Las Animas County

Small quakes are common in the southern Colorado area.

Billie Jean Gooden

May 30, 1934 - August 13, 2019

Billie Gooden, 85, of La Junta, passed away unexpectedly August 13, 2019, in Aurora. Billie was born on May 30, 1934, to Bill and Ruby Whitman, and was the second born of six daughters. She married her high school sweetheart, Tom Gooden, June 6, 1952, in Raton, New Mexico. He preceded her in death March 18, 2007. They had four children.

Billie Jean Gooden

May 30, 1934 - August 13, 2019

Funeral services are pending. 

Mrs. Gooden went to be with her Lord following a brief illness in the University Hospital in Denver.

Arrangements are under the direction of Brown Funeral Home.

Second earthquake in two days along the Colorado-New Mexico border.

3.8 quake early Sunday morning is the strongest in Colorado so far this year.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has ordered flags be lowered to half-staff statewide on all public buildings from sunrise until sunset Thursday, December 20, to honor Las Animas County Sheriff's Deputy Sergeant Matthew Moreno.

Moreno, 37, of Trinidad, died in a traffic crash last week. He was responding to an incident when the vehicle he was traveling in collided with another vehicle. The driver of that car and her daughter also were killed.  The incident remains under investigation.

Rio Blanco County experienced its third earthquake in a day Saturday as a magnitude 3.4 quake shook an area approximately 50 miles north of Grand Junction.

The quake occurred at 4:42 a.m. and was about one mile beneath the surface. It was located about four miles southwest of a 4.3 earthquake that occurred Friday morning. That quake was the strongest of the year in Colorado so far. A magnitude 2.9 quake was also recorded in the area Friday by the United State Geological Survey.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is alerting visitors to its wildlife areas and park in Las Animas County that fire restrictions enacted by the sheriff apply on state-controlled areas.

High winds and low humidity have created dangerous conditions and produced devastating wildfires leading Las Animas County to enact Stage 2 fire restrictions.

Sheriff James Casias announced the fire restrictions, with approval of the Board of County Commissioners, after two wildfires broke out April 17: the 728-acre Broken Ranch Fire and the 4,783-acre Trinchera Creek Fire.

A small earthquake occurred early Saturday morning in northwest Colorado.

According to the United States Geological Survey the quake, measuring 2.7 on the Richter Scale, happened shortly after 1:00 a.m. Saturday about 18 miles north of Glenwood Springs in Garfield county. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 1.7 miles.

Only one person has reported feeling the quake.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a relatively minor earthquake near Trinidad in Las Animas county Saturday night.

The quake measured 3.6 on the Richter scale, and was located 18 miles west of Trinidad at a depth of about three miles. Two hours after it occurred, only four people had reported feeling the quake.

The location is just outside the southwest boundary of the Spanish Peaks State Wildlife area.