly continuous path was over open country. Because of the lack of trees, crops, fence line, and roads, the exact path of the tornado was difficult to determine, and no damage was discovered.
October 1997	Hail	Eads	-	A thunderstorm , embedded in a long line of storms, became severe and dropped some large hail over a small area. There was no known property or crop damage.
June 1995	Hail	Eads	-	Brief tornado in open country caused no known damage.
June 2021	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
June 2021	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
June 2021	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
June 2018	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
May 2017	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
August 2017	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed
April 2016	Hail	Eads	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kiowa County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

1 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph	Property	Distance	Listed
	Sand Creek Massacre Site (Boundary Increase)	2.0 miles	2016

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001055 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Kiowa County	All 7 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.