By Laura Van Dusen
The History Press, 2013 ISBN 978.1.62619,161.7
Reviewed by Forrest Whitman
This is a delightful read for anyone interested in our Colorado Central country, especially Park County. Laura Van Dusen wrote most of these chapters for her monthly column in the Fairplay Flume newspaper, and that’s an advantage. The reader can pick up the book at any point, just as he or she might a newspaper, and read the news of the day, be it 1966 or 1866.
A few of her anecdotes stop the reader cold. It’s always tough to be on a school board, but few expect to be shot dead at a school board meeting. That’s just what happened in July of 1895. Benjamin Ratliff was really angry with the school board – mad enough to shoot and kill three of them. Laura does a good job with those details, crazy as they are. Ratliff, by the way, did hang. Lawmen had some tough times too. Marshall Adolph Cook was shot dead when he broke up a party. The defense of the shooter, a man named Streeter, reminds me of the “stand your ground” laws popular in places like Florida today. Even though he shot the marshal three times (and beat him to death afterward), he claimed he was feeling threatened. Streeter died in prison.
Her columns aren’t all about crime. She spends time on Rev. Sheldon Jackson, the minister who introduced reindeer to Alaska. His memorial chapel still stands in Fairplay. She also does a good job of telling the hardscrabble stories of the early ranchers and miners. There were some entertaining Saturday nights in Fairplay, but mostly the working class had hard work, and that mostly in the snow. A few prominent citizens did well in Park County and frequented a couple of first-class hotels. The Fairplay house and the Buckhorn are mentioned, as well as the hotel in Como.
Laura does seem to miss some of the flashier stories. Old Mose the grizzly doesn’t show up, nor do the Espinosa brothers, who marauded in South Park. Those tales are of mythic proportions, however. She tends to stick to items actually appearing in her paper.
If I had any criticism, it would be that she doesn’t do much railroad history at all. Others have done that though, so maybe by sticking to the “human side” she works the right pitch. My other criticism is one I almost always make – we get little or no national economic and political context. The populists were, after all, big in Park County. Gov. Bloody Bridles Waite never shows up. I often miss that context with history writing.
Parked in the Past is well worth buying and putting on your bedside reading table. Pick it up and enjoy. I did. g
