Last of the Indian wars

Prisoners of the Bluff War in Thompson, Utah, waiting to board a train for their trial in Denver. Photo includes Marshal Nebeker, carrying the binoculars, and General Scott, third from left. Chief Polk (Narraguinnep) is standing in between Nebeker and Jess Posey, while Chief Posey stands to the right of Jess, next to Tse-ne-gat.

Ute and Piute bands battle settlers and Navajo police

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Like most conflict, it had been brewing for years. But it boiled over in March, 1914, with an incident between a Utah shepherd and Tse-ne-gat, the son of the Paiute Chief Narraguinnep ("Polk"). 

When Chief Posey and his band of renegades became involved and helped Polk fight a small guerrilla war against local Mormon settlers and Navajo policemen near the town of Bluff, Utah, trouble boiled in Montezuma Valley at least until March, 1915, when Ole Polk (Narraguinnep) and Posey surrendered to the United States Army. It became known as the "Ute Mountain Incident" and the rising tension as "the Bluff War."

Tse-ne-gat in Denver, on trial.

Ute Mountain Incident

"Armed combat between the United States and American Indians was considered over by the turn of the 20th century. But 15 years later, the so-called Bluff War deep in Ute country in San Juan County, Utah, and Montezuma County, Colorado, stirred up emotions on both sides," wrote Mychel Mathews in Hidden History, Magic Valley.com

The March 9, 1915, edition of the Twin Falls Times posted the headline “Indian Hunters Score” on a story about the capture of Tse-ne-gat — the son of Ute Chief “Old Polk” — who allegedly murdered a Mexican sheepherder named Juan Chacon the previous year on the Ute Mountain Reservation in Colorado.

"A posse of 26 cowboys, led by Marshal Aquila Nebeker, found Tse-ne-gat and Old Poke with Paiute Chief Posey near Blanding, Utah. Then known as Grayson, the area was at the center of the Ute’s last hunting grounds.

“One White man, one Indian brave and an Indian maiden were killed in the battle,” newspaper accounts said. Joseph C. Akin of Colorado, who in some reports is described as a U.S. Marshal, was killed. The Indian maiden was “believed to have been shot by the (stray) bullet of an Indian.” Two other Indians in addition to the Colorado marshal, were also said to have been killed, according to news reports.

State troops initially weren’t asked to join the battle, which continued for several days. The posse “is better able to meet the Indian methods of warfare,” said Nebeker, the marshal, Mathews reported.

But eventually the hard-headed lawman requested backup and the hunt for Tse-ne-gat was turned over to Brig. Gen. Hugh Scott of Virginia. Unarmed, Scott met with Posey, Polk and Tse-ne-gat at Medicine Hat near Navajo Mountain, where the young Ute surrendered.

Driven by anti-Indian sentiment, the military forcibly removed 160 other Ute from their homelands and resettled them on the Ute Mountain Reservation in Colorado.

"Chief Posey played a prominent role in the war, as it was primarily his band who took up arms. Between 1881 and 1923, Posey led his braves in several skirmishes against the Navajo and the American settlers, killing several, including several at the "Pinhook Massacre" on the northwest slopes of the La Sal Mountains. 

His band, which included about 100 people, both Ute and Paiute, was feared and well-known. Unlike most native American tribes, Polk's and Posey's followers did not reside on a reservation, but rather they lived near Bluff, around Allen and Montezuma Canyons. 

Ultimately, Posey's struggle to keep Westward expansion away failed in 1905, when the town of Blanding, then known as Grayson, was founded in the center of the Ute's last prominent hunting grounds. 

For the next ten years, sporadic fighting occurred, until March 1914 when Tse-ne-gat, the son of Chief Polk, allegedly robbed and murdered an ethnic Mexican shepherd named Juan Chacon on the Ute Mountain Reservation in Colorado, according to The History of Utah's American Indians.

