Ophir, rich in isolation stories, mineral wealth

Nobody stayed all winter until '78-'79

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Legend has it that a Lt. Howard (the same one that founded Howardsville, near Silverton) led the first mining party into explore the mineral veins at the foot of Ophir Needles. In fact, the stream tumbling down valley from there, eventually into the San Miguel River is known as Howard's Fork.

"The first legal claims were staked there in 1875 and from then on prospectors dribbled through and sometimes stopped there for a while," wrote Lambert Florin, in his book 'Ghost Towns of the West,' in 1970.

"Nobody stayed all winter at the near-timberline elevation until 1878-9 when 17 men did hole up there, working their claims whenever the weather allowed, which was seldom. Some burrowed under the banks of deep snow for some protection from the frigid blasts off the 14,000-foot peaks," Florin says.

"The next year the Osxeola mine was producing some gold and from others like the Gold King came sack after sack of rich ore. One batch of ten brought the owners $5,000. These miners were able to use arresters which, though crude, were effective when ore was rich enough. One enthusiastic Howards's Fork miner renaming the place Ophir after the fabled Arabian city so rich in Gold."

The Bible references the location of King Solomen's wealth as "the mines of Ophir," of course.

"About the time 500 prospectors were swarming around Ophir, working up thirsts that required five saloons to put down, carbonate fever struck," says Florin. "At Leadville where gold was growing scarce, miners discovered the heavy rocks they cursed as obstacles to gold mining were loaded with carbonate of lead, and with the lead inevitably came silver. This inspired many second thoughts about areas where others gold placers were exhausted, one of these being Rico, erstwhile heavy gold producer. Sure enough, the place was found to be 'rico' in silver. Since it was near Ophir, its miners were caught up in the prevailing excitement and left the camp almost deserted, a ghost town before it was fairly alive."

But, where Leadville's carbonate deposits were so extensive as to to create the greatest boom of its kind, those at Rico were disappointingly small and soon exhausted. So the tide turned and Ophir miners rushed back to their old claims," suggest Florin.

"With the building of smelters at Silverton, Ophir's miners sent their ore by burro trains over and through the mountains to the city of Sultan Mountain."

In the early 1890s, that changed with the coming of the railroad in the form of the Rio Grande Southern, though it did not quite make it all the way up the valley initially. And an offshoot town developed, thus requiring the distinction of "Old Ophir" and "Ophir Loop" where two cars of Ophir mine ore were loaded and shipped daily.

On the engineering marvel of the Loop itself, locals claimed you could fall off the train at the tracks at the top,  but still stumble down the hill and catch the same train at the bottom of the loop. 
With the train's accessibility, however, difficulties in mining, and just living life in the alpine, were not diminished.
The Daily Journal (Telluride), November 30, 1900, described this instance, leading with the following heads and nut graph:

"OPHIR LOOP ALMOST WIPED OUT," and "Fire Unquestionably of Incendiary Origin Destroys

the Principal Buildings."

The paper goes on to describe the following circumstances:

"Of the half-dozen buildings perched about on the cliffs about the station at Ophir Loop the only building of any real value was the structure known as the Glendale hotel. This was quite a roomy, modern structure, built only a year or so ago, and quite well finished. Thursday morning it was completely destroyed with all its contents, and the landlady and her daughter barely escaped alive in their night clothes. Just across the
road, which is barely wide enough to allow the passage of a wagon, stood a small building used as a storage warehouse by Mr . Skillen, the Loop merchant. In this he had stored a car load of flour on the previous day. In a sort of basement a small quantity of giant powder was stored. As the building took
fire the powder exploded, hurling some of the timbers as far as 200 yards and  utterly demolishing the store house. To this fortunate occurrence people who were there say is due the fact that every sign of a building at the Loop was not wiped out. A small building standing near the store house and used in
part as a barber shop was also burned. The high trestle of the railroad bridge was also damaged to some extent, but by shoveling of snow it was managed to save the structure before it was injured sufficiently to prevent the passage of trains. Across the creek fully 200 yards distant a freight car was also burned, the fire apparently having been started right under the center of the car. When the morning train came along from Rico, the engine went in on the side track and pulled out a string of several more cars which
were thereby saved from burning. 

"There seems to be no doubt of the fire having been incendiary, and all sorts of rumors and suspicions were circulated yesterday among the excited villagers. The fire was discovered about 2 o clock Thursday morning. The hotel was owned and operated by N . Savignac, who only the previous day had installed a Mrs. Roberts as manageress, he coming to Telluride in the evening and stopping over night . A little daughter of Mrs . Roberts first discovered the house to be in flames
and barely got her mother out, nearer dead than alive from suffocation. Doctor Compton was called from Ophir and ministered to the injured woman. Yesterday morning it was reported that a human life had been lost in the fire, but later in the day this, was doubted. Some said there was no one in the house, but Mrs . Roberts and daughter and others, said a man had taken lodging there. Some bits of bone were picked out ot the smouldering coals which Doctor Compton said looked like a part of a human anatomy. When the
powder exploded, Spencer Reed , who was shoveling snow on the railroad trestle at some distance, was struck by a flying timber and quite seriously hurt. He was brought to Telluride on the morning train. Farther than this and the injury to Mrs . Roberts by inhaling smoke, no one was hurt. That the general store of Mr. Skillen was not consumed with its considerable stock is due solely to the blowing up of the store house. This, with the depot, which must have went too had the store gone, would have wiped the place out entirely. Except the small stream that winds through the deep canon out of reach of even a bucket line, there is no water, and all that could be done was to stand by and see the fire do its work. The building was partially insured and was the property of an honest, industrious man, who put his all into the purchase and had it only partly paid for. The insurance, it is understood, goes to the former owner who held a mortgage. While there seems no doubt of the fire having been maliciously kindled, people are at at a loss to identify the incendiary."

Historians note that though the train's presence improved isolation in the Alpine, it was still a rough go at times, exemplified by mail service.

"In the summer of 1879 "official" mail service from Silverton was established, Muriel Sibell Wolle relates that the service, though welcome, left something to be desired and cites some items from the Ouray Times, which had a correspondent at Ophir.

"The mail carrier from Silverton  ... has robbed the mail and left the country. The mail bag cut open and with registered mail rifled has been found near Iron Springs." Another item. "No mail for weeks. The Kansas tenderfoot says he wouldn't carry the mail again for $5,000 after one trip." And — "No mail from Rico in ten days. The snow is nearly 10 feet deep and there are snow slides in every gulch ... the mail carrier nearly froze on his last trip."

At the base of the last switchback on the steep mule trail to Silverton that predates the train, mail carrier Swen Nelson, was buried by a snow slide and not exposed for two years.

###

Appearing and disappearing Tom McCarty

Tom McCarty

Can't keep track of outlaws

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In their life and death struggles, it can be pretty confusing trying to track down Old West outlaws. None more so than Tom McCarty. Half the time, historians and accounts at the time of their exploits, don't even agree on spelling of a name, (such as McCarthy) as many put down in print. But all agree, Tom — who may have trained "Butch Cassidy" as a cattle rustler, and most definitely helped him rob his first bank — was more slippery than usual.

One summer day shortly after noon, when three outlaws rode into to the mining town wearing “silver-studded bridles, spurs, saddles and artillery, five-gallon hats, red bandanas, flashy shirts, chaps and high-heeled cowboy boots,” according to an account by one of the men involved, Matt Warner.

Matt Warner

Warner took credit for having the idea to rob the bank. Both riders with a regional reputation for winning horse races, Warner said he approached his friend and fellow racer Butch Cassidy — and then, his own brother-in-law Tom McCarty. According to his version, Butch was excited by the prospect, while Tom was more reluctant. After riding into town and up to the bank, Warner says he placed his gun under the teller’s nose, while Cassidy gathered the cash, and Tom McCarty held the horses outside.

"At one time there were more rewards for Tom McCarty than for any other outlaw in the West," writes Oregon historians Jon and Donna Skovlin in their 2001 book “In Pursuit of the McCartys.”

"The Skovlins list reward amounts in their book about the McCartys: Moffat bank in Denver $2,500; Telluride bank $250; Enterprise bank $500; Summerville bank $250; Roslyn bank $3,000; Baker County reward $1,000; Delta bank $500; and various Utah rewards $2,000. The rewards totaled $10,000 (in today’s money about $280,000). Yet Tom was never arrested and no one ever collected a penny in reward money." notes Baker City, OR,  historian and McCarty family author Gary Dielman.

