Walsenburg
1889: D. Brown and several others have secured a lease for land on the top of Capitol Hill and are busy fixing up a race track and will put up a grandstand.
1895: Mat Welsby discovered some men punching a hole through the adobe wall of the town jail with an eight foot bar – trying to free someone. They ran off in a fusillade of shots and no one escaped from inside the building.
1899: We will give away one ticket with every $2 purchase entitling the holder to draw on a new, All-Steel John Deere Farm Wagon valued at $100 retail at the new Frohlich and Jones hardware store.
1904: We understand Charlie Mazzone already has renters for all four of the new store buildings he is building on Main Street.
1909: Walter Hammond and Fred Klein spent several days on the Huerfano River above Malachite and reported a catch of 200 trout.
1914: Major C.B. Coan, veteran of the Civil War, died July 16. He was born in Vermont and came to Colorado in 1890. After homesteading in Malachite, he moved to Walsenburg to practice law and was an attorney for the United Mine Workers.
1919: Do you remember the good old days when the Grocery Bill was $25 to $50 LESS per month than it is now? Save 25 cents on every dollar at Common Sense Grocery, Main Street.
1924: Congratulations to two Walsenburg boys, George A. Trout and Joseph A. Barron, for passing their state bar examinations.
1929: The White Sandwich Shop opened last week just south of the Western Union office by Gus Sideris.
1934: Because of the dangerous lack of water in the city’s water reservoirs, both at La Veta and the lower lake, the Walsenburg city council resolved that irrigation of lawns must stop altogether. Huerfano County was placed on the drought relief list on the 18th , extending benefits of the cattle purchasing program to local growers.
1939: A right-of-way has been secured for a five-mile road from the Schafer ranch straight to Pictou camp.
1944: Sheriff Claud Swift and several others saw a ball of greenish-blue fire in the eastern sky traveling at great speed from north to south. He heard a report from a man in Turner who saw a ball of blue-green flame traveling at high speed toward the south a few days later.
1949: A recent issue of Western Farm Life, a magazine published in Denver, featured Mr. and Mrs. Mackie McAlpine Jr. who operate some 15,000 acres near Redwing.
1954: This year’s Spanish Peaks Fiesta will include a fashion show of Spanish costumes, square dance frocks, squaw dresses and other western wear.
1959: Larry Curtis is the new band instructor for Walsenburg schools, having replaced Louis Nardin who is now the elementary school principal.
1964: A gasoline price war in Walsenburg reduced the price of regular fuel to 23.9 cents a gallon.
1969: Sgt. Richard D. Pacheco of Walsenburg has been awarded a U.S. Air Force commendation medal for his service in Vietnam.
1974: Walsenburg sports fans will engage in a door to door canvass to solicit funds for replacement of the sports equipment and uniforms that were destroyed when the high school was burned down.
1979: Tomatoes, three pounds for $1; Jumbo Roll of Bounty Paper Towels, 65 cents; Russet Potatoes, 10 Pound Bag 97 cents. Safeway Store.
1984: Kim Edmundson of the Apache Mustangs club won the Senior Grand Championship at the 4-H Dress Revue and Heidi Andreatta, Snowy Range, La Veta, was second. In the junior championship, Tara Lowry, Spanish Peaks Wranglers, was first and Kendra Ruiz, Eight is Enough, was second.
1989: Huerfano County’s new law enforcement center is 95 percent complete and will open about August 15 according to its architect, George Wynn.
1994: The Culpepper and Meriwether Circus will be in Walsenburg August 2 under a big top at John Mall High School. It features aerial artists, clowns, performing animals, jugglers and more.
La Veta
1885: The matter of the ordinance against animals running at large has again raised its head and confronted Town Board in the way of a citizens petition. No action was taken.
1895: William Culler is selling his ice cream for 10 cents a dish or 40 cents by the quart. It is the best ice cream ever sold in La Veta and he has a nice parlor for the ladies.
1900: The Denver and Rio Grande has raised wages for section hands from $1.40 to $1.75 per day.
1905: Will Kincaid and Frank I. Walker ascended Old Baldy [Mt. Mestas] one day last week and say it is 10 miles high and covered with enough broken rock to pave all the cities in the world.
1910: A new head gate is being built at the outlet of the mill lake and the electric plant has been running on steam for several days in consequence.
1915: Cuchara Camps has been lively lately. Miss Cooley of Trinidad has guests, the Unfug family is occupying The Willows, S.J. Lamme and family are rusticating in their cottage Bide-a-Wee, Mrs. Dave Farr and Mrs. Joe Hill are in The Hut, the Sporleders were up but have departed, some people from Arizona are renting Lazy Lodge and Kamp Komfort is occupied by its owner, her mother, and a dog.
1920: About 25 cars made the trip to Blue Lake Sunday, or rather to the old sawmill from which place the climb has to be made afoot to the lake.
1925: Pitcher Bob McGraw, born and raised in La Veta, has been purchased for $25,000 and two other players by the Brooklyn Nationals. Bob turned pro in 1917 and played with the Yankees first and later the Minneapolis Millers.
1930: More than one half of the new road to Blue Lake is completed and cars will be able to reach the lake by the end of the season, when an opening ceremony is contemplated.
1935: The Boyd filling station and Columbine Hotel, both on Main Street, have been painted to conform with the other spruced-up businesses – who next?
1940: About 45 members of Snowy Range 4-H Club, parents and guests, made a tour of their projects July 10, visiting the Morgans, Nauerths, Ottingers, Heikes Brothers, Dickinsons, Stones, Holmes and Sagers before enjoying a picnic at Mrs. Vernon’s new picnic grounds.
1945: Mrs. Mary Manning has material on the ground on her lots on Field Street just east of the Forest Service station and Mr. Linscott will build her a cinder block house.
1950: La Veta residents who are employed at the Vermijo Ranch south of here are bringing home some $1,200 a month in wages.
1955: The benefit breakfast given by the Altar Society of the Christ the King Church was widely attended with a large group coming from Walsenburg.
1960: The cables are in for the new ski tow on the top of Cucharas Pass.
1965: Bill John Hickey killed a large rattlesnake on the porch of Mrs. Otto Goemmer’s home. It had no less than eight rattles and a button.
1970: About 30 La Vetans attended the funeral of Albert Schmidt in Gardner. He was the father of Mrs. Dorothy Arnold and uncle of Lavoy Schmidt of La Veta.
1975: Some 30 to 35 friends and relatives of Jeff Geiser gave him a farewell party in Harry’s Steak House before his departure for Kansas City to attend the Chiefs’ Rookie Camp.
1980: The United Methodist Church received a new organ with a digital computer design which cost $8,468.
1985: A large group of La Veta and Cuchara hikers followed the old Sangre de Cristo Trail and walked the Trappers Trail Sunday
1990: Cuchara Chapel scholarships were awarded to Jan Kelley, Brigette Soltis and Andrew Hicks of John Mall High School and to Carol Riggins, Chad Higgs and Andrew R. Murphy of La Veta High.
1995: Chuck Cusimano will present “A Cowboy Getaway” with poetry, songs and humor in a dinner theater tomorrow night hosted by Circle the Wagons and the Pretty Chili Restaurant, 124 North Main.
