Review by Ed Quillen
Local Lore – November 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Images of Historic Southern Colorado
by Mary Jane Massey Rust
Published in 2002 by the Hurlbert Center Press Hurlbert Center for Southwestern Studies Colorado College, Colorado Springs
ISBN 0-935-05238-0
There aren’t many other books about our region that began as a TV series, but these stories were first crafted for a local station in one of the smaller markets. In this case, the series was “Millennium Moments” on KRDO, the ABC outlet in Colorado Springs, and it was written, produced, and hosted by Mary Jane Massey Rust.
Her series focused on vignettes of local lore in Southern Colorado, a realm extending from Leadville and Camp Hale south through the San Luis Valley, and from the Continental Divide eastward to Lamar, which is so far out on the Great Plains that the mountains are no longer visible.
In book form, these accounts become short anecdotes — three or four paragraphs is typical — accompanied by copious illustrations, many of them historic photos.
Given that the series was based in Colorado Springs and aimed at an audience there, it’s not surprising that the Pike’s Peak area gets most of the attention. Even so, most of our towns get at least a page or two in this handsome book. (It has attractive typography and design, but that’s at the cost of some awkwardness in handling because it’s horizontal.)
Saguache, for instance, appears twice, once for the town and once for its antique but functioning newspaper shop. From Salida’s historic district and Crestone’s religious sites to Bridey Murphey and Nikola Tesla, if it’s something you wondered about in our part of the world, chances are you’ll find it in here — whether it’s an event, or a place, or a famous person, or…. Well, just about anything.
Two examples should demonstrate; both are about Buena Vista:
“Firemen’s Loss, Buena Vista’s Gain
“During the boisterous years of Buena Vista’s mining days in the 1880s, pioneer Irish-American Thomas Starr financed the construction of the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. When the little wooden church could no longer serve its growing congregation, it was abandoned. The local fire department chose to burn it down for practice in fire-fighting techniques. Just in the nick of time, a restraining order was produced, and the structure was moved to its present location in a city park, where it languished another three years. Finally citizens who cherished this relic of the old mining heritage of the area rescued it in 1972. The beautifully restored building lives on as the Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in the quiet mountain town of Buena Vista.
“High Country Salad Makings
“Denny Isabel made $10,000 in 1919 by planting head lettuce near Buena Vista. Suddenly that crop became a favorite one in the area and other farmers joined in. Soon the lettuce became a million-dollar product. For a time the town of Buena Vista, founded in 1879, even celebrated ‘Head Lettuce Day’ with appropriate festivities. But, eventually, the high-altitude climate that produced such choice head lettuce turned on the farmers. Early frosts were unpredictable and the erstwhile lucrative crop failed. Buena Vista means ‘good view’ in Spanish and the name is justifiable, for its backdrop is the spectacular Collegiate Range. Locals pronounce the name ‘Beeoona’ Vista.”
I’d take issue with the orthography of Bjüni, and I also object to the locution “Collegiate Range.” Although it’s a losing battle, I keep insisting that they’re the Collegiate Peaks of the Sawatch Range. But by and large, I didn’t find much to quibble with here, and I did learn a few new things, such as the source of some of the names of streets in downtown Colorado Springs.
There are no source notes, and no formal bibliography, but there is a list of “Suggested Reading,” and it’s a worthy one.
As a writer, Rust has a gift for compressing a lot of information into a short space and making it flow smoothly — actually, as a writer, I suspect that this “gift” is the result of hard work and thought on her part — so the book moves along nicely, despite being a collection of short pieces.
If you ever wanted to send someone a book that explained why this is the most interesting part of Colorado, or if you’re looking for a short version of the “rest of the story” about what you’ve seen and heard in this part of the world, then this book is about perfect. It’s not a “coffee-table book,” but that’s a good place for this attractive, entertaining, and informative work.