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	Wednesday March 10, 2010

SPORTS : Ron ortivez captures third • SPORTS : Lady Redskins lose one, clinch district • SPORTS : Theres always next year • SPORTS : Redskin men end season on winning note • SPORTS : Panthers beat Swink and Cotopaxi • EXTRA : The Klan in Walsenburg, part 3 • EXTRA : Huerfanos Wild West celebrities • EXTRA : La Veta history for February 25, 2010 • EXTRA : Walsenburg history for Feb 25, 2010 • MORE : Briefs for February 25, 2010 • MORE : County Jail roster for February 25, 2010 • MORE : Budget cuts overtake Re-1 agenda • MORE : Tourism Board receives grant applications • NEWS : Huerfano Journal takes over the World • NEWS : What\'s all this then? • NEWS : Fast Facts due out next week • NEWS : Huerfano scores big at Science Fair • MORE : Briefs for February 18, 2010 • EXTRA : Despite This for Feb. 18. 2010 • EXTRA : La Veta History for Feb. 18, 2010 • EXTRA : Walsenburg History for Feb 18, 2010 • EXTRA : Sports Celebrities sightings • EXTRA : The Passionate Gardner, part 2 • EXTRA : The Klan in Walsenburg, part 2 • MORE : Huerfano County one of the lowest in health in Colorado • MORE : Skaggs will not seek re-election in Cucharas • MORE : Re-1 ponders how to save money • NEWS : Wind Farm in holding pattern • NEWS : La Veta cannot consider Grandote proposal • NEWS : Walsenburg in dire economic straights • NEWS : More layoffs in store for City • SPORTS : Cordova loses on OT • SPORTS : Ron Ortivez places third at State. • SPORTS : Ron Ortivez to wrestle for third. • SPORTS : Tim Yount and Tidbits • SPORTS : Panthers are 16th after the semi-finals. • SPORTS : See Waylon Cordova Wrestle live on the internet ??? • SPORTS : Ron Ortivez drops match • SPORTS : Panthers 18th in team standings and 3rd in Marines pull-ups • SPORTS : CORDOVA IN FINALS...CORDOVA IN FINALS...CORDOVA IN FINALS • EXTRA : The Klan in Walsenburg, part 1 • EXTRA : La Veta history for February 11, 2010 • EXTRA : Walsenburg History for February 11, 2010 • EXTRA : Comfort Stations • MORE : Briefs for Febraury 11, 2010 • MORE : Wind Farm or Airport? • MORE : No electricity rate increase for 2010 • NEWS : Two Rivers Water Company acquires majority interest in Huerfano-Cucharas Irrigation Company • NEWS : No good news on CCA for Walsenburg • EXTRA : La Veta history for January 28, 2010 • EXTRA : Walsenburg history for January 28, 2010 • EXTRA : Strictly for medicinal purposes... • NEWS : Prison closing a blow to County • MORE : Petroglyph setlement • NEWS : CCA Pulling out of Huerfano County • TO SEE AND DO : Under Contruction • EXTRA : Draining Martin Lake impacts wildlife minimally • NEWS : Golf course closure • REAL ESTATE : Redwing Ranch- NOW REDUCED!! • NEWS : One whopping big book fine • : Nathan Lewis dies • NEWS : Cordova places second at State •

Sports

Bighorn ram on Devils Stairsteps

The Klan in Walsenburg, part 3

04 - March - 2010by Edi Sheldon
The period of time when the Ku Klux Klan was most active in Colorado was from the end of WWI till about 1927. However, there are communities in the state that still seem to have active Klaverns within them. The communities in which the ..