Actually, Tom McCarty’s only arrest and conviction was in 1877 for holding up a railway station agent in Nevada, for which he was sentenced to one year in the Nevada State Prison. After release in 1878,  he never again served time in jail or prison for the many crimes he committed during the next decade and a half of horse stealing, cattle rustling, train robberies, and bank robberies. 

John Thomas “Tom” McCarty, was born in Iowa around 1850, Dielma says, and was the leader of the family and the eldest of the McCarty siblings; in 1873 Tom married fifteen-year-old Christina “Teenie” Marie Christiansen; their children: Lewis “Lew” William McCarty, born July 4, 1874, and Thomas Leonard “Len” McCarty, born. 1868; Teenie’s brother was Willard Erastus “Ras” Christiansen, born in 1864 in Utah, aka Matt Warner, and aka Ras Lewis, who married Rose Morgan, whose sister was Sara Morgan.

At the end of the 1800s, it seems much of the fast action was in Colorado. The McCarty gang started in the Pacific Northwest and Utah but ended up pulling two very significant bank robberies in Colorado in 1889 — First National Bank of Denver and a bank in Telluride.

"On March 30, 1889, Tom McCarty pulled off a brazen, single-handed robbery of the First National Bank of Denver, Colorado. Using the surname “Wells,” Tom lied his way into the office of bank owner, David Moffat. Tom stuck a pistol in Moffat’s face and coerced him into writing a check to “Wells” for $21,000, which he demanded be immediately cashed. In addition to the pistol, Tom, acting crazy, waived a bottle which he said contained nitroglycerin, and threatened to blow the place up and everyone in it including himself, if his demands were not speedily carried out. Tom made off with $20,000 in large bills and $1000 in gold coin (about $575,000 in today’s money). Tom’s true identity was never officially discovered. Later a woman friend of Tom said he told her all about the robbery on numerous occasions," says Dielman.

"During the June 24, 1889, robbery of a bank in Telluride, Colorado, Tom had the help of Matt Warner and none other than Butch Cassidy, for whom Tom was a mentor in the outlaw ways. While a cowboy friend stayed with their horses in front of the bank, Tom, Matt, and Butch entered the bank. There was only one employee in the bank, a teller, but no customers. Upon seeing Matt display his pistol, the teller’s hands shot into the air. With alacrity the robbers stuffed cash into a buckskin pouch and left the bank forcing the teller to proceed them, so he could not get a weapon or sound an alarm. Releasing the teller unharmed, they jumped on their horses and made their getaway with $22,000 ($600,000 today)," says Dielman

"The McCarthy (McCarty) Gang, from Colorado Geneology Trails newspaper accounts tells various later Colorado related robbery stories.

Bill and Fred McCarty

The Sun, Sep 8, 1893 tells the tale of the Delta, Colorado, bank robbery attempt.
"THE CASHIER SHOT DEAD," screams the headlines.
"Two bank robbers killed as they ran off with the plunder." And "An exciting three minutes in Delta, Colorado. "- "Cashier Blachly killed as he raised the alarm" - 

The Sun continues. "Well-aimed shots from Mr. Simpson's rifle pick two of the outlaws from their horses -chase given to the third, but he escapes to the mountains."

"Delta, Col., Sept. 7.-The usual attempt to rob a bank in a bold manner ended disastrously here this morning, when three young desperadoes tried to make away with the funds of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank.

"Cashier A.T. Blachly was shot in the neck and instantly killed, and two of the robbers were picked from their horses as they rode down an alley by the clever marksmanship of W. Ray Simpson, a hardware dealer, and the money was recovered from their dead bodies.

"It was about 10 o'clock when three men on horseback appeared in the alley at the rear of the bank. Two dismounted, leaving the other man to hold the horses. The men entered by the front door and appeared at the window.

"At that moment only the cashier and his assistant, H.H. Wolbert, were in the bank. They both went forward to wait on the customers, when they were covered with revolvers and ordered to hold up their hands.

"Cashier Blachly yelled, and was promptly cursed by the robbers, who told him to keep quiet. He yelled again, when one of the robbers fired his revolver and Blachly fell dead, the ball having passed upward from the neck. The men then vaulted over the partition, grabbed what money was in sight, and fled through the rear door. As they did this Wolbert picked up his revolver, but was observed by the robbers, who got the drop on him. They did not shoot, but ordered him to throw away his revolver, which he did very quickly. They then dashed into the alley, mounted, and fled down the narrow way toward the Gunnison River.

"When the first shot, which killed the cashier, was heard the cry was raised that the bank was being robbed. Men rushed for revolvers and guns and then ran toward the bank. Among them was W.R. Simpson, a young hardware merchant, whose shop was across the street from the bank.

"He picked up a rifle and started up the street. As the robbers came out of the alley and crossed the street Simpson fired and one of the robbers fell, the top of his head being fairly taken off by the ball.

"Simpson then ran to the alley and fired after the other two fleeing men. He shot twice, killing first another man and then his horse. The second man was also struck in the head. The remaining survivor escaped across the river and down toward Grand Junction.

"A posse was soon gathered and started in hot pursuit. The robber's horse was fresh, and he gave them a pretty chase. A number of ranchmen came into town this afternoon from down the valley, and reported having seen the man riding by several miles ahead of his pursuers.

"Other parties left later, going across into the Escalante country, hoping to head off the man. He will be promptly lynched if caught.

"At the time the robbery was going on a lawyer named W.R. Robertson, having his office in the rear of the bank, heard the first shout and ran out into the alley into the arms of the robbers holding the horses, who quickly covered him with a revolver and kept him there until joined by the escaping robbers from the bank.

"The men have been seen about this part of the country for several days. No one knows them. While here two stopped at the hotel, registering as Clarence Bradley and James G. Bradley. About $1,000 was taken by the robbers, and it was all recovered from the dead bodies of the two men left in the alley.

"Since they were placed in the undertaker's shop they have been identified by several as the same fellows who held up the bank of Telluride four years ago.

"Clarence Bradley told one man here that they came from the Rogue River country, Oregon, and that they had been herding cattle in Utah. A reward of $500 has been offered.

"This evening one party of pursuers returned to town saying that the trail had been lost, the man escaping into the mountains. As he has a good mount he will no doubt make good his escape.

"Mr. Blachly was about 47 years old. In 1878 or thereabouts he conducted a drug store at Canon City. As the railroad was extended he followed it, keeping at various periods a drug store at Arkansas Ctiy, Mears, and Sargent.

"Finally, when the Denver and Rio Grande reached Gunnison, he located in that city, opening a drug store, as in other places. In 1885 he failed in business. Then he went upon a ranch near Delta for a time, leaving it to become cashier of the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank. He has relatives in several places in Connecticut."

The Sun also speculated about the earlier robbery in Denver.

"Denver, Sept 7. - Speaking of the Delta Bank robbery this evening, President Moffatt of the First National Bank said: "I think the robbers are of the same gang of scoundrels that has been doing so much mischief in the West, and probably one of them robbed me."

Other papers around the country weighed in.

"THEY ARE AFTER HIM: The Dalton Bandit is Fleeing Toward the High Hills" headlined
San Francisco Call, Vol 74, No. 101, Sep 9, 1893,
"Delta, Colo., Sept 8-Two of the posse which started yesterday in pursuit of the bandit who, with two companions held up the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank and killed the cashier in doing so, returned late last evening without the fugitive. Other parties are in pursuit, and although the outlaw has taken to the mountains, he will be captured. Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver is of the opinion the robbers belonged to the McCarthy gang, who operated so extensively in Denver."

And later, "END OF A BAD GANG: The Delta Robbers Identified as the Oregon McCarthys.
Source: San Francisco Call, Vol 74 No 103, Sep 11, 1893
"Delta, Colo., Sept 10-The men who were killed last Thursday while attempting to escape after robbing the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank and killing its cashier, were positively identified to-day as Tom and Fred McCarthy, father and son. The Third man who participated in the robbery but escapes is Billy McCarthy, also a son of Tom McCarthy. These men constituted the McCarthy gang of Oregon, and are wanted there for robbing stages and the United States mails. There is a reward of $10,000 for them on that account. The dead men were exhumed and identified by Sheriff Condee of Baker City, Or., who attempted to arrest them in Oregon, but was prevented by the McCarthys getting the drop on him."

