Weird world out there, especially in Colorado

 “A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That’s what I like about coincidence.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark 

 What do I like about coincidence?

 By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

It is a weird, weird world out there. And no place illustrates that more than Colorado.  Kidnapping, murder, brew magnates under duress, gangsters, big stories, FBI and hard times in the '30s,  all just part of the package. Just watch how these facts unfold. And please, think about what holds them all together.

Very few people know that Charles Lindbergh was also a pioneer in the field of aerial archaeology. Vocational historian and writer Erik Berg has extensively researched Lindbergh’s life and aerial archaeological surveys, bringing to light his efforts to help locate and document ancient sites and landscapes. “Lindbergh always had broad and varied interests and his fame from the 1927 Atlantic flight opened a lot of doors for him to indulge those interests,” said Berg.

Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings and settlements in Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, and Chaco Canyon and the Pecos Valley in New Mexico are the subject of numerous Charles Lindbergh photographs. In the day, he quickly volunteered to photograph these areas when flying nearby.

“Lindbergh was always looking for new uses for aviation, and since he was already flying through both these regions as part of his airline work, he volunteered his time and plane,” explained Berg. “For Lindbergh, it was both a way to indulge in a new interest, archaeology, and further the cause of aviation as a tool for science.”

Lindbergh and, his famous wife Ann Morrow, spent a considerable amount of time in Colorado, and came often to Grand County, Colorado, as guests of Harry F. Knight whose ranch encompassed 1,500 acres on the South Fork of the Colorado River.  The ranch today is covered by the waters of the Granby Reservoir.

Also, according to a 1927 Denver Post article, Colonel Charles Lindbergh found the state welcoming before. The aviator did not like to eat in his airplane—even during very long trips. He claimed to not desire food when flying. And besides, to eat and control an aircraft was much too difficult.

"So when Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis arrived in Denver at 2 p.m. on August 31, 1927—some eight hours after taking off in Omaha—the famed aviator was presumably famished. What did the Queen City serve him?"

Reports in the paper said the first course of “Fruit Surprise” followed by a consommé. A palate cleanser of celery, pecans, and olives. An entrée of broiled spring chicken with peas and au gratin potatoes. A hearts of lettuce salad drizzled with Thousand Island dressing.

"These dishes were presented to Colonel Lindbergh and a crowd of 1,000 during a banquet held at Denver’s one-year-old Cosmopolitan Hotel. Lindbergh was in town to promote U.S. commercial aviation and to urge the city to build its own airport—all while he dined on Lindbergh mousse, petit fours, and Original Manitou Pale Dry Champagne (as these were Prohibition times, the “champagne” was actually ginger ale made with naturally carbonated spring water from nearby Manitou Springs, Colo.)," The Post said.

Even though the pilot stayed in Denver for only 18 hours, Denverites caught a severe case of Lindbergh fever, according to later editions of the Denver Post. On the morning of September 1, 1927, an estimated 50,000 people gathered at Lowry Field to wish Lindbergh well as he flew on to Pierre, South Dakota.

On March 1, 1932, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., 20-month-old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was abducted from the crib in the upper floor of his home in Highfields in East Amwell, New Jersey, On May 12, the child's corpse was discovered by a truck driver off the side of a nearby road.

In September 1934, a German immigrant carpenter named Richard Hauptmann was arrested for the crime. After a trial that lasted from January 2 to February 13, 1935, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Despite his conviction, he continued to profess his innocence, but all appeals failed and he was executed in the electric chair at the New Jersey State Prison on April 3, 1936.

Newspaper writer H. L. Mencken called the kidnapping and trial "the biggest story since the Resurrection." Legal scholars have referred to the trial as one of the "trials of the century". The crime spurred Congress to pass the Federal Kidnapping Act, commonly called the "Lindbergh Law", which made transporting a kidnapping victim across state lines a federal crime.

Verne Sankey worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway in his youth and later attempted to start a farm in South Dakota. When the farm failed, he and Gordon Alcorn began robbing banks in Canada and the United States. The two men eventually decided to try kidnapping and, in June 1932, they abducted Haskell Bohn in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bohn was the son of a local refrigerator magnate and they demanded $35,000 for his release, but instead settled for $12,000. Seven months later, they kidnapped Denver millionaire Charles Boettcher II and held them at Sankey's turkey ranch in South Dakota until they were paid $60,000.

In a matter of months, Sankey and Alcorn were considered two of the most sought-after outlaws in the country. Their successful kidnappings were imitated by many in the Midwest underworld, such as the 1933 kidnapping of Charles Urschel by Albert Bates and George "Machine Gun" Kelly.