Huerfanos Wild West celebrities

04 - March - 2010By Nancy Christofferson
    When many people think of “celebrities”, they first think of performers, as in “stars.” There are stars of all different forms of music, from opera to country, of film, television and radio. In the past, Huerfano County has played host to its share of them all.
    Long before the big screen, or even radio, traveling shows held sway as the favorite form of entertainment. Chautauquas with many educational, spiritual and amusing speakers as well as music made the rounds, circuses on long, special trains, carnivals and, from the 1880s into the nineteen-teens, wild west shows. Walsenburg and Huerfano County residents were thrilled in 1907 to have one of these latter appear, though for only one day. That day was Sept. 17 when Pawnee Bill’s Historic Wild West and Great Far East Show arrived. What a day! Pawnee Bill was really one Gordon William Lillie from Illinois, but he struck a fine pose dressed in his fringed leather coat and matching trousers, and mounted on his trusty steed. He looked much like a more famous showman and in 1908 they joined forces, when Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill merged their shows. Alas, this show did not come to Huerfano County.
    Back when country music was getting a foothold with the public, the genre did not necessarily mean western. Songs included a great deal of yodeling, stringed instruments (and this does not mean guitars) and twangy, nasal vocals.
    Possibly Walsenburg’s first live country performance was in May 1939 when the Ozark Hillbillies appeared on stage in the Valencia (now Fox) Theater. They were big radio stars of the time, and played two performances that day.
    In 1941 a very well known singer-radio host-actor-songwriter appeared in the Valencia. He was Lester Alvin Burnette, better known as Smiley “Frog” Burnette, and he performed with his Rhythm Wranglers. Like Pawnee Bill, Smiley was an Illinois boy, but after hooking up with a young singer named Gene Autry, he left for Hollywood and never looked back. Smiley mastered 105 instruments and, like Autry, could not read a note of music! He wrote lyrics for many western melodies and performed some in his favorite costume of checkered shirt and tattered cowboy hat. After his film career ended, he joined the cast of television’s “Petticoat Junction” in 1963, but Huerfanos knew him “way back when.”
    In 1945 Tex Hall and His California Cowboys appeared in the theater, by then renamed Fox. Another Tex to perform in Walsenburg was Tex Williams, who was really Sollie Paul Williams from – you guessed it – Illinois. Tex was here in September 1945. His most famous recording was Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) in 1947, but he’d appeared in movies, on the radios and had released many singles and albums before his visit to Huerfano County. Not surprisingly, Williams became spokesman for a cigarette company after Smoke!
    Another cigarette spokesman was Gordon A. Nance, known to posterity as Wild Bill Elliott. Wild Bill was not from Illinois, but Missouri. He did not sing, nor did he perform for Huerfanos’ enjoyment. He simply made the mistake of stopping in town in 1947, and got besieged by fans. Wild Bill got his name from some B westerns he played in, but his claim to fame was as Red Ryder, a character he played in 16 films.
    Red Ryder was the brainchild of Fred Harman, a cartoonist. The comic strip proved so popular it was carried in 750 newspapers. It was turned into a radio show, then movies and television. Harman was one of the original members and founders of the Cowboy Artists of America and was one of the first whose works were exhibited in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. He was a personal friend of Walt Disney and an adopted member of the Navajo Nation.
    Harman had a habit of turning up in Walsenburg during the early 1950s. Why not? He was raised and lived in Pagosa Springs. Occasionally he was accompanied by his cartoon, radio and television character Little Beaver, actually a child named Bobby Blake.
    Another fellow who stopped in Walsenburg and got more than his share of attention was Andy Devine. With more than 400 film appearances beginning in the silent pictures, Devine would have been a sitting duck for autograph seekers. He spent more than an hour in Neeman’s garage, evidently with car trouble. That was 1946, and he had not yet gained fame as Jingles, Wild Bill Hickok’s sidekick on radio and television.
    1948 brought a young singer from Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra – the singer who replaced Frank Sinatra. He was called Ken Curtis, and he hailed from Las Animas where his dad was county sheriff. Ken acted in many movies, including the classic, “Mr. Roberts,” as well as fulfilling musical roles. He married the daughter of director John Ford. He is best known for playing Festus for 11 years on TV’s “Gunsmoke.” Curtis gave a matinee and evening performance in the theater that September 2.

La Veta history for February 25, 2010

04 - March - 2010La Veta
1882: Rev. E. Burch has consented to give a Sciopticon Panoramic Exhibition of Bible scenery Friday night for the benefit of the Baptist Church.
1897: If economy is what we are after, why not disorganize [the town]? The peace and quietness of the town would then be attended to by the precinct constables and deputy sheriffs.
1905: Gasolene [sic] lights now are in use in the Columbine Saloon, Stranger’s and Kincaid’s stores and the La Veta Hotel.
1914: The town election takes place in about a month and the socialists are talking about putting some candidates on the ballot.
1923: Spanish Peaks Playground Association, which has 14 cabins and a commissary just below Blue Lake, should be self-supporting from now on. Funds are earned from weekly cabin rentals and fees for fishing the stocked lakes.
1930: La Veta Light, Heat and Power Company and the town have painted all the street light posts green and white.
1937: The Town of La Veta owns 124 lots in 13 blocks within the La Veta Town and Improvement company’s property.
1942: Rufe Martinez and Warren Farrar, both seniors in the local high school, have been accepted for service in the U.S. Navy.
1950: The new wholesale and retail gas station operated by Louis and Joe Kopine will have a grand opening Friday and Saturday to introduce their new services.
1956: Recently, Frank Williamson sold the 10,000 acre Flagg ranch and bought that of Walter Campbell on Highway 160.
1961: About a foot of snow fell in several storms the last week of February.
1967: Two La Veta residents received awards at the first annual Agri-Business Awards Dinner, Ellis H. Smith, rancher, and Mrs. Nola Geiser, businesswoman.
1972: March came in as soft and white as lamb’s wool with a five-inch snowfall.
1978: Approximately 300 people attended Sunday’s performance by the Pueblo Civic Ballet in the high school gym, sponsored by Friends of the Arts Guild.
1987: La Veta High School wrestlers attending the state meet the past weekend were Ron Ortivez, Bob Weir, Chappy Adkins, Bruce Denton and Donnie Sanchez.

