Walsenburg 1889: The Unfug brothers have put a new roof on their store at the Colorado Coal and Iron Company mine west of town, where Supt. D.E. Muir is calling for 200 more miners immediately. 1895: Albino Sanchez has added a billiard table and temperance drinks to his barber shop next door to Valdez and Company. 1901: Klein’s Elite is planning to branch out into a bakery with Will Klein, baker, who has been running a boardinghouse at the Sierra Blanca mining camp at the head of the Huerfano. 1907: William Fossett, about 47 years old and a resident of Walsenburg the past 15 years, has been adjudged insane for hallucinating that he and six others had been chosen to save the world. 1914: Teachers for the eight grades in the coming term at Hill School are the Misses Ball, Scott, Barnes, F. Palmerton, Unfug, E. Palmerton, Rose and Flack. 1920: The Harrison Stock Company with 30 people will appear at the Sunday matinee in the Star Theater, 75 cents and 55 cents admission, war tax included. 1926: The increase in the coal mining business and the current building boom point toward prosperity for Walsenburg. 1932: Ten merchants will give $50 free (in gold) every week at the Valencia Theater. Coupons are available at the Agnes Brothers, Midget Grocery, City Pharmacy, Walsenburg Creamery, Walsenburg Electric, Dissler Furniture, Table Queen Bakery, Kriers Store, Walsenburg Garage and Bailey’s Laundry. 1938: C.G. Morris, 80 year old recluse living for the ninth year in a tiny cabin about eight miles west of Walsenburg, has five pet rattlesnakes living with him, feeding them mice and rats. 1944: Jimmie Judiscak, first, and Richard Ruffini, second, were winners in the peanut race at the Knights of Columbus annual picnic
Sunday at Muleshoe Lodge on La Veta Pass. 1950: An estimated 2,000 people attended the Democratic picnic on top of La Veta Pass Sunday. 1956: Prizes given for the beard growing contest for the Spanish Peaks Fiesta included John Weston, first, and Joe D. Cisneros, second, for the bushiest growths. 1962: Among the winners at the annual 4-H Fair last week were Carol Galassini, Foods, Kristy Lee Jeter, Home Furnishings, and Lewis Edmundson, Horse. 1968: Sixty members of the Micek family, along with 21 guests, attended a family reunion in the La Veta Park recently. 1974: Projected costs of rebuilding the Walsenburg High School gym building are prohibitive, according to District Re-1 Board of Education and Superintendent Lowell Elisha. The insurance company paid only $187,184.83. 1980: Madrid II, with members Ed Duran, Jim Chavez, Virginia Baysinger, Rick Duran, Ray Armijo and Ray Gutierrez, will perform in the Colorado State Fair parade. 1986: Huerfano County Ambulance received a new $26,000 vehicle last week and donated the old one to the Gardner volunteers. 1992: Beth Schafer-Kreutzer will be volleyball coach at John Mall High School and Don Montoya at Middle School.
La Veta 1895: The Coleman brothers, who are extra good workmen, are doing a splendid piece of work on the new Goemmer warehouse building on Oak Street. 1901: The Band Boys have already raised $250 toward their new hall and will erect it on two lots on Field Street west of Alex Lindsay’s residence. It will be 80 by 32 feet, with a good stage at one end. 1907: It would be a good idea to move the hitching rails along Main Street to the alleys or some other out of the way place as the odor is very obnoxious during this warm weather. 1913: La Veta Light, Heat and Power has obtained a lease on the La Veta roller mill for a period of three years and will furnish the town with power as well as manufacture flour, chop and grain. The Webster family, owners of LVLH&P, are moving into the mill house. 1919: Shortly before noon Monday word was received of a terrible disaster in the Oakdale mine, seven miles west of this place, when a gas explosion occurred while 150 men were in the mine. Most escaped through various passages but 18 are still missing and feared dead. 1925: J.B. Gomez was killed in the Oakdale mine when he was caught between a mine car and some timbers. He leaves a wife and two children. 1931: As many as 20 children and grandchildren were guests of Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Coe at one period this summer and their current guest is Mrs. Coe’s mother from Stonewall, Mrs. Marion Russell. 1937: A large crew of men from the Works Progress Administration is re-grading, graveling and straightening Highway 111 between here and Cuchara Camps. 1943: Lt. Margaret H. Coe assumed duties as a mess and supply officer at the Pueblo army air base. 1949: Dorothy Riggins was the 4-H clothing champion and Dorothy Beamer won first in the dairy cow competition at the 4-H Fair. 1956: Ken Leatherwood has been named the new district supervisor for San Isabel Electric Association and he will live in La Veta where he is building a new house in the south part of town. 1963: Roger Roybal is now stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. 1969: Professor J. Wilkinson, who will teach math this year at La Veta High School, moved into the Hildebrand residence recently vacated by the Eugene Sawyer family. 1975: Twenty-four young people of Huerfano and Las Animas counties took part in the seven week Youth Conservation Corps program at the Sulphur Springs. 1981: Leslie Mott’s father, Herbert L. Hicks of Corpus Christi, Texas, was a surprise Saturday when he appeared on horseback in the parade as Colonel John M. Francisco during the second annual Francisco Fort Day. 1987: La Veta youth to compete in the Little Britches National Rodeo in Colorado Springs this week are Amy Meketi, Heath Andreatta and cousins Troy Kreutzer and Wade Kreutzer. 1993: Arrangements continue to be discussed between Frontier Fuels and the Town of La Veta to bring a natural gas system into the town.