Ironically, it was the high-profile kidnappings of William Hamm, Jr. and Edward Bremer by the Barker Gang that led to their downfall. As the authorities were not yet aware of the existence of the Barkers, the kidnappings were blamed on Sankey and Alcorn, who were quickly tracked down by the FBI.

On June 15, 1933, the Barker–Karpis gang kidnapped William Hamm of Hamm's Brewery and released him on June 19, 1933. The ransom from this kidnapping netted $100,000. They then kidnapped Edward Bremer in daylight in St. Paul in January 1934, releasing him in February. The ransom from this kidnapping turned out to be $200,000. However, these kidnappings brought too much negative publicity, due to the recent Urschel and Lindbergh Kidnappings, and the fact that the father of the Bremer Jr. was a personal friend of President Roosevelt, who mentioned the kidnappings in a fireside chat. On November 27, 1934, Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis, at that time the Public Enemy No. 1, was mortally wounded in a gun battle with the FBI and died later that night. The next day, Alvin Karpis was declared Public Enemy No. 1, which brought the full force of the FBI down on the Barker-Karpis Gang.

"Ostensibly a South Dakota farmer, Sankey moved to Denver with the idea of kidnapping a wealthy businessman. One name on Sankey's short list of four candidates was Adolph Coors, Jr. But Charlie Boetcher seemed the better victim, especially after Sankey and a confederate spotted Boetcher and his wife driving about town," wrote Sandra Dallas, in a 2010 Denver Post review of a book by Timothy W. Bjorkman, about Sankey and Boettcher kidnapping.

"The Press accused him of being behind almost every unsolved kidnapping in the country, including the murder of the Lindbergh baby, an accusation that infuriated Sankey, according to Dallas and Bjorkman.
"I am a man. I would kidnap a man,"  Sankey reportedly said. "I would never kidnap a child."

On January 31, 1934, Sankey was captured by police and federal agents at a barber shop in Chicago, Illinois. He was returned to South Dakota to stand trial for the Boettcher kidnaping, being held at the state prison in Sioux Falls for added security; however, Sankey committed suicide before his trial by hanging himself in his cell with his necktie on February 8. Alcorn had been captured a week earlier and was sentenced to life imprisonment for Boettcher's kidnapping.

Years later, in February of 1960, Adolph Coors disappear while driving to work from his home in Morrison, Colorado. The grandson of the Coors' founder and and chairman of the Golden Brewery was kidnapped and held for ransom before being shot and killed.

Based on evidence in the case, the FBI launched one of the largest manhunts ever, in hopes of finding Joe Corbett.

Corbett, a Fulbright scholar at the University of Oregon, was headed to medical school when in 1951, he got into an altercation with an Air Force sergeant. During the fight, he shot the man and ended up pleading guilty to second degree murder. He was sent to San Quinten Prison for a number of years, and later to a less secure facility, from which he escaped and began living under the alias, Walter Osborne.

A little more than a week after Coors was kidnapped, a burned-up car found in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was traced back to Corbett. The yellow Mercury had been reported by witnesses in the area of the Coors' abduction. Dirt from the car was ultimately traced back to the area where Coors was taken hostage.

Seven months after the brewing magnate was grabbed in 1960, his clothes were located in a dump near Sedalia, Colorado. His remains were later found nearby. A ransom letter was traced back to Joe Corbett's typewriter, and it was determined he had ordered hand cuffs, leg irons, and a gun through the mail in the months leading up to the kidnapping. The FBI distributed a million and half posters with Cobett's photo and tracked him though most of Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver, wher he was finally arrested.

Corbett never testified at his trial and never made any statement, but evidence convinced the jury to convict him in 1961. He was released in 1978. n 1996 Corbett gave his only interview following his release from prison; in it, he maintained his innocence. Corbett committed suicide on August 24, 2009.

Photo Information:

