Walsenburg
1896: The Pictou mine is working only one or two days a week, the Sunshine is producing an average of four or five [railroad] cars a week and the Walsen sends out 20 or 30 cars per day.
1901: Merchants along Main Street built dams to protect their stores from the flood down the street but a foot of water ran through the Earl Hotel and two feet ended up in the John Artis Confectionery Shop on Seventh Street.
1908: Colonel Goodman came down from Denver to inspect the new armory build for the 2nd Platoon of Battery A.
1915: Sheriff Ed Farr captured one of the murderers of William Dick, one of our leading businessmen who was shot to death last February.
1922: The Walsenburg Broncs slaughtered the Mayne baseball nine 33-14. The main attraction was Ariano’s home run with the bases loaded.
1929: C. Paul Bingle, the Singing Evangelist, told his Walsenburg audience that all governments must be destroyed in order to achieve world peace.
1937: John Figal of Walsenburg has observed Finsler’s Comet and says it will be visible to the naked eye for the next two nights.
1944: Miss Helen Tice of Butte Valley has enlisted in the WAVES – her brother S-Sgt. John Tice was killed in 1942 while on active duty, and her brother Pfc. Steve is serving in Europe.
1950: Mrs. Pearl Steele, now termed Walsenburg’s own Grandma Moses, has two pictures on display in the windows of E.W. Krier’s jewelry store. Mrs. Steele is 84 years old and painted the pictures two months ago. They are her first pastels.
1957: The Gardner school teaching staff has been cut from four to three and there will be but one teacher in the other eight rural schools opening this fall – Chama, Farisita, Gordon, Malachite, Maes-Birmingham, Rouse, Pass Creek and Redwing.
1964: Louis Nardin, principal of Huerfano District Re-1 elementary schools, submitted his resignation after five years and is moving to Pueblo District No. 60.
1970: Groundbreaking was Saturday for the new Hanover Modular Home Factory, which will employ 120 persons, in east Walsenburg.
1976: Payne and Son Manufacturing and Marketing at 10th and Main in the former Motor Hub building is seeking 20 fulltime employees to make camper shells for pickup trucks.
1982: Recent heavy rains have washed out both city water lines through Sand Arroyo and into City Lake.
1988: Political newcomers Bill Reiners and Neal Cocco defeated incumbents Tony Pando and Frank Piazza for the Democratic nomination for county commissioner District No. 1 and 2.
1994: A music cavalcade in Colorado Springs brought together three former Walsenburg High School band directors, Frank Montero, who directed the band in 1961-72, Ralph W. Levy, 1950-57 and Larry Curtis, 1959-60.
La Veta
1883: Town board has learned the valuation of personal property and real estate in La Veta totals $58,872.
1891: Town board determined to build a four and a half foot tall picket fence on the north and west sides of the cemetery, and to place a gate for foot traffic next to the carriage entrance.
1902: The thirsty earth was blessed with a plentiful rain on Thursday afternoon. It came like a cloud burst amid lightning, thunder, wind and hail, so that in a few minutes the dusty streets ran like turbulent rivers.
1909: We draw the attention of the town authorities to the habit of many tying their horses to trees, when the new sidewalks have hitching rings for this very purpose.
1916: Allen Roush of the La Veta Automotive Company sold four Fords on Wednesday alone, the purchasers being Glen Barnard, Fred Vasquez, Charles Prator, all of La Veta, and William Campbell of Oakview.
1923: By actual count, 164 cars passed through La Veta between four and five o’clock on Tuesday afternoon.
1931: Mrs. Ray Thomas was considerably frightened Saturday when her big front window was shot out.
1938: Nelson Webster has installed a remote control refrigeration plant in his basement to cool the house.
1943: Five of the Smalley family is serving with the armed forces, Helen with the WAVES, Sgt. Joseph P. with the army signal corps, Pfc. Peter in the engineers corps, Pvt. John Jr. in finance school and Pvt. George at the headquarters corps at Camp Carson.
1950: Winning $2.00 apiece in the mad scramble at the 4-H Fair were Billy Riggins, Andy Jamieson, Russell Kreutzer, Melvin Hurley, Fred Falk and Chuck Dodge.
1956: Driving the new cars is so effortless it leaves the mind free to figure out how to meet the payments.
1962: Two new members of the faculty will assume coaching positions. They are Richard Thomas who will take basketball and track, and Ronald Wilson who will have football and baseball.
1969: Eugene Sawyer moved his family into the former B.M. Stigall home on East Francisco now that Gene Stigall is living in the new house he built on East Virginia.
1976: Spanish Peaks Real Estate has river lots for $10,600 in Spanish Peaks addition and meadow lots for $3,800.
1983: The Fort, a one, two and three bedroom apartment building being built by Otsego Homes, Inc., will be a condominium complex instead.
1990: Mayor Jo Cross asked Town Board to simplify matters brought before the board which resulted in the elimination of three committees.
