Walsenburg
1882: A number of our citizens were at the Old John Robinson tent show when a rope let three trapezists fall to the ground, killing one.
1888: Walsenberg is a small place made up of miners mostly and some very rough men. Bob Ford the man that shot Jessie James lives there and a number of other of the same stamp. Most every one here wares a large belt with a very large revolver hanging to it. [sic]
1893: A colored base ball nine has been organized and will face the other camp team Sunday.
1899: The electric light plant at Pictou is being pushed toward completion. The machinery is currently housed in a tent until the building arrives from Rouse.
1905: Charles Martin and F.I. Barron have placed bath tubs and stationery stands in their respective barber shops and are doing a flourishing business.
1911: Last Wednesday the businessmen and good citizens of Trinidad went out and removed the rocks and leveled the bumps on the road to the Stonewall country.
1917: Frederick John Walsen was born June 9 to Mr. and Mrs. Fred G. Walsen of Denver. Mrs. Walsen is the daughter of John B. Johnson, until a few months ago a prosperous merchant in Walsenburg.
1923: Standings in the Colorado Fuel and Iron’s Huerfano county baseball league are Ideal, first, Rouse/ Lester, second, Cameron, third, Walsen, fourth and Kebler, fifth.
1929: Walsenburg will enjoy its first talkie next month when one comes to the Star Theater.
1935: A preliminary report of the land ownership study conducted recently in Huerfano County shows that 37.1 percent of the land is owned by government agencies, 7.4 percent by corporate groups, 45.6 percent by residents and 9.9 percent by non-residents.
1941: The Walsenburg Merchants defeated the Colorado Springs Aircraft team 12-9 Sunday in La Veta.
1947: Colorado old age pensioners will be receiving $69 per month – the highest amount in the United States.
1953: Miss Martha King, Huerfano County High School Spanish teacher and sponsor of the 13-year-old El Fandango, received a fan letter for the dancers after the writer saw the article in the Denver Post’s Empire magazine.
1959: We see in our exchanges an article about Ernest Contrearas, commander of Denver V.F.W. Post, that he almost died in a North Korean prison after being wounded five times. We are reminded he was born in Ravenwood and was a newsboy for the Walsenburg World-Independent before moving to Denver in 1941.
1964: The Rev. Gerald D. Repola was ordained a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo in ceremonies in St. Mary Church in Walsenburg Saturday, June 13.
1970: An unidentified teenage girl was charged with delinquency for refusing to relinquish the telephone party line to Mrs. Fred Pino who was trying to summon help after her three sons drowned just north of Walsenburg.
1976: The Acting Director of the Huerfano/Las Animas Health Department closed the Marlboro Inn restaurant Wednesday because Joe Faris has been burning trash in an open pit about a quarter of a mile from the restaurant.
1982: Lavelle’s, the Brandin’ Iron and the huerfano world will sponsor an informal fashion show and champagne brunch June 19 in Rio Cucharas Country Club.
La Veta
1883: Mrs. Hamilton, the mother of J.G. Hamilton and Mrs. Andrew Francisco, arrived from Kansas City with her daughters the Misses Ella and Fanny to spend the summer.
1889: The Denver and Rio Grande wildflower excursion train from Trinidad to Veta Pass last Sunday went through carrying about 300 people.
1895: On June 11 there will be a social in the Bissell building on Main Street for the benefit of the Presbyterian Church.
1901: The Memorial Day ceremonies postponed by inclement weather will be held Sunday. Meet at two o’clock at Masonic Hall and proceed to the cemetery en masse.
1907: The post office stationery shop has those souvenir envelopes with photos of the flour mill, bank, school house and balanced rock.
1913: Mr. and Mrs. William Fey are again suffering from the wanderlust and will join their sons Charles and Sidney in Canada, while their daughter Mrs. Langford will join her husband who is currently in New Mexico.
1919: The Chautauqua here June 17 through 21 will feature the Cremona Orchestra, Dr. H.B. Hardin, pastor from Chicago speaking on “The Spirit of America”, the Olde New England Choir, ex-Congressman the Honorable Finley H. Gray and Miss Elinor D. Gregg, a former Red Cross nurse in the World War.
1925: While Mr. and Mrs. Joe Williams are attending the Shriners convention in Los Angeles, Miss Mabel Votaw will fill in as substitute teacher for Mrs. Williams.
1931: The baseball grounds has fence completed around two sides but with the theft of the lumber stacked for future use, it may be a while before the job is done.
1937: Art Foote and His 6 Air Castle Dukes played for the commencement dance the evening of June 4.
1943: Ellis Smith was granted a six week leave from the U.S. Army to assist with farm work at the home place.
1949: The new dining room at Cuchara Camps, the Chuck Wagon, is open with Mrs. Black of Liberal, Kansas, cooking. The room is finished in knotty pine, has a rustic, huge fireplace and large picture windows.
1955: Gross annual sales of $11 million in six major products – acid oil, creosote oil, pitch, fuel gas, sulphur and light oil – are expected by Cotarco after completion of its plant on Walsenburg’s land east of La Veta.
1961: The 15th annual mammoth Fourth of July fireworks display in La Veta was announced by the American Legion.
1967: Died, Mabel Pickens, a native of England born in 1879. She came to La Veta with her parents the John Hectors in 1884. The widow of Andrew, she leaves son George, William and Andy, daughters Mabel Pascoe, Annie McPhail, Minnie Epperson, Elsie Ashbrook and Marguerite Dalton, and sisters Mrs. F.B. Powell and Edith Hector.
1973: This year’s 4-H Fair will be August 10-12 and it is hoped the new building will be done in time.
1979: Mrs. Katherine Fulton Williams, 83, died in California. She and her husband Joe lived on the Wahatoya where the Good Spot Ranch is now. Later she ran a boardinghouse for teachers in Walsenburg. She leaves a son, Bill, and daughter Betty Story.
