Two remaining engines may have been in tough shape by end

Working with what you have

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

At its peak the company amassed sixty miles of railroad. The New Mexico Lumber Company had five logging locomotives, one geared and four rod. The rod locomotives were mostly obsolete, obtained second-hand from the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad with one from Rio Grande and Southwestern Railroad at El Vado. 

"The Montezuma Lumber Company, which took over in 1936, decreased the trackage substantially and reduced the locomotives to two. Most of the 45 flat cars came from nearby declining operations. Second hand track was imported from Salida and Pagosa Springs. 

 

In the 1930s, the Montezuma Lumber Company purchased an 1880 duckbill coach (#311) from the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad to transport employees and their families to Dolores behind the regular lumber train. On Saturday nights the train transported the townspeople to Dolores for dances, movies and drinking in the gas-illuminated car with faded red plush seats.," 

says historian Lisa Mausolf, in her field notes at the Library of Congress, August, in 1981.  

"The end of narrow gauge logging in southwest Colorado came in 1932 when the expense of hauling lumber by rail gave way to hauling by trucks. The five miles of track between McPhee and Dolores remained, however, and continued to service McPhee residents. The scrapping of the last of this segment occurred in 1948, after an intense struggle and a brief period of receivership in the 1940's the Denver and Rio Grande Southern Railroad abandoned operations in the area," she wrote.

The two remaining engines were said to have been in somewhat rough shape by then, and might have been dangerous to operate.

Engine 271 was sold to the Montezuma Lumber Company in Dec. 1941. 271 was scrapped sometime in 1947 after the Montezuma Lumber Company burned its crown sheet.

346 went to Montezuma Lumber Company on May 19, 1947.

The story goes Montezuma Lumber Company was a bit careless about their locomotives and 271 was not the first locomotive of theirs to get ruined by a burned crown sheet. Montezuma Lumber Company tried to rent or lease an engine from the D&RGW or the RGS, but both declined, knowing how well Montezuma Lumber Company treated their past locomotives. Finally the D&RGW sold them the 346.

In steam engines and boilers, "burning the crown sheet" refers to a dangerous condition where the water level drops too low, exposing the top of the firebox (the crown sheet) to extreme, un-cooled heat. Without water to absorb the heat, the metal weakens, softens, and can cause a massive boiler explosion.

Locomotive boiler explosions were catastrophic events that plagued early rail networks, caused primarily by an overheated crown sheet when water levels dropped too low. Colorado's rugged mountain railways saw several notable blasts, with one of the most famous occurring in 1952 when Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) locomotive 3703 exploded in Louviers, south of Denver, killing four people. 

Colorado’s extensive rail history saw several of these destructive failures, notably:  

Louviers (1952): On October 19, 1952, the boiler of Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad locomotive No. 3703 exploded. The blast, caused by a low water condition that led to an overheated crown sheet, killed all four men aboard. The explosion tore the boiler apart, throwing it 260 feet from the tracks. 

Denver & Interurban Line (1925): On January 27, 1925, a Colorado and Southern freight locomotive’s boiler violently exploded while hauling cars from the Boulder County coal fields to Denver. The blast killed the engineer and fireman, and threw the wrecked boiler across the parallel Denver and Interurban tracks. 

Denver & Rio Grande Western (1941): In 1941, locomotive No. 1804 suffered a severe boiler explosion while moving through the Burnham Yards in Denver. The boiler was completely ripped from the frame and thrown over a secondary engine. 

The boiler exploded on D&RGW Class M-68 4-8-4 steam locomotive #1804 just north of the Burnham Shops in Denver, CO, on Feb. 4 ,1941

 

Additionally, there were several rather spectacular boiler explosions in the preceding century in Colorado., on its pioneering roads: 

 

Date: circa 1895. Debris from the Engine 35 explosion litters the tracks of the Colorado and Midland Railroad in Basalt, Colorado in Eagle County. Metal grates, wheels, and scraps from the locomotive are piled next to the tracks. A large locomotive wheel is on the opposite sides of the track. Spectators gather around the wreckage. Several people stand on top of the piles of debris. Wood-frame buildings are in the background.  Hand-written on back of photoprint: Procured for me by Midberry of Basalt, R.W. and C.L. Daniels in Basalt Book. Title hand-written on back of photoprint.  

Denver Public Library Special Collections 

These deadly events led to strict federal oversight, including rigorous inspections mandated by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), to ensure water levels and safety valves were meticulously maintained.

 

Turn up the music

Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night

Madman, drummers, bummers
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin'
The calliope crashed to the ground

 

___ Bruce Springsteen

 

 Horse-drawn calliope, Myers Avenue, Cripple Creek, Colorado; possibly sponsored by the Elks fraternal order; features two teams of horses pulling wagon with calliope and male musician aboard; several men are standing on boardwalk behind wagon and one man has a sheriff badge (star) on suit coat; two-story brick flat roof commercial building in the background. 

Creator: Yelton, Edgar A. Date: 1895.  

 

 We need to be able to hear it for miles

 
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 

Anyone that knows me, can tell you I like my music and stories loud. It is not always popular, but it is a way of getting attention.

A calliope (not to be confused with mechanical organs) is an American musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or, more recently, compressed air, through large whistles—originally locomotive whistles.

A calliope is typically very loud. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles. There is no way to vary tone or volume. Musically, the only expression possible is the pitch, rhythm, and duration of the notes.

The steam calliope is also known as a steam organ (orgue à vapeur in Quebec) or steam piano (piano à vapeur in Quebec). The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a calliaphone, the name given to it by Norman Baker, but the "Calliaphone" name is registered by the Miner Company for instruments produced under the Tangley name.

In the age of steam, the steam calliope was particularly used on riverboats and in circuses. In both cases, a steam supply was readily available for other purposes. Riverboats supplied steam from their propulsion boilers. Circus calliopes were sometimes installed in steam-driven carousels,]or supplied with steam from a traction engine. The traction engine could also supply electric power for lighting, and tow the calliope in the circus parade, where it traditionally came last. Other circus calliopes were self-contained, mounted on a carved, painted and gilded wagon pulled by horses, but the presence of other steam boilers in the circus meant that fuel and expertise to run the boiler were readily available. Steam instruments often had keyboards made from brass. This was in part to resist the heat and moisture of the steam, but also for the golden shine of the highly polished keys.

Calliopes can be played by a player at a keyboard or mechanically. Many models of calliopes use roll operation. Some instruments have both a keyboard and a mechanism for automated operation, others only one or the other. Some calliopes can also be played via a MIDI interface.

The whistles of a calliope are tuned to a chromatic scale, although this process is difficult and must be repeated often to maintain quality sound. Since the pitch of each note is largely affected by the temperature of the steam, accurate tuning is nearly impossible; however, the off-pitch notes (particularly in the upper register) have become something of a trademark of the steam calliope. A calliope may have anywhere from 25 to 67 whistles, but 32 is traditional for a steam calliope.

