Branding, Old Beer Depot, Devil's Head, Sled Dogs, more ...

Thing of the past ...

Colorado. Branding calves

Detroit Photographic Co.

Created / Published: [between 1898 and 1905]

Title on inventory list: Branding calves.

- Detroit Publishing Co. no. "51059".

- Forms part of: Photochrome Print Collection.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Old beer depot in mining town. Leadville, Colorado

Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer

Created / Published: 1941, September.

Notes

- Title and other information from caption card.

- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Caribou, Colo. Silver Cornet Band 1874

Denver Public Library Special Collections,Caribou, Colo. Silver Cornet Band 1874

Creator: Kemp, Donald Campbell, 1889-1975

Date: [1935-1950?]

Summary Members of the Caribou Silver Cornet Band pose with their instruments in front of a wood building, probably in Caribou, a small mining district in Boulder County, Colorado. The group was known for its simple uniforms as well as its numerous concerts. The band was led by Caribou resident Mr. Moyle and provided entertainment for various Caribou celebrations, including parades and concerts. Sometimes the band played venues in Boulder.

 

Thing of the past ...

Station and hotel, summit of Pike's Peak

Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942, photographer

Detroit Publishing Co., publisher

Created / Published: ca. 1900

Headings

- Hotels

- Railroad stations

- Mountain railroads

- United States--Colorado--Pike's Peak

Headings

Dry plate negatives.

Notes

- Corresponding glass transparency (with same series code) available on videodisc frame 1A-29655.

- Date based on Detroit, Catalogue J Supplement (1901-1906).

- "WHJ 354" on negative and transparency.

- Detroit Publishing Co. no. 013813.

- Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949.

Medium

1 negative : glass ; 8 x 10 in.

Source Collection

Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection

(Library of Congress)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Pike National Forest, El Paso County, Colorado. Devils Head fire lookout station

Two men atop boulders, log hut alongside.

Created / Published: [between 1909 and 1932]

Headings:

- Fire lookout stations--Colorado--Pike National Forest--1900-1940

- Fire fighters--Colorado--Pike National Forest--1900-1940

Notes

- No. 3353.

- National Photo Company Collection.

Library of Congress

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Colorado snow plow on the Colorado Midland R.R., Hagerman Pass

Photograph shows Colorado Midland Railway train with a rotary snow plow removing snow from tracks next to water tower at Hagerman Pass.

Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942, photographer

Detroit Photographic Co., publisher

Created / Published

[Detroit] : [Detroit Photographic Co.], [1899]

Notes

- Title from item.

- No. 53132.

- Forms part of: Detroit Publishing Company collection (Library of Congress).

- Exhibited as a digital copy in: "Not an Ostrich: And Other Images from America's Library" at the Annenberg Space for Photography, 2018; Detroit Publishing Co. section.

- Annenberg batch 15

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

The Felken Cycle Co., Denver, Colo.

Detroit Publishing Co., publisher

Created / Published: between 1895 and 1910

Headings:

- Automobiles

- Automobile industry

- Interiors

- Cash registers

- United States--Colorado--Denver

Headings:

Dry plate negatives.

Photographic prints--Reproductions.

Notes

- Title from jacket.

- "Made especially for the National Cash Register Company" on jacket.

- "14" on negative.

- Detroit Publishing Co. no. 043084.

- Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949.

Source Collection: Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection (Library of Congress)

Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Thing of the past ...

Sled dogs get a breather in the Rocky Mountain backcountry near the ski resort of Snowmass Village, Colorado

Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer

Created / Published: 2016-01-27.

Notes

- Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.

- The animals are a feature of the Krabloonik Dog Sledding operation tied to a rustic-cabin restaurant, established in 1974, that serves fresh fish and game dishes such as caribou sausage in the alpine setting. The word "Krabloonik" is an Eskimio term for "big eyebrows" or facial hair, according to an obituary submitted to the Aspen Times newspaper by the siblings of the operation's founder, Dan MacEachen, who died in 2015. New owners, Danny and Gina Phillips, took over the operation in 2014, promising sweeping changes to improve the wellbeing of dogs, after MacEachen pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was sentenced to lengthy court-supervised probation.

- Credit line: Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

- Gift; Gates Frontiers Fund; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:068).

- Forms part of: Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.

 

Thing of the past ...

