Walsenburg
1882: Dr. T.F. Martin has added materially to his drug stock and changed around the post office boxes so the premises of his bussiness place have quite an attractive appearance.
1897: The Rouse school opens for the fall term today where Professor A.W. Muse is principal and Miss Augusta Erwin of La Veta is teacher.
1902: Rocky Mountain Fuel Company has purchased from Ed Caddell a tract of 800 acres of coal land several miles northwest of Walsenburg. Other parties are drilling for coal in the foothills 10 miles northwest from here, on this side of St. Mary’s community.
1907: Miss Pearl Boyd has 54 children enrolled in the beginners grade in the west room of the first floor of the old building, while Miss Lucy Lester has 40 students in the first primary grade occupying the east room.
1912: The high school opened Tuesday with an enrollment of 52, and with 29 in the freshman class, this is the largest number of students in the history of the school.
1918: Word was received from Andrew “Scotty” Campbell that he had arrived safely overseas with the 43rd Balloon Company.
1922: The former International Hotel is now called the St. Charles. The old pool room has been converted into a lobby and offices.
1927: Alton Tirey of Gardner passed through Walsenburg Monday with a string of horses he was taking to compete in the races at the Trinidad fair next week.
1932: Elizabeth Prater of Alamo, J.M. Abe, Walsenburg, and William Babbitt, Walsenburg, were judged to be the winners in the best story contest sponsored by the World-Independent, winning free tickets to the Valencia Theater.
1937: Died, William Hulsey, 16, of Gordon, due to infantile paralysis, also known as polio. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Lee Hulsey and leaves a sister, Lorraine. Last year he was president of the sophomore class at the county high school.
1942: One useless old tire provides enough rubber for use in 12 gas masks – bring in your scrap for America’s fighting weapons! Even an old shovel will help make four hand grenades.
1947: The Misses Irene and Nell Dallafior entertained at a miscellaneous shower in honor of Ida Nell Barnes before she became the bride of J. Michael Stimack. They were married last Saturday in St. Mary Church.
1952: A passing motorist reported yesterday seeing a large oval disk with circles of scintillating lights hovering about 10 miles north of Walsenburg.
1957: Stock up before winter! Six Inch Lump Coal $8 Ton for 2 Tons or More, Plus $2 Per Ton for Delivery. Castle Coal Company, Main at Colorado.
1962: Kimberly Ann O’Rourke and Donald Toller, both five years old, were the first children to arrive in the new kindergarten room of Sister Mary Clarence at St. Mary School.
1967: Ann Novak Alsbaugh was killed in a one-car accident near Fort Garland. She graduated from Huerfano County High School in 1955, was Spanish Peaks Fiesta Queen in 1956 and in 1959 married Bill Alsbaugh, rodeo producer. He survives with two young sons.
1972: Dia de la Plaza de Leones will be staged in Walsenburg September 15-16 to celebrate Mexican Independence Day with ethnic food, dancing and mariachi mass.
1977: The fourth annual Fiesta de los Leones will be September 16, 17 and 18, according to committee chairman Hilbert Navarro, beginning with an adult-only dance Friday the 16th in Elks Lodge with music by Jay and the Latin Jesters.
1982: A total of 1,299 students have enrolled in Huerfano County schools as of September 1. There are 330 in Walsenburg High School, including 98 freshmen, 81 sophomores, 81 juniors and 70 seniors. La Veta has 94 in junior and senior high and 122 in the elementary grades, or 216 students. Walsenburg Middle School has 222, down 22 from 1981-82, and Gardner with 131 is up 10 students over last year.
1987: While most businesses in Huerfano County reported a good summer, attendance at Lathrop State Park was down more than 4,000 people from last summer. Walsenburg Golf Course, however, was up about 50 percent and club manager Orlando Herrera believes the opening of Grandote’s 18-hole course is complementing his business.
1992: Spanish Peaks Fiesta Queen Ona Garcia gave up her title so runner-up Christy Elwell appeared in the Colorado State Fair parade in her stead.
La Veta
1883: Colonel Francisco, the first democratic candidate for delegate to Congress from Colorado Territory, has expressed his intention to attend the Pioneers’ quarto-centennnial in Denver.
1893: The big hunt brought in two deer and a lot of rabbits, grouse, wild pigeons, prairie dogs, hawks, squirrels and seven rattlesnakes.
1898: Whistle at your work, for a whistling boy is worth double the wages of a grumbling man; both examples are contagious.
1903: Monday was Labor Day, but as there are no laborers in La Veta, it passed by without any marked observance.
1908: If whiskey interferes with your business, give up your business. No use trying to do two things at once. [Our editor was having some grumpy times in the early 1900s.]
1913: Mr. Atchison reports harvesting 23 bushels to the acre, not bad for dry land grain.
1918: Mr. Tinsley of the City Market says he will take in trade farmers’ cream and anything in the produce department and will even send a truck to carry it.
1923: The new coal camp of Alamo opened by the Oakdale Coal Company is already providing employment for some La Veta people and others working there have bought lots to build or have rented houses in town.
1928: George Benefiel’s brand new hearse was damaged when struck by the auto driven by a tourist from Kansas.
1933: According to L.B. Sporleder, A.M. “Mac” and I.T. “Ike” Pryor brought the first herd of longhorns to Huerfano County in 1870. Their ranch was on the Santa Clara where it emerges from the foothills; they later acquired the noted Scissors ranch six miles up the creek.
1938: Only 89 students enrolled in the high school on the first day, compared to 102 last year, and 199 enrolled in the grade school, though it was 218 at this time last year.
1943: American Legion Auxiliary installed officers Julia Lively, Julia Duling, Edith Baker, Cornelia Coleman, Mae Macy, Mary Judiscak, Bertha Falk and Ruthena Beamer.
1948: Miss Vera Mae Keeling replaced Dorothy Kopine as sales clerk at the Coleman Drug Store when the latter returned for her senior year in the high school.
1953: Starters for the high school football team under Coach Donald Bone will be Donald Drury, Gene Milberger, Larry Drury, Donald Nauerth, Dick Jameson, Charles Weir, George Snedden, Dave Kreutzer, Bud Kreutzer, Chrisy Griego ad Vernon Warren.
1958: Three young men of Cuchara, Jim Goodwin, Charlie Jones and John Millerman, enjoyed the sport season by bagging bears during the open season.
1958: During the big storm Sunday night, lightning struck and killed outright two milk cows belonging to George G. Duzenack. The daily showers have been plaguing the ranchers trying to get their hay in.
1963: Besides the new building going up for La Veta Oil, consruction is ongoing on Mildred’s Fine Foods at east Francisco and Main and the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph company’s concrete building on West Francisco at Oak Street.
1968: About 40 guests attended a shower in honor of Barbara Davis September 6 in the Methodist Church.
1973: Charles Disert has traded his 11,000 acre ranch northwest of town for one in New Mexico.
1978: Friends of the Arts Guild decided to keep
The Gallery on Main Street open until December for meeetings, classes and workshops.
1983: Crews are working around the clock to finish the new $1 million Cuchara Inn in Cuchara.
1988: The upper Cucharas Valley has been full of smoke recently coming all the way from the raging forest fires in Yellowstone National Park.
1993: A new advertising sign for Cuchara Valley Ski Resort has been put up on the Fallen Angel store building at Seventh and Main streets in Walsenburg.