The steam calliope, a 32-note steam pipe organ, is a uniquely American instrument. It has been identified with, and inseparable from, the steamboat since November of 1856. This marks when the Steamboat Amazon first pulled into New Orleans playing her calliope.
The dulcet tones of this “steam piano” graced the waterfront of the “Big Easy,” starting a tradition that would last for years.

According to information from the Steamboat Natchez, "the only authentic steamboat that remains on the Mississippi River System today," carries on the tradition of calling people to the River with her calliope. When the Natchez was christened in 1975, she was built with a calliope that replicates the original steam calliopes built over a century ago by Thomas J. Nichol of Cincinnati, OH.

"A steam calliope’s music comes across as “pure” Americana, upbeat, circus-excitement; it is a visual music! A plume of steam shoots upward from each whistle played. The Natches calliope has synchronized colored lights that illuminate each time any given note (whistle) is struck. The instrument actually puts on an audiovisual show. It is a testament to the musical skill required to play this extraordinary instrument. The steam calliope is not merely a gimmick to attract attention, although it certainly does that, but it is the continuation of a unique American tradition," says info from the Natchez.

 

Ludlow massacre exposed corruption of wealth and power

Armed strikers at the Ludlow tent colony during the Colorado Coalfield War.

Creator: Mace, Stuart, Date: 1913-1914

Colorado National Guard troops, called in to suppress a coal strike, pose on railroad tracks with weapons and supplies in front of a Colorado & Southern boxcar, Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado.

 

Tragedy sparked national outrage 

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Striking miners and their families lived in a tent colony to protest low pay and dangerous conditions at the John D. Rockefeller's Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. The Colorado National Guard attacked the camp with machine guns and set it on fire, killing 21 people, including 11 children, who suffocated in an underground pit.

The tragedy sparked national outrage and a subsequent Congressional investigation, which led to landmark progressive reforms, including the enforcement of the eight-hour workday and improved child labor laws. Today, the site is a National Historic Landmark managed by the United Mine Workers of America.

On 20 April 1914, after months of sporadic violence and the withdrawal of a larger contingent of troops a few days before, Colorado National Guardsmen and local militia fired on strikers participating in the United Mine Workers of America strike against the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron company. Roughly 20 occupants of the colony, including at least 12 women and children, were killed — mostly by smoke inhalation in the ensuing conflagration. Also among the dead was Greek labor-organizer Louis Tikas.

A single Guardsman is known to have been killed by gunfire from the strikers. The violence at Ludlow sparked the most intense period of violence of the Colorado Coalfield War, which lasted until President Woodrow Wilson ordered troops into Colorado to end the fighting on 29 April. 

Militiamen near the Colorado & Southern railway station in Ludlow, Colorado in 1913 during the early stages of the Colorado Coalfield War. 

Ludlow Massacre Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

It was early springtime when the strike was on, They drove us miners out of doors, Out from the houses that the Company owned, We moved into tents up at old Ludlow.

I was worried bad about my children, Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge, Every once in a while a bullet would fly, Kick up gravel under my feet.

We were so afraid you would kill our children, We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep, Carried our young ones and pregnant women Down inside the cave to sleep.

That very night your soldiers waited, Until all us miners were asleep, You snuck around our little tent town, Soaked our tents with your kerosene.

You struck a match and in the blaze that started, You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns, I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me. Thirteen children died from your guns.

I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner, Watched the fire till the blaze died down, I helped some people drag their belongings, While your bullets killed us all around.

I never will forget the look on the faces Of the men and women that awful day, When we stood around to preach their funerals, And lay the corpses of the dead away.

We told the Colorado Governor to call the President, Tell him to call off his National Guard, But the National Guard belonged to the Governor, So he didn't try so very hard.

Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes, Up to Walsenburg in a little cart, They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back, And they put a gun in every hand.

The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners, They did not know we had these guns, And the Red-neck Miners mowed down these troopers, You should have seen those poor boys run.

We took some cement and walled that cave up, Where you killed these thirteen children inside, I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union," And then I hung my head and cried. 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDrUduIU-Z8 

Creator: Mace, Stuart, Date: 1913-1914

Colorado National Guard troops, called in to suppress a coal strike, pose on railroad tracks with weapons and supplies in front of a Colorado & Southern boxcar, Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado.

By Susan Greene | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: January 30, 2010

Howard Zinn was a young shipyard worker in Brooklyn when he heard a Woody Guthrie song about the Ludlow Massacre.

The lyrics haunted him.

“That led me to look in the library about this event which nobody had ever mentioned in any of my history courses (and) no textbook had ever mentioned,” the iconic historian once said.

Zinn wasn’t the first to write about southern Colorado’s 1913-14 coal strike as an historical event.

John Reed, the journalist and communist who was the subject of the movie “Reds,” sent gritty dispatches from the area where the Rockefeller-owned Colorado Fuel and Iron and other companies sank shafts deep into the hillsides.

Upton Sinclair wrote about immigrants there on their knees hacking at coal seams.

And George McGovern published a history of the strike while running for president.

Still, Zinn’s many writings about Ludlow brought broader awareness. In several essays since the 1970s, he made it known how deep the corruption of wealth and power ran.

“The mining camps were feudal kingdoms run by the coal corporations, which made the laws; curfews were imposed, suspicious strangers were not allowed to visit the homes, the company store must be patronized, the company doctor used. The laws were enforced by company-appointed marshals. The teachers and preachers were picked by the company. By 1914, Colorado Fuel and Iron owned twenty-seven mining camps, and all the land, the houses, the saloons, the schools, the churches, the stores,” he wrote.

On April 20 of that year, the industry-controlled Colorado National Guard engaged striking miners in a gun battle and set their tents on fire.

“It was on the following day, April 21, that a telephone linesman going through the ruins, lifted a twisted iron cot that covered one of the pits dug beneath the tents for shelter. There he found the mangled, charred bodies of two women and eleven children, heaped together in what had been a desperate struggle to escape,” Zinn wrote, unforgettably.

At least 75 people died, including strikers, strike breakers, guardsmen and bystanders.

Thomas Andrews grew up in Boulder. He breezed past high school and college without having heard about the slaughter. It wasn’t until grad school that he learned the nation’s bloodiest strike went down in his state.

“It was taboo even to talk about. It was a suppressed memory,” says Andrews, now a historian at CU and author of “Killing For Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War.”

“Zinn felt that doing wart- and-all histories made us stronger,” adds Dean Saitta, a DU anthropologist who excavated the site and says local families still have hard feelings about what happened.

Zinn put Ludlow on the map. Not just as a place, in all its gruesome details, but as a concept. He popularized the struggle so that the name of the railroad town has become synonymous with corruption — “the firm connection between entrenched wealth and political power, manifested in the decisions of government, and in the machinery of law and justice.”

