Brief by Central Staff
Local Lore – May 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine
The following are all published descriptions of places in Central Colorado or the San Luis Valley. Can you figure out what they’re writing about?
1.) “Sheep and cattle-raising, however, are the principal occupations of the settlers, about one-half of whom are Spanish-Mexicans, and live in adobe houses, surrounded by cattle, sheep, goats, babies and dogs. The town consists principally of adobe and log buildings, yet there are a few good brick and stone buildings for business purposes…”
Croffutt’s Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado, 1885
2.) “Despite its solid, stone buildings, (place name) in its youth needed a few more solid citizens to serve as models of decorum. Lawlessness and disorder were more common than law and order. When a man stabbed and killed his neighbor in a quarrel, the murderer was fined only five dollars…”
The Upper Arkansas, A Mountain River Valley by Virginia McConnell Simmons
3.) “The battle between mine management and labor, which lasted well into the 20th century, opened at (place name), Colorado, in 1880. The strike began when the management of one of the mines irritated the workers with regulations about smoking, talking and loitering on the job…”
Reader’s Digest Story of the Great American West
4.) “South and west of Leadville, only a few miles east of the boundary of the Ute Indian reservation, new life was injected into the area around (place name). In 1874 Sylvester Richardson, and others, had organized a town company with sixty $100 shares of stock and had laid out (same place name). But it was the carbonate ores unearthed there after the Leadville strike that made it more than a straggling frontier townsite.”
A Colorado History by Ubbelohde, Benson and Smith
5.) “The residents of Freshwater applied for a post office in 1895. Because there was a Freshwater post office in California, application under this name was denied. Residents then decided on the name Idaville for Ida McClavery Wagner, owner of several mining claims. The following year, the name was changed to (town name).”
Ghost Towns Colorado Style, Volume Two — Central Region by Kenneth Jessen
6.) “(Name of town and location) was founded in 1873 by three prospectors, within six months, it had a population of five hundred fighting for space in sixty log cabins and a hotel. Space was more readily available at the many saloons, which before long were supplied with beer from a local brewery. (Same name) had class. When a vigilante group hanged a pair of town toughs, legend says, it sent out printed invitations.”
Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps by Sandra Dallas
7.) “The boom town and its rustic suburbs were jammed into any available niche in the rugged terrain.”
The San Luis Valley by Virginia McConnell Simmons
8.) “Fire destroyed most of the town in 1882 — just about the time (place name) hit its peak. Little of the city was rebuilt.”
Guide to the Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps by Perry Eberhart
9.) “A small petroleum refinery and several small manufacturing firms are located there.”
Colorado Year Book, 1956 – 1958
10.) “(Place name) is most remarkable for fine, elaborately fronted double houses and terraces and small apartment buildings with Neo-Romanesque detailing.”
Buildings of Colorado by Thomas J. Noel
(The answers to the April quiz are on page 6.)