Walsenburg history for Feb 25, 2010

04 - March - 2010Walsenburg
1889: W.C. Hunt published the first issue of the Walsenburg World Thursday, March 1.
1896: The World newspaper’s reporter visited the Walsen mine but was turned back in the east workings by smoke left from the constant firing. The exhaust fans are on at all times.
1906: Water pipes are being laid about the courthouse and irrigators will be installed to water the fine lawn that will be planted this spring.
1915: A $1,000 reward will be paid for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of William Dick on the road to La Veta four miles west of Walsenburg on Feb. 13. J.B. Farr, Sheriff.
1925: The new organist and organ at the Rialto Theater will perform for the first time Saturday when Tom Mix appears in the film “Teeth”.
1934: Harry Oblander and Harry Myers’s M&O Garage is now the agency to sell and service Oldsmobile automobiles.
1940: Alfalfa again will be the main crop with about 12,000 acres to be planted this year on Huerfano County’s 800 farms.
1946: Shoe supplies still are very low so get yours repaired by Jack and Frank Fink’s Quality Shoe Shop, 114 W. Seventh.
1951: Employment figures remained stable in February, with 1,600 employed in Walsenburg and 2,228 in the county.
1956: A Toy Loan Library will be this year’s new Future Homemakers of America community service project for the children of Walsenburg.
1963: Coach Larry Crosson and the team of Phil Valdez, Bob Pierotti, Al Owens, Lewis Edmundson, Richard Tenorio, Tom Quintana, Anthony Ruiz, Don Tenorio and Paul Nickens won the Southern Peaks Class “A” basketball championship.
1971: Mrs. Archie (Katherine) Levy Sr. was elected chairman of the Republican Central Committee, the first woman to serve in this position in Huerfano County.
1977: Fashion Shoe Mart will have its grand opening Saturday under new owners Richard and Mary Lou Abila.
1985: Lavelle’s Ladies Wear and The Brandin’ Iron are holding their eighth anniversary sales at the north end of Walsen Avenue.

Despite This for Feb. 18. 2010

28 - February - 2010Hauling water
by Carol Dunn
HUERFANO- If you have a well, don’t ever brag about how many gallons a minute it yields or how shallow it is. If the person you are bragging to has to haul water they will probably bean you on the head with a cast iron skillet. For some people, hauling water is a way of life. They’ve been doing it longer than they’ve been picking adobe bugs out of their coffee. You can pay your electric bill late once in a while, but you’d better not forget to fill your cistern. Otherwise you’re going to miss your shower and smell and your hair will look greasy. If you already smell and your hair is already greasy, then you won’t have water to cook with or do laundry, and your spouse will bean you with a cast iron skillet.
    Hauling water is an especially thankless job when the roads are treacherous. You’ve got this big thing full of water sloshing around in the back of your pickup with a momentum all its own, and you’re trying to negotiate curves that fully conform to the law of centrifugal force. It’s like riding your motorcycle with a bull sitting on the back and he’s leaning the wrong way.
    Hauling water is about as much fun as having a root canal without anesthetic. Water haulers have to find ways to cut their water use so they’re not running to Town to fill up their tank every other day. Living on a water budget means a lot of things that you might not think of. You can’t let the water run willy nilly while you’re brushing your teeth – if you don’t brush your teeth, this is not such a big issue. Another thing, you are pretty choosy about when you flush your toilet – if you have a toilet. People on a tight water budget use the old adage, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown flush it down.”
    Besides Coloradans, people in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Mexico all use water that originates in Colorado. I’m fairly sure that people in LA would rather have their fingernails pulled out with pliers than “let it mellow” in their toilets. In the unfortunate years that we lived in Southern California, I saw countless homeowners washing their driveways by squirting a billion gallons of water with a garden hose till there was a stream flowing into the storm sewer about as big as the Gunnison flowing through the Black Canyon. Then they would water their “lawns.” Face it, grass was not meant to grow in the arid states or it would grow there without being watered three times a day. And the grass looks about as real as Jim Traficant’s toupee.
    Think about everything you use water for. Then send a card of encouragement to someone who hauls water. They could use it.

La Veta History for Feb. 18, 2010

28 - February - 2010
La Veta
1904: I.R. Voorhees is pulling down the houses he bought at the defunct Pike’s Peak Coal Mine and will use the material to build a furniture store next to his present office on Francisco Street.
1911: Contractor D.H. Neeley has the walls of Mr. Pickens’new cement house on east Field Street about one-half finished.
1916: Although a completely new grade was made to the summit of Cucharas Pass, six or seven miles remain to be improved in Las Animas County.
1921: The Commercial Club plans to ask the county commissioners why the public road between La Veta and Badito is fenced off.
1926: La Veta Mill Company has completed the delivery of its last contract for ice to the Denver and Rio Grande amounting to 2,000 tons and is now filling another contract.
1932: An announcement has been made of the upcoming marriage of Miss Georgia Shultz and Mr. Otto Drum Sunday, Feb. 21 at the home of the bride in Trinidad.
1937: Betty Baker, daughter of Jack Baker of La Veta and a former silent film star, was seen in the movie “Yellowstone,” directed by her husband Joe McDonahue, at the Rialto Theater this week.
1944: The La Veta chapter of the Red Cross completed 1,012 garments and 104 soldiers’ kits in 1943, as well as knitting 29 sweaters.
1950: Surplus potatoes from the San Luis Valley can be purchased for one cent per hundred pounds for cattle feed.
1956: La Veta Chamber of Commerce will construct an airport as their project for the year and are considering locations.
1963: Unemployment in Huerfano County rose from 162 at the end of December to 187 at the end of January.
1968: Mrs. Evelyn Heikes resigned her position as librarian at Walsenburg High School to join her husband Robert, recently returned from Viet Nam, in California.
1974: Installed officers of the Future Business Leaders of America were Beth Pene, president, Geneva Smith, vice president, Cora Aguirre, secretary and Nola Long, treasurer.
1980: Many winter sports enthusiasts enjoyed the warm weekend weather on the cross-country trails at Panadero Ski resort above Cuchara.