Ludlow’s uncomfortable history now is taught widely in college courses and K-12 classes. Textbooks cover it. Students take field trips to the shadowed ground that’s finally a national historic landmark.

Zinn died last week at age 87.

He’d hoped to be remembered “for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns . . . ultimately rests in people themselves.”

And, he added, “that they can use it.”

Ludlow strike Federal troops unloading at Ludlow, Colorado.

Members of the 11th U.S. Cavalry, that include Homer Lockett, stand near the railroad depot in Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado. The 11th Cavalry was called in at the request of Colorado Governor Ammons, to restore order in the coal fields after the Ludlow Massacre at the time of the United Mine Worker's strike against Colorado Fuel & Iron.

By Mike McPhee | The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: June 27, 2009

 

It took an act of vandalism, followed by a six-year crusade, to have the Ludlow Massacre site designated a National Historic Landmark.

Gov. Bill Ritter, local dignitaries, miners, union representatives and others will gather today at Ludlow to dedicate the site.

Now a ghost town 13 miles north of Trinidad, Ludlow was the site of 14 months of strikes in 1913-14 by some 1,200 coal miners who were fed up with low wages, unsafe conditions and company towns that kept the miners deeply in debt. More than 100 people died in the strikes.

One particularly tragic confrontation occurred on April 20, 1914, when 20 people, including 11 children and two mothers, died when the Colorado National Guard stormed a tent encampment.

The United Mine Workers Association bought that site in 1917, then installed a granite monument to the strikers and the massacre victims.

The site remained contentious between unionists and others, some of whom either doubted the stories of the massacre or believed the miners got what they deserved.

On May 7, 2003, vandals broke off and stole the heads of the male and female statues, as well as the female’s left arm. The mine workers’ association was incensed, as were other national labor organizations. An intensive investigation by Las Animas County Sheriff James Casias, as well as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, led nowhere.

The broken statues were removed from the monument and shipped to California. There, a specialist used similar granite from Vermont to repair the statues.

On May 5, 2005, they were replaced at a cost of more than $80,000. The money came mostly in small donations from individuals and union locals. Black Hawk, which has a strong mining tradition, donated $10,000, said the association’s Region 4 director, Bob Butero.

As word of the vandalism spread nationally, a group of labor historians — including James Green of Yale University; Julie Greene, formerly of CU-Boulder and now at the University of Maryland; and Betsy Jameson of the University of Calgary — took up the cause of honoring labor strife as part of our national heritage.

Greene wrote in The Denver Post that Ludlow was an important site because it represents “a crusade that cost many workers their lives, and reminds us of the central role immigrants played in building industrial America and of the shocking violence that accompanied that process.”

On Jan. 16, just before President George W. Bush left office, the Department of the Interior rushed through the designation of Ludlow as a National Historic Landmark. 

Wives of the Ludlow coal strikers prepare food for their striking husbands, as the men stand behind them in a kitchen in Ludlow, Colorado in Las Animas County. Loaves of bread, milk, and jam are on the edge of the table. 1913-1914 

 

 

 

 

Harlan earned a reputation for attention to detail

 

Scene of the great fire, Victor. Creator: Harlan, Andrew James, Date1899.

Group of men, women & children posed in front of ashes & debris of R. H. Atchison's residence, Victor, Colorado, one day after devastating fire of August 21, 1899. The fire is reported to have destroyed 14 blocks in four hours; a single portion of brick wall & smoke from smoldering remains are in background. Shows mines & mine dumps, distant background hillsides, and people examining remains of fire debris at center right.

 

 "The View Man's' images were

thorough, elaborate, comprehensive 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

Andrew James Harlan had earned a reputation for attention to detail. Unfortunately, the detail of his life, and what kind of processes drove his fine-tuned photo work, remain somewhat obscure for someone able to capture such essence of the mining district of the time.

He started his photography business in a tent in Victor, Colorado, taking scenic shots, and publicity pictures of the larger gold mines in the area such as the Independence and the Gold Coin. 

He was in Victor at the time of the great fire on August 21, 1899 and took numerous photos of the conflagration. 

Andrew James Harlan was born in 1859 in Ohio and died June 28, 1926 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Harlan was a teacher in Western Kansas before coming to Colorado in 1892.  

A.J. Harlan was born November 27, 1858 in Adams, Ohio to Robert Morrison Harlan and Mary (Downard) Harlan. He moved to Victor, Colorado in 1896 and set up a photography shop. 

He married Jessie Luella McGill in 1898 in the Presbyterian church in Victor (no longer standing). 

They stayed in the Cripple Creek and Victor area until 1900 when they moved to Colorado Springs. After he moved to Colorado Springs, in 1902 he opened a photography studio at the corner of Weber Street and Pikes Peak Avenue. There he specialized in making scenic postcards, and developing film for the public. He soon became the official photographer for Union Printers Home, the Modern Woodmen Sanitorium, and the Cripple Creek Short Line Railroad.

In 1902 they had a son who was stillborn. He is also buried in Evergreen. Unfortunately the baby's grave no longer has a headstone. In 1911 they had a daughter who they named Dorothy J. Harlan. She became a musician. It's believed Dorothy died in Denver in 1986, but that is not confirmed, and as of now her final resting place is unknown. 

Andrew, also known as "The View Man" had a photography shop in Colorado Springs from the 1902 to 1917 when the family moved to Junction City, KS. 

While on vacation in Colorado Springs in June of 1926 he died unexpectedly and was buried July 1, 1926 in Evergreen Cemetery. 

His wife Jessie never remarried. She remained for a time in Junction City, then moved to Denver to live with her aunt and uncle, Enoch and Nellie Nock until their deaths in the mid-1940s.

 Jessie died in 1965 and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery in Denver. Her grave, like her infant son's, is also without a headstone, according to Colorado Gravestone Photo Project. 

 

Creator: Harlan, Andrew James. Date:1894, July 9

A Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad wreck near Anaconda (Teller County), Colorado; shows men, women and children looking at wrecked passenger cars. A photographer has a box camera on a tripod.

 

Creator: Harlan, Andrew James, Date1895-1899

Burro pack train, Victor Avenue, Victor, Colorado. Several burros are lined up and loaded with supplies; three men are on horseback, and one man holds reins to horse. The commercial business district consists primarily of two-story falsefront wooden frame buildings including the original Victor Hotel. Signs attached to buildings include: Hallet & Baker undertakers, furnished rooms, Victor Stage Line - livery, feed-sale, stable (Hall & Kennedy), Vienna bakery, La Veta restaurant, Miners restaurant, Night (or Hight) & Shephard real estate, bank, the Kentucky Sampleroom, and the Victor pharmacy.

 

Original newspaper model remains the best medium

 Focus on Weeklies

From Newspapers & Technology, June, 2002

 By Rob Carrigan

Rob Carrigan specialized in pre-press systems for weekly newspapers. At the time of this article, he was publisher of the Ute Pass Courier in Woodland Park, the Gold Rush in Cripple Creek, and the Pikes Peak Journal in Manitou Springs, all Westward Communications Inc. weeklies in Colorado. He can be reached by robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Thing of the past ...

