Scottish lass inspires quest for gold and silver in above-timberline San Juans

Silverton is located in Baker's Park, where prospector Charles Baker discovered gold in 1860. The park is a valley formed where Cement Creek and Mineral Creek join the Animas River. William Henry Jackson.

Ye banks and braes and streams around
The castle of Montgomerie,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie!
There simmer first unfauld her robes,
And there the longest tarry!
For there I took the last farewell
O' my Sweet Highland Mary.

__ Robert Burns 

Highland Mary Mill above Silverton.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Some claim the search for gold and silver is akin to a spiritual quest, with the spirit in question having the ability to appear and disappear at any moment. Perhaps that is why "Highland Mary," is perhaps a particularly appropriate name for the above-timberline mine in the mountains above Silverton.

The Highland Mary Mine is a mine located in San Juan county, above Silverton, Colorado at an elevation of 11,079 feet.

Mary Campbell, in Scotish lore, was also known as Highland Mary (christened Margaret, was the daughter of Archibald Campbell of Daling, Scottland, a sailor in a revenue cutter, whose wife was Agnes of Achnamore or Auchamore, Scottland. Mary was the eldest of a family of four. 

Acclaimed poet Robert Burns had an affair with her after he felt that he had been "deserted" by Jean Armour following her move to Paisley in March 1786. The brief affair started in April 1786, and the parting took place on May 14 of that year. Her pronunciation of English was heavily accented with Gaelic and this led to her becoming known as 'Highland Mary.'

Mary was "tall, fair haired with blue eyes." She was also described to have been "a great favourite with everyone who knew her, due to her pleasant manners, sweet temper and obliging disposition. Her figure was graceful; the cast of her face was singularly delicate and of fair complexion, and her eyes were bluish and lustrous had a remarkably winning expression."

Unfortunately, Mary Campbell died at the age of 23, around October, 20,  1786, probably from Typhus contracted when nursing her brother Robert. She was buried in the old West Kirk churchyard at Greenock, in a lair owned by her host and relation Peter Macpherson. 

A story is told that some superstitious friends believed that her illness was as a result of someone casting the evil eye upon her. Her father was urged to go to a place where two streams meet, select seven smooth stones, boil them in milk, and treat her with the potion. An 1842 monument in her memory was designed by John Mossman. It was asserted by some older inhabitants of Greenock that the monument was not erected in the right spot, and that her body had been interred closer to the kirk. A statue of her was also erected at Dunoon on the Castle Hill.

Silverton, of course, is the county seat and only incorporated municipality of San Juan County, Colorado. The town is located in a remote part of the western San Juan Mountains, a range of the Rocky Mountains. The first mining claims were made in the mountains above Silverton in 1860, near the end of the Colorado Gold Rush and when the land was still controlled by the Utes. Silverton was established shortly after the Utes ceded (in a sense) the region in the 1873 Brunot Agreement, and the town boomed from silver mining until the Panic of 1893 led to a collapse of the silver market, and boomed again from gold mining until the recession caused by the Panic of 1907. 

Originally called "Bakers Park," Silverton sits in a flat area of the Animas River valley and is surrounded by steep peaks. Most of the peaks surrounding Silverton are thirteeners, the highest being Storm Peak, at 13,487 feet. The town is less than 15 miles from 7 of Colorado's 53 fourteeners and is known as one of the premier gateways into the Colorado backcountry.

Highland Mary was known for its mill, which served the Highland Mary mine located just above the mill site. The site was found by the Ennis brothers who went to a spiritualist to have them point to where they should start digging. The spiritualist told them where to dig and which way to go. By 1885 they had sunk a  million dollars into the mine and had not received enough return. They declared bankruptcy. 

The spiritualist had misguided them, it seems and they had missed good veins of ore by feet. The new owners of the mine used their technical abilities and the mine began paying off immediately. 

Later, There were many businesses that followed in ownership, including a Mary Campbell, by some folk's telling,  and the successful mining continued for years.

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips,
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly!
And closed for aye the sparkling glance,
That dwelt on me sae kindly!
And mould’ring now in silent dust,
That heart that lo’ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom’s core
Shall live my Highland Mary.

A good photo is truth

Utes crossing a stream near Los Pinos Indian Agency (present day Pagosa Springs).

HS. Poley photo.

“Be remembered for things that matter.” 

_  Frank Sonnenberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life

"Everyone has a photographic memory, some don't have film." _

_ Stephen Wright

My heroes have been cowboys and photographers

Farmington to Shiprock stage. HS. Poley photo.