"Ex-Chief of Police Farley of Denver also knows the gang and says Tom McCarthy was the man who robbed President D.H. Moffatt of the First National Bank of that city some four years ago, securing $21,000. Budd Taylor of Moab, Utah, who claims to be a relative by marriage to the McCarthy family, also identified the men. Billy McCarthy, the escaped robber, is still at large, but the pursuit has not been given up," said The Call, but they mis-identified Tom, of course, as one of the dead robbers, when in fact it brother and nephew.

"THE DELTA BANK ROBBERY : Wife of One of the Robbers Said to Be Here," says The Salt Lake Herald, Sep 15, 1893. The Herald was able to correct the mis-identification.

"The Report of the daring bank robbery at Delta, Colo., a few days ago, was read with interest here, and now it is said the the wife of Bill McCarty, or rather his widow, for it is believed that Bill was one of the two robbers who was killed, is living this city. Sheriff Belknap[sic] is looking the matter up, according to an article which appeared in the Ogden Standard yesterday, reading as follows:

"Sheriff Belnap yesterday received two photographs from Delta, Colo., one each of the two bank robbers who were killed at that place last Thursday, while attempting to rob a bank. The sheriff has in his gallery the photos of three of the McCarty gang-Bill, Fred and Tom, and he is of the opinion that the ones who were killed were Bill and Fred. It was stated in the dispatches that the killed robbers were Bill and Tom, but a careful comparison of the pictures shows that Tom was not one of those who departed this life full of lead and an unsatisfied longing for gold galore.

"The pictures of Tom McCarty, who escaped the fusilade of Winchesters, shows him to be a young man with a smooth, attractive face and rather slender form. Bill's picture shows a middle aged man with a rather rough, coarse face, covered with a beard.. Fred was the son of Bill, a young man of about 20 years of age, smooth, very full, round face, and quite fleshy. The two pictures sent from Delta tally closely with those in Sheriff Belnap's gallery, representing Bill and his son Fred and hence he thinks they are the ones.

"The pictures received yesterday were taken within a few minutes after the shooting was done and on the spot where they fell. The picture of the older man, or the one identified as Bill McCarty, shows the top of the head shot entirely off, the bullet entering the back of the head and coming out in the forehead just between the eyes. The body was evidently held up on crutches while the picture was being taken, supported by some one in the rear. The face is covered with short beard stubble, and presents a ghastly, forbidding appearance.

"The picture of the boy shows a stout heavy youth with smooth face. The bullet which terminated his career also entered the back of his head and came out throught the forehead, but the top of the head was not torn off. Last summer when Bill McCarty and his son were in Ogden, the boy purchased a pair of pantaloons from a prominent dealer, who remembers that the could find nothing to fit him in length that was large enough for his limbs. In order to be fitted the boy took a pair that were fully a foot too long and had them cut down, and even they were a very close fit.

"Sheriff Belnap, acting on instructions, wil go to Salt Lake city today or tomorrow to find Bill McCarty's wife, who is thought to live there, and talk with her regarding the gang. Afterwards he may go in search for Tom, who is believed to have been the third member of the gang, the one who escaped.

Later, in another Colorado bank robbery not too far away, Tom, was again mis-identified as being killed in the process of robbing said bank.

"THREE ROBBERS DEAD: Shot Down by Citizens are Robbing a Bank-Four Citizens Were Wounded," 
according to the Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896. The paper quoted sources in Colorado.
"The Thieves raided the bank, marches the employees into the street and then made a rush to escape, but the citizens stopped them with their guns," read the head.
"Meeker, Colo., Oct 15-Three men entered the Bank of Meeker yesterday, which is connected with the storeroom of J.W. Hughes & Co., who own the bank. Two of the men held the store employes at bay while the third went into the bank cashier's window and firing one shot, ordered the cashier to throw up his hands. The order was not obeyed and the robber fired again, whereupon the cashier's hands shot up. The manager of the store was then forced to open the bank door, and after gathering up all the money in sight the robber marched the cashier and store employes into the street with hands uplifted. They then rushed out the back way with their booty.

"Citizens attracted by the shots had pretty well surrounded the building by this time, and being armed, opened fired on the robbers, two of whom, Charles Jones and William Smith, were killed by the first volley. The third man, George Harris, was shot throught the lungs, dying in two hours. He was fully identified and gave the other names, which are believed to be fictitious.

Four citizens were wounded, it noted:

•  District Game Warden W.H. Clark, was shot in the right breast, not fatally injured.
• Victor Dikeman, a clerk, was shot through the right arm.
• C.A. Booth, a clerk, scalp wound.
• W.P. Herrick, finger shot off.

"It is believed one of the dead men is Thomas McCarthy, who robbed the banks at Telluride and Delta, Colo. The coroner's jury returned a verdict of justified homicide.
Meeker is 90 miles from Rifle, on the Denver and Rio Grande, the nearest telegraph station.

Subsequent edits continued the story, though continuing with the mis-identification.

"THE MEEKER ROBBERY: Believed the Dead Men Belonged to the McCarthy Gang."
Says Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896
"Denver, Oct 15-According to the lastest advices from Meeker, Colo., which is 90 miles fromt he nearest telegraph office, the three men who were killed after robbing the bank have not been identified. The robbery was one of the most daring ever perpetrated in the west occurring, as it did, in broad daylight, and at a time when there were 20 or more people in plain sight.

"It is believe here that the robbers were members of the McCarthy gang that committed several daring train and bankrobberies in Montana, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.

"It is also supposed that the man who robbed David H. Moffat, president of the First National Bank of this city, of $21,000 in 1889, was a member of this gang. The McCarthys formerly lived in an out-of-the-way place in Oregon, in which they were regarded as wealthy ranchmen.

"In an attempt to rob the bank at Delta, Colo., about a year ago, John McCarthy and his son were killed, but Tom McCarthy escaped.

"FAST MAIL HELD UP: Failing to Blow Open the Express Safe Rifled the Mails."
read the head from Ryan Daily Eagle, Bryan TX, Oct 16, 1896, when it picked up a story from Utah.
"Ogden, Utah, Oct 15-The Union Pacific fast mail, due here at 2 o'clock yesterday morning, was held up by three masked and heavily armed men a half mile east of Uintah. Two of the robbers clambered over the engine tender, and with oaths, backed up by revolvers in each hand, compelled the engineer to stop the train. He did so and the robbers immediately attacked the expresscar. An attempt was made to force the safe with dynamite, but the charge failed to explode. In the meantime the engineer started to run. He escaped a fusillade of bullets and made his way to the city. The robbers then went to the mailcar. While they were sorting the registered packages the conductor cut the engine loose and opened the throttle and started for Ogden. Near the city he overtook the engineer and brought him to Ogden.

"Several large posses of men have started on the trail of the robbers, including many old scouts, who know every foot of the county."

"The Robbers Still Free," noted the papers then. 
"Ogden, Utah, Oct 15-Several posses are still in search of the robbers who robbed the Union Pacific, but so far have found no clew[sic]. A bottle of nitroglycerin and several sticks of dynamite have been found near where the train was held up. Three of the registered mailracks rifled were for San Francisco and four for Sacramento."

The San Francisco Papers told the far-fetched tale later of a fantastic outlaw hideout.

"MOST DESPERATE PLOT UNEARTHED: A BANDIT WHO LIVES IN A PALACE CAVE.
Utah Has Offered a $5000 Reward for His Capture, but He Seems to Take Life as Quietly as Usual."
wrote editors of the San Francisco Call, Vol 85, No 151, Apr 30, 1899

"Salt Lake, Utah-In the heart of the Rocky Mountains, protected by towering precipice and yawning canyon, is the luxuriously furnished, electric lighted fastness of a bank of robbers which has for years terrorized a great deal of three states, and on the heads of whose members is set a price, "alive or dead."

"The Legislature of the State of Utah has determined that the famous Tom McCarthy gang of bandits and cattle thieves must be broken up. A bill providing an appropriation for the purpose of hunting the men down has passed the second reading, with all chances for actment into a law.