Linotype machines, Anthony Hordern and Sons department store,  

c. 1935,  by A. E. Foster

Less is more

In 1855, Robert Browning hit the nail on the head when said, "Less is more."

All of us long for a simple existence. If we only could get the code writers, hardware engineers, and other technologist to help us out.

I have a lengthy and detailed wish list  but several prepress items bob to the top with consistency. Thing like page layout applications that automatically convert RGB photos to CMYK files reliably, the ability to manage fonts (and lots of them) built right into the operating system, and PDF creation software that gives you fewer choices, embeds everything and produces better files. But all of these are involved in creation of the news product. But what about just reading one?

 Still you have to turn on the computer, launch a browser application, sign on to a service, perhaps download a file, and if you want something to tape to the 'fridge to remind you of Junior's graduation – get it to print on your printer. It just seams like too much effort.

Maybe it is as easy to run barefoot out to the driveway, and barring the paper carrier didn't toss it on the roof or in the sprinkler, you can read the ink-on-paper version almost anywhere in the house. It is still more portable, inexpensive, disposable, and in many respects, reliable.

And as soon as I resolve to muddle through —  enter "the radio paper.' A Wall Street Journal article Carl Bialik tells the tale.

"According to Michael McCreary, within five years, some newspapers will be published on displays dubbed 'radio paper.'  The devices which could be made of plastic or eventually paper, will be updated wirelessly, likely via radio waves so they need never be discarded," Bialik wrote.

The displays, according to the article, are as thin as a few sheets of paper. The 'ink' is made of tiny microcapsules that have black or white capsules, oppositely charged. Applying an electric field to each determines whether black or white particles will come to surface and are visible to the reader. 

Apparently, some in the news industry think it might work. Investors include Gannett Co., Inc. Hearst Corp., Gruppo Editoriale  L'Espresso and Vivendi Universal SA. It is also developing technology jointly with Lucent  Technologies Inc. and Phillips Electronics NV. according to Bialik's article.

With some of the biggest expense in the newspaper business falling in the printing and distribution categories, and with the promise of these expenses being eliminated or greatly reduced, the business models could take on very different look.  

The community newspaper might in fact move from a weekly publication, to an hourly one. And my quest for a simple existence is out the window.

 

Byers, County Seat squabbles, First Winter Sports Carnival, more

 

Date: 1899-1910, The Frank Byers property above Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand County, Colorado, includes the Willows, a grand two-story house with hipped roof and dormers and the original log house. Three men are outside a walled canvas tent with a stove and coffee pot. A wagon is parked next to them with harnesses on the hitch and canvas rolled off its frame.

Father & Son: Two Byers played prominent Grand County development role

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

William N. Byers, the founder of Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, came to Middle Park in 1860 and located the hot springs, pinched between two small mountains at the foot of the Rabbit Ears Range. He planned to turn the area into a resort community and founded the town of Saratoga West in 1860. Byers built a resort around the springs, and the town’s name was changed to Hot Sulphur Springs in 1863, says Grand County, on its history for the county.

First Colorado Newspaper Publisher and Editor, Byers was a big Denver booster. From Ohio he started west going first to Iowa and then to Omaha, the great jumping-off place and home base for the Union Pacific Railroad. Byers helped lay out Omaha, the largest town between St. Louis and San Francisco. Then gold fever struck him, he left Omaha in 1859 for the Cherry Creek gold rush towns. He authored one of the 17 guidebooks to the new promised land printed in 1859, and convinced himself and thousands of others about the golden gamble called Denver City. In the summer of 1859, having secured a printing press, a wagon and teams, Byers left Omaha for Denver. On the side of his wagon he had painted the name of his contemplated newspaper, "The Rocky Mountain News," says obituaries in the News.

The newsman Byers' son, Frank Sumner Byers, who during the greater part of his active business career was extensively engaged in raising horses and cattle, was a well known and influential citizen of Denver. His birth occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on the 16th of October, 1855, and he went to Cherry Creek, Kansas territory (now Denver), August 7, 1859, with his parents, William Newton and Elizabeth M. (Sumner) Byers, the former born in Madison county, Ohio, February 22, 1831, and the latter at Chillicothe, Ohio, August 31, 1834.

In the acquirement of an education Frank Byers attended private and public schools of Denver, Colorado, and studied in the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing from December, 1870, to February, 1872. During the winters of 1867 and 1868 he carried the outside, or pony route, of the Rocky Mountain News, and with the money thus earned he invested in the cattle business in association with Governor Evans and WilHam Daily.

In 1875, when the herd was moved to Wyoming, Mr. Byers drew out his number of cattle and took them to Middle Park, where he continued in the cattle business until 1902. He first went to Middle Park in 1865, went there again with stock in 1874 and became the first permanent settler there. In 1883 he began the operation of a general store at Hot Sulphur Springs, where he thus remained active in business until he sold the establishment three years later.

Byers had a mail contract from 1885 until 1888 and operated a stage line between Hot Sulphur Springs and Georgetown. He also had mail contracts, at different times, between Hot Sulphur Springs and Breckenridge, Hot Sulphur Springs and Grand Lake and Hot Sulphur Springs and Steamboat Springs. During the twelve year period between 1883 and 1895 he was also engaged in the sawmill business at Hot Sulphur Springs in association with his father. From 1895 until 1902 he operated a small hotel which he had erected at Hot Sulphur Springs. He has had charge of the Hot Sulphur Springs since 1874, or for a period covering more than a half century. The major portion of his life, however, as above stated, has been devoted to the stock business.

Frank S. Byers also figured prominently in public affairs. He was treasurer of Grand county in 1877 and 1878 and again served in that capacity for two terms during the '90s. He likewise served as county commissioner of Grand county for one term in the '80s and filled the office of game warden of Grand county for one term. He has been a volunteer officer of the Colorado Humane Society since September 9, 1889. He was appointed to fill his father's place as a director of the Humane Society in May, 1903, and at the present time is first vice president of the organization.

The younger Byers belonged to the Society of Colorado Pioneers, of which he served as president during the years 1916, 1924 and 1926, and is a life member of the State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado, in which he was a member of the board of directors beginning 1922. He is a Methodist in religious faith and fraternally is affiliated with the Woodmen of the World.

On the 16th of October, 1877, at Hot Sulphur Springs, Frank S. Byers was united in marriage to Josephene McQueary. They became the parents of a daughter, Mrs. Grace (Byers) Boston, a resident of Fort Lupton, Colorado. For his second wife Frank Byers chose Miss Mary W. Sullivan, whom he wedded January 1, 1885, in Denver, Colorado.

