Walsenburg
1899: The Gardner mail hack suffered quite a bit of damage after some tourists on bicycles scared the horses into a runaway.
1905: E.A. Lidle and Son have had one of the latest things in sun awnings erected in front of their place of business.
1911: The Decoration Day parade featured members of the Elks Club in dress parade, mounted cavalry, the Slovenian band and veterans of the Civil and Mexican Wars.
1917: John Olsafsky was arrested May 13 for bringing liquor into Walsenburg and ended up paying a fine.
1926: Construction of Norton’s cottage camp was begun yesterday on North Walsen one block north of Huerfano County High School.
1931: The newly organized chamber of commerce will attempt to get better roads in this vicinity and especially a highway to the east from Walsenburg.
1937: Works Progress Administration workers will be employed this summer in mixing grasshopper poison for other crews to spread on devastated croplands and pastures around Huerfano County.
1943: Five 1943 graduates of St. Mary High School have received awards and scholarships. They are Elizabeth Cominotti, Arlene Yourick, James Friel, Gilbert Mestas and Frank Stimack.
1949: Jimmee Howard and his orchestra will play for a dance Saturday night in St. Mary Auditorium for the benefit of the Home Demonstration Clubs’ lounge in the courthouse.
1955: The Colorado A&M polo team will play the Spanish Peaks team June 18 and 19 on the new field two miles north of Walsenburg on the Dilly property.
1961: Mario Matteo and Ed Zagar, who purchased the former Young Motor Company building, 221 Main, from Robert and David Young, will build a new bowling alley to be known as Crown Lanes.
1968: Airman Raylee S. Smircich has completed basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas and will receive schooling as an aircraft maintenance specialist. His wife is the former Kay Solomon.
1974: Approximately 100 members of the American Scotch Highland Breeders Association are expected at the 23rd annual convention June 23-24 in the Marlboro Inn with Mr. and Mrs. Jack Stroh, hosts.
1981: Ray and Claretta Whitlatch have opened a used furniture store on Highway 10 next door to the Country Corner Liquor Store.
1988: Huerfano County Clerk and Recorder Albert Vigil will have a mobile unit in Safeway Store parking lot June 4 to register voters. The unit when at Walsenburg High School recently registered 32 students and two members of the faculty.
La Veta
1903: On Wednesday an impromptu celebration and torchlight parade around town took place in honor of the water works being voted in 53-10.
1910: Fourteen inches of snow on Saturday was a surprise.
1916: It has been blowing nearly every day and drying up the ground and upsetting the housewives who are the throes of spring cleaning.
1921: Fifteen men with trucks and a camp outfit arrived yesterday to start work on the Blue Lake road.
1927: Messrs. Roush and Baker of the La Veta Automotive Company have obtained use of the east end of Railroad Park and are establishing a modern camp ground with two camp houses already under construction. The houses will be stuccoed and a lawn put in.
1933: The road to Cuchara Camps is a nerve-wrecker.
1939: The new dial telephone system was inaugurated at 1 p.m. last Saturday and within one hour more than 100 calls were made.
1944: Eighteen Boy Scouts with their leader, Scoutmaster John S. Holmes, spent last week in Cuchara Camps camping, hiking, cooking and playing games.
1951: This year’s graduates were Marjorie Bailey, Earl Carver, James Christie, Pat Davis, Dan Dodge, Mabel Duzenack, Robert Erwin, Fred Falk, Phyllis Ferkovich, Mary E. Goss, Paul Hayes, Melvin Hurley, Thomas Linscott, Karlyn Mills, C. Ben Nason, Mary Jane Speed, Joe Viola and Hugh Young.
1957: “The Camps” will be dropped from the name Cuchara Camps by the post office per petition by property owners, effective June 15.
1964: Jack Britton has been contracted to build a new home for Katherine Williams across the river from the Cuchara Community Center.
1971: There will be a country western dance Saturday night in The Hub Lounge in the Spanish Peaks Motor Hotel with music by Sonny Hood and the Night Sounds.
1978: The Huerfano County Square Dance Club will have a dance in the Cuchara Recreation Hall June 3 and the public is invited to attend.
1984: Despite heavy snows all winter, the trees above Cuchara killed by the severe cold are posing a serious fire threat.
1990: Outdoor water rationing will begin in La Veta immediately for the second consecutive summer.