"This bill sets aside a sum of $5000 with which a war to the death is to be launched against the members of one of the most notorious bands of murderers and cutthroats known to the history of America. It is proposed that the dealings with the robbers, who have held portions of three States in abject terror for three years and whose agents are scattered the length and breadth of the land, will be as harsh and merciless as those used by the outlaws themselves. They may be invited to surrender to submit to the punishment their crimes deserve, and those who refuse and defy the officers wil be hunted down an dealth with through persuasion of powder and ball.

"It has been generally acknowledged for some time that ordinary methods of procedure will not do with the men who lawlessly reign in the heart of the Blue Mountains, or Roan Ridge. They are not inclined to submit to the law in any extremity, for they are all amenable for the greatest of crimes and will probably die fighting rather than be taken and compelled to submit to trial before a court.

The story talks of a combination of Governors from three states.

"Little over a year ago, as will be remembered, three Governors-Adams of Colorado, Wells of Utah and Richards of Wyoming-entered into arrangements whereby the militia of the three States were to be sent against the robbers. Plans were made and the matter was well under way when the first signs of hostility between the country and Spain were heralded. The brave boys were needed against a greater and more than local foe and the repression of the outlaws was laid for a time upon the gubernatorial sheif. Perhaps it was well, judging by the tales of the gang and its strength which are current.

"In fact, it has been decided by the administration of Utah that the soldiers are not the agency which can combat and overcome the McCarthy brigands, or make attempt with the best chance of success. The movement of a body of troops and a military campaign would be too much like an open book for the eyes of the vigilance of this band which has long ago taken precautions against just such a move on the part of outraged justice.

"The people have come to the conclusion that the only way to deal with the gang is through men as wary as they. The posses to be sent against them will not besiege the rocks which hold the gang, but they will depend more upon killing the members one by one as they venture out for supplies. They will try to invest the place and starve but the outlaws. They may be successful, but it will not be done, according to the judgment of people who know, in a few days or weeks. It is generally believed that there will be bloodshed on both sides before the object of the Legislature is accomplished.

"Tom McCarthy, the leader of the Blue Mountain robbers, or the "Hole in the Wall Society," as it is often called, has been called the Napoleon of outlawry. His origin is in doubt, but it is known that he is wanted in several parts of the country for crimes of unusual atrocity. His appearance is anything but prepossessing. He is about five feet six inches in height and weight about 175 pounds. His forehead is narow and forbidding, and covers deep set, gray eyes. A fold of fat curls over the point of his chin. His mouth is wide and his teeth are irregular. His nose is a pug and his ears are turned forward.

"With a small following McCarthy perpetrated several mail and express robberies a number of years ago on stage coaches over the Utah desert and in the mountains. It was his first appearance in the country in this role, and before long his daring exploits gathered about him a choice company of criminals from the neighboring States and Territories. After moving about considerably, always pursued by the sheriffs, the company settled in a certain point of the Blue Mountains, on the line between Colorado and Utah. The loss of some of the most daring of his comrades had seemed to give McCarthy an idea of establishing a rendezvous where he might retreat when sorely pressed."

The Call claimed a "Fastness of the Bandits."

"Miners and prospectors have in a number of instances wandered close upon the retreat of the bandits, and have always been warned away and never molested if their business in the locality was clearly peaceful. A few have engaged in a fight with the outlaws, who were retreating to their granite fortress, and have lived to tell about it. From these sources a faint idea has been gained of the character of the place. Now and then one of the band, while visiting a town not many miles away, has revealed a number of things in his cups; but at the present time the exact locality of the retreat of McCarthy and his men is not known, thought there are persons who could guide a party within three or four miles of it. The path runs through a narrow canyon and leaves it at a particular wild and tortuous place for a serpentine trail running a mile or more up and down the heights. Again, at the end of the trail there is a passageway blasted and cut through solid rock. The termination of this shorter pathway brings the robber to the entrance of the gathering place, which is nothing less that a great cave or amphitheater in the center of the rock.

"This is the throne room of the Irishman, and from this there run in all directions tunnels, their openings artfully concealed, so great are the precautions of the band, and their other ends terminating at one or the other side of the mountain. This is known from statements made by miners and mechanics who were taken by the gang to do the work and who were blindfolded while aproaching and leaving the place.

"By the most remarkable feature of all is the fact, boasted of by more than one of the gang, that the cave possesses an excellent electric motor and dynamo, taken there piecemeal on horseback. It is even said that the system is used to light the rocky recesses, but the chief boast is that it is for another purpose. Robbers say that wires run from room to the chief to all approaches of the fortress and communicate with charges of dynamite. They have stated that it would be possible for them to annihilate a regiment of soldiers and that the exploding of dynamite in the approach from the west side would close the passage instantly, after which they could either lie in the cave with security or escape from one of the many openings and scatter over the country.

"A former Deputy United States Marshal of Utah is authority for the statement that there are fifty skeletons lying in a gulch not a great way from the mouth of McCarthy's canyon. The Marshal says that he saw the place himself, and that the skeletons represent persons put out of the way by robbers, who feared they would reveal secrets they had stumbled across.

But what really happened to Tom and the McCarty gang?

"In 1896, Matt Warner was involved in a shooting near Vernal, Utah. Two men died. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison. In January 1900 Matt was released for good behavior after serving only three years. For a while he ran a saloon in Green River, Utah. Matt’s wife, Rose Morgan McCarty, whom he married in Utah when she was fourteen years old, gave birth to a child and died while Matt was in prison. The child was given up for adoption. In 1902 Matt married Elma Zufelt and they had five children. After release from prison, Matt had vowed to leave his outlaw life behind. Proof that he kept that vow is the fact that he worked as a city marshal, deputy sheriff, and justice of the peace in Price, Utah, where Matt and Elma lived beginning in 1915. In 1937 a writer named Charles Kelly helped Matt write his memoirs, which were published serially in January 1938. Matt died later that year," says Oregon historian Dielman.

"By 1900 Tom McCarty had given up the outlaw life and returned to a place where he knew he was reasonably sure of not being arrested. It had been seven years since the Delta bank robbery, which was no longer in the news, and the statute of limitations had run on most of his criminal activity. As added insurance, the place he chose to retire to was the Imnaha River area in northern Wallowa County, Oregon, where he had a decade prior bought property. Just over the ridge to the east of the Imnaha River Valley was Hells Canyon, through which Snake River had carved the deepest canyon in North America, an area about as remote as any place in the United States. Nevertheless Tom was taking a calculated risk returning to Wallowa County, where in 1891 the McCarty Gang had robbed the bank in Enterprise, the county’s seat of government. The perpetrators of that robbery had not yet been discovered," according to 

"Tom found employment with Wallowa County. In 1903 the county court appointed Tom Imnaha road supervisor. Tom’s district covered an area of 325 square miles or 200,000 acres, and included nine townships. Tom was reappointed road supervisor in 1905 and appointed Judge of Elections for that precinct. In 1906 Tom and his crew built a six-mile stretch of road in his district that became known as McCarty Road. Also named for Tom was McCarty Springs and McCarty Creek. For a while before 1912 Tom served as Justice of the Peace for the Upper Imnaha District."

"After 1917, Wallowa County records make no further mention of Tom McCarty. Many historians of western outlaws have speculated about Tom’s whereabouts and activities after 1917, but none has provided proof of a final resting place," says Gary Dielman.

Yet, even in 1909, the newspapers were claiming and blaming exploits on the McCartys.

"POLICE SAY ROGERS WAS MCCARTHY GANG MEMBER: Made Tunnel From His Saloon to Rob Bank"
Said the San Francisco Call, Vol 107, No. 2, Dec 2, 1909. Though it might have been suggesting relatives in Los Angeles area for the crime.

"According to the police John Bennett Rogers, who was arrested in the Lacey saloon, 640 Market street, early Tuesday morning for burglary, was a member of the gang headed by John McCarthy that tunneled from Rogers' saloon in Los Angeles opposite the First National Bank to the bank several years ago with the object of stealing $250,000.

"McCarthy was the only one arrested. He was sentenced to serve a term of 10 years in San Quentin. The other known members of the gang were Louis Matheny, Frank Stevens and John Stewart.

"It was the same gang that committed numerous burglaries in Oakland just prior to the Los Angeles attempt, when Joseph Touhill, a member of the gang, was shot and killed and Policeman Cashel met a similar fate."