In 1862, road builder Edward L. Berthoud made new inroads for white settlement in Middle Park when he surveyed a stagecoach route along a seldom-used Ute trail that is now known as Berthoud Pass.

According to Thomas J. Noel, Paul F. Mahoney, and Richard E. Stevens, in "Historical Atlas of Colorado," most violent of the County Seat squabbles in Colorado was the struggle between Grand Lake and Hot Sulphur Springs in Grand County, culminating in a July 4, 1883, shooting that ended the lives of four men.

The town of Grand Lake was laid out in 1879, and in 1881 the county seat was moved there due to a brief mining boom. This led to a feud between two political factions, one supporting Grand Lake and the other supporting Hot Sulphur Springs in Grand County.

The feud culminated in a deadly shooting in Grand Lake in 1883, which left three county commissioners and the county clerk dead; the county sheriff, a backer of Hot Sulphur Springs, shot and killed a pro-Grand Lake official during the incident and later killed himself. The county seat was returned to Hot Sulphur Springs in 1888, ending much of the bitterness.

Grand County History

Native Tribes

"The archaeological record of Grand County shows evidence of human occupation dating to about 11,000 years ago during the Clovis, Folsom, and Plano periods. Paleo-Indians occupied the area until about 7,500 years ago. The projectile points found throughout the region display a variety of technologies throughout this period," says Grand County information.

The first modern Native Tribe to occupy the region were the Utes. By about the sixteenth century the Utes had migrated into Colorado’s mountains. They were hunter-gatherers who travelled throughout the Rockies, following game herds and gathering berries, roots, and other dietary plants. They hunted elk, deer, antelope, and bison and lived in portable or temporary dwellings such as tipis or wickiups. In the seventeenth century, after contact with Spanish explorers and settlements to the south, the Utes acquired horses, which made migration and hunting easier and expanded their hunting and raiding territory. The Utes spent winters camped near the natural hot springs by present-day Hot Sulphur Springs, which they used to revitalize both body and spirit.

By the early 1800s, Arapaho and Cheyenne people began hunting in the Middle Park area during the summer, although they spent much of the year on the plains. The Utes and Arapaho often fought each other for control of the hunting ground, and the Cheyenne often fought alongside their Arapaho allies.

Early American Period

The United States acquired the current area of Grand County via the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, but it was still controlled mostly by the Utes and Arapaho for several decades thereafter. Vast numbers of beaver and other fur-bearing animals brought fur trappers into Middle Park as early as the 1820s. Fur trappers had led hunting parties in the Grand Lake area since the 1820s, but by mid-century, they were building summer lodges by the lake.

The first permanent white residents, however, did not arrive until after the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858–59. Joseph L. Wescott became the first permanent resident of the area when he built his cabin on Grand Lake’s west shore in 1867.

County Development

With the creation of the Colorado Territory, present Grand County was part of a larger Summit County that stretched from the Continental Divide to the Utah and Wyoming borders. In 1874 the territorial government formally established Grand County, choosing Hot Sulphur Springs as the county seat.

The creation of Routt and Moffat Counties established the current western boundary of Grand County in 1877. The Colorado Supreme Court established the current northern boundary in 1886, settling a dispute between Grand and Larimer Counties over land near the mining camp of Teller, in present-day Jackson County (the decision gave the land to Larimer County).

White occupation of Middle Park expanded after the Utes had been moved to the western part of the state as per the Treaty of 1868. In the early 1880s Rudolph Kremmling built a general store on the ranch of a Dr. Harris in western Grand County; by 1885 the site had a post office called Kremmling. In 1888 ranchers John and Aaron Kinsey had part of their ranch platted as the town of Kinsey City. Kremmling moved his store to the Kinseys’ new town, and the current community of Kremmling developed around it, incorporating under that name in 1904.

Grand County also enjoyed a small mining boom in the late nineteenth century. The first gold strikes were in Bowen Gulch, north of Grand Lake, in 1879. James Bourn and Alexander Campbell founded the Wolverine Mine in the gulch; however, unlike its fellow intermountain basins North Park and South Park, Middle Park produced little for miners. By 1885 metal mining had all but ended in Grand County.

Ranching and agriculture grew during and after the short mining boom, as the grass in Middle Park proved especially nutritious for cattle. One well-known ranch in the area was the Cozens Ranch. Built by Billy Cozens in 1874, the ranch also served as a stopping place for travellers coming across Berthoud Pass through the Fraser River valley. Cozens helped build the town of Fraser and served as its postmaster. Agriculture was limited by the climate and altitude of Grand County, but lettuce and hay became major cash crops for the region in the early twentieth century.

The first railroad arrived in Grand County in 1904, allowing for easier shipment of crops and livestock to market and easier access to Middle Park for tourists. The Denver, Northwest & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Moffat Road, reached Grand County by building a line over the Continental Divide at Rollins Pass. The railroad first reached the small town of Arrow, just beyond the pass, in 1904, and later that year it established the town of Granby, which connected train travellers to a stagecoach line that ran north to Grand Lake.

The Moffat line reached Kremmling in 1906, continuing north to Steamboat Springs. In 1928 the long-awaited Moffat Tunnel replaced the line over Rollins Pass. The tunnel allowed the railroad to go through the Continental Divide rather than over it. The tunnel also included a pipeline to move mountain water to the Denver Metro area beginning in 1936. Later, in 1956, completion of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project further appropriated water from the Colorado headwaters for farming and urban development along the Front Range. Lake Granby, a large reservoir that is now Colorado’s third-largest body of water, was created in 1950 as part of the project and now serves as a popular tourist destination in the summer.

During World War II, German prisoners of war were held near the towns of Fraser and Kremmling. Captive Germans loaded timber on trains and cut ice. About 200 prisoners worked in the Fraser camp, loading about 25,000 feet of lumber on rail cars daily.

Tourism 

Tourism proved the most consistent industry throughout the history of Grand County. Hot Sulphur Springs brought visitors to the area as early as the 1860s under the direction of William Byers. The hot springs became especially popular for their medicinal qualities. The town of Grand Lake, meanwhile, attracted hunting parties.

The railroad brought hundreds of tourists from Denver in the early twentieth century. It stopped at a station on top of Rollins Pass that featured a restaurant and dance hall. Rail access and the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915 paved the way for tourism development in Grand Lake. In 1920 entrepreneur Roe Emery opened the Grand Lake Lodge, and in 1938 the completion of Trail Ridge Road across the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park offered tourists a scenic drive to Grand Lake from Denver.

Though skiing began in the early twentieth century, it did not become a major industry with modern resorts until after World War II. The increased population in Colorado, as well as returning veterans of the Tenth Mountain Division, led to interest and investments in ski resorts. Winter Park began in the 1930s as a mountain resort community known as Hideaway Park. The Graves family began the community with ten tourist cabins for rent. In 1978 the town incorporated and changed its name to Winter Park. Its proximity to the growing city of Denver helped Winter Park develop into a tourist town that primarily catered to winter sports. Today, the town supports year-round outdoor recreation.


