Walsenburg
1881: Five trains of U.S. soldiers passed through town on their way to the Ute reservation in western Colorado where they will remove all the Indians to new lands in Utah.
1889: The Decoration Day procession will meet at Odd fellows Hall on West Sixth Street, march to Main and then north to the cemetery following the cornet band.
1894: Members of the Grand Army of the Republic will meet Saturday in the court house to finish plans for a proper observance of the service of deceased veterans on May 30.
1900: We are pleased to mention among the new enterprises of the town the opening of a bakery shop by August Hutter on East Sixth. He also contemplates putting in a line of confectionery and starting a lunch counter and short order house.
1906: The Walsenburg Men’s Association had a smoker last night with red and other shades of lemonade, rag chewing matches, boxing contests and trick bicycle riding. The $33.60 netted will be used toward the purchase of a fountain for Main Street Park.
1912: A crowd of young people picnicked at the Sulphur Springs north of town Sunday.
1918: The closing exercises of St. Mary School will be May 27 with Lillian McNally, the only graduate, delivering the valedictory address.
1924: The railroad freight rates and increased use of oil are making it harder sledding for the coal industry.
1930: Thirty-one students are to graduate from St. Mary High School with Julia Abe valedictorian and Helen Turner, salutatorian.
1936: The Andreatta brothers are operating their own meat market in connection with their grocery store at 234 West Seventh Street. For deliveries, phone 248.
1942: Fishing has been poor since the season opened Monday morning as most streams are at flood stage.
1947: Sterling “Pete” Peterson invites his friends to visit his new Mountain View Standard service station at the north end of Walsenburg.
1953: Pfc. Thomas E. Garcia is home on a 21-day furlough from the Marine Corps after a 12 month tour of duty in Korea.
1959: The local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution awarded their annual Good Citizenship award for Walsenburg to Waynette Van Schoyck of Huerfano County High School.
1965: The new Colorado fee for state parks and recreation areas will take effect Tuesday at Lathrop. The fee for a one year permit will cost $5.00 and for a five day pass it will be $2.00.
1971: This weekend at the Trail Theater, Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn star in “There’s a Girl in My Soup” plus Gregory Peck and Tuesday Weld star in “I Walk the Line”.
1977: About 60 persons attended a tea and reception honoring Mrs. Georgia Hart, 85, who has just published a book about homesteading in the arid grasslands east of Walsenburg from 1916 to 1925, called “Free Land for Sale”.
1983: Star Drug, 628 Main, is celebrating its 40th anniversary of Kelley family ownership. When they bought the store, the entrance was in the center of the front and a lunch counter was on the right, but was remodeled into a soda fountain with nine stools and six booths in 1947.
1989: The Scenic Highway of Legends group will serve a barbecue dinner in Heritage Park Saturday June 3 during the Spanish Peaks Fiesta.
La Veta
1877: Thus far this year, the town council has issued eight saloon licenses and two wholesale liquor licenses, at $15 each for three months duration.
1882: Colonel Francisco is having his grove cleaned of brush and debris in preparation for the Fourth of July celebration to be held there.
1893: Mrs. S.J. Johnson and Mrs. W.S. Bellard opened a cosy [sic] room on Francisco Street for dressmaking. They also sell ice cream.
1899: Three more men died this week of smallpox, Mr. McLaughlin, N.J. Philips of the Denver Saloon, and Ed Rodusky, teacher at the Sager district school. Grandma Harris also died, not of smallpox but the disease may have hastened her end.
1905: The stately old cottonwoods around the Drum property at Francisco and Oak streets were slaughtered for cribbing along the river where high water was causing so much damage.
1911: Hiram Vasquez has purchased the Frank Hamilton residence on Oak Street for $2,500 and will move his family into it for a permanent home.
1917: M.A. Pheney died of a bullet wound in Durango. He was the assistant superintendent of the Denver and Rio Grande‘s 4th Division. His wife was one of the Edmisten girls raised in La Veta.
1923: O.D. Howlett’s blacksmith shop at his home just south of town burned down yesterday. He was using the building as a smokehouse and lost about $50 worth of tools and $50 worth of meat.
1928: Fishing season is in full swing but the creeks are at present too high and muddy for any good catch.
1932: The district convention of the Womens Christian Temperance Union was held Thursday in the Presbyterian Church, opened with an address by Dr. Paul Lee of the La Veta Hospital about health protection.
1938: Congressman John A. Martin advised Mayor W.B. Hall that the Works Progress Administration approved $41,141 for construction of a new reservoir and improvement of the La Veta water system.
1944: The fire that destroyed the La Veta Hotel started in the old theater next door that burned down on Christmas Day 1941. It is a $15,000 loss and since the building was 65 years old, there was little insurance.
1950: The Piner ranch on the Wahatoya was the scene of Miss Minnie Mathews 24 third graders’ picnic Monday and Miss Emma Vories and her 22 fourth graders on Wednesday.
1956: “It’s not the work I enjoy,” said the cab driver, “but the people I run into.”
1961: Mr. and Mrs. Harold Craig celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, having married in La Veta in 1911. She was the daughter of Frank Kerr and was raised in La Veta. He was Huerfano County water commissioner from 1926 to 1958.
1967: Henry Rohr will be valedictorian this year and DeEtta Brgoch, salutatorian. Other graduates are Patricia Cruz, Joseph Geiser, Helen Herrera, Nick Hoagland, Beverly Kirkpatrick, Denis Pene, Lorraine Prator, Carmel Roybal, Carol Sager and Jim Willie.