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

For years now, I have marveled at early Colorado photographers and their life's work. Working sometimes as a "machine gunner" myself — shooting thousands of images of film, and then, SD cards full of frames for various newspaper gigs, I am surprised by their proficiency with glass plates, and mule packs. And can't get over how they knew a shot was going to live forever. Two amazing figures, from more than a 100 years ago in Colorado photography stand out. Horace Swartley Poley, and William Henry Jackson. Needless to say, they are my heroes. Still today, their images have relevance and reverence for the ages.

Horace Swartley Poley

Horace Swartley Poley, a Colorado Springs photographer, created a major collection of photographic images of Native Americans in the southwestern United States. During summer vacations Poley served as photographer with archaeological expeditions in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and southwest Colorado. He recorded landscapes, cityscapes, and events in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado. Poley was noted for his travelogue lectures employing his images in "magic lantern" shows, according to Denver Public Library

Two catastrophic fires in late April of 1896 nearly wiped out the fast-growing Colorado gold camp city of Cripple Creek — near the height of its ascendance. Reporting on event, and its consequences, took up much of next decade in the local, national, and literary and historical analysis.

In one of the more fascinating studies of before and after the fires, local photographer Horace Swartley Poley documented what the town had been and how it struggled to regain its position in the scheme of things. 

Bull fight in Gillett. HS. Poley photo.

He previously documented other events in the Gold Camp such as his famous and exhaustive set of photos of the bull fights in Gillett in 1895. He completed fabulous work in his decades of documenting Southwestern archeology and Native American culture. His train and railroad photography rivals giants of the period, such as William Henry Jackson, Robert Richardson, and Otto Perry.

Poley, of course was famous for his work in the Pikes Peak region and throughout the West.
"Horace Swartley Poley created a major collection of photographic images of Native Americans in the southwestern United States. Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 1864, Poley moved to Colorado in the 1880s and was a resident of Colorado Springs for sixty-two years. Poley started a commercial photo studio in 1892 and remained an active photographer until 1935. 

In addition to his photographic work, Poley served as head of the U.S. Postal registry department in Colorado Springs. During summer vacations, Poley served as photographer with archaeological expeditions in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and southwest Colorado. He recorded landscapes, cityscapes, and events in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado.

According to the Pioneer's Museum in Colorado Springs, "Horace Swartley Poley (August 1863 Norristown, PA – June 7, 1949 Colorado Springs) was a professional photographer and traveling lecturer. 

He complemented his lectures by projecting his photographs onto a screen by "magic lantern"—an early form of photo projector. He donated many of his photographs of native Americans, archaeological sites in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, and life in the developing southwest to the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs.

As some of you know, or have guessed, I have great love for old photos. And in cases, I feel like I have come to know a few of these old shutterbugs from a hundred years ago, or at least their style and work. It is a fascinating bit of time travel for me. I have, of course, seen Poley's stuff before.

 

His train and railroad photography rivals giants of the period, such as William Henry Jackson, Robert Richardson, and Otto Perry. 

But who is this character?

I can only give you what I know today. Perhaps, as is the way with digging in the history pile, I will know more tomorrow. 

"Poley moved to Colorado in the 1880s and was a resident of Colorado Springs for sixty-two years. Poley started a commercial photo studio in 1892 and remained an active photographer until 1935. In addition to his photographic work, Poley served as head of the U.S. Postal registry department in Colorado Springs. Colorado Restless Native reached the important milestone of three quarters of a million page views.During summer vacations,

The Denver Public Library obtained the Poley collection in 1937.
But how about a photo of the photographer? What was he like? And his family? Let's try to personalize this.

Well, I got lucky and found the above photo with the following information.
 

Studio bust portrait of the Poley family. Margret Ferguson Poley has short bangs and wears a pince nez, a blouse and jacket with puffed sleeves and ruffled lace collar with a flower or heart charm. Frank Ferguson Poley has short hair and wears a shirt with probably a wide starched collar, Horace Swartley Poley has a mustache and wears a bow tie and jacket over a shirt with a straight, starched collar. Elizabeth Poley Schrader has short bangs and wears a dress with puffed sleeves and wide laced collar.
Margret Ferguson Poley, Frank Ferguson Poley, Horace Swartley Poley, Eliszabeth Schader and "about 1893" inked on verso. 

I feel like I know the fellow a little better, even though it has been more than 100 years.