Chacon had camped with a group of Utes and Paiutes from Polk's band, among them Tse-ne-gat, also known as Everett Hatch. A few days later Chacon was found dead and witnesses claimed that Tse-ne-gat was responsible. Chief Polk defended his son's actions, so when Navajo policemen attempted to arrest Tse-ne-gat, Polk drove them off with rifle fire. 

For the next six months, newspapers around the United States circulated reports of the incident. By that time, Polk had taken his band, about eighty-five people, to the Navajo Mountain area. Chief Posey and his warriors joined them, setting the stage for a battle. Local newspapers reported that "Hatch [Tse-ne-gat] has a notorious reputation as a bad man" and that his group was "terrorizing" the settlers in the Bluff area, they also said that Tsa-na-gat was "strongly entrenched with fifty braves who will stand by him to the last man."

Tse-ne-gat, son of the Paiute Chief Polk (Narraguinnep,) in Utah taken in the Summer of 1914, by Zane Grey, the author.

Battle of Cottonwood Gulch

Ten months after the murder of Chacon, Tsa-na-gat still had not surrendered so Marshal Aquila Nebeker organized a posse of twenty-six "cowboys" and three sheriffs from Montezuma County, Colorado to make arrests. The posse left Bluff and headed towards Navajo Mountain. Just after dawn, on the morning of February 25, 1915, Marshal Nebeker and the posse came across Chief Polk and fifty of his men encamped in Cottonwood Gulch. 

The weather was very cold and snow covered the ground, reported various papers.  One of the natives in camp spotted the approaching possemen, so he alarmed the others with "woops of warning" before opening fire with a rifle. Other accounts say that the posse achieved a surprise attack and began firing into the camp without warning. 

Either way, the posse implemented a type of "Indian strategy of the kind that one is accustomed to read in the histories of early life in the West." Chief Posey and his band were camped not far from the area, along the San Juan River, and when they heard the sound of the gunfire, Posey led his warriors to Polk's rescue. Posey's men, numbering about forty, maneuvered to the rear of the posse's position and then he gave the order to engage. 

Shortly thereafter, Marshal Nebeker realized that he needed help, so he sent a message back to Bluff requesting reinforcements. Over the next several hours, about fifty volunteers from Bluff, Blanding, Cortez and Monticello arrived in the battle area. The fight continued all night and into the next day, when a truce was called. During the fighting, five of the possemen got separated from the rest and had to hold off the attacking natives from the top of a rocky hill. At least one American was killed, posseman Joseph Carl Akin of Colorado, and several others were wounded, though some accounts say two possemen died.

Other reports say one native, known only as "Jack's Brother," was killed and two others received wounds. A second native woman was also killed when she "ran into the line of battle." Two of the natives, named Howen and Jack, were captured by the posse and later described by "The Day" as being "choice warriors." 

Hysteria in local white communities ran rampant, and it was not until General Hugh L. Scott arrived that the Indians felt comfortable in surrendering. Polk, Tse-Ne-Gat, Posey, and Posey's Boy accompanied Scott to Salt Lake City then Denver, where Tse-Ne-Gat stood trial and the jury found him not guilty.

Local whites were irate, especially when the Indian Rights Association from back East sprang to the Indians' defense. More brush fire conflicts arose in 1917, 1919, and 1921, until finally, in 1923, local whites reached a final "solution." The main force behind this achievement was rooted in an insignificant affair involving two young Utes who robbed a sheep camp, killed a calf and burned a bridge. The culprits voluntarily turned themselves in, stood trial, but then escaped from the sheriff's grasp. The people of Blanding moved quickly to get not only the two boys, but Posey as well, who by this time had become synonymous with all of the ill-will felt between the two cultures. To the towns people, he was the living metaphor of all the troublesome Indians. 