###

Hoping to go from the jailhouse to White House

Eugene V. Debs, five-time Socialist candidate for President, set free from prison on Christmas Day as he left the Federal Prison at Atlanta, Ga, in 1921, on Dec. 25.

Socialist arrives early on the "Red Special" in Colorado

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The term "socialism" largely remains a "dirty," though arguably an often misunderstood term, in the realm of U.S. politics. I suppose we have the Cold War, anti-Soviet sentiments and McCarthyism, a campaign against alleged communists in the U.S., and recent partisan politics largely to thank for that. But it has been around for a long time, especially here in Colorado. Early on it took the form of one Eugene Debs.

"On Sept. 4, 1908, the Red Special arrived in Denver. Before his scheduled appearance at the Denver Coliseum, Debs dined with Channing Sweet, a prominent socialist leader in Colorado and the West. Sweet, an attorney, had lived in Colorado for nearly 30 years. Part of his time had been spent in Glenwood Springs in the 1880s, where he helped build the town by constructing some of its early buildings," wrote Willa Kane, a former archivist of, and a current volunteer with the Frontier Historical Society and Museum, in Glenwood Springs.

After working with several smaller unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Debs led his union in a major ten-month strike against the CB&Q Railroad in 1888. Debs was instrumental in the founding of the American Railway Union (ARU), one of the nation's first industrial unions. After workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company organized a wildcat strike over pay cuts in the summer of 1894, Debs signed many into the ARU. He led a boycott by the ARU against handling trains with Pullman cars in what became the nationwide Pullman Strike, affecting most lines west of Detroit and more than 250,000 workers in 27 states. Purportedly to keep the mail running, President Grover Cleveland used the United States Army to break the strike. As a leader of the ARU, Debs was convicted of federal charges for defying a court injunction against the strike and served six months in prison.

In prison, Debs read various works of socialist theory and emerged six months later as a committed adherent of the international socialist movement. Debs was a founding member of the Social Democracy of America (1897), the Social Democratic Party of America (1898) and the Socialist Party of America (1901). Debs ran as a Socialist candidate for President of the United States five times, including 1900 (earning 0.6 percent of the popular vote), 1904 (3.0 percent), 1908(2.8 percent), 1912 (6.0 percent), and 1920 (3.4 percent), the last time from a prison cell. He was also a candidate for United States Congress from his native state Indiana in 1916.

But back to the "Red Special" in Colorado.

From Denver, Debs traveled to Leadville on the rails of the Colorado Midland Railway. After delivering speeches along the route, Debs headed for Glenwood Springs. The Glenwood Post newspaper of Sept. 6, 1908, announced his anticipated visit on its front page. The Avalanche Echo newspaper gave the scheduled visit no mention at all. Neither newspaper embraced the socialist cause. The Glenwood Post editorialized, “Eugene is a very mild man but his social philosophy is red hot. Harmless, however, when it gets cold.”

"The bunting-covered Red Special arrived in Glenwood Springs on Sunday, Sept. 7. Debs was taken by the beauty of the town, and took some time to relax at the Hot Springs Pool. By 2 o’clock in the afternoon, an estimated 200 people had gathered to hear Debs deliver his speech. During his oration, he noted Glenwood Springs was a luxury provided by nature and only a small percentage of people could enjoy it. He declared “that when socialism prevails millions will be able to reach the beauty spots that dot the earth, evidently put there by nature for the benefit of all human beings.” Ironically, he delivered his speech on the Glenwood Hot Springs grounds, a place created by the capitalist system," noted Kane.

Debs lost his bid for the presidency in 1908, but did gather close to 500,000 votes nationwide, partly due to the Red Special. In the years to follow, Debs ran again for the presidency, once in 1912 and again in 1920. With his 1920 bid, he ran his campaign from prison, having been convicted of sedition during World War I. One of his campaign slogans in the 1920 run was "From the Jailhouse to the White House."

But Debs had earlier experience in Colorado.

"Home at last from his relentless touring in support of Democratic-Populist fusion Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, Gene Debs found he had a surprise visitor for Christmas 1896 — Edward Boyce (1862-1941), President of the Western Federation of Miners. We are accustomed to think of the WF of M as a union; it was not, but rather an umbrella organization of affiliated local miners’ unions, just as the American Federation of Labor is an umbrella organization of affiliated craft union," writes the creators of the Debs Project.

"Boyce had a favor to ask of the ARU chief: there was an expensive and increasingly violent strike in need of resolution in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado — a place where Boyce had himself labored in the mines for four years previously. As the Panic of 1893 hit a double dip recession in 1896; unemployment remained at double-digit levels, business closings swept the land, and commodity prices such as that for silver had fallen precipitously. Mining was distinctly less profitable than it had been and some local operators used the bad economy and weak bottom line as an excuse to slash wages, one after another reducing the basic daily rate for a Leadville miner from $3 a day to $2.50. Those who had not moved the scale were threatening it."

The ideas of the Socialist Party were never embraced by a majority of the population of Colorado, despite Debs’ 1908 visit. However, socialist Channing Sweet of Denver continued to contribute to Colorado politics. He personally ran for several offices under the socialist banner into the 1920s. His son, William Sweet, a Democrat, became Colorado’s 23rd governor.

 

Socialist delegation which was in Washington urging Executive Clemency for Eugene Debs. Photographed at the White House, May 15, 1920.

.

Musical chairs for county seats in Colorado

This 1896 W.H. Jackson photo of the ice palace in Leadville, Colorado, was not the center of government, but the city did finally get the nod as county seat for Lake County, in 1879.

Fading fortunes and waning populations help drive the musical march

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

In the early days of Colorado, it seems, county seats were a little more 'nomadic.' But things have settled down a bit, with no seat changes since 1941, when Dolores County seat transferred from Rico to Dove Creek.
"Becoming the county seat brought a town prestige and government jobs, but it was a contested honor that sometimes led to squabbles, burned courthouses, and even murder,"notes historians and map creators Thomas Noel, Paul Mahoney, and Richard Stevens, in their "Historical Atlas of Colorado."
Newcomer towns often tried, and sometimes successfully,  to take the county seat from towns or small cities on the wane.

Other forces conspired, as well. Railroads on occasion determined the staying power of some seats. For example, the Denver and Rio Grande (D &RG) bypassed three existing county seats — Colorado City, Howardsville, and Parrott City — in favor of towns that it founded which later became county seats: Colorado Springs, Silverton and Durango.

In Weld County, the location of the county seat changed a record six times. "Railroads gave Evans, then Greeley, preeminence in Weld County, where Latham earlier had captured the county seat because of a stage stop," according to the atlas.

"In Conejos County the seat was moved to Conejos because floods plagued Guadalupe. Higher ground was also the reason why Larimer County transplanted its offices from La Porte to Fort Collins. When James Frank Gardener, the founder of Frankstown, moved four miles south to California Ranch, he took Douglas County records with him. There they stayed until the county seat relocated at the rail town of Castle Rock."

Mining communities that faded when the treasure gave out, were often moved as well. "Oro City, briefly booming county seat of several thousand residents, was nearly a ghost town by 1866, when Dayton took the title. When Dayton declined two years later, the county government moved to Granite. A decade later, fabulous silver strikes made an instant city of Leadville, which almost overnight, became the second largest city in Colorado and acquired the Lake County government for good. Granite consoled itself by becoming the county seat of newly formed  Chaffee County, only to lose the honor to Buena Vista and finally to Salida," says Noel, Mahoney, and Stevens.

"Idaho Springs lost the Clear Creek seat to silver-rich Georgetown in 1867. Two one-time county seats of Park County, Tarryall and Laurette (renamed Buckskin Joe in 1865,) became ghost towns, while FairPlay survived with the help of county jobs."

Hayden served as the first Routt County seat, then the boomtown of Hahns Peak, though both Craig and Steamboat tried unsuccessfully to wrestle it away. In 1911, Moffat County was split off with Craig as county seat, and that allowed Steamboat Springs to claim the honor in Routt. The mining town of Carbonate was the first county seat of Garfield, but eventually yielded to Glenwood Springs, when it was found out that mines were salted, and population drifted away.

But the most violent takeover occurred between Grand Lake and Hot Sulfur Springs in Grand County when a July 4, 1883, shoot-out culminated that squabble, and ended the lives of four men.