Walsenburg History for Feb 18, 2010

28 - February - 2010Walsenburg
1909: An insane man from Rouse hung himself in the basement of the courthouse where he was interned.
1913: The entire high school was shaken up when a gasoline burner in the chemistry room exploded.
1922: Sam Hand, who murdered his neighbor nea..

Sports Celebrities sightings

28 - February - 2010By Nancy Christofferson
HUERFANO- If baseball pitcher Bob McGraw was Huerfano County’s most famous athlete, he had a close runner-up in that sport.
    Though not a native of Huerfano or even Colorado, but of Indiana, Ford Christopher Frick became coach at Huerfano County High School in Walsenburg in the mid 1910s after his graduation from DePauw University. During the summer, he worked as a mine clerk for Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s Farr coal mine at Cameron.
    While in Walsenburg, Frick married Eleanor Cowing, daughter of Frederick C. Cowing. After a year of coaching and clerking, Frick moved to New York City where he went to work for the Hearst newspaper syndicate. For the next four or five decades, Ford and Eleanor made an annual trek back to Walsenburg to visit family.
    Frick became a well-known sports writer, and in 1924 he took on a new challenge – ghost writing for none other than Babe Ruth, a job he continued until 1932.
    With the advent of radio, Frick became a baseball reporter and was one of the first to give a daily report with scores and events. In 1934 he became the public relations director of the National League.
    Later the same year, in November, Frick was elected president of the National League. Perhaps his biggest challenge in that position was in 1947 when some players planned to protest the “breaking of the color barrier” when Jackie Robinson became the first black major leaguer. Frick threatened to suspend any player who did indeed protest Robinson’s hiring.
    In 1951 Frick made another career advancement when he was named Commissioner of Major League Baseball. He retired in 1965.
    1970 brought his nomination and acceptance into the Baseball Hall of Fame, which he had helped to establish.
    Frick died in 1978 and is buried in Bronxville, NY. In his honor, that year the annual Ford C. Frick Award was established to be awarded to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball.” Notable winners of this award include Curt Gowdy in 1984 and Bob Uecker in 2003.
    So while our most famous athlete did not make it to the Hall of Fame, our old high school baseball coach did – Huerfano’s only member of that august body.
    A member of another Hall of Fame may be remembered by longtime Huerfanos. Babe Didrickson made several appearances in Walsenburg in exhibition baseball games, playing for the noted House of David, a traveling Jewish team that was sports’ answer to vaudeville entertainment back in the day. Babe was a pitcher, and her team faced the local champs during the 1930s. In 1938 she married George Zaharias, a professional wrestler and native of Pueblo whom she met while golfing. Babe, who’d won two gold medals and one silver in the 1932 Olympics track and field events, was named by the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most versatile athletes of the 20th century, became a star of the LPGA and was one of the first of six members of the LPGA Hall of Fame. So when great-grandfather tells you he watched Babe pitch, better believe him.
    In 1946 Babe and George stopped in at Shosky’s Café for a bite to eat en route to a golf tournament. It is no stretch of the imagination to think they’d met the restaurant owner before. Alexander Shosky, was nicknamed Babe also and was an active local sports promoter.   “Babe, meet Babe.”
    At least two other sports figures have ties, very tenuous ties indeed, to Huerfano County. Byron R. White vacationed in Cuchara in the mid-1960s and despite being a Supreme Court Justice, was known mainly for his football feats and nickname, Whizzer. In 1948, long before being named to the court by President John F. Kennedy, Whizzer had been guest speaker for the St. Mary High School Quarterback Club.
    In the 1990s, shortly after his retirement from the major league, Richard Michael “Goose” Gossage was in La Veta to play golf at Grandote and ended up signing autographs at the La Veta Sports Pub and Grub. He also donated a shoe, possibly about a size 30, for the edification of fans.
    In 1930, Clyde E. “Upsidedown” Pangborn, “army aviator, veteran of Colorado skyways and co-holder of the world’s endurance record for open-cockpit planes,” gave a three-day exhibition at the Walsenburg airfield, then called Hanson field.
    The noted Harlem Globe Trotters made appearances in Walsenburg in the ‘30s, ‘40s AND ‘50s.
    Here’s the sad one. Will Rogers, one of America’s most enduring humorists, was in Walsenburg in late July 1935. From here he went to join Wiley Post, first pilot to fly solo around the world, for some research in Alaska. Both men were killed when Post’s plane crashed on takeoff near Point Barrow on Aug. 15.