In spite of what the newspapers reported then, and what has since been billed as the "Posey War" or the "last Indian uprising in the United States," the events that followed moved little beyond a mass exodus of Utes and Paiutes fleeing their homes to escape the white men. Posey fought a rear-guard action to prevent capture, was eventually wounded, watched his people get carted off to a barbed wire compound in the middle of Blanding, and died a painful death from his gunshot wound a month later. Only one other Ute died during the incident.

The government took the opportunity to settle both the Allen Canyon Utes involved in the fracas, as well as the Montezuma Canyon Ute band, on individual parcels of land. Twenty-three allotments went to those in Montezuma and neighboring Cross Canyon, and thirty went to those in Allen Canyon, thus removing the Indians from long disputed range lands, according to the "Utah History Encyclopedia."

"The mid-1920s saw the establishment of a small Ute farming community in the Allen Canyon area. Attempts to teach agricultural techniques by local whites, met with nothing but frustration on both sides. Formal education suffered also. The Utes requested a school be built in Allen Canyon but their bid for local education was unsuccessful. The majority of their children attended school at Towaoc, tribal headquarters of the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation just outside of Cortez, Colorado. Many of them were so unhappy, that in 1930, a private home in Blanding, later named the Ute Dormitory served as a first attempt to integrate Ute children into a white school. For eleven years, the dormitory functioned, but was eventually closed because of the expense, the start of World War II, and limited success. Other local attempts to integrate Utes into the educational system met with some resistance, but the seeds for future accomplishments were already planted and would bear fruit later.

"Many Utes realized that their isolation in Allen Canyon was counter-productive, while others living on the outskirts of Blanding, wanted to have better lands for farming. Starting in the mid-1950s, families began to move onto White Mesa and form a community eleven miles south of Blanding. Frame homes arose out of the sagebrush, electricity arrived in 1964, and bus service delivered Ute children to the schools in town. "

"Today the community supports a population of around 350 people, has 100 modern homes with electricity and running water, and is governed by the White Mesa Ute Council, established in 1978. Many of the Ute people are employed in service industries such as schools, motels, etc.; some work for the Council; others are employed at Towaoc in farming projects and in the casino. Every September, the community participates in the traditional Bear Dance and welcomes visitors anxious to share a part of Ute heritage," says  Utah History Encyclopedia.

When the truce was called, Nebeker retreated to Bluff while Chief Polk and Posey led their bands further into the desert. It was believed that after defeating the posse, the two renegade bands would besiege Bluff, but this did not happen. According to newspapers, there were enough men in Bluff to defend the town, but not enough to pursue the natives if and when they chose to escape. Sometime later, a force of about fifty Navajo policemen, from the Navajo Reservation, caught up with the hostiles, but were turned back in the following skirmish. After that, the handling of the situation was turned over to Brigadier General Hugh L. Scott. 

 General Hugh L. Scott and Lorenzo Creel, guide.

 Surrender at Mexican Hat

Upon receiving orders, General Scott traveled all the way from his post in Virginia City to Bluff, in order to negotiate an end to the war. Scott was genuinely uninterested in fighting the hostile Utes and Paiutes, so on March 10, 1915 he left Bluff, unarmed, with just a few of his men, to meet Polk and Posey at a place called Mexican Hat, near Navajo Mountain. 

General Scott described the journey:

"We reached Bluff on March 10 and learned that the Indians had gone to the Navajo Mountains, 125 miles southwest of Bluff. We stayed a day in Bluff and then went on to Mexican Hat. Some friendly Navajos met me at Mexican Hat and went ahead of me to tell Poke's [Chief Polk] band of my coming. Among them was Bzoshe, the old Navajo chief with whom the government had so much trouble with a year ago and who is now our fast friend. I had sent for him to meet me at Bluff. Mr. Jenkins, Indian agent at Navajo Springs, Mr. Creel, Colonel Michie, and my orderly accompanied me to Mexican Hat. None of us had a gun. Jim Boy, a friendly Paiute, was sent out to tell the Paiutes that I wanted to see them. 