 

Date1911: Large group poses in front of the grocery store during the First Winter Sports Carnival, Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand County, Colorado. Some hold skis upright, others sit on toboggans or sleds. Carl Howelson holds a large shiny trophy cup. Other carnival goers include: James Cairns, J. N. Pettingell, Lawrence Sunderlin, George Steele, Harry Miller, Frank I. Huntington, Sam Riley, Brice Sheriff, Frank Adams, E. A. Morgan, P.S. Elting, Gunar Dahle, Green McQueary, Schmidt, Judge Palm, Judge Kennedy, John Peyer, Cyrus Sunderlin, Lee Fuller, Loius Janssen, C. C. Eastin (Lum), Elizabeth Pettingell, Earl McQueary, Fount McQueary, Lester Curtis, Albert M. Staley, Leslie Harrison, Tom Percy, Gunar Reini, Dist. Atty. Morgan, Lewis Wade, "Shorty" Carmean, Henry Eastin, Marion Gibbs, Charles F. Free, Clark Tel. Mgr., Rose Vaughn, Hannah Pettingell, Myrtle Miller, Laura Throckmorton, Emeza Davis, Glenn Sheriff, Mrs. Aug. Loehwing, Nona Morgan, Fred Throckmorton, Mrs. Leon Fuller, Leon Fuller, Jr. Florence Brinker, Chester McQueary, Adeline Morgan, Nora Sheriff, Pansy Perry, Anna Robinson, Miss Weymore, Jim Weymore, Roy Morgan, John Johnson, Gertrude Pettingell, Marjorie Johnson, Gus Severine, Arthur Vaughn, Horace Jansson, Roy McGlochlin, Jake Pettingell, Jr., Robert Crowell, Forrest Fay.

Hot Sulphur Springs hosted their first Winter Carnival in 1911. The carnival included winter sports such as ice skating, tobogganing, cross country skiing, and ski jumping. This is considered to be the beginning of skiing in Grand County and is credited with bringing the ski industry to Colorado. With the establishment of Rocky Mountain National Park in 1915, additional tourists came to the area. Its west entrance was situated by Grand Lake, bringing a new road to the county through the park.

Granby Ranch is another all-season resort in Grand County, offering downhill and cross-country skiing. The resort also offers snowshoeing, and in warmer weather visitors can enjoy bike trails and a golf course.



 

William N. Byers,


Frank S. Byers

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

 

The Santa Fe depot in the foreground with Palmer Lake and the town in the background, circa 1888. 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. "

__ Charles Dickens 

 Dual rails through Palmer Lake

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrign1@gmail.com

 It may not have been a tale of two cities, but TWO tracks certainly, had an major effect on the way the the North/South corridor in Colorado developed.

"The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway built its own line north from Pueblo to Denver, reaching Palmer Lake in September 1887. Its tracks paralleled those of the Denver & Rio Grande’s all the way, crossing over them at three locations, including one just north of Palmer Lake. Among the Santa Fe’s facilities at Palmer Lake, on the east side of the lake, was a large frame depot with a distinctive tower where the south end of the (current) Santa Fe Trail’s parking lot, information kiosk and restroom are," writes my friend and Palmer Lake historian Dan Edwards, in one of his papers for the Vaile Museum. 

"The Santa Fe and Rio Grande operated on their own tracks from 1887-1918. During World War I the United States Railroad Administration ordered that the two railroads operate their tracks from South Denver to Bragdon, just north of Pueblo as a double track railroad. To facilitate this, crossovers and connecting tracks were built at the three previous crossovers, including one at Spruce Mountain, just north of Palmer Lake to facilitate this. The D&RG track was south bound with the Santa Fe’s track north bound."

 "In 1938 the two railroads created a consolidated depot at Palmer Lake, made possible because the two sets of tracks were a few yards apart where County Line Road crossed them. The Santa Fe’s closed Pring depot was moved to Palmer Lake, its bay window facing west. The closed Greenland depot baggage door and bay window were added to the east side, facing the Santa Fe’s northbound tracks. The depot was staffed by the Santa Fe. The new “joint agency” was now in service. The railroad’s separate depots were torn down in 1939," according to Edwards.

"The Santa Fe’s original depot was a large unique structure for that railroad. Its distinctive tower seemingly served no known purpose other than ornamentation. Decorative windows in the tower may have been planned but were never installed. A large rectangular, long “roof,” covered four distinct “areas.” At the southern end was an open “waiting area” with seats, then the actual depot of three rooms – the telegrapher’s office, waiting room and a freight room, then an open, covered “breezeway” and lastly a kitchen and dining room. The dining room was smaller than others but nevertheless was operated as one of the Santa Fe’s famous Harvey House dining rooms. Some/many local folks said the food was superior to that of the D&RGs Judd Eating House. The dining room did not last very long and was closed about 1902. In 1915 the “breeze way” was enclosed and along with the kitchen/dining area converted to living quarters for the agent."

The Santa Fe Section Foreman’s home is now the Palmer Lake Police Dept. and is across from the Vaile Museum, on the north-west corner of Lower Glenway Street. With the establishment of the Santa Fe – Rio Grande “Joint Depot” staffed by Santa Fe agents and telegraphers serving both roads in 1938, the unique Santa Fe depot at Palmer Lake was closed and torn down about 1938 or 1939.

 A man rows his boat, "Lizzie," across Palmer Lake, Palmer Lake, El Paso County, Colorado; shows water squirting from fountain in the center of the lake and the Denver & Rio Grande railroad depot, tank, and train. Creator:Stone & Co. Date circa 1895.

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No alarm bell rang, no lonesome whistle

 

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe train depot, Palmer Lake 1948

What Happened to Santa Fe Depot At the North End of Palmer Lake?

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 No alarm bell rang out in 1968 when Palmer Lake lost one of its most historic structures. But fire was not culprit and the long lonesome whistle of a train may have been more fitting. 

“After welcoming travelers for more than 60 years, the Palmer Lake depot is doing a little traveling itself these days,” wrote William Marvel of the Rocky Mountain News late in 1968.

“The ancient wooden structure, decorated with carved fancywork in the Victorian manner, has taken to flatbed truck and is being towed towards a final resting place in South Park.”

In its last years in Palmer Lake, the station was used as an office for the Santa Fe Railroad’s agent that relayed orders to passing train that never stopped. The railroad donated it to a Palmer Lake youth group and as soon as the group realized that its members had no way of getting it off the property, they advertised it ‘for sale.’

Denver advertising executive Shelton Fisher saw the ad and talked to the group’s leader who told him he was selling the building to the first buyer that showed up with $100. Marvel’s story in the Rocky Mountain News quotes Fisher regarding his immediate interest.