Trout Lake Dam flood

Creator: Byers, Joseph E.

Date: 1909 September 5

The tracks of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad are washed out after the Trout Lake Dam break of 1909 in San Miguel County, Colorado. Shows the San Miguel River and utility poles.

Notes: Title supplied. Inked on front of mat board: "Sept. 5 '09, R.G.S.R.R." and "Byers, Photo." Penciled on back of mat board: "Railroad. Rio Grande Southern Tracks."

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Weld County Garage (and gas station), Routes 85 & 34, Greeley, Colorado

Margolies, John, photographer

Created / Published: 1980.

- Automobile service stations--1980

- United States--Colorado--Greeley

Slides--1980.--Color

Notes:

- Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.

- Margolies categories: Auto-related buildings; Gas stations.

- Purchase; John Margolies 2007 (DLC/PP-2007:125).

- Credit line: John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

 

Thing of the past ...

Buzz's Skelly, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Margolies, John, photographer

Created / Published: 1980.

Headings

- Automobile service stations--1980

- United States--Colorado--Colorado Springs

Headings

Slides--1980.--Color

Notes:

- Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.

- Margolies categories: Gas stations, pumps and signs.

- Credit line: John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

- General information about the John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.mrg

- Forms part of: John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008).

 

Thing of the past ...

Hooch Hound, a dog trained to detect liquor (as suggested to Commissioner Haynes by a prohibition agent in Colorado), sniffs at flask in back pocket of man, seated, fishing on pier on the Potomac River.

Created / Published: 1922 Feb. 23.

- Prohibition--1920-1930

- Fishing--Potomac River--1920-1930

- Dogs--1920-1930

- Trained animals--1920-1930

Photographic prints--1920-1930.

Notes:

- National Photo Company Collection.

Library of Congress.

 

Pulling tracks, Pikes Peak, Floods, Peaches, and more

 

Thing of the past ...

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge locomotive, engine number 461, engine type 2-8-2

Creator: Richardson, Robert W.

Date: 1952

Right rear view of engine; entire train, showing scrapping operation. Photographed: near Lizard Head, Colorado, October 10, 1952.

Format of Original Material: 1 photonegative ; 7 x 11 cm (2 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)

Type of Material: Film negatives

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Trout Lake Dam flood

Creator: Byers, Joseph E.

Date: 1909 September 5

The tracks of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad are washed out after the Trout Lake Dam break of 1909 in San Miguel County, Colorado. Shows the San Miguel River and utility poles.

Notes: Title supplied. Inked on front of mat board: "Sept. 5 '09, R.G.S.R.R." and "Byers, Photo." Penciled on back of mat board: "Railroad. Rio Grande Southern Tracks."

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Wrecked Denver and Rio Grande bridge, Santa Fe standing, Pueblo; River bridges, looking north

Creator: Steele, F. M.

Date: 1921 June 6

View of an intact Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad bridge, and a Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad bridge collapsed in the current of the flooded Arkansas River in Pueblo (Pueblo County), Colorado. Shows piles of rubble and lumber near the eroded stream bed.

Format of Original Material: 1 photographic print : black-and-white ; 12 x 17 cm (4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.) mounted

Photographic print included in: Arkansas River flood, June 1921 / report of Arthur Ridgway for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

Notes: Mounted on album page with: Z-5062. Mounted on verso of album page: Z-5064, Z-5065. Title, date, attribution and number "25" inked on original negative and reproduced in photographic print. inked on album page: "River bridges, looking north"

Thing of the past ...

Station & observation - summit of Pikes Peak

Photograph shows Albert James Myer, holding binoculars, and another man standing outside a stone observation station on Pikes Peak, Colorado.

Created / Published: [between 1865 and 1880]

Headings:

- Myer, Albert James,--1829-1880

- United States.--Weather Bureau--Buildings--1870-1880

- Meteorological stations--Colorado--Pikes Peak--1870-1880

- Stone buildings--Colorado--Pikes Peak--1870-1880

- Meteorology--Colorado--1870-1880

- Pikes Peak (Colo.)--1870-1880

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

 

Thing of the past ...

People in town for the Labor Day parade, Silverton, Colorado

Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer

Created / Published: 1940, September.

Genre: Nitrate negatives

Notes:

- Title and other information from caption card.

- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Kennedys on Colorado River rapid trip

Photograph showing Art Buchwald posing with several Kennedy family members, friends and children on rafting trip. Including Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Andy Williams, Claudine Longet, George Plimpton, Tom Corcoran, Lem Billings, Pat Kennedy, Jim & Blanche Whittaker, Otis & Marilyn Chandler, and Willy Schaeffler.

Created / Published: [1966]

Headings:

- Buchwald, Art

- Kennedy, Ethel,--1928

- Kennedy, Robert F.,--1925-1968

- Williams, Andy,--1927-2012

- Recreation--1960-1970

Genre: Group portraits--1960-1970, Photographic prints--1960-1970

Notes:

- Title from customer.

- Source used: https://thosekennedys.tumblr.com.

1 photograph : gelatin silver print ; 28 x 35.2 cm.

Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2020:037

Repository:

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Molybdenum Company mine. Climax Colorado

Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer

Created / Published: 1941 Sept.

- Title and other information from caption card.

- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Snow "weasel" and troops

Creator: United States. Army. Signal Corps

Date: [1943-1944]

Members of the 10th Light Division (Alpine), or the 10th Mountain Divison, march behind a "weasel" snow-track (snowcat) vehicle (an M-29 cargo carrier) at Camp Hale (Eagle County), Colorado. The driver of the vehicle wears a parka with the hood over his helmet, and goggles. The vehicle is packed with gear. The men wear parkas and carry packs, rifles and snowshoes.

Format of Original Material: 1 photographic print ; 19 x 24 cm (7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection 10th Mountain Division Resource Center Collection

10th Mountain Division Resource Center, Denver Public Library.

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Denver Public Library Special Collections, [call number]

The babies on the block

Creator: McClure, Louis Charles, 1867-1957

Date: [1900]

Donor: Thomas Shrock Lindsay

Portrait in front of McClures studio at 2128 Glenarm Place, Denver, Colorado, shows Mary Rebecca "Pinkie" Shrock (McClure's sister-in- law) with her children seated on the door step to the studio. Possibly Mary Rebecca seated holding "Doc" Clearance, Bina May at her side, John, Patience and Martha across the back row.

Label on back of photoprint: Front of studio at 2128 Glenarm Place, Photo is of Mary Rebecca "Pinkie" Shrock's children seated on the door step to the studio. Believed to be as follws: Mary Rebecca seated holding "Doc" Clearance, Bina May at her side, John, Patience and Martha across the back row. circa 1900. Photo by L. C. McClure. Title hand-lettered on bottom of original; hand-lettered on bottom of photoprint mount as seen of copy negative: Mary Rebecca "Pinkie" Shrock Conrad with Bina May, Patience, John, Martha.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Thing of the past ...

Hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed, Delta County, Colo.

Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer

Created / Published: 1940, September.

- Fruit industry

- Shipping

- Peaches

- United States--Colorado--Delta County

Genre: Slides--Color

Notes

- Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.

- Title from FSA or OWI agency caption.

Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information color slides and transparencies collection (Library of Congress)

 

Thing of the past ...

Making barbecue sandwiches at the free barbecue on Labor Day, Ridgway, Colorado.

Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, photographer

Created / Published: 1940, September.

Notes

- Title and other information from caption card.

- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

 

Thing of the past ...

Cannonball Pueblo, Cortez, Montezuma County, CO

Names:

Historic American Buildings Survey, creator

Ancestral Puebloans

Morley, Sylvanus

Padilla, Mary, transmitter

Lynch, Lisa, photographer

U.S. National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, sponsor

University of Colorado at Denver, College of Architecture and Planning, sponsor

U.S. Bureau of Land Management, sponsor

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, sponsor

Keohan, Thomas G., project manager

Summers, Luis H., project manager

Sullivan, Mark, field team

Scheer, Alan, field team

Joshi, Meera, field team

Created / Published: Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings:

- pueblos

- ruins

- Native Americans

- masonry

- stonework (sandstone)

- Colorado sandstone

- rock art

- archaeological sites

- Colorado--Montezuma County--Cortez

Latitude / Longitude

37.476441,-108.545679

Notes:

- 2005 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Entry

- Significance: Located in the Four Corners area of the desert Southwest, Cannonball Pueblo was constructed and occupied during the late 12th century by people associated with the Ancestral Puebloan Mesa Verde culture which flourished eight-hundred years ago. The Pueblo includes over 100 masonry structures located high on the edge of a mesa bench and is distinctive Pueblo III Mesa Verdean style architecture associated with the late prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan culture. Many of the walls are built with large, closely fitted blocks of rough-cut sandstone, which in many cases have been carefully shaped by pecking the exposed surface. The impressive architecture includes habitation and storage rooms, kivas, and towers, in two distinct multi-story pueblos and in masonry structures on the talus slope below the pueblos. Some of the six towers at Cannonball were built free-standing, and some joined to other architectural elements. Most are on or near the canyon rim and resemble those seen at the sites of the nearby Hovenweep National Monument. Many of the late Pueblo III village sites are bisected by drainages, and show considerably asymmetry in the types and arrangement of architecture on either side of the drainage as exhibited at Cannonball. There is a possible water control system, including reservoir and irrigation ditches, on the mesa east of the pueblo. Various archaeological investigations and preservation activities have occurred at the site since the early 1900's, including the excavation of the South Pueblo in 1908 by Sylvanus Morley, who was an important figure in the history of American archaeology. His work at Cannonball was the first ever conducted at a major site in the Northern San Juan River Basin.

- Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1081

- Survey number: HABS CO-202

- Building/structure dates: ca. 1100 Initial Construction

- National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 97000378

Medium

Photo(s): 21

Measured Drawing(s): 7

Photo Caption Page(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

HABS CO-202

Source Collection: Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository:

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Thing of the past ...

Pike's Peak from Altman, Colo.

Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942, photographer

Detroit Publishing Co., publisher

Created / Published: [ca. 1900]

- Mountains

- Industrial facilities

- United States--Colorado--Pike's Peak

- United States--Colorado--Altman

Cityscape photographs.

Dry plate negatives.

Genre:

Cityscape photographs

Dry plate negatives

Notes:

- Date based on Detroit, Catalogue J Supplement (1901-1906).

- "WHJ 451" on negative.

- Detroit Publishing Co. no. 013820.

- Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Main street, Montrose, Colorado

Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer

Created / Published: 1939, October

Genre : Nitrate negatives

Notes:

- Title and other information from caption card.

- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA

 

Thing of the past ...

Poley with rifle

Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)

Date: [1894]

Horace S. Poley stands and poses for a studio portrait in front of a painted flower mural. Poley is dressed in militia for the Cripple Creek strike, he wears a hat, a pince-nez, a moustache, a long probably tweed coat with a velvet or leather collar, a blanket fastened as a sash, a tin cup tied to a holster with a pistol and shells, pants, cowboy boots, and holds a rifle.

Format of Original Material 1 photographic print on card mount ; 17 x 11 cm (6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection C Photo Collection 37. H. S. Poley collection.

Digital Version Created From: Linn Poley, 1976.

Notes "Cripple Creek - strike, Horace S. Poley" penciled on verso. Condition: stained, scratched. Title supplied.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

Dead from gunshot wounds sustained in a shootout with police

TV Trucks the next morning near where Tom Clements was murdered in his doorway. 

 Ebel killed Leon to get the pizza delivery 'props' used to feign a pizza delivery

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

 It is a few miles from the house where Tom Clements was murdered in his doorway, to where I lived at the time in Gleneagle. I sometimes wandered in to work that way, looking for 'wild art' photos for the paper. I remember coming across the tell-tale TV trucks,  and realizing "We have a problem."

Nothing hit me harder than the Governor John Hickenlooper's  description of local events in March 2013.  (Now United States Senator from Colorado) Hickenlooper’s recent book, “The Opposite of Woe: My Life in Beer and Politics,”  reminded us of our area’s impact on that narrative, and its role in the overall Colorado picture of late.

From the book about the night of March 20, 2013:

Tom Clements, Colorado’s Chief of the Department of Corrections.
 

“Over the course of the next twelve hours or so we learned that sometime around 8:30 p.m. the doorbell rang at the Clements’ home in the town of Monument. Tom answered it, and a guy in a pizza delivery uniform fatally shot him in the chest. Within minutes, Lisa called the police. Deputies arrived and found Tom and Lisa inside the home on set of stairs. Medical crews performed CPR on Tom. He died on the scene, in his home, in front of Lisa. Tom was fifty-eight years old, and left behind his “three girls:” Lisa, and their daughters Rachel and Sara.”