"Some of them came near where I was camped, but it wasn't until the third day that anyone dared to come to the camp. Posey and four other Indians then came in. We talked a little through a Navajo interpreter. It was in the evening, and I just asked them how they were. I told them I did not feel very well and did not want to talk to them until the next day. They helped us kill a beef and we gave them a good meal, the first they'd had in weeks. We also gave them some blankets."

According to General Scott, "Posey and his men didn't have any weapons, but I have reason to suspect that they had hidden them nearby. The next day, Poke and Hatch [Tse-ne-gat] and about 25 others came to see me. I asked them to tell me their troubles. I said that I didn't think they would like to have their children chased by soldiers and cowboys all over the mountains and killed and that I wanted to help them. I didn't try to push the matter with them, but asked them what they wanted to do. After they had talked among themselves, they said they would do anything I wanted them to do."

Tse-ne-gat was tried in Denver and found not guilty of the murder charges.

Most folks underestimated Truman

“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.”
― Harry S. Truman

President Harry S. Truman (left), campaigning in Denver, Colorado, shakes hands with a 7-year-old admirer, Susan Smith, who predicted his re-election and spoke of their common interest in the piano.

 'Give 'em Hell' Harry had ties to Colorado

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

It seems, most folks underestimated Harry S. Truman. 

He rose at five every morning to practice the piano, which he studied more than twice a week until he was fifteen, becoming quite a skilled player. He went to business college and used the lessons and experience to obtain a job as a timekeeper on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, sleeping in hobo camps near the rail lines. He then took on a series of clerical jobs, and was employed briefly in the mail room of The Kansas City Star. Truman and his brother Vivian later worked as clerks at the National Bank of Commerce in Kansas City. 

As a soldier, he served as a captain admirably in World War, I including action during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Truman's battery provided support for George S. Patton's tank brigade, and fired some of the last shots of the war on November 11, 1918. Battery D did not lose any men while under Truman's command in France.

He farmed, and immediately after World War I, he became active in several business ventures, including a lead and zinc mine near Commerce, Oklahoma, a company that bought land and leased the oil drilling rights to prospectors, and speculation in Kansas City real estate. Truman occasionally derived some income from these enterprises, but none proved successful in the long term. Later he opened and had part ownership in a haberdashery at 104 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. After brief initial success, the store went bankrupt during the recession of 1921. 

Later of course, he was elected as a Jackson County official in 1922. Truman was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri in 1934 and gained national prominence as chairman of the Truman Committee aimed at reducing waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Soon after succeeding to the presidency he authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy and renounced isolationism. He rallied his New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election and won a surprise victory that secured his own presidential term. Succeeding upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, he implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO.

 

Truman was so widely expected to lose the 1948 election that the Chicago Tribune had printed papers with this erroneous headline when few returns were in.

Truman grew up in Independence, Missouri, and during World War I was sent to France as a captain in the Field Artillery. Returning home, he opened a haberdashery in Kansas City, Missouri and was later elected as a Jackson County official in 1922. Truman was elected to the United States Senate from Missouri in 1934 and gained national prominence as chairman of the Truman Committee aimed at reducing waste and inefficiency in wartime contracts. Soon after succeeding to the presidency he authorized the first and only use of nuclear weapons in war. Truman's administration engaged in an internationalist foreign policy and renounced isolationism. He rallied his New Deal coalition during the 1948 presidential election and won a surprise victory that secured his own presidential term.

President Harry S. Truman walks through a door with Governor Lee Knous at the Colorado State Capitol building. Three other men stand in the hall, one looks directly at the camera.

 

After the onset of the Cold War, Truman oversaw the Berlin Airlift and Marshall Plan in 1948. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, he gained United Nations approval to intervene in what became known as the Korean War. On domestic issues, bills endorsed by Truman faced opposition from a conservative Congress, but his administration successfully guided the U.S. economy through the post-war economic challenges. In 1948, he submitted the first comprehensive civil rights legislation and issued Executive Order 9981 to start racial integration in the military and federal agencies. 