“Thirty-nine minutes later, we were down there. I saw it from the highway and told my wife to write out the check,” he said. His plans called for having a house mover relocate the structure with a trip of 120 miles that required special dispensation form Charles Shumate, who was then head of the Colorado Highway Department. Part of its route included traveling down uncompleted lanes of I-70 that was known then as the Hampden Avenue Extension, to avoid traffic.

“Once there, it will be set up along with another rail road relic – a wooden caboose given to Fisher by the Colorado and Southern Railway (Burlington),” noted Marvel’s story in the Rocky Mountain News. Fisher planned to create a bunk house that would sleep ten and connect the two structures with a passageway between them for use as guest ranch of sorts for orphans. Still, bells and whistles aside, the loss is real even if most can’t remember any of those buildings. It is nice to know where they were.

A man with a hard hat sits atop the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad depot as a flatbed truck transports it in Palmer Lake, El Paso County, Colorado. Signs on the side of the truck: "Ryberg Construction Co.," "Ryberg Constr. Co. House Movers, tel. 422-0177 Denver." Signs on building: "Palmer Lake" and "Santa Fe."
 

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Having read a column that I wrote earlier about moving the railroad depot in Palmer Lake, Marianne Zagorski wrote and provided a interesting postscript to the story.

“In ’66 my family and I moved from the USAFA out to Palmer Lake and eventually attended a town meeting, date of which I do not recall. It is a coincidence you should say “fire was not the culprit” because it almost was. Toward the end of the meeting a reminder was given of past business. ‘Don’t forget – our volunteer fire department will brush up on their skills on (date) when the depot will be set fire. Everyone
come.’

“Never shy, I jumped to my feet and had my say. In the interest of brevity, I will condense what ensued into: hostility, sharp words, disbelief and a final acquiescence in accepting my plan of putting it up for sale. ‘But remember, you only have two weeks, then we burn it. And you are limited to $100 – tops.’

Zagorski countered.
‘But why tie my hands? You already made it clear your funds are at a low ebb. I guarantee I can get you much more.’

“TWO WEEKS – ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!”
“Yes sir.”

Zagorski said that they did have a good point about the dangerous condition of the building and how it would be expensive to rectify.

“But I knew my market and lost no time calling The Denver Post Sunday Empire section which also lost no time sending a reporter and photographer to meet me. I was aware of everything dealing with trains was high on their list of priorities. So, on the earliest Sunday, there was a good photo and article on a full page.”

“Early in the morning the phone started ringing and continued for days. Of course, I had to accept the first caller for which I was truly sorry when the second caller was the moving force behind the opening of Woodmoor. He was offering really big money (as many did) if only I would let him have it. He wanted it for the narrow-gauge tracks and train he was planning to run around his lake. Even though he never realized that idea, The Depot would have remained here.” Thus, the depot was saved from the torch.

“I do not recall anything at all said to me by the Palmer Lake commission members when I handed over the check. Not then or later. But I had accomplished my goal.”

Strange that little of the story made its way into town or Historical Society records. Maybe the shame of losing the depot had something to do with this.

 

 

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train depot in process of a move on a flatbed truck, with a horse in background, Palmer Lake, El Paso County, Colorado. The historic building features: bracketed eaves, a gable, a bay window, and board and batten siding.  

 

 

 

 

One dead, one injured, and bystander loses an arm

William (Big Bill) Thompson stood 6' 4" tall and weighed 280 pounds

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com 

In 1906, Durango was such a rough town, that the County Sheriff and the Town Marshal were fighting over whether, or not to allow gambling. The disagreement took a turn toward violence and escalated into the two officers emptying revolvers in street at each other. One dead, one injured, and a bystander losing an arm in the process.

Headlines across the state reflected the news then:

QUARREL WITH POLICEMAN AT DURANGO.

FIGHT AGAINST GAMBLING

Sheriff W. J. Thompson Meets Death at Hands of Policeman Jesse C. Stansel—Latter Officer Dangerously Wounded. 

 

"Sheriff Thompson was shot and killed by a town marshal after an argument stemming from the sheriff closing down gambling halls in the town of Durango. The two got into an argument at one of the halls and went outside and exchanged gunfire. Sheriff Thompson was fatally wounded and the marshal was wounded. The marshal was charged with murder after it was learned that Sheriff Thompson was shot in the back. The undertaker, however, burned all of Sheriff Thompson's clothes and destroyed the evidence, resulting in the suspect's acquittal, " according to modern-day posts by La Plata County Sheriff's Office, Colorado End of Watch: Tuesday, January 9, 1906.

 On January 9, 1906, William (Big Bill) Thompson stood 6' 4" tall and weighed 280 pounds, but that didn't help him when he got into a gun battle with Jesse Stansel, the Town Marshal of Durango. Thompson had been appointed La Plata County Sheriff in 1898, and began to close down Durango's gambling halls under orders from the Governor. Marshal Stansel objected, and the two got into an argument at the El Mano Saloon. The argument moved out onto the sidewalk, where the two men emptied their guns at each other.

After the smoke cleared, both men were taken to Mercy Hospital, where Sheriff Thompson died from four bullet wounds. Marshal Stansel sustained one bullet wound to the chest and survived. After it was discovered that one of Thompson's wounds was to his back, Marshal Stansel was arrested for murder.

Before the trial could take place, the undertaker burned Sheriff Thompson's clothing, which was vital evidence to prove the murder charge. As a result, Stensel was acquitted by the jury. Soon after, he moved to Texas.

  "Denver—A Republican special from Durango Tuesday says; Sheriff W. J. Thompson was killed to-day and Jesse r .. Stansel. a city officer, was dangerously wounded as a result of a revolver duel between the .two men. Thompson •as shot four times and pounded over the head with a gun by Stansel, and the latter was shot once. The tragedy was the outcome of a fight against gambling. I.ast September the sheriff ordered all saloon keepers to close their saloons at midnight and on Sundays and ordered that all gambling cease. Since that time there has been two opposing elements, the City Council favoring gambling, it is said," writes The Walsenburg World, 
January 12, 1906 .