"Most ghoustly of all the former county seats is San Miguel in Costilla County. Even its exact location is a mystery," says Noel, Mahoney, and Stevens.

Parrott City, County Seat of La Plata County, Colo., June, 1881, from painting.

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Hell-bent for wind storms

“There's always another storm. It's the way the world works. Snowstorms, rainstorms, windstorms, sandstorms, and firestorms. Some are fierce and others are small. You have to deal with each one separately, but you need to keep an eye on whats brewing for tomorrow.” 

― Maria V. Snyder, Fire Study

Monument Storm, Jan. 4, 1916

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The Palmer Divide area seems to be particularly hell-bent for wind storms at times over the last 150 years. January, 4, 1916, was just one example of what workers and residents have had to deal with over time.

As moisture laden air streams in from the West and is forced to rise over the mountains, it eventually cools and becomes saturated, causing rain or snow to fall. As the air moves over the mountains and down the leeward side it warms and drys out. This is a common pattern we see with Colorado storms moving in from the West all the time, but the same effect happens for cities along the Palmer Divide,” says Castle Rock stormchaser and meteorologist John R. Braddock, at Mountain Wave Weather. 

The Palmer Divide, or Palmer Ridge, of course is the elevated section of land composed of bluffs and ridges and the rising terrain sloping up from Castle Rock south toward Larkspur, with continuing elevation rise, finally peaking at Monument Hill.

“It separates the Arkansas and Missouri River Basins in Eastern Colorado and roughly runs from its Western point in Palmer Lake, East roughly 80 miles to near Limon. The uplifting of the terrain in these areas causes the weather to behave differently, in fact storms can behave considerably differently from Denver to Castle Rock or Denver to Colorado Springs,” says Braddock.

Workers dressed in winter clothes pose on a Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company truck in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. Wires, equipment, and a lamp hang from the truck with a sign reading: "American Telephone and Telegraph Co. and Associated Companies, Long Distance Telephone, Bell System." A worker hangs from a telephone pole in the distance. 

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

View of broken utility poles in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. A row of poles lay in an open field.

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

View of broken utility poles in a field in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. Telephone wires are draped on the ground. Shows a barbed wire fence and open field. 

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

View of a Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company railroad car tipped over on the embankment in Monument (El Paso County), Colorado. The Monument train depot is in the distance.

Colorado Historical Society, Mountain States Telephone collection

Storms over the years in Southeastern Colorado, and the Pikes Peak Region, compiled by the National Weather Service in Pueblo, are as follows:

1904 August 7 ...A flash flood north of Pueblo washed a train from the tracks, killing 89 passengers. Flood waters had weakened a bridge, which gave way under the weight of the train. 

1913 December 3-5 ... The granddaddy of blizzards reached from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Trinidad, Colorado with snow, and wind gusts to 50 mph. Snow drifts reached to the eaves on houses, and were as high as the tops of trolley cars. Numerous trains stalled at different locations in eastern Colorado due to the heavy snowfall. 

1921 June 3..Heavy rainfall causes flooding of the Arkansas river through Pueblo. Bridges and buildings washed out, many are homeless and many died in the deluge as the river reaches record levels as it roars through the city. A high water mark of the river can be seen on the Union Station depot. Estimated property damage and loss is $25 million dollars. 

1921 April 16... Spring storm reached from Colorado Springs to Castle Rock, dropping 15 to 20 inches of snow while Pueblo received less than 3 inches of snow. Cars and snow plows were stalled in the city, while numerous trains were stranded on their tracks across Eastern Colorado. 

1923 July 15...Thunderstorms and heavy rainfall causes flooding in Cripple Creek and Cripple Creek canyon. Damage estimated at 30 thousand dollars in Cripple Creek alone. 1932 June 11...Tornado touches down in Colorado Springs from 16th to 20th streets and as far south as Cucharras street. One person killed. 

1934 to 1937...The Dust Bowl years for Colorado and the midwest. Numerous farmers and cattlemen put out of business. Blowing dirt and dust over the region closed roads and made moving around and breathing hard. Many aircraft were grounded due to blowing dust, and radio communication was nearly impossible. 

1935 May 31.. Memorial Day flood on Monument Creek in Colorado Springs kills 18 people and washes away bridges and buildings in downtown. 

1949 May 15...Heavy afternoon thunderstorms and rainfall caused a landslide in Ute pass, sending about 400 tons of rock and mud down on highway 24. 

1955 May 18...Flooding on the Purgatoire river cuts Trinidad in half. Most bridges were washed out in the city, and 4 feet of water filled downtown Main St. Damage was estimated to be over 2 million dollars. This same flood also struck La Junta, doing extensive damage and forced many people from their homes. 

1965 June 15... First of 15 days of rain, causing flooding on Monument and Fountain Creeks. Several bridges, and part of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo are washed out. A tornado and flooding developed over Palmer Lake where residents had been evacuated to Colorado Springs 

1966 July 3...A tornado moves through the Victor business district, damaging a garage, the Masonic Lodge building and a Baptist church. 

1977 March 19...Colorado Springs receives 13.4 inches of snow with winds gusting to 52 mph. East of the city, 82 mph winds were reported. The worst of the storm was from Colorado Springs to Limon. Army helicopters and half- tracks were used to recue stranded people. Five known dead, and $4 million in property loss and damage. 

1977 April 11...A tornado hits a Mobile Home Park on Astrozon Boulevard. Several homes were damaged but no deaths or injuries. 

1979 June 25... Manitou Springs hit by a tornado, uprooting trees downtown and took a roof off a service station. No deaths and only 1 person injured. Damage estimated to be close to 1 million dollars. 

1981 June 24...Thirty five acres of trees were leveled in Pike National Forest (North of Woodland Park) by a tornado. 

1982 December 24...Snow started falling in the early morning on Christmas Eve and continued until sunrise Christmas Day. Winds gusting to 45 mph kept visibility near zero most of the day. Snow plows were unable to keep up with the storm until the 25th, as snow drifts of 6 to 10 feet were common. Pueblo only received 2 inches of snow from the storm. 

1984 October 15-16...The BRONCO blizzard. Storm started while the Bronco's were playing on national TV. Denver received 1 to 3 feet of snow; only 15 inches in Colorado Springs and 1.4 inches at Pueblo. Winds gusted to 55 mph shutting down I-25 from Denver to Colorado Springs, and numerous flights in/out of Colorado Springs and Denver were canceled due to blowing and drifting snow. 

1987 January 15...Winter storm system arrives late on the 14th covering the area from Colorado Springs to Pueblo, and the surrounding area. Snowfall totals include: Colorado Springs 22 inches; Rye 42 inches; Colorado City 20 inches; Pueblo 9 inches; Canon City 10 inches. 

1990 February 21...Snow, fog and ice cause a 30 car demolition derby on I-25 from north of Colorado Springs to 4 miles north of Monument. No serious injuries, but the road was closed for several hours to clear up the mess. 

1990 May 29...A month's worth of rain and a foot of hail fall in a 3 hour period in Colorado Springs causing flash flooding. Cars stalled in up to 3 feet of water. 1990 June 6..Tornado's rip through Limon, destroying most of downtown including city hall, fire and police departments. Another tornado strikes Rush in eastern El Paso county. 

1990 July 11...Costliest hailstorm to date reaches from Colorado Springs to Denver, and causes over $600 million damage. 

1991 November 16-17...Winter storm arrives and leaves 16.6 inches on snow in Colorado Springs, 12.8 inches at Pueblo and 5.7 inches in Alamosa. Winds gusted to 50 mph at times. 1995 May 18..Three inches of rain in Colorado Springs causes flooding in the city while 18 inches of snow falls at Woodland Park. Heavy rain also causes a landslide closing highway 24 in Ute pass. Golf ball sized hail was noted at Falcon and Peyton, east of Colorado Springs. 

1995 June 22...Tornado damages 5 homes at Meadow Lakes Estates, east of Colorado Springs. 1996 July 27..Thunderstorms with heavy rain flood streets and basements as over 3 inches of rain fall over Colorado Springs. Flood waters are 3 feet deep in parts of the city. 

1997 June 7...Thunderstorms with heavy rain and hail cause 4 mud and rock slides closing highway 24 in Ute Pass, and much flooding in Manitou Springs. 