Harry Truman also had connections to Colorado and, at one time, is said to have considered establishing a sort of "summer White House" here. His long-time press secretary was from Victor, Colorado.

Charles Griffith Ross was for a short time in 1905, the editor of the Victor Record. 

Truman's press secretary was his old friend Charles Griffith Ross. He had great integrity but, says Alonzo L. Hamby, as a senior White House aide he was, "A better newsman than news handler, he never established a policy of coordinating news releases throughout the executive branch, frequently bumbled details, never developed ... a strategy for marketing the president's image and failed to establish a strong press office." 

A little over a month prior to his death, on Nov. 1, 1950, Ross is credited with pulling the president away from a window during an assassination attempt at the White House, according to historian Jim Caldwell.

A White House guard was killed and two others were wounded when two Puerto Rico nationals tried to storm Blair House on the White House grounds. The president, taking a nap at the time in Blair House, rushed to the window in his underwear to see what was going on. A guard outside yelling at him and Ross, pulling him away from the window, may have saved his life. Of the two attackers, one was killed in front of the house and the other was gravely on the front steps leading to it.

On Dec. 5, 1950, Charles G. Ross died of a heart attack at his desk in the White House, moments after concluding the afternoon radio and press conference for Harry S. Truman. Ross served as press secretary to the president from 1945 until his death.

The Cripple Creek District Museum has been reminding us of other Truman connections for more than sixty years. 

Snapshot of Bess Truman (center) with Blevins Davis (right) and an unknown woman, all in formal dress. The event date, and location are unknown. From: Nancy Ehrlich, Jackson County Historical Society  

Founded in 1953 by Blevins Davis and Richard Wayne Johnson, the Museum has five historic buildings, two of which are among the oldest commercial structures in town. Blevens Davis was owner of the Cripple Creek Times, and was involved in changing the name of that paper's name to the Gold Rush. The paper was merged into the Courier in 2007. 

Davis grew up next to the Harry S. Truman family and was a lifelong friend and White House visitor of Harry, and his wife and daughter. In 1949, Davis purchased the Claremont Estate in Colorado Springs. The mansion, which he renamed Trianon, was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis Seraph in 1952. Woodmen Sanatorium, also in Colorado Springs, was purchased by Davis in July 1950. 

President Harry S. Truman attending a luncheon in association with the dedication of the Liberty Bell replica given to Independence, MO, by the people of Annecy-le-Vieux, France. From left to right at the head table are Mary Jane Truman, Blevins Davis, President Truman, unidentified man (standing), Mayor Robert Weatherford (standing), and Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder. 

His wife, Marguerite Davis, a railroad heiress died in 1948 and wished to have her fortune used for charitable purposes. The Modern Woodmen Sanatorium property and Trianon were sold to the Poor Sisters of St. Francis (Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration) for $1 in 1952. 

In 1949, Davis purchased the Claremont Estate in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The mansion, which he renamed Trianon, was sold to the Sisters of St. Francis Seraph in 1952. Woodmen Sanatorium, also in Colorado Springs, was purchased by Davis in July 1950. His wife, Marguerite Davis, a railroad heiress died in 1948 and wished to have her fortune used for charitable purposes. The Modern Woodmen Sanatorium property and Trianon were sold to the Poor Sisters of St. Francis (Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration) for $1 in 1952. The combined fortune that they received was worth $2,325,000 (equivalent to $22,135,037 in 2019)

According to "Colorado Newspapers 1935-1977" Walter H. Stewart, Elma St. John Stewart, in a history for the Colorado Press Association:

"Davis became owner of a weekly Cripple Creek, Colorado newspaper in 1951 and took possession in Jan. 1952. It was consolidated under the name The Gold Rush and Gold Rush Publishing in. The Cripple Creek District Museum in Colorado was founded by Blevins Davis, Margaret Giddings and Richard Wayne Johnson, in 1953.