The Governor describes learning more in a police briefing later.

“I learned that sheriff’s deputy in Montague County, Texas, pulled over the suspect on a routine stop, unaware of the search in Colorado. The suspect shot Deputy James Boyd and then fled. Boyd. who was wearing a protective vest, radioed to report the direction the car was heading. After a chase during which speeds reached up to 100 miles an hour, and eighteen wheeler smashed into the suspect’s car, which caught fire, the suspect jumped out and shot at officers. They returned fire and killed him,” wrote Hickenlooper.

“I was told the casing from the suspect’s 9mm Smith & Wesson were the same brand and caliber as those used by the gunman who’d killed Tom. Law enforcement was confident that the suspect had killed Nathan Leon, whose side job was delivering pizzas for Domino’s, then taken his uniform and his black 1991 Cadillac, dumped Leon’s body, driven to Tom’s home, killed him, and then made his way to Texas.”

The Governor said he received the briefing in his office with the officer moving through a lot of slides of the crash, shootout in Texas, a mug shot of the suspect, Domino’s uniform …

“Wait,” he said. “I interrupted because I thought I saw the word ‘Ebel’ at the bottom of the previous screen of the mug shot, and there he was. It was the son of my longtime friend Jack Ebel. I had a wave of nausea.”

 Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper

Hickenlooper said the tragedy was made worse, by finding out that the Colorado Department of Corrections mistakenly released Evan Ebel before he had completed his full sentence. While he had been serving an eight-year prison term, he pleaded guilty to punching a guard in November of 2006, and was to serve a consecutive prison term of an additional four years. The reason for the release, according to DOC, was judicial “clerical error.” The way the forms in the file were written, it was not clear that his sentences were to be consecutive.

Carol McKinley, in a story for US News,  (She also wrote for The Daily Beast, Colorado Sun, Denver Gazette, and more) described events as follows:

"On Friday, the 28-year-old murder suspect and white supremacist was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds sustained in a shootout with police. Ebel was accused of shooting the chief of the Colorado Department of Corrections, as well as a pizza deliveryman."

At the time, interviews with several of Ebel’s friends and acquaintances reveal a troubled young man from a caring family who spent much of his young life in prison, and even a stint in a boot camp in Samoa.

Jefferson County School spokeswoman Lynn Setzer told McKineley  that Ebel only went to high school for a month in 1999, from September 2nd to October 18th. Sources say that in elementary school he was in a Severely Impacted Special Education Program.

"Ryan Arci, who ran around in some of the same circles with Ebel, remembered his as “as a dark kid, depressed. His walls in his room were black and his windows were blacked out.” Ebel’s friends say he had a tattoo across his back that said “Hopeless.” He sometimes signed his letters from jail, “Evil Evan.”

"Ebel’s life ended on a Texas highway about 45 minutes outside of Dallas. He had taken law enforcement in Decatur, Texas, on a harrowing car chase that at times reached 100 miles per hour. Ebel eventually crashed into a semi, got out of the destroyed vehicle he had driven all the way from Colorado, and started shooting, eventually getting shot himself, " wrote McKinley.

"It was a grim finale to a bizarre crime spree that has had the state of Colorado on edge since Sunday night when a pizza delivery driver was killed, his body dumped in an open space. Only a pizza and the dead man’s uniform were taken. FBI sources say that an empty pizza box and Domino’s uniform were found in Ebel’s crunched car."

Nathan Leon
 

Ebel was also the focus of an investigation into the cold-blooded murder of Tom Clements, Colorado’s Chief of the Department of Corrections. Clements was gunned down at his front door at around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Known as a progressive leader who cared about the mental health of his prisoners and worked to ensure their transition into society once released, no one could understand why anyone would want to kill him. “Tom Clements was someone who worked in a cold, dark world with a remarkably open and generous heart,” said an emotional Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper outside the the State Capitol Wednesday. Clements will be laid to rest Sunday.

The wreck of the black Cadillac.
 