1997 October 14...Weather of all kinds over southeast Colorado. Tornado's in the southeast corner of the state. Thunder- storms and heavy rain in Pueblo and to the west of the city. Hailstones 2 3/4 inches at La Junta with softball size hail at Las Animas, snow at Cripple Creek, Black Forest and Monument. Winds of 100 mph reported at Liberty Point in Pueblo West and 98 mph at Kim in southeast Colorado. 

1997 October 24-26...Heavy snowfall over Monument and Palmer Lake with 52 inches of snow with 15 foot drifts in Palmer Lake, 48 inches of snow with 6 to 10 foot drifts in Monument. 

1997 November 29...Blizzard conditions force the closing of I-25 south of Pueblo as 27 inches of snow falls at Walsenburg. North of Pueblo, 19 inches of snow fell at Divide, 18 inches in Cripple Creek and 12 inches at Woodland Park. 

1998 June 24...Strong wind around the region damages many new homes under construction, and takes roofs off many other homes Winds blew over a semi-trailer on highway 115 to Canon City. Gusts to 80 mph at the Air Force Academy, 91 mph in Ute Pass and 96 mph at the Colorado Springs country club. 

1998 July 10...Severe thunderstorms moved over Colorado Springs starting grass fires, and a small funnel cloud tore a hole in the roof at Henry Elementary School. The school was closed at the time. 

1999 April 28-May 1...Strong thunderstorms roll across Colorado Springs, dropping 5 inches of rain at the airport, with up to 10 inches along the foothills. Heavy rainfall eroded the ground around a bridge at 21st St and Highway 24, causing it to be closed. Heavy rain and runoff in Fountain Creek resulted in the river being 6 feet above normal, and doing much damage along the river banks south of Colorado Springs. Many people homeless due to the flooding, and many more without power due to the storms. 

1999 July 30...Thunderstorms dump 3 to 4 inches of rain over Colorado Springs and El Paso county, causing street and basement flooding and forced cancellation of the county fair for the day. A group of teen-agers were stranded while hiking in Waldo Canyon. 

1999 November 21... An evening snowstorm drops 8 inches of snow at Monument, 10 inches in Manitou Springs, 17 inches at Green Mountains Falls before moving on. 

1999 December 3 ... Lots of snow and some records fall. Cuchara receives a record breaking 61.25 inches of snow, 32.4 inches at Rye, 10 inches of snow in the Black Forest and Woodland Park, 16 inches at Beulah as winds gust to 45 mph and higher in some areas. 

Turning up our noses at 'packinghouse perfume.'

 

For decades, "the river ran red" with packinghouse waste 

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

When you live most of your days out in the middle of nowhere, (otherwise known as a remote ranch out on Morapos Creek, between Craig and Meeker) you appreciate the chance to ‘go to town’ once in a while. My Granddad liked to ride the train into the stockyards at Denver with the product when he sold cattle. By most accounts, he looked forward to it all year.

“For most of a century, Denver's stockyards teemed with cows and other critters all year long - not just when the annual stock show rolled into town.

From the 1880s through the 1960s, Denver was the region's go-to bazaar for buying and selling livestock,” wrote Joanne Kelley in a 2006 article in the Rocky Mountain News.

For decades, "the river ran red" with packinghouse waste until rendering plants began processing it, according to Colorado historian Tom Noel's book, “Riding High.”
"Though they cleaned up the river, rendering plants fouled the air with pungent odors that downwind Denverites sniffed about," according to Noel.

But with better roads and the growth of the trucking industry, the stockyards and the packing plants dispersed into local ‘sale barns’ and the big plants moved away from the city. By 1980, the big yards in Denver were all but shut down as a year-round concern and only memories remained of its former prominence.

“I was born in Chicago about the time of the Spanish-American War. My father, Ralph C. Edwards, had been employed by Stafford Brothers in the Chicago Stockyards. He got a position at $40 a month with Clay, Robinson & Co, at the Denver Union Stockyards,” wrote Mrs. Avery Edwards Abbott in an article titled “I Remember Denver,” in the September, 1962 edition of the Denver Westerners Monthly Roundup. “Our first home in Denver was at 36th and Williams, near old Chutes Park (which terrified the daylights out of me).”

“I recall the old Denver Carnivals, held in the fall, I think. These were a kind of Mardi Gras, with parades and so on, to which my mother took me. Carfare was a nickel, and so was a loaf of bread. We could buy enough beef for supper for a dime, and the butcher gave you a piece of liverwurst free and threw in enough liver for the cat,” wrote Abbott.

She and her family later moved to Elyria, which was a village in Denver County with a population of 1384 in 1900. It was also called Pullman by the railroad and boasted 26 saloons.

“I remember the torchlight parades, to which Father took me when McKinley was assassinated,” she said. “Father took me for a walk every afternoon and often the walk ended at the Stockyards. I was terrified beyond voice when we took the catwalks above the waving heads of the longhorns in the corrals. The hogs fascinated me, as did the sheep. (Such smelly tastes!”

Abbott tells of Mr. Fine and Mr. Gill at the Stockyards Bank and walking back and forth from home and there for her mother when she was only 6 years old.

“It never occurred to anyone that there was any danger or my purse being snatched or my being molested. The stockmen, many of them knew who I was and stopped to inquire about Mother and my baby brother. They had been faithful in coming to see Father during his last illness.”

She describes taking the Stout Street cars, one which was marked “Stockyards,” when going down town to Hurlbut’s Grocery, in the Loop, where bananas were ten cents a dozen.

“In the winter, Hurlbut’s smelled of hot coffee, buttered popcorn, cupcakes, overshoes and wet clothing. In summer, large glass jars of lemonade were on display, and cookies, candies, magazines and other penny-catchers.”

Butter was 15 cents a pound. Lion and Arbuckle were the popular brands for coffee.
“I remember the day when three Polish workmen at the Omaha and Grant Smelter (the shadow of whose smokestack almost fell across our house, and whose smoke was said to kill all our germs) were sitting on kegs of dynamite while eating their lunch. They had the bad judgment to strike matches on the kegs to light their pipes. Parts of the men were picked up all over town and windows were shattered for several blocks around. It was quite an occasion!”

Of course the perfume of the packinghouses blended with the smelter smoke, she said.

“Some of Mother’s friends turned their noses pretty high when they came to see us. But this was not so they could sniff the perfume to greater advantage.”

With all the different sights, and sounds, and smells and events, it is no wonder that my own grandfather looked forward to ‘going to town’ every year on his trips to the stockyards in Denver.

###

Photo Information: Photos by Marion Post Walcott and Arthur Rothstein from Farm Security Administration, taken at Denver Stockyards, andin Craig, Colorado, stockyard, in 1939 and 1941.

El Paso County journalism linage and origins

 

Crusher, Gold Rush, Palmer Lake News, Ute Pass Courier, Pikes Peak Journal and more

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Having worked at a number of El Paso County newspapers in Colorado over the years, I find their linage interesting. My own experience, with papers in Monument, and Teller County (which, until 1899, originally was mostly in El Paso County,) and Colorado Springs general interest, business and military papers, makes their stories part of my own narrative. 

The first edition of the Ute Pass Courier, for example, hit the streets on July 23, 1964.
"A morally bankrupt publisher, who was printing the short-lived Woodland Park paper called the Eagle, skipped town with the subscription money from local residents after 10 issues," according to later articles in the Courier.

"Manfred (Monte ) and Agnes (Ag) Schupp saved the paper from scandal and early demise," reported the Courier at the 25th anniversary of the publication. "About one month after he stole out of town, the Schupps put out their inaugural edition of 500 copies. Staff included Tom Bonifield, then owner of Woodland Pharmacy, and M.E. "Pete" Brown, who owned the Browncraft Steakhouse. He was later instrumental in establishing Langstaff-Brown Medical Center."

The paper was first printed in La Junta and was taken there by bus and returned Thursday mornings for distribution.

"The driving force behind the Courier, Agnes (also a mother and free-lance writer) often used her kitchen table as the production room for the paper," the paper reported later. "She suffered from a heart condition which was aggravated by the area's high elevation, and during her failing health she sold half interest to Maureen Jones in the fall of 1965."

Agnes Schupp died of heart attack June 19, 1966, and Manfred and Jones sold full interest to Roy and Carol Lee Robinson Sept. 1, 1966. Publisher, editor and reporter for 12 years, Roy Robinson received many honors and awards from Colorado Press Association for the paper's overall progress. During his tenure, the Courier was published in Cripple Creek along with Cripple Creek Times, then owned by his father, B.G. Robinson.

