Walsenburg
1883: We are indebted to Mr. Walsen for many things, among them a $3,500 court house which only cost the county $2,000. Also thanks are due to Mr. and Mrs. Walsen for a very nice church.
1894: Appropriate exercises will be held March 24 upon the closing of the term at the Scissors school house.
1903: Little Margaret Phelps is dangerously ill with pneumonia and Miss Kate Blickhahn has had to give up teaching at Pictou because she is suffering from diphtheria.
1911: Twelve trainloads of federal troops passed through town one day this week bound for the troubles along the Mexican border.
1919: Sears and Sears have installed a fine new Bowser gasoline filling station at their auto garage.
1926: Died, Henry Blickhahn, 72, a native of Germany and former county judge. His wife died in 1902 and his daughter Kate in 1903, leaving him with five surviving children.
1934: Named to the city All Star basketball team are Theodore Salazar, Martin Ariano, Neal Bailey, Evan Jenkins, Gerald Mauro, Albert Durnell, Frank Repola, Wesley Merritt, Mario Marcon and Pete Lopez.
1941: Huerfano County has been cut off from participation in state relief allocations for the failure of the county commissioners to obey the regulations of the state welfare board.
1949: Due to the critical shortage of newsprint, the World-Independent is forced to discontinue the 22 page magazine and comic supplement contained in the usual Friday issues.
1955: It’s usually the people who don’t know if they’re coming or going who are in the biggest hurry to get there.
1962: Sun-Mon-Tues, Fox Theater. Glenn Ford and Bette Davis in Frank Capra’s “Pocketful of Miracles” plus “X-15”, actually filmed in space!
1968: Walsenburg High School cheerleaders Sandra Hudson, Pam Garbizo, Debbie Lucero, Cindy Kimbrel, Nancy Valdez, Rita Wilkins, Jennifer Lamme and Nancy Ridge won two trophies at the Fowler Invitational Basketball Tournament.
1975: Golden Cycle Corporation has sold Santa Maria Lake and the property around it for $600,000 to John Dye of Colorado Springs. There are 1,400 acres of which 200 acres is the lake.
1982: Huerfano County will get 12 old coal mines reclaimed in the Gordon area and five in the Rockland-Solar area under the program funded by the federal government.
1989: Applications are being taken at Rocky Mountain SER and Job Services for positions at the new Huerfano County Law Enforcement Center at 500 Albert which is nearing completion.
1995: Dominion Leasing Inc., of Oklahoma proposes to build a 752-bed minimum security prison in Walsenburg Industrial Park.
La Veta
1878: Town Board approved for payment a bill from J.C. Goss for $4.50 for building a secretary desk for Town Clerk J.F. Moore.
1888: The April election will include a bond of indebtedness not to exceed $15,000 for a water works, town hall, bridge on Ryus Avenue and grading the streets.
1896: Heber Turner has retired from the La Veta Advertiser and C.E. Turner and Arthur A. Foote will carry on the business.
1905: The drugstore is the latest business to invest in gasoline lighting.
1912: Died, Jasper Bruce, 81, a member of Co. B, 52nd Georgia Regiment of the Confederate Army for four years. He arrived in Huerfano County in 1870 and has occupied his ranch three miles south of town since 1871.
1920: A kitchen shower was given by the high school girls for Miss Hazel Pickens, followed by a taffy pull.
1927: J.C. Goss once owned the Ellis Smith ranch and built many homes around town before moving with his wife and 10 children to Fresno, Calif.
1933: Uel Marsh is helping to pull down the old grain bins at the flour mill and the lumber will be used to build a new house in the San Luis Valley.
1940: Miss Josephine Akers has replaced Miss Alma Kissell as bookkeeper at the Howard Lumber Yard.
1946: Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Sager bought and moved into the former Stolsteimer residence on south Oak Street
1951: The seventh graders enjoyed a picnic in Hobo Park with wieners, marshmallows, Kool-aid, doughnuts and potato chips.
1959: Augustus N. Erwin was born in 1874 on the ranch now belonging to Ace Wilcox and began school at Placer, now Russell, when the D&RG was being built into the San Luis Valley.
1965: Charles Brunelli, 62, of Aguilar, ran into the school bus being driven by Chester Springer on the Wahatoya road, injuring Debra Houchin, 8, and Judy Bauer, 14.
1973: Two seats on the Re-2 School Board are up for grabs since incumbents Fred Falk and Gilbert Arnold have said they will not run.
1980: New officers of the Spanish Peaks Garden Club are Eleanor LeBlanc, president, Juanita Bailey, vice president, Mary Hicks, secretary and Helen Colvin, treasurer.
1987: Triple G Truck Stop won first in the women’s city bowling tournament. The team is made up of Marie Geiser, Donna Galvan, Olivia Valdez, Diane Faris and Audrie Gonzales.
1994: San Isabel Electric users will see the first rate DEcrease in the association’s 55-year history – 2.7%.
