Walsenburg
1893: Art Arnold came down from their ranch on the Santa Clara on his bicycle – 20 miles in two hours and 10 minutes. Pretty good considering the condition of the roads.
1901: The Electric light and power company have [sic] a force of men stringing the Catholic church for the installation of 56 lights.
1907: Scarlet fever this week claimed the lives of Earl, 12, son of Professor A.J. Miller of Walsen and Susie, 3, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Marcinko of Toltec.
1912: Dainty, daring, death-defying Señorita Eulalie Montgomery smilingly looks death in the face in her grand aerial exhibition at the Darktown Minstrels Monday night at Mazzone Hall.
1920: Our street commissioner must be out of dirt – he put some gravel in the mud hole at Seventh and Main streets.
1927: The Cooks and Waitresses Union will have a dance Saturday, Feb. 5, in the new Maccabee Hall with music by the Lucky Four. It will be open to the public.
1932: Five Huerfano County High School students, Melbourne Spector, Margaret Carrari, Barbara Santi, Nellie Joyce Coleman and Anne Duzenack, received free tickets to the Fox-Valencia for having the highest grades during the second six-week grading period.
1938: There are more than 1,200 persons in Huerfano County actively seeking work. Of a county population of 17,062, 1,026 are employed by the Works Progress Administration, 465 are partially employed and 750 are completely unemployed.
1943: Both Colorado Fuel and Iron Company mines in Huerfano County began this week to operate on a 35-hour, six-day week according to the terms of an agreement between the corporation and the United Mine Workers of America, and overtime must be paid for more than the 35 hours.
1951: The grand opening of the combined Ben Franklin and Federated Stores (formerly Krier’s) has been set for Wednesday, Jan. 31 beginning at 9 a.m.
1958: Three HCHS band members, Loretta Bocim, bass clarinet, Bobbie Lee Weston, English horn, and Janie Tilden, first clarinet, have been chosen for the All-State Band to play March 28-29 in Greeley.
1964: The new $31,000 edifice of the First Southern Baptist Church in the 800 block of Pennsylvania Avenue is nearing completion. It has a basement with classrooms, a kitchen, restrooms and furnace room, and is clad with a red brick veneer.
1971: Washington School Menu for Thursday: Tamales, hash brown potatoes, buttered mixed vegetables, whole wheat rolls, prunes and milk.
1977: “Huerfano County is a haven for drug trafficking . . . because so many areas are isolated and remote” according to an agent for the Colorado Organized Crime Strike Force.
1984: The home of Gardner Fire Chief Stuart Hutter was damaged by a fire which destroyed his pump house and a home addition.
La Veta
1894: The milling company is filling a contract with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad to furnish it with 1,700 tons of ice.
1903: Charles Tracy received a chipped skull when Charley Kitchen hit him with ice tongs while arguing over a chunk of ice each man wanted to haul.
1910: A crew of 85 Japanese, under the direction of Roadmaster Shane, are tearing up the old rails between La Veta and Alamosa and putting down the new 85-pound rails.
1918: Government wartime restrictions on food stores have necessitated the cutting out of some help and consequently Dick Roop and Grady Crawford are out of their jobs.
1923: Turk Moore, who has been blind since receiving an injury in the Civil War, will celebrate his 80th birthday Jan. 31.
1931: Our resident W.B. Hamilton, 85, first came to La Veta in 1868 and ranched here until 1880 when he and his wife moved to Pueblo. He served as mayor of that city from 1892-1894. He is the only surviving charter member of the Huerfano Masonic Lodge in Walsenburg, which he helped to organize with Robert Quillian and Charles Unfug.
1937: The Milton Utt, L.H. Linscott and Harold Smith families are all quarantined with scarlet fever and the worst flu epidemic in many years is rampant in town.
1944: An epidemic of measles is affecting school attendance.
1950: Tuesday’s windstorm blew trees onto the tops of houses, blew down light and telephone wires which interrupted service for many hours and took down the bell and belfry at the La Veta school house.
1957: A terrible windstorm Sunday night knocked down signs, trees and outbuildings, broke a plate glass window in the Branding Iron Café and left the snow on the ground brown with dust.
1965: David Chavez, son of Mr. and Mrs. J.N. Chavez of La Veta and a graduate of the high school here, won a $2,100 Chevy Corvair in a bowling tournament in San Francisco, California.
1973: The LVHS Redskins whipped Aguilar 82-43 Saturday night, with high scoring honors going to Steve Aguirre with 31 points.
1979: The Re-2 Board of Education will send out 350 questionnaires to get residents’ reactions about the improvement of the high school building.
1986: Town Board is looking at $200,000 in improvements to the water treatment plant south of town.
1993: Jim Hegarty, formerly of Colorado Springs, is the new La Veta postmaster.