Horace Swartley Poley (August 1863 Norristown, PA – June 7, 1949 Colorado Springs) was a professional photographer and traveling lecturer. He complemented his lectures by projecting his photographs onto a screen by "magic lantern"—an early form of photo projector. 

He donated many of his photographs of native Americans, archaeological sites in Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, and life in the developing southwest to the Pioneer Museum in Colorado Springs. He also donated many native American artefacts to the Pioneer Museum, according Gary Alan Sinton. in reference to "Find a Grave." 

Poley's family residence in Colorado Springs.

• Wife - Margaret Ferguson
• children
 _  Elizabeth
  _ Francis
• Buried: June 10, 1949, Source: City of Colo Springs cemetery data March, 20, 2009

Harvest symbolizes “richness that came to the land following introduction of irrigation”

Aspinall's long political career left his mark on Western water

Dethroned Democrat Wayne Aspinall returns to Colorado at Stapleton International Airport, 

Rocky Mountain News photo

"The Chairman" represents state in defining western water

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Just about the time Wayne Aspinall's long, powerful, eventful, political career had finally run out of water and was coming to a close, "The Harvest" mural was winding down its first run, as well. Painted by Louise Emerson Ronnebeck, best known for her murals executed for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Born in Philadelphia, she married artist Arnold Ronnebeck in 1926 and they settled in Denver, Colorado. In Denver, she built a successful career documenting western American history and social issues of the 1930s and 1940s.

"Emerson’s second commission was for the post office and courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Harvest (7’x 9’ oil on crescent shaped canvas) was completed and installed in 1940. The Harvest depicts a young man and woman working together harvesting peaches, symbolizing “the richness that came to the land following the introduction of irrigation”, with a water wheel in the background. Barbara Melosh, in her book Engendering Culture: Manhood and Womanhood in New Deal Public Art and Theatre, describes this frequently used Section theme.

She writes, “ Ronnebeck invokes the comradely ideal in the image of shared labor, and she emphasizes the physicality of work in the man’s muscled arms and the woman’s sturdy figure”. Similar to her Wyoming mural, the man and the woman are equals, working towards a common goal. The mural depicts the Ute Indians leaving the valley on the right side and the white settlers, pushing them out from the left. The theme of displacement is effective and evocative of the time and the changes that had occurred and continued to occur in the West."

Harry Hopkins, head of the WPA appointed by FDR, perhaps said it best “Hell! They’ve got to eat just like other people.” Many feared that if the Depression continued for very long, a generation of artists would be lost and a fatal blow would be dealt to American culture. 

By 1973, the mural was dirty and dull. It was shipped to Washington DC for restoration and subsequently forgotten. Until 1991, its whereabouts were unknown. The building manager of the Aspinall Federal Building in Grand Junction had come across frequent references to the mural, but could not locate it. Through perseverance and dogged detective work, he finally located it in New York, had it restored and returned it to Grand Junction. In January 1992, Emerson’s son and daughter, who had originally posed for the mural over 50 years earlier, unveiled it in a ceremony in the Grand Junction Aspinall Federal Building, where it remains today.

Louise Ronnebec's "Harvest," commissioned by the WPA, 1941, now returned to Aspinall Federal Building.

Wayne Aspinall moved to Palisade, Colorado when he was only eight years old from Ohio in 1904. He studied at the University of Denver until World War I, when he enlisted in the armed services (the Air Service of the Signal Corps). He returned to Denver University after his discharge and graduated in 1919. 

After several years of teaching around the state, he enrolled in law school in Denver and graduated in 1925. In 1930, he won a seat in the Colorado State House of Representatives, serving as Speaker in 1937 and 1938 before moving to the State Senate from 1939 to 1948. He served in World War II as a captain in Military Government during 1943 and 1944 as well. In 1948, he chose to run for national office, hoping for it to be a stepping stone to Colorado's governorship. However, he would stay in the U.S. House for 24 years.

Living on Colorado's Western Slope defined Aspinall's political ideology. His family had traditionally voted Republican, but the party's in-fighting in 1912 between Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft disillusioned Aspinall. However, despite becoming a Democrat, his rural roots shaped a relatively conservative philosophy. He believed in limited federal involvement in western land and water issues; to him, localities could better decide the uses of their resources.

"When I was young…I lived outside the little town of Palisade, and the townspeople always seemed to call the shots. Then I moved to Palisade, and the bigger town of Grand Junction always seemed to call the shots. Then I went to the state Legislature, and the Eastern Slope…seemed to call the shots. And in Congress, the big metropolitan areas seemed to hold all the marbles."

