The Meeker Massacre, as it is known in Colorado history, was the final straw for the U.S. Government in its territorial struggle with the Ute tribes, leading to expulsion from their Colorado homeland. Famously, the “Meeker Incident” as it’s referred to by the Utes, culminated in a small band of rebels taking women and children […]
Sue Gray
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Historiography: Carbondale, King of Spuds
The Glenwood Post, Oct. 9, 1909: Carbondale is … announcing that her people will hold a mammoth “Potato Show”… on Saturday, October 23. She promises great times for all … and says she will have a grand barbecue … potato races, a [lady’s] nail-driving contest, pony races and dancing … Since Carbondale leads the world […]
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Historiography: Colorado’s queer history
The Gilpin Observer, Dec. 5, 1907: Trinidad, Colorado — Katherine Vosbaugh, an eccentric Frenchwoman of brilliant attainments, died here the other day at the age of 83, after masquerading for 60 years as a man. The woman donned trousers when a girl and had a horror of skirts up to the time of her death […]
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Helping pollinators and reducing water use at Thompson House Park
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 […]
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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 […]