1. Charles Lindbergh
2. Adolph Coors
3.  Charles Boettcher
4. Joe Corbett.
5.  Verne Sankey
6. Bruno Richard Hauptmann

Give me one more for the ditch

I am old enough (just barely), to remember when hunters in the state from points south and east, would load up their trucks upon returning home, with cases of Coors beer because they couldn’t buy it back wherever it was the wandered in here from.
Coors was at one time a very regional beer. That makes it somewhat interesting to see how much dissing the brand gets in micro-brew circles.
In the early eighties, when Anheuser-Busch was trying to get approval in Fort Collins to build a brewery, some beer-addled friends of mine worried that another major brewery would somehow displace ‘Colorado Kool-Aid’
The friendly competition only fermented a major micro market there in Fort Fun, and the emergence of heavy hitters like New Belgian, O’dells and others. Colorado became the number one beer-producing state in the nation and the home to hundreds of breweries.
Today -- in an age when Coors has merged with Molson, and then again with Miller -- and boutique beer batches appear on every Colorado corner, it makes you think fondly about the old days of two-port, press-top cans and ‘stubbies’ from days of yore.
Naturally, the marketers have some ideas on how to capitalize on that nostalgia bent.
So let’s make beer like they did before Prohibition.
“Batch 19, being test-marketed in five cities, is a throwback to a pre-Prohibition lager. Coming from the large beer factory in Golden, the beer is surprising for its hoppy character and its carbonation. If it every reaches the general market, it should be a great success,” writes Dick Kreck in the Denver Post.
According to Kreck’s report, “Brewmaster Keith Villa found the recipe for the Coors pre-prohibition brew stashed in the company’s basement archives and was immediately intrigued by what he found.”
Only one drawback, the five cities it is being marketed in are; Chicago, San Francisco/San Jose, Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee. Oh yea, Colorado can get a little taste by taking the ‘short tour’ (or the long one) at the tasting room in Golden and it will be featured at Great American Beer Festival in Denver in September.
The name is supposed to evoke the idea that with Prohibition becoming the law in 1919, and beer being outlawed (except for medicinal purposes) until repeal in 1933, this brew will take you back.
The only problem, as I see it, is that Colorado, along with five other states, went dry three years earlier than the rest of the country, in January of 1916.
Details, details, details. But isn’t that what the brewing art is all about. Somehow, for marketing purposes, “Batch 16” just didn’t have the right ring to it.
###

Only here for the beer, or 'Black Cow.'

Time travel to party like it is 1899

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

If I could figure out how to time travel, I would like to party like it was 1899. The city of Cripple Creek or Victor might be a good place to start.
At that time, Cripple Creek was the fourth largest town in the state. 32,000 people lived in the district and business was booming.
The city directory of 1900 listed 52 stockbrokers, 3 banks, 3 stock exchanges, 10 insurance representatives, 9 jewelers, 49 grocers, 68 saloons and numerous gambling halls and sporting establishments.
But what would the party be like?
Any good revelry, in my humble opinion, finds a great starting point with beer. In this case, you’re talking about the days of Coors as a microbrewer.
In fact, Adolph Coors owned a building in Cripple Creek at the time.
“German born, Coors has been accustomed to the European tradition of breweries owning local pubs to help distribute their product. Coors carried on that tradition in Colorado. As his brewery prospered, he purchased buildings to lease back to prospective saloon owners who, in turn, would sell beer in their establishments,” wrote Brian Levine in Cripple Creek, City of Influence.
The Coors building was at 241-243 E Bennett Avenue in Cripple Creek, and he leased the property back to Henry Bunte for his B. B. Saloon.
“Although Adolph Coors did not finance the original construction of this building, Coors purchased it from stock brokers William P. Bonbright and J. Arthur Connell a year after it was built (1896),” according to Levine.
But it seems the most popular brew at the time, among the rising young stockbrokers, mining speculators and bankers, was the stuff served at the Denver Stock Exchange Saloon which is where Bronco Billy’s is today.
E. A. Asmussen, who was also a town trustee, was bartender, owner and when occasion called for it, bouncer. Asmussen contracted with well-known Denver brewers, the Zang Brewing Company and Rocky Mountain Brewery (owned by Zang).
Son of the founder, Phil Zang was the brewery manager for years after the English company Denver United Breweries purchased the company from his father Adolph in 1888. It became one of the largest breweries in the West.
“Adolph became interested in two of the district’s noted gold producers – the Anaconda and the Vindicator – and thus, became financially and politically involved in the Cripple Creek District. After the Anaconda and the Vindicator were absorbed by (A.E.) Carlton interests. Adolph Zang became a shareholder in The Golden Cycle Corporation,” wrote Levine.
Other beers served in the district might have included Tivoli Brewing Company or Union Brewing Company products, which were also two well-known Denver brewers that merged in 1901 (producing where the Auraria Student Union is today, in downtown Denver). In many locations, five-cent (nickel) draws were the going rate, except in the bordellos, where it was markedly more expensive.
If you had a taste for something stronger, of course that was readily available, often labeled affectionately and colorfully, ‘nose paint,’ ‘tonsil varnish,’ ‘tongue oil’ or ‘liquid muscle,’ in the vernacular of the period.
But a fellow didn’t have to drink alcohol exclusively.
The "black cow" or "root beer float" was created on August 19, 1893. Frank J. Wisner, owner of Cripple Creek Brewing in Colorado, served the first root beer float. Inspired by the moonlit view of snow-capped Cow Mountain, Mr. Wisner added a scoop of ice cream to his Myers Avenue Red root beer and began serving it as the "Black Cow Mountain." The name was later shortened to "black cow."
###