Fowler, CO

Fowler is a statutory town in northwestern Otero County, set along the Arkansas River and the Lower Arkansas Valley. It began as an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway station, first called Oxford after an ox was killed while crossing the tracks. The name changed to Fowler in 1890, and the rail-era town grew amid irrigated fields, open plains, and the long east-west route across southeastern Colorado. U.S. 50 still places Fowler between Pueblo and La Junta.

ATTRDicklyon / CC BY-SA 4.0

Present-day Fowler keeps several layers of that history within a small center. The town has a library, museum, restaurants, specialty shops, and a golf course beside a nature trail along the Arkansas River. Fowler School District operates one elementary school and one high school, whose teams are the Grizzlies. The town also sits within the Canyon and Plains heritage landscape, with routes toward Bent's Old Fort, the Santa Fe Trail, and other southeast Colorado sites. Fowler's daily life remains tied to the river valley, the highway, local schools, and agriculture.