The Passionate Gardner, part 2

28 - February - 2010by Karyn Ames
Master Gardener
New Mexico Certified Nursery Professional
Last week’s article on seed-starting generated queries from folks during the week. So, let’s flesh out the seed-starting information with answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQs).
Question: How do you know when to start your seeds? You gave actual dates, but I’d like to understand how you came up with those dates.
Answer: Every plant has a number of days until germination and a size it will be on a particular date. For instance, tomatoes take 7 to 14 days to germinate at 75 degrees F. If I want to transplant them from the 6-pack stage, I need to plant them 6 to 8 weeks before I put them in the garden or in barrels on the patio. If I want a larger plant in a 4-inch pot, I need 8 to 10 weeks. Although I start my tomatoes in 6-packs, I plant them up into increasingly larger pots. So, when I put my tomatoes in the garden the first week in June, I have allowed 12 weeks from seed-starting to final planting.
Q: Where do you get germination information?
A: Johnny’s Selected Seeds is an excellent resource for growers. However, most seed catalogs do not provide detailed starting and growing information. Because I grew for my own commercial greenhouse, I gleaned information over the years. Now you can get that information from the Internet.
Q: I noticed that my seed-starting soil mix floats and does not take up water easily. What can I do?
A: Fill your cell packs with the soil mix and rest the packs in a sink filled with tepid water up to just below the container tops. Through osmosis, the soil will take up water from the bottom and become thoroughly saturated. Then you can plant your seeds on top of the soil.
Q: Do I need to add fertilizer to my seed-starting soil mix?
A: No. Many mixes come with some fertilizer in them, but even if they don’t, seedlings do not need fertilizer until their first true leaves appear. The first green leaf you see upon germination is the cotyledon, which is part of the embryo of the seed. Cotyledons contain stored food reserves for the seedlings.
Q: Could you give some seed-starting dates for flowers?
A: When you consider that you can get a large selection of petunias, pansies, and impatiens from the store, you might want to save your precious growing space for your favorites or plants you cannot find at garden centers.
See the table for starting some annual flowers. I show the number of weeks the seedlings need in 4- or 6-cell packs before transplanting into the garden. (I plant seeds directly into cell packs.)

The Klan in Walsenburg, part 2

28 - February - 2010by Edi Sheldon
WALSENBURG- An Op/Ed piece from the Walsenburg World of Jan. 29, 1924, (which may still be relevant today) responded to the parade of the KKK down Walsenburg’s Main Street by stating; “What is needed in Walsenburg is not a spirit of antagonism, but a union of all classes and creeds for the building up and development and prosperity of our community.” The parade left a well-defined aura of fear among Walsenburg citizens.
    The KKK established a presence in almost all of the southern Colorado communities. This outgrowth of Klan activity came after WWI and the decline of industrial production and mining in Colorado. Many were out of work and the economy suffered in this period of economic depression. The only community to resist was Colorado Springs according to a book by Phil Goodstein called In the Shadow of the Klan, When the KKK Ruled Denver 1920-1926. Government officials, including members of Denver City Council, were reported to retain membership roles in the Denver Kabal.
    The resurgence of the KKK first came about in the deep south as a result of a man named William J. Simmons from Georgia. He was the son of a member of the original KKK who had been dismissed as a preacher of the Southern Methodist Church for incompetence. He was a veteran fraternal insurance salesman with links to the Masons and the Woodmen of the World. Simmons had seen the movie, The Birth of a Nation. This movie advocated the resurrection of the KKK as the answer to problems sweeping the south during the early part of the 20th century. Remaining members of southern aristocracy wished for a return to slavery in the south as one solution to problems being encountered at the time. The movie portrayed the original Klan as saviors of the south and guardians of southern womanhood and tradition. It showed violent actions against the Negro population and urged re-establishment of slavery as an answer to the violence and lawlessness after the Civil War in the south.
    Colorado front range communities that experienced significant Klan reorganization during the 1920s were Florence, Canon City, Walsenburg, Trinidad and others on the eastern plains. During this period the population of most of these communities was a mixture of immigrant derivation. But with the increase of lawless activity such as bootlegging, gambling and active patronization of whorehouses, the strength of the KKK seemed welcome to some.
    During 1924 the A.M.E .Christian Church in Trinidad found its coffers short and was unable to pay some of its bills. One of the members of the church published a letter asking the KKK of Trinidad to assist by donating money. The response was surprising: members of the Klan appeared at the church during services, marched down the aisle and laid a check in the amount of $254 on the podium. A letter presented with the check stated in part: “The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are ever ready to assist all PROTESTANT organizations that EXALT the living CHRIST.” The African-American membership of the church was shocked and surprised. The letter also stated that, ”the law abiding Negro has nothing to fear from this organization. “
    Next week we will examine a local home with what appears to be a Klan meeting room built inside.

