I lived there from 70 - 80. The population was 5000 or so. It’s down to about 4000 now. I was there in 2011 for my 30th reunion. It’s a bit dustier than I remember, but mostly the same.
If I remember much about living on the VA grounds at Ft Lyon and going to elementary school in Las Animas, it was the dust everywhere.
And the thrill of watching a dust storm rolling in. Those thing could be scary, like biblical stuff, wall of brown advancing on you.