"Ebel himself was on life support overnight and declared dead in a Texas hospital early Friday. No one knows where he was headed in the black Cadillac which matches the description given by a half dozen of Clements’s neighbors. El Paso County Undersheriff Paula Presley said whoever murdered Clements may have left the car running and fled. There is speculation it might have been a hit ordered by a White Supremacist group Ebel may have joined in prison called the 211’s, " reported McKinley

In Wheat Ridge, Evans’s former friends are going to work today in a state of shock. “I thought Evan had gotten his life together,” said childhood friend, Ricky Alengi. “He had just gotten out of prison, he was writing books. My walls are covered with pictures he drew. I talked to his mom. She is torn up.” Ebel’s sister, Marin, and Alengi were high school sweethearts, he says.

Marin’s tragic death in a car crash at the age of sixteen may have contributed to his anger, Alengi told McKinley.

"She was killed nine years ago, ironically, her friends say, when she was being pulled over by a police officer right outside of the junior high school where many of them had gotten to know one another."

Jack Ebel, Evan’s father, is a well-respected Denver oil and gas lawyer. He told his son’s friends that he was going to dedicate the rest of his life to helping Evan. Just two years ago, Jack Ebel testified in front of the Colorado State Legislature imploring lawmakers to consider other options for the mentally ill instead of solitary confinement. His son, he told them, would spend many hours in lock up by himself, and it severely affected him.

"He'll rant a little bit. He'll stammer,” said Ebel. “He'll be frustrated that he can't find the words. And I let him get it out, and eventually, because I'm his father, he will talk to me. And I'm convinced, if any of the rest of you were to go talk to him, he wouldn't be able to talk to you."

The following description of the chase and crash in Texas appeared in a Denver Channel story.

"When Deputy James Boyd pulled over a black Cadillac in Bowie, Tex., last Thursday for a simple traffic violation, he did not expect to encounter suspected killer Evan Ebel."

Boyd, 27, had been a deputy in Montague County for 4 years.

"Boyd says something just didn’t look right with the car when he pulled over the vehicle around 11:20 a.m."

After the Cadillac pulled to a stop, the driver suddenly opened fire on Boyd.

"I remember seeing the gun shoot off," Boyd said from a room at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. "I could see the cartridges fly out, at which point I blacked out."

The driver, Evan Spencer Ebel, was suspected in the murders of Colorado Prison Chief Tom Clements and Denver pizza delivery driver Nathan Leon.

Boyd was hit twice in the chest and suffered one grazing wound to the head. Wise County Sheriff David Walker says the deputy was saved by his bulletproof vest.

"I got kind of halfway up looking for my mic,” says Boyd. “That’s about the time I noticed, 'Hey I'm bleeding from the face. Something’s not right. I need help.’”

When Boyd radioed for help, he gave a description of the black Cadillac and said that it was traveling southbound, Walker said.

The incident began a high-speed chase and shootout with police. Ebel was driving at speeds of 100 mph and shooting out the window at the pursuing officers, said Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins.

The chase ended when Ebel ran a red light and was broadsided by a truck hauling rocks in the city of Decatur in Wise County, Texas.

Boyd doesn’t consider himself a hero. He just counts himself lucky to be alive.

“It was already stuff I knew, but it helped kind of put it into play,” Boyd says.

Boyd is expected to recover and will remain in the hospital for awhile longer.

Montague County Sheriff's Deputy James Boyd
 

Bomb-making materials, a Domino’s Pizza bag, maps, surveillance equipment and bloody clothing were found in the Cadillac, among other items. Investigators linked the items in the vehicle back to the killings in Colorado.

Police also found items that they concluded were stolen from another murdered Colorado man, Nathan Leon: a pizza delivery shirt and an insulated pizza delivery container. Leon was forced to make a rambling recorded audio statement before he was murdered.  Police believe that Ebel killed Leon on March 17 to get the pizza delivery "props" that Ebel subsequently used to feign a pizza delivery to the Clements home. The gun found in the stolen Cadillac matched the ballistics of the gun used in the killings of Clements and Leon. 

 

 Evan Ebel,  from Colorado Department of Corrections.

 

 

 

 

Dolores River Valley had best local supply of water

1897-1900 ORIGINAL WOODEN HEADGATE - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photos from Survey HAER CO-4

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

It was sort of mean-spirited — and I don't recall exactly where I first heard it — but when I was a kid growing up in Dolores, we often fired off as a juvenile joke or insult, "Flush the toilet, Cortez needs the water."  Like I said, mean-spirited, but not exactly untrue.