"A raid by Sheriff Thompson last night was the cause of to-day’s tragedy, which occurred in the street in front of the El Moro saloon. Both men emptied their revolvers and then grappled (ml fought until separated by friends. Sheriff Thompson lived only a short time. night at 11 o’clock Sheriff Thompson went in a back room of the El Moro saluon and caught a crowd gambling. He confiscated a roulette wheel and stated while doing so that me police opposed his efforts to enforce the law. Mischief-makers carried the tale to Stansel. no doubt making it worse than it really was. and when Stansel came down town this morning he said he intended to see the sheriff about the report. They met in front of the El Moro saloon and hot words were exchanged. *The preponderance of evidence is that .Thompson was drinking some and had been drinking the night before when •he raided the gambling Joint. According to eye witnesses of the tragedy Thompson turned and started to walk away, but suddenly turned, drew his gun and commenced firing. "

"It is supposed that Stansel said something which caused Thompson to •decide to shoot. The men were very close together. They emptied their guns and then pounded each other with the butt end of the guns. John Acord. a man seventy-two years old, was shot by a stray bullet, the ball entering his forearm and ranging upward, shattering the elbow Joint. The two officers were separated by friends. After Thompson had been shot four a times and badly beaten, he w’alked a few steps and sank to the sidewalk. Stansel clubbed him with his gun after 1 he was down, according to witnesses After the fight was over it was no tlced that Stansel had two guns w’hlch he gave to a by-stander and then asked for a doctor. Thompson was hurried to the Ochs- , ner hospital and breached his last Just as he was being laid on a cot. He was conscious almost up to the last minute. Stansel and Acord were taken to Mercy hospital and Stansel’s wound ( was examined and the bullet removed, it having entered at the right collarbone, extended downward and lodged in the tissues of the right lung. Acord's arm was amputated above the elbow. Enmity had existed between Thompson and Stansel ever since the election a year ago last fall, when both t ran for sheriff, Thompson on the Republican ticket and Stansel on the Democratic ticket. Trouble breeders carried false tales to both men and while they were making their canvass they met and agreed to make a clean campaign and be friendly, but the trouble breeders kept busy and disrupted the friendly compact. Thompson frequently charged that the police opposed him in his efforts to enforce the law and these statements were repeated and distorted by the gambling fraternity and their sympathizers. so the breech between the two men grew wider. W. J. Tompson was thirty-four years of age and had lived in this section twenty-six years. During the early days he was in the stock business and rode the range when this was really a tough country; when It was infested with treacherous Indians and outlaws and there were many things to try a man’s courage. For the last fifteen years Thompson had acted in the capacity of peace officer the greater part of the time. He has been on th police force several times. He served ns deputy sheriff for three years under Joe Smith and a year or two under Joe Airy. He had the reputation of being the biggest sheriff in the state. He was six feet two inches tall and weighed 250 pounds. He was a man of great courage, a terror to the law breakers and never failed to arrest his man if he found him. He leaves a widow, three grown sons and two daughters, one ten years old and ;the other seventeen. He had suffered a great deal of late from rheumatism and this, coupled with his great size, made him clumsy. Stansel has a wife and five small children. He is a fearless officer, of large physique, much younger than Thompson and very active, according to the Trinidad paper, and other dispatches around the state.

Who killed the La Plata County sheriff?

"You may come up with your own answer after seeing the feature-length documentary “Tragedy at El Moro,” says an article in modern-day Durango Herald about the historic incident.

"The new film, directed by Durangoan Preston Benson, will premiere Tuesday at El Moro Spirits & Tavern. The bar and restaurant occupies the same spot that the El Moro Saloon did in 1906, when La Plata County Sheriff William J. Thompson died after a shootout with Durango Marshall Jessie C. Stansel."

Durango Police Department historian Sharon Greve, who helped research for the movie, said she is excited for the public to know the factual, historical story that’s been the subject of much speculation and subjective interpretation over the years.

"In the 1900s, Durango really was the Wild West. Most men worked at railroad, mining and ranching jobs, and there wasn’t much else for them to do besides frequent the many downtown bars and bordellos."

In the 900 block of Main Avenue, where El Moro sits, there were 11 saloons, Greve said, and in those saloons, they didn’t just drink 5-cent beers. They also gambled, and open gambling was shut down by Gov. Jesse Fuller McDonald on July 1, 1905.

At the root of the conflict between Thompson, played by Trapper Niccum, and Stansel, played by Jon Mattox, was Thompson’s belief that the Durango Police Department wasn’t doing enough to help him put a stop to the gambling, and friction built between the two law enforcers.

On Jan. 9, 1906, about midday, the two were in El Moro Saloon, and Thompson, who had been drinking, was using profanity with the sober Stansel, who didn’t like it and left the bar. Stansel was leaning against a light pole when Thompson exited El Moro, uttering more “not-too-nice words,” Greve said. Thompson turned around and fired at Stansel, and Stansel fired back.

They exchanged fire until they ran out of bullets. Thompson ran out first and hit Stansel over the head, and they continued to scuffle until Thompson started to go into Wesley Helm’s Barbershop next door, where he fell in the doorway. He died in a horse-drawn ambulance on the northern Main Avenue bridge as he was being transported to Ochsner Hospital on West Park Avenue.

After a 10-day trial and testimony from 50 witnesses, Stansel was acquitted because of a lack of evidence that he had fired the shot that killed Thompson, Greve said.

"The account of one witness stated there was a pale, smooth-shaven, tall man in dark clothing standing in the El Moro doorway with a gun drawn, Greve said. The witness said the man was there long enough to fire two shots, but he couldn’t tell if he did shoot, she said. During the gunfight, Thompson and Stansel always were facing each other, but Thompson was shot in the back. So that’s where the discrepancy lies. And Hood Mortuary burned Thompson’s clothes the night of the accident, so evidence was lost."

It’s possible that someone in the saloon industry wanted Thompson out of the way because he was cracking down on gambling. A Durango newspaperman once said to Thompson, “Watch out, Bill. They’re out to get you,” Greve said.

“Both men were very dedicated to their jobs,” Greve said. “They were very well-liked by the population, but they knew that it was brewing, and it was not a surprise that it was going to one day explode with the controversy between them.”

Much investigation and research went into this movie, and audiences will be intrigued to learn what really happened on that tragic day, Benson said.

“It’s really kind of an incredible story, beyond what everyone knows or has heard about,” Benson said.

Kris Oyler, co-owner of El Moro, opened the bar in summer 2013.

“It’s very cool to have the history behind what we’re doing,” he said, according to the Durango Herald. 

But the Herald (full disclosure: I carried the Durango Herald in routes in Dolores as a lad.) had it's own baggage to carry around.

Of editors and publishers, historically speaking, I feel that we have it pretty good nowadays. As evidence, I offer the following account from Duane Smith’s 1992 book on the history of the Durango Herald provided to me by David Staats, the former managing editor of the southwestern Colorado daily.
“The long standing newspaper rivalry (between the Durango Democrat and Herald) thundered violently over Durango when Rod Day shot and killed the Herald’s city editor, William Wood. The incident was sparked by a series of ‘newspapers exchanges,’ ‘joshing comments’ from each about the other’s violation of prohibition,” according to Smith’s report.

“Monday morning, April 24, 1922, shortly before noon, marked the nadir of Durango’s newspaper history. The published facts depend on which paper one reads, but one or the other of the men prowled Main’s 900 block looking for his antagonist. Their meeting prompted and aggressive attack by one of them upon his rival. Day suffered a broken nose before firing, after which he entered a nearby barbershop, cleaned himself up, and surrendered. The coroner’s jury made no recommendation. Day, however was forced to stand trial in the District Court for murder; he was acquitted.”

Rod Day sold the Democrat in 1924 but helped start another rival paper in Durango in 1930.
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