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 begins:
“In the spring of 1880, the first day of April, my brother and I, with high hopes, bade a cheerful goodbye to kinsfolk in the home where we were born on the beautiful plantation in Virginia. We had decided to go to the Rockies in pursuit of gold. We had known only the accustomed comfort of our youth and all that we had heard or read about the West seemed [like a] delightful adventure.”
With Montana goldfields as their aim, the brothers set out, arriving in Colorado with the summer storms. After making camp at timberline on the Arkansas River, the Dinkel brothers’ adventures began.
“[We] engaged in prospecting, and found a promising placer… Thirty days were consumed in building the trail, the sluice and the ditch. When all was completed, my brother and I worked just one day! In the afternoon of that memorable day, the clouds began to roll up until they were a fearful sight to behold. Finally, it began to pour. An avalanche of water belched forth as though a mighty dam somewhere above had suddenly gone smash.
“Becoming anxious to know how our sluice was holding out, we ventured into the downpour to investigate … There was not a sign of the sluice. The timbers had been broken to splinters and swept away! Our hearts and our purses were broken by that storm.
“Disappointed … I was more ready than ever to push on to Montana, but was obliged to earn some more money before I could hope to go very far.”
Dinkel worked for two months in O.B. Carroll’s store, within a mining and railway workers camp on Hayden Creek, before moving to Bonanza at the north end of the San Luis Valley — where gold had just been discovered.
“At Bonanza, I was hired to pack ore for an outfit. The man I was working for was unable to pay me, and the smelting company refused to pay the charges … so I left the town with little money and much experience.”
In Buena Vista, the Dinkels heard about a lack of flour in the silver mining town of Aspen. They purchased 800 pounds of flour for $24 and packed it on two horses and three mules, then trekked over Cottonwood Pass, through the Elk Mountains and over Taylor Pass to the small mining town of Ashcroft, and then on to Aspen. There, they sold the flour for $400.
Still intending to make their way to Montana, the brothers found temporary work to raise extra money for the journey.
“[We] went on up the Roaring Fork to seek work on the Aspen and Twin Lakes toll road, which was then being built [Highway 82 over Independence Pass]. The paymaster started with money from Leadville … but on the way he got into a poker game and lost the money … The Superintendent would not stand for the money being gambled away and refused to make the loss good. I, then and there, made the mental resolution that I would never again work for anybody else, and I have kept that vow.”
William Dinkel never made it to Montana, nor did he make his fortune in prospecting. He eventually became a wealthy entrepreneur, later known as “The Daddy of Carbondale.” But he started from humble beginnings and hard work.
“Arrival in the Roaring Fork and Rock Creek valleys was the beginning of my continuous residence in what afterward became Carbondale. It was the 25th of September, 1881, when we began erection of our quarters for the winter. We worked diligently for five days to complete our house.
“Hunting then was the only means of livelihood, and it was our business. It meant soap, salt, sugar, pepper, bacon, lard, even bread.”
They sold the meat in Independence, a 140-mile round trip from their cabin, on foot leading pack burros. Eventually, they made enough money to buy two horses, a plough and some oat seed. That was the beginning of an agricultural enterprise that led to the opportunity for William Dinkel to build his empire.
“[In 1883], a toll road was built from Jerome park to Emma … opening the stage route between Aspen and Glenwood. Carbondale’s Main Street is located on that stage line.
“During the summer of 1884, we cut logs from the slopes of Mt. Sopris and built on this thoroughfare, an eight-room house, a barn to shelter 60-head of horses, a store 16 by 25 feet and opened the first inn in the valley. ‘Dinkel’s’ was the only passenger stop between Aspen and Glenwood. My brother and his wife operated the inn, and I tended to the store.
“Our store had the reputation of carrying as choice groceries as could be found in Colorado. We furnished French mushrooms, pate de foie gras, choice cheeses, the finest coffees and cigars. [It] was the clubhouse of the region, the meeting place of men after work, the hobnobbing point for commercial travelers.”
The fire of 1893 consumed the entire east end of downtown Carbondale, including the Dinkels’ building. But William Dinkel had already invested in a one-block piece of property at Fourth and Main, and constructed a two-story brick building housing the Bank of Carbondale, of which he was president, a livery stable, a hotel and the Dinkel Mercantile.
After William Dinkel’s death in 1918, the Dinkel Mercantile remained an important commercial cornerstone of Carbondale into the 1930s, operated by his daughter Anne and her husband Wallace de Beque II.
You can learn more about our town’s pioneering entrepreneur at the Carbondale Historical Society’s Dinkel Mercantile Museum (499 Weant Boulevard), open Fridays in June from 6 to 7:30pm.