The Klan in Walsenburg, part 1

18 - February - 2010by Edi Sheldon
WALSENBURG- The rebirth of Klansmanship in Colorado is well documented in the annuls of Colorado history. The movement began in Denver and spread to cities and smaller communities throughout the state. The popularity of the KKK seemed to spring from the pervasive lawlessness after World War I. Walsenburg was not immune to the KKK, but did ultimately resist the strong growth of the club.
    I remember a story relating to the building on my parents’ ranch known as the manager’s residence. There was not much left of the structure by the time we took ownership. It had no windows and the door was there, but would not latch. I did not like the atmosphere in the house, so only entered it one time. My understanding of the story relating to this structure was that the ranch manager secretly belonged to the KKK, but his wife knew nothing of this membership.
    She was gathering clothing to put through the laundry one day and picked up a pair of her husband’s good trousers which he had left lying over a chair. When she turned them upside down to hang them, some items fell out of the pockets. She reached down to pick them up and found a KKK membership card with her husband’s name on it.
    The stigma associated with this organization was strong. It was well known for discrimination against Jews, Catholics, and many minority immigrant populations. The county had been heavily populated by immigrants from Italy, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Ireland, Wales and other European countries as well as India, and China. These nationalities became fearful of the Klan activity which seemed to be directed against them.
    Several days after the discovery of her husband’s KKK membership card, the lady was found hanging from a rafter in the home. She supposedly had committed suicide as a result of her discovery because she was of mixed ancestry and had never told her husband of her Catholic upbringing. The husband was fired and persecuted till he left the area and the house remained empty.
    Newspaper articles throughout the months of 1924 chronicle Klan activity. A parade down Walsenburg’s Main Street was described by the Walsenburg World in its January 22 issue as having 160 marchers carrying banners stating, “The Bootlegger Must Go,” “America for Americans,” “Walsenburg Klan No. 12,” “We’re Here to Stay,” “Free Press,” “Free Speech,” and other similar announcements. The paper also reported that a cross, estimated to be 40 feet high, burned on Saint Mary’s Hill, (now known as Chico Hill).
    This display of KKK might was purported to have been a protest against the lawlessness that had resulted in the death of two Walsenburg police officers. They had been acting on reports of bootlegging activity which seemed to be rampant in the area. The rebellion of the mine workers against the strict repression exercised by the mine owners had resulted in a particularly difficult social atmosphere of drunken lawlessness. Prohibition only accentuated the mine workers’ feelings of resentment and oppression. The bars and whorehouses were said to be operating at full capacity between the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the appearance of the KKK in the early 1920’s.
    Several op/ed pieces appearing in successive issues of the Walsenburg World criticized KKK actions for discriminating against religious freedoms. Walsenburg and Trinidad were not tolerant toward KKK efforts due to the impressive religious stronghold of the Catholic Church in the area. Many of the immigrant miners were Catholic when they arrived or followed the Church doctrine after they established independent lives in this area. The main focus of KKK activity was to promote Protestantism, with an underlying emphasis on political influence. The newspaper sought to calm and unite a community characterized by a blend of many different nationalities.
    Next week’s follow-up will detail a local home built to house KKK meetings.

La Veta history for February 11, 2010

18 - February - 2010La Veta
1901: Another cold spell allowed ice cutting and hauling to recommence and several more railroad cars were loaded.
1908: C.S. Emmert and S.H. Springer are assisting Judge Tiffany in trying to secure an ordinance granting them the privilege to erect..

Walsenburg History for February 11, 2010

18 - February - 2010Walsenburg
1903: Of the 28 enrolled in the high school, those neither absent nor tardy included Freda Mazzone, Maurice Cowing, Isabelle Mazzone, Janet Chatin, Karl Sporleder and Carolyn Jones.
1911: Charles Hunter and Charlie Mitchell were fined $8 each fo..

