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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Sugar Junction (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Sugar Junction. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Sugar Junction ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Sugar Junction: Sugar Jct. (or less commonly used: Sugar Jctn.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Sugar Junction. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Sugar Junction.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Sugar Junction is located in Rio Grande County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Rio Grande County: Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Mineral & Saguache.

Below are the counties that are near Sugar Junction. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Sugar Junction:

  • Rio Grande County     (The home county of Sugar Junction)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sugar Junction, with the one closest to Sugar Junction listed first.
    • Homelake
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Monte Vista
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Center
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Center is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Center
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,385 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Center <1>
    • Del Norte
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jasper ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
    • Agua Ramon
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Agua Ramon is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agua Ramon
    • Gerrard
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Gerrard is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gerrard
    • Summitville ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Summitville is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summitville
    • South Fork
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Alamosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sugar Junction, with the one closest to Sugar Junction listed first.
    • Parma
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Parma is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parma
    • Waverly
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Waverly is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waverly
    • Mosca
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Alamosa
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Alamosa East
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Alamosa East is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamosa East
    • Henry
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Henry is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Henry
    • Hooper
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Conejos County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sugar Junction, with the one closest to Sugar Junction listed first.
    • Capulin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • La Jara
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Bountiful
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Bountiful is located in Conejos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bountiful
    • Sanford
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Platoro
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Platoro is located in Conejos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Platoro
    • Manassa
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Romeo
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Sugar Junction, see our County-by-County Page for Sugar Junction.

Cemeteries Near Sugar Junction ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sugar Junction.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Sugar Junction - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Sugar Junction covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Sugar Junction, with the one closest to Sugar Junction listed first.

  • Monte Vista Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • San Luis Valley Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Lariat Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lariat Cemetery
    • The Lariat Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Workers Union Cemetery
  • Rock Creek Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Stanley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Valdeses Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Speiser Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Alamosa Spanish Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Del Norte Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Alamosa Municipal Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • De la Luz Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Capulin Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • St. Joseph Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • La Jara Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Becker Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<4>

While we didn't find Sugar Junction in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Sugar Junction.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Sugar Junction, with the one closest to Sugar Junction listed first.

  • Monte Vista
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Parma
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Parma is located in Alamosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parma
  • Del Norte
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Hooper
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Capulin
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • La Garita
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • La Garita is located in Saguache County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Garita
  • Jasper ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
  • La Jara
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Sanford
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Summitville ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Summitville is located in Rio Grande County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summitville
  • Platoro
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Platoro is located in Conejos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Platoro
  • Manassa
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Lasauses
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lasauses is located in Conejos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lasauses
  • South Fork
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Sugar Junction. See our List of 1890's Communities around Sugar Junction.

Newspapers Published in Sugar Junction ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sugar Junction.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sugar Junction, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sugar Junction.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Sugar Junction:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sugar Junction) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Sugar Junction, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.