Surprising and rewarding: Local trail named for founder's uncle

Herman would have looked down, and been proud

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

One of the most surprising and rewarding local trails eventually overlooks the town of Monument, and is short, steep, and culminates with amazing views of both Pike's Peak to the southwest, and reportedly cities in Kansas, on a crystal-clear day. The summit is right at 9,100 feet altitude.

Mount Herman Trail is a 2.2 mile trail located near Monument and features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate (though it climbs nearly 900 feet quickly.) The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from March until September. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash. It is accessed by traveling past Monument Rock, reaching the trailhead parking lot less than five miles up on Mount Herman Road.

It is kind of hard to keep track of who Herman was, of Mount Herman fame, considering it was named after the uncle of the founder of Monument. That founder changed his name, and probably never lived here.

When the town of Monument showed up originally on the drawing board, it was Charles Adams listed as the primary owner. In January of 1874, Charles Adams and Henry Limbach filed a plat statement of the town encompassing about 60 acres in the North half of the South east quarter. 108 lots were platted with Limbach owning 36 and Adams 72. Adams and Limbach, with others, would later file two more additions by 1879, and be involved with more in the 1880s.

Mount Herman, West of Monument, was named after one Herman Schwanbeck, who homesteaded right about where Village Inn in Monument is now. Herman appears to have been Charles Adams' uncle, (his father's brother) and Charles was both instrumental in the development of the town, and much of early Colorado. Charles Adams was born Karl Adams Schwanbeck in Germany in 1845.

Karl Schwanbeck, turned Charles Adams, was married to an English girl who did not like the German name of Schwanbeck, so had it changed to Charles Adams," according to Lucille Lavelett's history "Through the Years at Monument." Though founder Adams never lived in Monument, according to most reports, staying in the Manitou Springs area much of his life, in area that is still known today as Adam's Crossing.

