Editor’s note: Sue Gray is a member of Bee Friendly Carbondale. The bees are busy in the new 1,600-square-feet demonstration pollinator garden at the Thompson House Museum History Park in Carbondale. Along with a plethora of honeybees, several species of wild bees, wasps, moths, beetles, butterflies and hummingbirds are visiting their favorite pollen-producing plants, which […]
Sue Gray
Posted inColumns
Historiography: Teddy Roosevelt — The Conservation President
For over a century, big game hunters have been coming to the rugged mountains of Western Colorado to escape their stressful everyday lives and lose their cares in the primal pursuit of deer, elk, sheep, lion and bear. In 1905, Jake Borah was a successful hunting guide in the Glenwood Springs area. Most of his […]
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Historiography: ‘They came from Missouri’
Anita McCune Witt was born in Kansas to city folk, so when her dad bought her a horse as a child, she had to board it on some vacant land outside of town. Nevertheless, she fully embraced the Western lifestyle. Witt told Walter Gallacher in a 2014 Immigrant Stories interview (www.bit.ly/IS-Anita): “I started dressing like […]
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Historiography: Carbondale’s pioneering entrepreneur
In July 1944,“The Colorado Magazine,” an arm of the state’s Historical Society, published “A Pioneer of the Roaring Fork,” as told to Ivah Dunklee by William M. Dinkel. A footnote explained that though Dinkel died in 1918, his stories were relayed to Miss Dunklee in many after-dinner chats at his home in Carbondale. Dinkel’s story […]
Posted inOpinion
Historiography: Sheep Wars
Content warning: this article contains descriptions of violence and animal cruelty. In an article in the Steamboat Pilot on March 1, 1929, “Stock Owners Waged War for Northwest Colorado Range,” E.V. Haughey wrote: “In the early 1870s, the northwestern part of Colorado and that part of Wyoming lying along the north boundary was noted for […]
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Historiography: ‘Out of the air’
“Have you got your ear to the air? Thousands have. Enthusiasm over the wireless telephone is spreading tremendously. From a fad and a toy, the radio receiving set has become a household convenience. Out of the air come daily news bulletins, lectures, sermons, vocal and instrumental concerts, operas, market reports, government time signals, shipping news, […]
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Historiography: ‘A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!’*
*Leigh Mercer coined this palindrome (the phrase reads the same backwards and forwards) in the Nov. 13, 1948 issue of the Oxford quarterly journal “Notes & Queries.” From The Glenwood Post, Oct. 30, 1924:“Mrs. Frank Sweet gave a delightful dinner Tuesday evening in honor of Mrs. Hattie Holland and her guest, Miss Clark. Mrs. Holland […]
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Historiography: ‘Stranger in Angel Town’
His·to·ri·og·ra·phy: the study of historical writing When Nancy Lester, a 22-year-old graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont, accepted a teaching job at Carbondale Union High School (CUHS) in 1950, she didn’t intend to put her experiences into print. But Lester, who grew up in New Jersey, found Carbondale’s mid-20th-century agricultural community so foreign and fascinating that […]
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State and local libraries assist historians
The Carbondale Historical Society was recently invited, along with Garfield County’s other cultural heritage institutions, to attend a seminar hosted by Garfield County Libraries District (GCPLD) Executive Director Jamie LaRue. The seminar took place on Sept. 26 at the Glenwood Springs Library, and focused on the digitization of historic photos, documents and newspapers. Digitization involves […]
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Vegetable gardening 101
It’s easy right? Just buy some seeds, plant, water, watch them grow, then harvest your bounty. Not so fast. If you want a successful first garden experience, there are three basic things every beginning gardener needs to know: what to plant, when to plant and how to plant. The secret is in the seeds — […]