Walsenburg
1891: The Rouse mine has had an average daily loading of 1,700 tons so far this winter, though currently the mine is not running full time but only four and a half or five days a week with the result of decreased production. 1896: The fire hose company is in need of a place to meet as their old hall on West Sixth Street fell down. 1901: Madam Rumor says the Gardner post office will soon change hands and be moved. 1906: Miss Emma Sharp of Malachite who is taking a course with the Armstrong Turner Millinery Company of Denver will take a position with Miss Pearce in Walsenburg this summer. 1911: The stockholders of the First National Bank elected F.O. Roof, James B. Dick, William Dick, J.J. Pritchard, J.B. Farr and J.K Kincaid directors. R.L. Snodgrass remains as cashier and M.E. Cowing, assistant cashier. 1917: For Sale: Horses, mules, wagons and harness. See J.W. Furphy, 208 South Main Street. 1922: Ralph Stanley, who came here eight years ago from Nebraska, has severed his connection as president of Guaranty State Bank and will move to Denver seeking relief for his rheumatism. 1928: State and city officers raided the headquarters of the I.W.W. here yesterday, removing records and weapons. 1933: Excitement again reigned at the pool hall on South Main owned by Pete Odak when a fight broke out and onlookers feared another killing would take place. 1938: Fire chief Archie Levy reported his crew answered 26 calls during 1937 which resulted in total property damage of $2,500. 1943: Although operatives of the World-Independent were stationed in strategic stations to see if the groundhog would see his shadow, the results cannot be printed because of the war department’s request that no weather information be published. 1949: John Kopera, 73, a native of Poland, member of the ZNP No. 776, and retired coal miner of 40 years, has died. He leaves his sons Rudy and Frank of Walsenburg. 1954: A reward of $100 for information leading to the conviction of the driver in the hit and run accident in which Chamber Secretary Ralph Faxon was injured has been offered by the Chamber of Commerce. 1960: Died, Angelo H. Baudino, 52, in Aguilar where he was born in 1907. He leaves his wife, sons Franklin, Gerald and Robert, daughter Angela, and mother Teresa Baudino, all of Aguilar. 1965: Some 400 people registered at the Benedictine Sisters Silver Tea and open house Sunday to raise funds for the repair and improvement of the convent building. 1971: Members of the Re-1 School Board are considering the erection of a metal building to handle the extra 50 or 60 additional students after St. Mary High School closes. 1976: Two juveniles will face serious charges after phoning in bomb threats to local schools. 1981: Walsenburg Classroom Teachers Association called a temporary truce on the month long unrest after salaries were frozen at 1980 levels due to the district’s problem with cash flow. 1986: The newly remodeled Silver Dollar Inn on West Seventh is having a grand opening today under the new management. 1992: Sedalia’s Barbershop will open February 4 at 725 South Main in the former Victorian Carpets building. Operators are Bill Duran, Dan Duran and Eva Leonard who will also operate Second Time Around which will offer used goods in connection.
La Veta
1877: Denver Daily Tribune: There has been the usual number of murders, suicides and knock-downs, common and so essential to complete the programs of a frontier town, though La Veta has had much less of this kind and other customary rough proceedings than some of the frontier towns of a year ago. 1883: A man by the name of Wilson, the new cook at the Railroad Section House, was fined $5.00 and costs Friday for being drunk and disorderly the night previous. 1890: Town Board voted to build a sidewalk on the McAuliffe Burnt Section on Ryus Avenue and a crossing on the alley on the east side of the property. 1897: Some very promising leads of copper have been located by John H. Francisco and Ed Collier on south Indian Creek west of town. 1902: With the ice measuring 13 inches thick, ice cutting commenced Thursday and with 2,000 tons contracted for, it will keep the teamsters busy for three weeks. Fifteen railroad cars are being loaded daily. 1907: W.O. Van Etten, superintendent of the Fruth and Autrey coal mine on Middle Creek, has contracted with Mack and Powell’s sawmill for 80,000 feet of timber to be used in the construction of tipples, houses and other buildings. 1912: Mrs. Ellis smith will again make her home on the ranch east of town and Mrs. Oscar Smith will move to Pueblo so the children may attend school. Oscar remains in La Veta where he has secured a position in George Edmondson’s mercantile establishment. 1918: Government wartime restrictions on food stores have necessitated the cutting out of some grocery store help and consequently Dick Roop and Grady Crawford are out of their jobs. 1923: Back in 1877, the local editor, along with James B. Orman of the Denver and Rio Grande and a correspondent from the Pueblo Chieftain, were given a ride up the new grade to the summit and christened the 33 percent curve at the bottom of the pass as “Mule Shoe Bend”. 1929: Members of the Baptist, M.E. and Presbyterian churches had a union social in the Methodist Church parlor with dinner and a musical program. 1934: La Veta joins the nation in celebrating the 52nd birthday of President Roosevelt with two dances as a part of the gigantic series of such events ever seen in Huerfano County. There will also be a dance in Gardner, four in Walsenburg, one in Cucharas east of Walsenburg and another at North Veta. 1940: Sheriff’s officers are searching for Fred Bishop, 26, who walked away from the Klikus mine, eight miles west of La Veta, taking with him $105 in cash belonging to the Klikus brothers. 1945: La Veta Light, Heat and Power Company, operating without a franchise for several years, applied to the Town of La Veta for a franchise that would pay the town about $242.30 per year. 1950: Mayor Paul Gilbert and members of the La Veta Chamber of Commerce went to Alamosa last week to protest the petition of the Denver and Rio Grande Western for running the current night passenger train through town during the day. 1956: National Honor Society last week elected Jerry Masinton, president, Frank Strovas, vice president and Georgina Duzenack, secretary and treasurer. New members for 1956 are Christie Van Cleve, Betty Willis, Val Strovas, Gladys Duzenack, Virginia Shrout and Kay Wagner. 1962: A semi-trailer truck carrying 21 tons of potatoes from the valley had an accident and burned on La Veta Pass last Sunday. 1967: Sergeant Odis Huesties was named “Instructor of the Month” at the department of aircraft maintenance training. 1972: The Redskins lost to the Branson Bearcats 96-82 but beat the Trinidad Catholic Tigers 72-69 last weekend. 1977: Cross-country skiers have been enjoying the snow at Panadero and on La Veta Pass.