Monument’s founder surfaces time, and time again in early Colorado history

Rescuer of the Meeker women, Ouray's friend,  took Packer back to Los Pinos

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

When the town of Monument showed up originally on the drawing board, it was Charles Adams listed as the primary owner.
In January of 1874, Charles Adams and Henry Limbach filed a plat statement of the town encompassing about 60 acres in the North half of the South east quarter. 108 lots were platted with Limbach owning 36 and Adams 72. Adams and Limbach, with others, would later file two more additions by 1879, and be involved with more in the 1880s.
Mount Herman, West of Monument, was named after one Herman Schwanbeck, who homesteaded right about where Village Inn is now. Herman appears to have been Charles Adams' uncle, (his father's brother) and Charles was both instrumental in the development of the town, and much of early Colorado.
Charles Adams was born Karl Adams Schwanbeck in Germany in 1845. He came to the United States as young man and served in the Union Army during the the Civil War (as did Henry Limbach) and afterwards was a cavalryman on the Western Plains. His migration from Germany was reportedly for political reasons, according to a 1953 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Karl Schwanbeck, turned Charles Adams, was married to an English girl who did not like the German name of Schwanbeck, so had it changed to Charles Adams," according to Lucille Lavelett's history "Through the Years at Monument."
Though Adams never lived in Monument, according to most reports, staying in the Manitou Springs area much of his life, he lived in area that is still known today as Adam's Crossing. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Colorado City Glass Works and the Manitou mineral water company.
According to Tom Daniels, archivist for the Old Colorado City Historical Society (OCCHS), the name appeared in the past on official maps, postcards and as the name of a grocery store (at the corner where the medical marijuana shop is today, as reported by the recent Westside Pioneer newspaper article by Kenyon Jordan.
“I'm sure if I dug around some more, I would find hundreds of references to 'Adams Crossing,'” Daniels wrote in a 2012 e-mail to the multi-government project team planning a $16-million bridge/avenue improvement project. “Even the early telephone directories listed numbers in that area as 'Adams Crossing,' including my grandfather!”
Adams/Schwanbeck was appointed Brigadier General of the Colorado Militia in 1870. Later he was an Indian agent, and a special agent in the post-office department, and also Minister to Bolivia, for two years, appointed by President Rutherford B, Hayes.
After the White River Ute outbreak after the Meeker Massacre in 1879 he distinguished himself by tracking Colorow and his band, and with the help his friend Ouray, and persuaded the hostiles to release their five hostages taken captive at the White River Agency.
Returning to Colorado, he became involved in mining and water development. In addition, he was appointed as US Indian Agent to the Ute Tribe, serving through 1874. There were at least seven distinct groups of Utes in Colorado at that time, although settlers often could not distinguish them. Adams dealt primarily with the White River and Uncompahgre Utes.
Adams established good relationships with Ouray and his wife Chipeta, of the Uncompahgre Utes. This friendship was useful in helping him negotiate the release of five captives (three women and two children) taken by the Utes in 1879 after the Meeker Massacre.
It was in his role as Indian Agent that he also came into contact with legendary Colorado Cannibal Alfred or 'Alferd' Packer.
Packer (as guide) and Israel Swan, Shannon Wilson Bell, George Noon, James Humphrey, and Frank Miller risked the brutal Colorado winter of 1873-74 in search of mineral wealth in the snowy San Juans in southwest Colorado. After leaving Ouray's camp, nearby present-day Montrose, the group was buried by blizzard near the present site of Lake City, Colorado.
Packer was next seen on April 16, 1874, straggling into the Los Pinos Indian Agency with little more than a rifle and a skinning knife belonging to members of his party. The story Packer told at that time was that, once the storm hit, he had set up camp while the others went forward in search of food. They never returned, and Packer subsequently headed out for Los Pinos.
After recovering, Packer left for Saguache, Colorado, where by some accounts he suddenly became a 'big spender' at the local saloon. Unfortunately for Packer, in Saguache he encountered several men from the original Provo group who were dubious about his version of the story.
Indian Agent Charles Adams took Packer back to Los Pinos for questioning about the matter, and on May 8, 1874, extracted the first of Packard's two conflicting confessions. According to Packer, Israel Swan had died and the others, being without food, had eaten him. Subsequently, three others had died from exposure and starvation. Then, Packer admitted to killing Shannon Bell, claiming it was in self-defense.
Packer was transported back to Saguache and jailed outside of town, not in the town's jail house as some have told. In August, Packer escaped from custody and wasn't seen again until March, 1883, when Frenchy Cabazon, one of the original prospecting party, found him quite by accident in Douglas, Wyoming.
By coincidence, on the day of Packer's escape from Saguache, the ghostly remains of the missing prospectors were found in a valley overlooking what is now Lake City, Colorado. There was evidence of a struggle and foul play.
In March, 1883, Packer was taken to Denver, Colorado, and questioned again about the incident. In his second confession, Packer stuck with his original claim of self-defense, but admitted to stealing the rifle and $70 in cash from the dead men. Packer was charged with the murder of Israel Swan, the first to die, and was taken to Lake City for trial.
The jury wasted no time in finding Packer guilty of murder, and Judge Melville B. Gerry suggested he hang. Packer appealed his conviction to the Colorado Supreme Court where the verdict was reversed. He was tried again and this time found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 40 years in the state penitentiary. After serving only 17 years of his sentence, Packer's cause was championed by a grass-roots campaign in Denver. In 1901, Governor Charles S. Thomas granted Packer's parole request.
Packer moved to Littleton, where by all accounts he became a model citizen, well liked by all of his neighbors. He died of natural causes on April 23, 1907, and was buried with military funeral in Littleton Cemetery.
Adams died in fire and explosion at the Gumry Hotel in Denver in 1895.
"Denver's Gumry Hotel at Seventeenth and Lawrence Streets blows up near midnight in August 1895, killing twenty-two people — the greatest loss of life to a fire in Denver's history. Some are trapped in the wreckage for hours. One man, entombed for 9 hours "is mighty glad to get out." Young boiler engineer Elmer Loescher denies the explosion was his fault. Convened to determine the cause, a coroner's jury spreads the blame around," wrote Dick Kreck in Denver in Flames.
Charles Adams is buried in Crystal Valley Cemetery in Manitou Springs with two gravestones, according to recent story in the Westside Pioneer. One stone notes his Civil War service and the other call attention to him as "rescuer of the captive Meeker women."

Photo Information:

Top photo: Charles Adams is flanked by Ouray and his wife Chipeta in a photo taken in Washington, D.C. during treaty talks in 1880.

Bottom Photo: Prisoner Alfred Packer upon his release from prison in 1901.