Another example is found in the business and journalism exploits of Ernest Chapin Gard. Gard seemed determined to make his mark on the world, even as young man. Evidence of his talents became manifested in a talent for stringing words together.
Perhaps he was thinking along those lines when in 1880 as a 23-year-old newspaperman, he scratched out his moniker above those of members of the gold-seeking Lawrence Party on Signature Rock in Garden of the Gods.

Gold’s discovery in the Cripple Creek District precipitated Gard and his partner’s race to become the first newspaper in Cripple Creek. He pulled out all the stops to beat William McRea by four days, publishing the first edition of the Cripple Creek Crusher on Dec. 4, 1891. Descendant of the Crusher and other consolidations, The Cripple Creek Gold Rush still published until 2007 when it became incorporated into Pikes Peak Courier View, of Woodland Park. 

Gard, and partner W.S. Neal, celebrated the feat by printing in gilded ink — a layer of gold over the regular ink — for the inaugural edition. McRea, four days late and perhaps more than a dollar short, sported vermilion headlines that said “New Gold Field.”

In general, Gard was noted for not trying to hold anything back. 

For example, consider his description in a booklet published by the Town of Palmer Lake in 1894 of one local landmark shortly after it was built.

“Estemere House commands one of the most magnificent views in the Rocky Mountains. The lake and both railroad depots lie beyond it, is plainly visible. To the southeast stretch the plains, on which can be seen the village of Monument, and the bewildering scene is lost in the dim distance where the meeting sky and plain unfolds the siren mirage to the vision on the desert waste; to the east are the fertile farms and pine groves of the rich Divide. To the northeast can be seen the pretty pyramidal buttes of Greenland and Larkspur. To the west are the ‘rock-ribbed’ mountains, lofty and sublime. It is a scene which, when once beheld, can never forgotten.”

When legendary scoundrel, Joseph H. Wolfe, crossed his path in Cripple Creek in his administration and management of the Clarendon Hotel, Gard let loose because he felt Wolfe was attracting too much attention by throwing money around the gaming tables and consorting with shady characters.
“This curious hostelry is run by a red-faced, cock-eyed boob who ought to be back in Missouri flats pulling cockle-burrs out of a cornfield,” wrote Gard in the Crusher in the early 1890s. He proved to be on target when later Wolfe’s efforts to organize one of the only bullfights ever held in the United States at the racetrack at Gillette Flats landed him in jail and fleeing from creditors.

Prior to his founding of the Crusher, Gard was already wielding his wit and pen in the Palmer Lake area, founding the Palmer Lake Herald with his brother J.M. Gard, just before incorporation to the town in 1889. On April 2,1889, he was also elected to a two-year term as trustee on Palmer Lake’s first board.

"The USGenWeb Project was established in 1996 by a group of genealogists who shared a desire to create free online resources for genealogical research. Originally beginning with online directories of text-based resources, their vision has grown into a network of over 3000 linked websites, all individually created and maintained by a community of volunteers. Today you may find a variety of unique county and state resources including photos, maps, transcriptions, historical documents, helpful links, and much more." according to its current site.

In July and August of 1996, the work progressed with many volunteers coming forward to assist. The USGenWeb domain was established, and many new state mailing lists were generated. Through collaboration with RootsWeb, server space was found for the files produced as a result of the project. Also, a standardized Query and Surname entry form was established there. A number of state and county pages were put on-line there. Other servers and key personalities involved in the project include Gene Stark at Gendex and the folks at Gensource.

"As more volunteers came forward, some of the original cadre were able to pass the reins of some of their responsibilities on to new enthusiastic helpers, freeing time for them to more fully concentrate on their other GenWeb states and counties. The leadership of the US GenWeb project also changed hands, but the original goal of the project remains unchanged. A USGenWeb Bulletin Board was established, and many new county pages came on-line, especially the hard work of the state coordinators."

On the USGenWeb Project you'll find a well organized effort to place genealogy materials on the Internet. This project is supported by hundreds of volunteers all across the county. The system is organized by states, and counties with each county having a coordinator responsible for maintaining a site of resources which are available for that county. You'll also find archives of genealogy records, also organized by state and county.

The Colorado version, COGenWeb Project is an outgrowth of this effort.

Several papers following, (many of which I have worked with, or descendants, for a time) are described by 2019 El Paso County COGenWeb.

Journalism in El Paso County, Colorado. — This county, being one of the earliest settled in Colorado, has a respectable newspaper record. Even in 1872, "Out West," published by J. E. Liller, had for correspondents men widely known in church, literature and politics, as Rev. Charles Kingsley and Hon. Wm. D. Kelley. "Out West" was a model of style, editorially and typographically; it was devoted to Western interests. In December, 1872, it announced that a local paper had become necessary, and that it would also publish "The Gazette and El Paso County News," beginning early in 1873, in order that "Out West's" pages might entirely be given to Territorial information. It thereafter soon died, but the "Gazette" grew to be a respected force throughout the country. 

In 1874 Judge Price became celebrated all over Colorado for his humorous hoaxes upon Eastern residents in the columns of his "Mountaineer," also issued at Colorado Springs, and an able paper popularly circulated among the people of the county. The pioneer El Paso journal, though printed in Denver, was the short lived "Colorado City Journal," which made its appearance in 1861, under the direction of Benjamin F. Crowell, now a citizen of Colorado Springs. May 1st, 1858, Mr. Crowell came from Boston, a boy of nineteen, in company with A. Z. Sheldon and others. The party had varied experiences in crossing the plains, one of their chief dilemmas being to ascertain each morning before harnessing which was the "nigh" and which the "off" ox. From the days of the El Paso "Journal" till the present, Mr. Crowell has been connected with every important movement, political or otherwise, in El Paso.

Colorado Springs "Gazette" inaugurated the county's record in daily journalism, and ever has been a prominent factor in the building up of this region. It is one of the six papers of the State owning associated press dispatches, prints daily over five thousand words of telegraphic news, and is a four page eight column paper. It has a large job department, fifty men on its pay roll of $600 per week, and is erecting a fine block on a principal avenue. The chief stockowners are B. W. Steele, Hon. W. S. Jackson and Dr. B. F. D. Adams. Mr. Steele has been editor of the " Gazette " for the past several years, and came to Colorado in 1877, from Providence, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Brown University. Mr. Steele's policy in conducting the "Gazette" has been fearless and judicial. His editorials show a remarkably sympathetic comprehension and prevision of public feeling.

The "Gazette" is about to build a fine new edifice on Pike's Peak avenue, a sharp contrast to its present dilapidated structure of historic fame. The material is to be St. Louis pressed brick with stone trimmings, and basement of stone. Besides the rooms used in the printing and binding departments of the journal, there will be eighteen offices. The building is supplied with fireproof vaults and a crane elevator.

The Colorado Springs "Republic" is the second paper of the county, and was first issued in 1880 (being the regular successor of the "Free Press" and the "Mountaineer,") as a daily evening journal, after as a weekly, and again as a daily under its present direction by Mr. L H. Gowdy. Its interests are mainly local, and together with an excellent job department, it has become a successful property.

EI Paso's growth may well be shown by an enumeration of the papers now published. While the county boasted but ten papers in 1888, in 1890 we find the list swelled to double the number. The El Paso "Register" is the representative paper of the (Palmer) Divide region, and is published at Monument. The Manitou "Journal" is issued four months of the year as a daily, and began its career in 1886. The Colorado City "News," under the able direction of J. Addison Cochran — present postmaster of that city — achieved, two years since, first place among the papers of El Paso's manufacturing center.

Other papers issued in the county are: "Pike's Peak Herald," "Saturday Mail," the "Methodist," the "Lever," and "Deaf Mute Index," at Colorado Springs, — the last two named being school papers, — Colorado City "Chieftain," Colorado City "Iris," Palmer Lake "Herald," Green Mountain Falls "Echo," Fountain "Dispatch," Woodland Park "News," and Crystal Peak "Beacon" (at Florissant).
To the Colorado Springs "Gazette" and "Republic," both of which publish weekly as well as daily edition we are indebted for valuable reports which have freely been used in this sketch," according to COGenWeb.