Calhoun

Calhoun is on the route of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway five miles south of Eagle Lake near the southeastern boundary of Colorado County. This predominantly black settlement, named for John C. Calhoun, grew around a railroad shipping point. By 1910 it had enough residents to establish two general stores and a railroad express and Wells Fargo office. The post office opened in 1912. Two years later the estimated population reached 105. The land around Calhoun is flat and generally sandy, and small independent farmers and tenant farmers in the area produced good crops of potatoes that were shipped by rail. In 1921 the post office closed, and mail was subsequently delivered daily from Eagle Lake. During the Great Depression most of the small farmers drifted away and businesses closed. Some of the nearby land was converted to rice and cotton farming. Cotton was replaced during the 1950s by stock grazing, and this remains the predominant use of the land. In addition to ranching and rice growing, there is a certain amount of oil and gas production in the area, and numerous sand and gravel extraction operations are located between Calhoun and the Colorado River.