History woven into fabric of Monument post office

"Abstract anger is great for rhetorical carrying on. You can go on endlessly about the post office, but it doesn't mean you're mad at your mailman."
__ P.J. O'Rourke

 First called Henry's Station before the first trains rolled through in 1872, but Henry, himself, is given credit for changing the little burg's name to Monument

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In places like this, the post office is part of the fabric that holds the town together through time and history. The story of the Post Office seems to be a twisting and turning tale here locally in Monument. David McShane, who built the old stone fort near the edge of Monument and Palmer Lake, was of course, the first postmaster. But Henry Limbach, was the second.

"The first post office in this vicinity was in 1869, and was located on the David McShane ranch. David McShane was the first postmaster. Mail was brought to the office twice a week, if the weather permitted, by hack or saddle horse," records historian Lucile Lavelett.

Limbach made his first payment on for land in Monument on Oct. 1, 1870. The land was patented to Maria Linder, Henry's mother in law, who came over from Germany.

"Caroline Linder Limbach was born in Hilburghausen Saxony, on May 22, 1842. She came to America with her mother, Mrs. Linder in May, 1872. They stopped temporarily in St. Louis, Missouri. There by pre-arrangement, she was met, and married to Henry Limbach, who had been a companion and schoolmate of her childhood and early youth in Germany. Immediately after their marriage, she came with her husband; her mother accompanying them to his ranch, that had been made a station called Henry's Station on the D & R.G. railroad just then built," wrote Lucille Lavelett in 'Through the Years at Monument, Colorado.'

"The country around was still unsettled, only a few ranches near and the bride still unable to speak a word of English. She commenced her new life in a new, strange and barren-looking country. Caroline Limbach was the first white female resident in Monument. Her eldest son, Ed Limbach, was the first child born in this town."

According to the lore, though it was first called Henry's Station before the first trains rolled through in 1872, but Henry, himself is given credit for changing the little burg's name to Monument, after the nearby rock formation.

Henry himself, had arrived in this country as early as 1866, when he served in the Eighth Cavalry. He enlisted to take part in the Indian War and served as Captain.

"Later he became a true friend to the Indian. He and Chief Ingacio were very close friends," Lavelett wrote.

In January of 1874, Charles Adams and Henry Limbach filed a plat statement of the town encompassing about 60 acres in the North half of the South east quarter. 108 lots were platted with Limbach owning 36 and Adams 72. Adams and Limbach, with others, would later file two more additions by 1879, and be involved with more in the 1880s.

Mount Herman, West of Monument, was named after one Herman Schwanbeck, who homesteaded right about where Village Inn is now. A relative of his, Charles Adams, was both instrumental in the development of the town, and much of early Colorado, though Adams never lived in Monument, staying in the Manitou Springs much of his life, and died in fire and explosion at the Gumry Hotel in Denver in 1895.

"Charles Adams was born Karl Adams Schwanbeck in Germany in 1845. He came to the United States as young man and served in the Union Army during the the Civil War (as did Henry Limbach) and afterwards was a cavalryman on the Western Plains. He was appointed Brigadier General of the Colorado Militia in 1870. Later he was an Indian agent , a special agent in the post-office department and Minister to Bolivia. After the Ute outbreak in 1879 he distinguished himself by entering the territory of the Indians and persuading them to release their white captives. He was married to an English girl who did not like the German name of Schwanbeck, so had it changed to Charles Adams," according to Lavelett's history.

From 1869 to 1959, the Post Offices in Monument were located in stores or private homes. In 1959, for was the first time, Monument had it own new building for a post-office. It was dedicated April 24, 1960 with Lucille Lavelett as postmaster.

A new and larger office was constructed on Front Street in 1975 to accommodate growth related to development in Woodmoor, (the building surrounded by controversy recently regarding a possible Methadone clinic,) across from Limbach Park.

And finally construction of the current building, on Third Street, across from the old Schwanbeck homestead, began in 1998.

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Photo Information:

1. David McShane, first Monument-area postmaster.

2. Henry Limbach, second postmaster.

3. Caroline Limbach.

4. Charles Adams, with Ouray and Chipeta

5. Lucille Lavelett.

6. Limbach's house in 1880.

7. Limbach Saloon.

8. Caroline Limbach's Millenery.