Walsenburg 1883: Titus Fouch of Gardner says the Pass Creek copper mines will boom soon with the new trial smelter in operation. 1889: Buy a packet of shooting crackers for the Fourth and help celebrate. 1896: John Cooper, J.P. Kearns and George Kearns have entered their fast horses in the trotting race to be run on the racing circle east of town on July 18. 1903: The Huerfano River went wild during the heavy rains last week and at some places was a half mile wide near the community of St. Mary’s. 1909: Gumicunda Sanchez of Walsenburg, daughter of our county commissioner A.J. Sanchez, married Antonio E. Montez, son of J.D. Montez of the upper Huerfano, in St. Mary Church. 1915: Floyd Babbitt was forced to take the train home from Kansas City because of the floods in Kansas. He started his trip on his motorcycle. 1922: Professor S. Caudillo will open a school in instrumental music in the new George Marck building on West Seventh Street on June 19. This will include lessons on the wind instruments. 1928: Unfug Chevrolet leads Walsenburg car dealers in sales for the year, having sold 109 since January 1. 1934: Pete Cernusco found a metal box containing gold coins while digging at Seventh and Albert streets for the new service station. 1940: Ed Stephens, rancher on Bear Creek, killed a 200 pound black bear on his front porch after it chased him into the house. 1946: A New Mexico Tire and Supply Company store will open this Saturday in the Klein building at 512 Main Street, selling Goodrich brand tires and batteries. 1951: Died, Adolf Joseph Dissler, charter member of the Walsenburg chapter of the Knights of Columbus. Born in Switzerland in 1882, he arrived in Pueblo with his parents at the age of six months. He came to
Walsenburg in 1916 and has been in the furniture business here ever since. 1957: The price of non-filter tip cigarettes has risen one cent per pack due to the rising costs of tobacco, labor and advertising. 1963: Walsenburg has been assigned a ZIP code number, 81089, to assist the post office workers and speed up delivery as much as 24 hours. 1969: As of July 1, it will be permissible in Colorado to make right turns at red traffic lights after a full stop. 1975: The Triple S Auto Shop at Main and Eighth streets received $2,500 worth of damages when a man from Morning Glory camp drove into the building while making a U-turn. 1982: The first test coal for the Colorado Coal Company was strip mined, crushed and hauled to the railroad in Walsenburg for shipment from northwest of the city this past week. 1989: The Gardner community will resurrect the Dia del Gallo Rodeo, last held in 1962, Saturday. Sacred Heart Church parish council will sponsor a pancake breakfast the same morning, there will be a parade at 11 a.m., bingo and carnival in the afternoon and the Firemen’s Ball in the evening.
La Veta 1881: If the Whale mine continues to grow better in the same ratio for another month La Veta will number 2,000 inhabitants before the snow flies . . . [it didn’t]. 1887: An eight mill levy has been agreed upon to raise $600 for town expenses to wit: public improvement, $300, streets and alleys, $150, fees and salaries, $100, incidental, $50. 1893: The Children’s Day exercises at the Presbyterian Church have been postponed until after the threat of scarlet fever has abated. 1899: The chief engineer superintending the standard gauge construction says the new grade to Alamosa will be complete by the first of September. 1905: Woodmen of the World and Women of Woodcraft had their annual Memorial parade and services Sunday and followed the band to the cemetery while it played “The Boys in Blue”. 1911: The La Veta Gun Club was organized, leased a portion of the Town Lake ranch for a shooting range and is building a small club house. 1917: A forest fire of considerable extent was burning in Oak Creek canon, up above the Carroll sawmill, and Forest Ranger Boyd and a force of men finally got it under control. 1923: Forest Ranger Gilbert says that six rings of the town fire bell indicates a forest fire. 1931: A new eight tube super heterodyne console with a remarkable human tone has just been introduced by the RCA Victor Company. 1937: Miss Thelma Lucille Arnold and Lloyd Dean Drury were married June 12 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Arnold. 1943: Word has been received of the birth of a daughter on May 26 to Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Drury of Richmond, California. 1949: The Chief Theater will be closed tonight while Manager Mitchell Kelloff gets married in Trinidad to Ann Konogris. 1956: Chef: Can you dress a chicken? Cook: Not on my pay. 1962: Ten freight cars of a 37-car train were derailed Saturday on the Denver and Rio Grande Western tracks one mile west of the La Veta depot. 1968: Eight members of La Veta Boy Scout Troop 250 walked down the Peak’s Trail Saturday, an eight or nine mile hike, and cooked their lunches at the half way mark. 1975: Vying for 4-H Rodeo Queen are Roberta and Diane Hasenack of La Veta, Tina Vanotti and Lori Corsentino of Walsenburg, Melissa Winslow of Rye and Barbara Knowlton of Fowler. 1981: Nancy Hirleman has completed a Historical Map of Huerfano County which sells for $5.00 at Francisco Fort Museum. 1987: Future Farmers of America named Clifford Duzenack of La Veta winner of this year’s State Home and Farmstead Improvement Proficiency Award at the state convention. 1993: Some musicians from Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined by Larry Harris and David Perkins, will give a benefit concert for the La Veta Quick Response Team July 26 in the La Veta Inn.