From 1966 to 1968, Aspinall took on the final significant water project battle of his congressional career. The purpose of the Colorado River Basin Project, according to supporters, was to build dams to generate revenue and energy for communities in the Lower Basin of the Colorado River without using much of the Upper Basin's river water. The primary focus of the project was the Central Arizona Project (CAP). CAP supporters, among other demands, wanted to build two dams, one that would flood Grand Canyon National Monument and part of Grand Canyon National Park (Bridge Canyon Dam), with the other on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Marble Canyon Dam). Aspinall originally supported this, claiming it would generate revenue for all Colorado River Basin states. In turn, however, he demanded that his district receive five reclamation projects for his support. Several congressmen, including Arizona senator Carl Hayden, saw this as action as a move that held the state hostage, and many would come to resent Aspinall for it.

Environmentalists vehemently opposed the CAP because of its detriment to the scenery of the Grand Canyon. Aspinall would later say "We viewed the development of the river as the only reasonable, practicable, safe, and logical way for millions of Americans and visitors to enjoy the canyon bottom which to date so few have had an opportunity to visit or view." However, during the debate, the Sierra Club mocked that philosophy, purchasing an ad in national newspapers in July 1966. "Should we also flood the Sistine Chapel so tourists can get nearer the ceiling?" it asked.

Sensing that he couldn't break the stalemate, Aspinall dropped the Grand Canyon dams from the CRPB in late August 1967. The bill eventually passed in the middle of 1968, creating the Colorado River Basin Act. However, in exchange for this compromise, Aspinall did receive five projects for Colorado (the Dallas Creek, Animas-La Plata, West Divide, San Miguel, and Dolores projects).

Of those five, only two were eventually completed (Dolores and Dallas Creek), though the Animas-La Plata project is currently under construction, and is one of the last major water projects in the West. Jimmy Carter famously declared a "Hit List" in 1977 on what he felt was wasteful spending on "pork barrel" water projects, eliminating the other three (among others). No new major reclamation projects were approved during the rest of the era, partly because Aspinall's heavy-handed demands that constrained the legislation broke apart the western coalition of politicians that supported the construction of water projects.

Serious consideration for the project began when the Colorado River Compact was signed in 1922 by the participating states, as well as the lower Colorado River states, California and Nevada. As a stipulation of that compact, the upper basin states were required to ensure an annual flow of no less than 7,500,000 acre-feet (9.3 km3) be delivered to the lower basin states. However, the annual flow of the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry in Arizona, the established dividing point, were extremely erratic, ranging from 4,000,000 acre-feet (4.9 km3) to 22,000,000 acre-feet (27 km3). This led to an inability of the upper basin states to meet the minimum delivery requirements to the lower states in dry years, and a loss of significant surpluses in wet years.

In order to regulate the flow of the Colorado and ensure compliance with the compact, a study was undertaken that determined a series of dams and reservoirs on the river and its tributaries would be necessary. A joint effort between the Upper Colorado River Commission, the Bureau of Reclamation and other federal agencies delivered a report with proposed projects to the United States Congress in 1950.

Among the proposed projects was a dam to be constructed on the Green River in Echo Park, in Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado. The proposal for Echo Park Dam created controversy and sparked the ire of Sierra Club director David Brower, who embarked on a national campaign to rescue the park. As part of a compromise, the proposed dam was stricken from the project and replaced with another dam in Glen Canyon, Arizona. Brower, who had not personally visited Glen Canyon prior to the compromise, later lamented the deal, describing it as "the worst mistake of his career" and "'the biggest sin I ever committed.'"

A revised, and slightly pared down, version of the plan was passed into law by Congress in 1956. The legislation called for the construction of dams, reservoirs and related works at Curecanti in Colorado, Flaming Gorge in Wyoming, Navajo in New Mexico and Glen Canyon in Arizona. All but the Navajo project were to include power generation capabilities; the Navajo project was intended as flood control only. Also included in the legislation were several related projects in the Colorado River basin.

Colorado historians remember Aspinall as one of the state's most influential politicians. Known as "The Chairman," he led the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee during a period that defined future water and land policy in the United States. Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, a Democrat, though he had several ideological differences with Aspinall, remarked that "No one in our history has done more to win Colorado a place at the table in Washington." His son, Owen Aspinall, went on to become Governor of American Samoa.