Comfort Stations

18 - February - 2010by Nancy Christofferson
HUERFANO- The completion of the Denver and Rio Grande’s narrow gauge railroad through Huerfano County and across La Veta Pass was a magnet to all types of travelers. Serial tourists wanted to cross the highest mountain pass on the continent, which La Veta Pass was at the time, and anyone wanting to get to Creede and the San Juan Mountains quickly had to take this route. Previously, the only commercial carrier was the stagecoach, and it was both slow and uncomfortable.
    Politicians relied heavily on the railroad. Most campaigning office-wannabees had to get to the western slope, and they traveled through Walsenburg and La Veta to do so.
    Before the days of the on-train bathrooms and dining cars, trains had to stop for “comfort stations” and meals. La Veta, with its two hotels and long mountain stretch beyond or before (depending on which way you were traveling), was a natural stopping point. The Todd or Depot Hotel, located on railroad property next to the depot, and the La Veta/Spanish Peaks/Alamo Hotel were the two choices. They probably bid for the contract to provide the travelers with food, and earned the sobriquet of “official D&RG eating house.” Thus, any “celebrity” traveling the route had to get off the train and appear in a public restaurant where the local eagle-eyed editor could see him...
    ...Or her. An early traveler along the La Veta Pass route was Helen Hunt Jackson, a well-known author of the time. Along with spending the night in the Sporleder Hotel in Walsenburg, Jackson wrote of her adventures crossing into the San Luis Valley in the 1870s.
    In a single week in August 1881, the alert editor of the Huerfano Herald espied both General John Pope en route to Fort Garland, and Governor Pitkin and his staff dining at the Todd Hotel.
    Then, of course, was Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln, the only surviving son of Honest Abe. Lincoln and his father-in-law, Senator James Harlan of Iowa, owned a “gold” mine on the West Spanish Peak. Actually, they first bought an interest in the Whale mine, and then Senator Harlan declined re-election to devote his time to gold mining. He bought a house in La Veta and spent quite a bit of time here while he extended his holdings to include numerous glory holes in West Gulch, aka Hayes Gulch. The good senator went bust, as the ore was plentiful but of poor quality, so formed his own corporation and sold $10,000 worth of shares. Thus he recouped his losses and retired from his gold mining ventures, and La Veta history. Lincoln himself spent part of several summers here but seems to have divested his interests in the mines early on. The last contact La Vetans had with him was when one early resident sent a burro to Lincoln’s daughter. Unsolicited.
    While these “celebrities” were riding the rails, a railroad employee was raising a son who would become Huerfano’s most celebrated athlete.
    Robert T. McGraw was a conductor on what was known as the Denver and Rio Grande water train. This train ran for many years between old Cucharas, through Walsenburg to La Veta, and back again. The train transported water from La Veta to Cucharas, as well as passengers, and running twice a day allowed La Veta residents to go to the county seat in the morning, transact business and return home later the same day.
    McGraw and his wife Nellie welcomed a son, Bob, on April 10, 1895. They went on to have three more children, including a 14-pound son born in 1898 and named Sampson, but Bob showed early promise.
    R.T. spent 25 years of his life on the Cucharas-La Veta run, but in 1903 moved to Alamosa with his family. But La Veta remembers her sons.
    Bob Jr. at 17 was showing his skill at pitching while still in high school. With his mother as his business manager, Bob declined to turn pro at age 18, and went to Colorado College where he continued pitching. Then he transferred to the University of Colorado and was elected captain of the baseball team. In 1916, while still at the university, he signed with the semi-pro team of Rocky Ford, in the Arkansas Valley League. From here he evidently went to Georgetown University and was “discovered.”
    In 1917 Bob was picked up by the pros, and that year, playing for the Yankees, he almost threw a shut-out but was foiled by Ty Cobb, then playing for Detroit, who hit a home run. From the Yankees he moved to the Boston Red Sox, back to the Yankees and then sat out five years. In 1925 he was paid $25,000 to join the Brooklyn Robins and in 1927 he went with the St. Louis Cardinals. He ended his career in 1929 with the Philadelphia Phillies, at age 34. Bob died in June 1978 in Idaho, but was buried in Pueblo with his parents.
    While Bob pitched 168 games in his career, his claim to fame was being traded by the Red Sox back to the Yankees with another pitcher and $75,000– for Babe Ruth.

La Veta history for January 28, 2010

04 - February - 2010La Veta
1881: Wages in the new Ojo [copper] mining district have been set at $4 per day for surface work with pick and shovel; for hard rock such as requires powder and drills, $7 per day.
1896: It would be a good idea if the school board would provide a l..

Walsenburg history for January 28, 2010

04 - February - 2010Walsenburg
1890: Nelly Bly arrived safely in New York Saturday, having circumnavigated the globe in the remarkable time of 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.
1900: It is reported the stingiest man in Huerfano County resides in La Veta. He bought his bride a..

Strictly for medicinal purposes...