When Davis' obit ran in the New York Times, a headline called attention to his friendship with the Trumans,

"Mr. Davis achieved his greatest success as co‐producer with Robert Breen of the 1952 revival of George Gershwin's “Porgy and Bess.” With State Department backing, they took it on tour in Europe, where it was warmly received. The production over the next four years was hailed in capitals from Madrid to Moscow and on other continents," according to the Times.

Mr. Davis was the son of Charles A. Davis, a banker and businessman in Independence, and grew up as a neighbor and acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Truman. He studied at the University of Missouri and returned to teach English and coach high school plays.

"He joined the dramatic staff of National Broadcasting Company in New York in the 1930's. His first effort as a Broadway producer was the unsuccessful “Rhapsody” in 1944, an operetta based on the melodies of Fritz Kreisler. In 1946 he produced “A Joy Forever,” with Guy Kibbee, and in 1948 “Skipper Next to God,” with John Garfield," said the Times.

"In 1946, Mr. Davis married Mrs. Margaret Sawyer Hill, widow of James N. Hill of the railroad family. She owned Big Tree Farm, a showplace in Glen Head, L. I., and Mr. Davis bought Glendale Farm, an estate outside Independence, where the Trumans were entertained in 1949. Mrs. Davis died in 1948.

A side note in the Times obit. "Mr. Davis was interested in other ventures and in 1951 became co‐owner of a weekly newspaper in Cripple Creek, Colo. He suffered reverses and in 1959 was required by a Kansas City court to sell Glendale Farm to meet loans of more than $400,000 from the City Investment Company of New York."

 According to a more recent Kathy Reynolds' story in the Arvada Press:

"In 1949, after the proud red brick building had served travelers for well over half-a-century, the last passenger train steamed out of Cripple Creek and the old station was boarded up. It stood sadly neglected until 1953. By then, a trickle of tourists had begun to discover Cripple Creek’s charm. There were a few forward looking citizens who felt a museum should be established where bits and pieces of the past might be collected, preserved and enjoyed. The Midland Terminal depot seemed to be an appropriate place for such a collection," chronicled Davis participation in the creation of the District Museum.

The Cripple Creek district had 50,000 residents in the heyday and Midland Terminal was central. 

"The old building was then purchased by Margaret Giddings of Colorado Springs, whose grandfather had struck it rich in the hills above Cripple Creek, and by Blevins Davis, a New Yorker, who had fallen under the spell of the little mining town. The two gave the building to the community and a marvelous transformation took place. Donations of all kinds poured in from old Cripple Creek families and on June 14, 1953, the new Cripple Creek District Museum was officially dedicated by Gov. Dan Thornton."

Toast to Olde Tymes, In Kansas City Independent, noted that Davis was a favorite son in the Kansas City area.

"He was born Charles Blevins Davis, the son of Julia Blevins Davis and Charles Ammon Davis, in Osceola, Missouri, in May 1903. His parents lived for many years at 900 South Main Street in Independence, Missouri. Blevins attended school with Fred Wallace, which led to a friendship with Fred’s much older sister and her husband, Bess Wallace Truman and Harry S Truman. In “Impresario From Missouri: Blevins Davis and Cold War Cultural Diplomacy,” Sharon Bagg noted that, “He often visited the Wallace home where the Trumans also lived, played piano duets with Harry, and teased little Margaret.” No one then could have imagined that Harry would someday be president"

"As a young adult, Blevins seemed poised for a career as an educator. He attended Kansas City Junior College and then went to Princeton. His studies there were curtailed due to financial hardship. Returning to the Midwest, he graduated from the University of Missouri – Columbia. Blevins spent six years as an English teacher in Independence before becoming the principal of a junior high school. He played the organ at church and enjoyed traveling in the summers, but theatrical productions were his main interest. Blevins was the writer and director of The Clouds of Times, a 1932 celebration of the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. In “Blevins Davis: Creating a Cultural Impresario,” Brent Schondelmeyer described A Century of Progress, written and directed by Blevins, which was presented in connection with the dedication of the new courthouse in Independence in September 1933 as having “a cast of 350 players including many of the community’s leading citizens.” His ticket into international attention was a fellowship at Yale University. According to Sharon Baggs, a chance meeting with William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper publisher, at a luncheon, led to Blevins being hired as a writer. His topic? The upcoming coronation of King George VI. And that was just the beginning…

