Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 1900-1930
- Still Sundown?
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | 756 | |||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | 2574 | 0 | ||||||
| 1950 | 1463 | 1 | ||||||
| 1960 | 1830 | 0 | ||||||
| 1970 | 1822 | 0 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Police or Other Official Action
- Reputation
- Other
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
The story of Charley Glass, a cowboy that lived in Fruita, CO, in the 1930s, told by a former resident, shows that there had been an ordinance to keep out blacks by night in the 1930s.
See http://gertrudegeiger.tumblr.com/post/60853461047/charley-glass for more information.
John Hafner’s book, Strange But True: Weird Tales of the Wild West, discusses the story of Charley Glass,
“The cemetery in Fruita, Colorado, was reserved by law for whites only. But look closely, and you’ll find non-white Charlie Glass buried there despite the ordinance”(69).
Another source wrote, “When it came time to bury Charlie, he further secured his legendary status, becoming the first black person to be interred in the Fruita Cemetery. Until Charlie’s death, Fruita’s Blacks were forbidden to be on the streets there after 6 p.m. and were not allowed to be buried in the local cemetery.”
(“Rumors Murmured After Fatal Accident of Cowboy Charlie Glass,” by Kathy Jordan).
A 90 year old resident of Colorado who met Charlie Glass claimed that as a black, “you had to be out by sundown and everyone knew it.” This woman also remembered the ordinance that stated blacks were not allowed to be buried in the cemetery in Fruita. Rumors were that the Chinese were run out of Fruita in the early 20th century.
(12/2013 interview)