04 - February - 2010By Nancy Christofferson
HUERFANO- A little better than 90 years ago, after several decades of nationwide debate, the United States Congress ratified Amendment XVIII calling for the prohibition of liquor. Like the current status of the sale of medicinal marijuana, the use and sale of the substance was highly controversial.
    The amendment was ratified Jan. 16, 1920. Serious consideration of prohibition had been discussed for years, but the measure came to the fore in Congress the previous December.
    By the time the country (except, for some reason, Rhode Island and Connecticut, which never passed the prohibition law), approved the amendment, Walsenburg and La Veta had already gone dry. La Veta passed the no liquor ordinance in 1893, but returned to “wet” in the late 1890s to keep the railroaders and traveling public happy. In May 1914 she again went dry. Walsenburg voters went to the polls in November 1912 to approve prohibition.
    La Veta didn’t have much to lose by going dry. A very active chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union held sway (at one meeting, 50 people were in attendance), and the only financial benefit to the town from the sale of liquor was the collection of saloon and liquor license fees. Early in her history, La Veta citizens formed an Anti-Saloon League and ran candidates in most of the town elections.
    Walsenburg, with its dozens of saloons, pool halls and hotels catering to myriad coal miners, travelers, businessmen, was a different matter entirely. The Anti-Saloon League here was formed in February 1910 and by March had caused the arrest of 24 saloonkeepers, mostly for allowing gambling, but it was a start. The town fathers had to figure out how to make up 35 mills for the budget, which “hitherto [was] raised from saloon licenses”.
    The State of Colorado went dry in 1917, effective June 1. The law required each person to buy a monthly permit for one quart of whiskey to be used for medical, sacramental or scientific purposes only.
    After Walsenburg went dry, “soft drink emporiums” sprang up, with 18 on Seventh Street alone in 1915. Needless to say, many of those soft drinks were harder than the law allowed, and busts were frequent.
    In September 1917 alone, three busts were worth mentioning in the newspapers. A transient peddler was picked up near La Veta for having 15 quarts of whiskey in his spring wagon and a Walsenburg woman was arrested for carrying 20 gallons of the stuff in her Overland car. Then the sheriff confiscated some $1,000 worth of whiskey in a raid near Pryor/Rouse.
    The sheriff may not have minded confiscating things. One news article stated he’d taken a car carrying liquor that was sold for $325. The money went into the school fund.
    Not only the sheriff was kept busy, but federal agents seemed to like Huerfano County for its easy pickings. Never a raid went by when they did not arrest a dozen or so men and women, one time in Cameron for a citizen harboring 63 bottles of beer. Another raid netted 1,064 pints of “ice cold liquid for post-Lenten celebrations” on Seventh Street. A private home on Seventh was found to contain a whopping 400 gallons in 1924 and in a 1926 raid, some 575 gallons of moonshine was seized from a distillery north of Walsenburg.
    The record seizure had to be the time in 1927 when federal agents and local deputies found two stills, 1,000 gallons of mash and 40 gallons of whiskey in an abandoned sheep camp somewhere in the vicinity of the Huerfano Butte.
    Naturally, all these raids kept the old county jail busy, with standing room only, but it was scarcely escape proof and many prisoners went on to distill another day.
    One big day was Oct. 25, 1923, when Judge Patterson sentenced 18 for bootlegging and gambling, while outside the courthouse the town chief of police nabbed two men in a Cadillac coupe with 120 gallons of “booze”.
    In fact, prohibition had become so popular in Walsenburg, or at least among the temperate, that the W.C.T.U. had its district convention in the city in April 1923.
    The hardest hit of prohibition in this county were the southern European miners. These men were accustomed to drinking wine with meals, and each fall stocked up on grapes to make their own brew. Of course, many of them were arrested for operating stills, some of which made themselves known only by exploding.
    While city, county and federal officers were chasing all over enforcing the law, one incident had the tables turned. In 1922, two carloads of disgruntled drinkers chased the sheriff 100 miles at high speed as he transferred $5,000 worth of liquor to the federal prohibition office in Denver.
    As we know, prohibition caused as many problems as it solved, and cost millions of dollars to enforce. State by state, elections were held to end prohibition, and Congress approved Amendment XXI Dec. 5, 1933, repealing XVIII.
    There is no moral to this story!

Draining Martin Lake impacts wildlife minimally

14 - January - 2010by Carol Dunn
LATHROP- The partial draining of Martin Lake at Lathrop State Park was completed by mid-December. What’s left behind is about half as much water to supply the same wildlife, particularly fish. According to area Division of Wildlife Officer Lance Gatlin, Martin Lake is home to a good variety of fish, including bluegill, crappie, pike, bass, catfish, trout and wipers (a hybrid). Gatlin told the Journal that the DOW was involved from the inception of the plan to draw down the lake. “When the City of Walsenburg was first planning to repair the dam, they alerted us to it,” he said. “We put in a coffer dam to maintain a minimum pool of water in the reservoir to salvage the fish, so they’re not lost.” Gatlin described the coffer dam as a man-made impoundment in the reservoir that holds between 10-15 feet of water, the minimum depth to protect the fish from oxygen deprivation and excessively chilled water over winter. “If we hadn’t been involved from the very beginning,” he added, “the fishery would have been lost.”
    Lathrop’s John Brandstatter told the Journal the area is frequented by mule deer, black bear, piper water fowl and bald eagles.   But it’s the fish that are the most valuable resource to this area. “The fishing brings in thousands of tourist dollars,” he said.
    A bid has been accepted, the contractor is ready, and the project is basically on hold pending approval of the repair plans by the Colorado Division of Water Resources, Dam Safety branch. According to Brandstatter, the approval has been pending for months. All local parties involved would like to have the project completed by April 1 (the beginning of irrigation season), so water can begin flowing back into the lake for storage. Besides the lagging approval time by Dam Safety, Brandstatter said everyone involved in the process has been “great to work with so far.”   He added, “The City has really stepped up to the plate and been proactive,” and everything has gone well so far. Once the repairs are done, Dam Safety will need to approve the work before the water can flow back into the lake.
    “We managed the least amount of impact on the fish in the lake,” Gatlin said. And that’s good news to everyone.


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