Walsenburg
1898: C.O. Unfug, F.E. Cowing, G.R. Moore, John H. Brown and Peter Krier were appointed by the district judge to consider and decide upon the possible condemnation of more land to expand W.N. Coler Jr.’s Martin Lakes reservoir. 1904: Mrs. Fred Unfug and children are camping at the old Sowers ranch at the foot of the East Spanish Peak where she is taking treatments for rheumatism. 1910: Last Saturday evening one of the best films ever seen in Walsenburg was shown at the Otto Theater, Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. 1916: James Dick, who formerly had employment at the Oakview store, has accepted a position with the Walsenburg Mercantile Company. 1922: County Commissioners Tom Martinez, District No. 1, Gus Goemmer, District No. 2 and Charles E. Furphy, District No. 3, were hosts for the commissioners of 21 counties at a district meeting here July 29. 1928: The Walsenburg Independent made history last Friday with the first newspaper ever delivered by air. 1934: Walsenburg City Council has banned all lawn watering due to the extended drought. 1940: Water consumption in Walsenburg was estimated at two million gallons per day during the current heat wave, a figure considerably above the national average of 120 gallons per day per person. 1946: According to Mountain States Telephone Company, a total of 10,256 local calls were placed through the Walsenburg exchange this year to date, compared to 5,102 calls on the same date a year ago. 1952: Men of science and men of the air force have decided the flying saucer is just an optical illusion caused by hot weather. 1958: Three tornado funnels whirled aloft several haystacks on the farm of C.E. Siler about 16 miles northeast of Walsenburg. 1964: The Slovene National Benevolent Society, usually known as the S.N.P.J., will celebrate its 60th anniversary in the Walsenburg Pavilion, according to Edward Tomsic, national vice president and secretary of local Lodge No. 299 here. 1970: Groundbreaking for a new Hanover modular home factory to be located on the former Kalmes ranch east of Walsenburg will be at 10 a.m. Saturday. The site has been annexed by the city. 1976: Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) may very well have a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide from Huerfano County to the oil fields of Texas before 1980. The company is drilling its fifth well and has expended more than five million dollars in Huerfano County. 1982: Some 250 people are still working on the ARCO CO2 pipeline project in the Sheep Mountains and drilling continues. 1988: Tom Northup and the volunteer firemen at Navajo Ranch tried out their new fire truck Saturday night and extinguished a blaze in 45 minutes. 1994: Commissioner Bill Reiners thinks the question of setting up Emergency 911 in Huerfano County should go to a vote of the people and a mill levy established, though others feel all telephone users should be billed.
La Veta
1883: Dear Editor: You inform us your valuable paper is mailed every Wednesday night. Now we would like to ask why we never receive it until the following Tuesday? And it is the same with letters mailed from La Veta. It is next to impossible to get a letter from your town short of six days, yet we have a mail every other day at St. Mary’s… /s/John Harris, St. Mary’s, Colo. 1893: There will be a dance with ice cream Wednesday night in the old hall. We think times are too hard to dance. 1899: The McDonald and Levy railroad grading crew was enlivened Wednesday by a general knock down among some of the Italians and the sons of the Green Isle. 1905: A.W. “Scotty” Scott and Peter Verliff caught a rainbow trout 23 inches long, seven inches broad and weighing six pounds out of town lake. 1911: Former resident Mrs. George Emerson and her daughter Mrs. Hughes and baby have returned for the summer and are living in the Wilkinson apartment building on West Francisco Street. 1917: Messrs. Smith, Haase and Dorian will look into the possibility of getting daily railroad passenger service to the coal camps along Middle Creek. 1923: Complaints have been made lately about some boys who were bathing in the nude without due regard to the necessity of privacy usually expected. 1930: Steve Kmetz of Walsenburg has been remodeling the residence of his daughter Mrs. Jake Tessari on East Field Street. 1936: Died, John William Powell. He was born in 1865 and married Olive Edna Leach in 1913. He leaves his wife and siblings, James and Frank of La Veta, Charles, Cuchara Camps, Walter, Springfield and Laura Coleman, formerly of La Veta. 1942: The marriage of Mrs. Grace M. Crouse, La Veta postmaster, and John Penne, La Veta rancher, in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 9 has just been announced. 1948: Since the new building to house the annual 4-H and County Fair cannot be completed by August, the fair will be postponed until September when the barn will be completed or almost so. 1954: Mrs. Laura Moore, with her children and grandchildren, had a large family reunion and steak fry at Spring Creek Picnic Grounds above Cuchara Camps last weekend. 1960: There will be a 4-H Dance Saturday night in the La Veta High School Gym that is open to the public at $1.50 per couple. 1966: The third annual Huerfano County Quarterhorse Show will take place in Willis Arena two miles east of La Veta this Saturday. 1972: Mrs. Irene Henry has died at her Cuchara cabin. 1978: Dr. Paul McCaffrey, who has served La Veta and Walsenburg the past two years with the National Health Services Corps and Huerfano Family Medicine, is leaving. 1984: Monday, Riblet Corp. will begin the placement of a 3,300 foot long triple chairlift and 1,100 double lift at Cuchara Valley Resort at a cost of $1.7 million. 1992: Real estate sales in the upper Cucharas Valley have really picked up this year, probably because of the possibility of limited gambling being legalized.