In the April 3, 1937 issue of the Kansas City Independent, our scribe wrote:
“Blevins Davis, who is well known socially in Kansas City, jumped into the spotlight of fame last week when he signed a contract with the National Broadcasting Company to serve as “Staff Commentator” for the coronation of His Majesty George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Blevins will sail on April 18 on the “Normandie”… He is doing graduate work in the Department of Drama of Yale University and has collected invaluable information on the coronation service, symbolism of the regalia, and significance of the state processions. His research on the subject represents material which he has accumulated for the past twelve years.” Sixty years later, Sharon Bagg cast some light on his archives: “Throughout his life, Davis kept huge reference files and scrapbooks on the third floor of his parents’ home… [After meeting William Randolph Hearst] He immediately wired his father to mail the appropriate file.”

"Think for a moment about this: King Edward VIII served less than a year after his coronation in January 1936 before abdicating to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson. Had he instead remained as monarch, Blevins Davis’ files would have had valuable historical information, but nothing related to current events in 1937," offered the paper.

Blevins’ work with NBC continued, and he also began directing plays on Broadway in New York. In April 1945, Harry S Truman became the 33rd president of the United States. Blevins was certainly qualified to stage patriotic pageants – and having a connection to the White House also helped. By that point, he was known as a theatrical producer who sometimes squired Margaret Truman.

Interior of Amusement Hall in Memorial Building at Modern Woodmen of America Sanatorium, showing chandeliers hanging from raftered ceiling, auditorium seating and upright piano at front of hall. Photographer: Standley, Harry L. Courtesy of Gordon Sweet estate.  Pikes Peak Library District. 
 

In 1948, Truman, accepting the Democratic party's nomination, delivered an aggressive acceptance speech attacking the 80th Congress, which Truman called the "Do Nothing Congress," and promising to win the election and "make these Republicans like it."

"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home—but not for housing. They are strong for labor—but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage—the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all—but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine—for people who can afford them ... They think American standard of living is a fine thing—so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."

— Harry S. Truman, October 13, 1948, St. Paul, Minnesota, Radio Broadcast

Colorado friends in Washington

John F. Kennedy delivers address at United States Air Force Academy.

JFK meets with NORAD officials.

Kennedy's presidential motorcade near the Chapel at Air Force Academy.

Presidential connections to the Centennial state

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Presidents of the United States have traditionally enjoyed trips to Colorado. It has often been considered friendly territory.  After all, Washington is a tough town at the top. Consider what former president Harry Truman is credited with having said about the nation's capital. "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." 

Probably the first president to visit the state was Ulysses S. Grant, as he was president at the time it became a state in 1876.

Grant visited the Colorado Territory in late April 1873, having traveled by the Union Pacific Railroad, who had made a special presidential car. President Grant stayed at the residence of Governor Samuel H. Elbert, whom Grant had appointed earlier in April. Grant's presidential party included his wife, daughter Nellie, and his private secretary Orville E. Babcock. At a reception held by Governor Elbert at Guard Hall, Grant was met by many white people who aggressively sought his handshake. Grant met with 30 to 40 Ute Indians, who had desired to see the "Great Father", and shook their hands. Former Colorado Territory Governors John Evans and Edward M. McCook also met with Grant while he visited the Colorado Territory. President Grant was impressed by Colorado's "magnificent scenery" and expressed his desire to revisit the territory.

 Many presidents that followed also had, or developed, connections to Colorado.

"Ike" visiting Mamie Doud Eisenhower's childhood home in Denver.