 "The Dolores River Valley had the best local supply of water, but had only limited land available for cultivation. The Montezuma Valley had arable land, but lacked a reliable water supply. Settlers moving into the Cortez area during the late 1870s survived using the extremely limited natural Mitchell Springs as a domestic water source," according to the Dolores Watershed Plan:  Appendix 2: History of Dolores River Water Use, the Dolores Project, the Rise of Environmental Consciousness Nationally and Locally, and Stakeholder Collaboration to Promote Conservation of Lower Dolores River Natural Resources.

Settlers in the area began to fix this situation with late 19th century technology. First, a one mile long tunnel, started in 1886 and completed by 1889, brought water into the Montezuma Valley for irrigation. 

"Cortez was laid out by the same firm that constructed the tunnel to support land sales by providing the necessary domestic water supply. By July, 1890, a three-mile long flume was bringing Dolores River water to Cortez. By 1886, a second effort had begun to bring water to Montezuma Valley through a canal at the Great Cut, supplying water to the north and western parts of the Valley," says the Water Plan history.

"These undertakings experienced a series of changes in ownership, but finally were combined under Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC) by 1920." 

"There was tremendous outside investor interest in westward expansion of European settlement in the U.S. In southwest Colorado, as in other western areas, early water development was often funded by investors from the eastern United States and Europe looking for profit. The investors commonly sold bonds or shares in a venture to raise the money necessary to make large
capital improvements, such as the Great Cut and the original MVIC tunnel. Such financing was also common in mining and land development ventures. Water and land were often linked, as in the Montezuma Valley. Outside companies generally proved unsuccessful, however, demonstrating that local control of water and land was necessary for their profitable and beneficial use." 

Four exploratory geological surveys were conducted shortly after the Civil War in this area by Hayden, King, Powell and Wheeler. The Hayden survey was conducted from 1873 through 1876, with maps published in 1877. It mapped all of Colorado’s drainages, an important first step to water development. Locally, survey maps showed the Dolores Plateau and the Ute
Indian Reservation across western Colorado, with an area carved out for the mineral rich San Juan Mountains. The closest settlement was Animas City, near present day Durango, Silverton and other mining settlements. The maps show Pegasus Springs, near Cortez, but not the upstream Mitchell Springs that supplied the first water to Cortez. The map also shows the Old Spanish trail heading northwesterly directly through ruins overlooking the Dolores River, possibly Escalante Ruins."

"Settlement of the Montezuma Valley was made possible in the 1880s with the construction of the irrigation system. Organized by Cames W. Kanna, the complex series of tunnel (5,400 foot long), "Great Cut," headgates, and diversion dams channeled water from the Dolores River through a steep divide. The system constitutes one of the earliest large scale, privately funded and continuously operating irrigation projects in the Southwest," says Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey.

 

1950 LOWER END OF TUNNEL - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4 

1951 LOWER END OF MORTOM FLUME - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4 

1951 MORTON FLUME - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4 

No date CONCRETE HEADGATE - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4

1951 ALKALI SIPHON - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4

No date MORTON FLUME - Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company System, Dolores, Montezuma County, CO Photo from Survey HAER CO-4

Fort Collins

Thing of the past ...

Museum of Discovery

Fort Collins, 1937. From Time Travel: 1910s - 1940s

"The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened an already dismal situation. A farm economy which had been depressed since the end of World War I sank even lower as prices fell to new lows for agricultural commodities. Drought during the first half of the decade, combined with a grasshopper plague, added to the hardships, especially for plains farmers, many of whose crops were lost.

"In the Fort Collins area, the water shortage became so severe that the city banned the use of water from the waterworks system for lawns and gardens in September 1934. The Cache la Poudre River was said to be at the lowest level known since settlement of the valley. In March 1935, the city council approved a watering rule which allowed townspeople to water their lawns one day per week.

"The Extension Service of Colorado Agricultural College played a vital role in providing relief to afflicted farmers. Extension personnel helped to gather and distribute food, protect crops from grasshoppers, and promoted tree cultivation. The Extension Service also participated in the development of several New Deal programs. The College’s Experiment Station also worked to alleviate the effects of the drought and grasshoppers and conducted other beneficial projects."