Dwight Eisenhower married Mamie Doud who grew up in Colorado. They were married in Denver in summer of 1916, and later visited periodically.

On September 24, 1955, while vacationing in Colorado, he had a serious heart attack. Dr. Howard Snyder, his personal physician, misdiagnosed the symptoms as indigestion, and failed to call in the help that was urgently needed. Snyder later falsified his own records to cover his blunder and to protect Eisenhower's need to portray he was healthy enough to do his job.

The heart attack required six weeks' hospitalization, during which time Nixon, Dulles, and Sherman Adams assumed administrative duties and provided communication with the President. He was treated by Dr. Paul Dudley White, a cardiologist with a national reputation, who regularly informed the press of the President's progress. Instead of eliminating him as a candidate for a second term as president, his physician recommended a second term as essential to his recovery. 

President Truman, his wife Bess, and his daughter Margaret walk through Colorado Capitol building.

Harry Truman also had connections to the state and at one time, and is said to have considered establishing a sort of "summer White House" here. His long-time press secretary was from Victor, Colorado.

On Dec. 5, 1950, Charles G. Ross died of a heart attack at his desk in the White House, moments after concluding the afternoon radio and press conference for Harry S. Truman. Ross served as press secretary to the president from 1945 until his death.

In early June of 1963, President John F. Kennedy embarked on a whirlwind tour through several locations in the Southwestern United States. Over the course of five days, from June 5 to June 9, he visited Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, California, and Hawaii. All White House Photographs documenting this trip – more than 250 – are now digitized in full and are accessible online through the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum’s digital archives.

"President Kennedy’s activities during this trip were varied—and hurried. After departing from Washington, D.C., around 9:30 a.m. on June 5, the President landed in Colorado Springs, Colorado—where it was still morning, in Mountain Time. He delivered the commencement address at the United States Air Force (USAF) Academy and toured the school’s campus, before making a brief stop at the headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD)," according to information from the library.

Rose Mary Silver Dollar Tabor shaking hands with Theodore Roosevelt in Leadville in 1910.

President Roosevelt, with his guide, Henry Bunn, Sr. near Glenwood Springs during a bear hunt in 1905.

Theodore Roosevelt was a frequent Colorado visitor and on at least two extended hunting trips on the Western Slope for bear and mountain lions, managed to become the inspiration for "Teddy Bear." 

He also befriended a Colorado rat terrier dog named "Skip" and returned to Washington to where Skip became one of the family and a mainstay at the White House. 

FDR and his wife Elanor pose on a train near Denver in 1936.

President Gerald Ford and his wife Betty share a lighthearted moment at Raze the Roof ceremony in Vail for the amphitheatre that bears his name.

July 10, 1976, President Ronald Reagan walks with his wife Nancy and supporter Joe Coors and Stapelton International Airport. They were headed to Fort Collins to the Colorado GOP convention.

Richard Nixon, "Ike," and John Foster Dulles at a meeting at the Brown Palace in Denver Aug. 8, 1952.

President Herbert Hoover steps off a train at Union Station in Denver.

President William McKinley rides in parade in Denver.

President William Howard Taft rides in convertible in Denver.

President Woodrow Wilson and Edith Bowling Galt Wilson leave City Auditorium in Denver as Secret Service await in auto on Champa Street.

Bill Clinton in a surprise visit to local activists in Denver.

Barack Obama and John Hickenlooper share brew in Denver.

Donald Trump on a campaign trip to Colorado.

Jimmy Carter, Joan Baez, and others meet during an event at University of Colorado, in Boulder.
 

Lyndon Johnson meets with recent graduates at the Academy, near Colorado Springs.

George W. Bush at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

President George H.W. Bush attends the National GI Forum in Denver and addresses crowd at Stapleton Airport.

United States President Warren G. Harding poses with a woman and a Black man in porter uniform, on the observation deck of a railroad passenger coach, Denver, Colorado.