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 a cowgirl and spending so much time with horses that the kids at school nicknamed me ‘Hoppy’ after Hopalong Cassidy, a famous cowboy from that time.”

After attending Oklahoma State University, Witt tried teaching, but found she could make more money as a singing cowgirl on the popular Western music entertainment circuit. That’s where she met fellow entertainer Don Witt.

In 1967 the Witts moved to a ranch on the mesa northeast of Carbondale. Their neighbors were mostly ranchers, some descended from the original homesteaders for whom the area was named Missouri Heights. 

The Witts owned and ran City Drug in Glenwood Springs. Anita continued to perform and was well known in the Roaring Fork Valley for entertaining audiences with her trained horses and dogs, fancy rope tricks, guitar playing, singing and humorous stories.

In her later years, she devoted time to writing magazine and newspaper articles. She’s been published in Western Horsemen, Country Living, Horse Illustrated, Woman’s Day and the Rocky Mountain News, among others.

I first met Anita when my husband and I moved to Missouri Heights in 1997. When we entered her home she welcomed us. Then, gesturing toward a massive dining room table completely covered in stacks of paper and photographs, she said, “Please don’t move anything on the table.” When I asked about the project, she told me she was documenting the history of the pioneers who settled on the mesa in the early 1900s.

The result of her extensive research was, “They Came From Missouri: The History of Missouri Heights, Colorado” published in 1998. The 479-page book includes maps, photos and chapters on each family, listed alphabetically. Most of the information came directly from the families themselves.

In her acknowledgment, Witt wrote:

“I dedicate this book to the people who lived it and who were kind enough to spend countless hours telling me their stories and rummaging through long forgotten records, dusty boxes, and faded picture albums.

Their ancestors, parents, and some of those they spoke with came by ship, by foot, by horse, and mule and oxen, by covered wagon, and railroad boxcar, from all over the world, ultimately to settle on the high mesa above the Roaring Fork Valley. They are the true pioneers of this country, and of this state — and I am so proud to call them my dear friends.”

Most of the pioneer families of Missouri Heights are gone now, as is Anita, who passed on Sept. 4, 2018. Those of us who love Carbondale and its history are immensely grateful for Witt’s contribution to the preservation of the past. In addition to “They Came From Missouri,” Witt published “I Remember One Horse,” a collection of stories from 27 Roaring Fork Valley ranchers.

The character of Missouri Heights was already changing when Witt wrote her book, and it continues to change. But in the foreword to “They Came From Missouri,” she reminds us that through generations of human habitation, some things still remain that are worth appreciating:

“Back in the 1960s and ‘70s, my old friend and neighbor, John McNulty, worked my land up on Missouri Heights … One day he was just sitting there under the oaks, having his lunch, when he looked down and found a genuine arrowhead staring him right smack in the face. He was so happy, he couldn’t wait to show it to me, and after a lot of haggling and carrying on, I finally begged it off him. My old friend is gone now, but I still have that arrowhead today in 1998, and every once in a while I put it in my pocket and walk the ranch with my dog, Sadie, and just think about things.

“I think about the Indian, most probably a Ute, though it could have been an Arapahoe, who either shot or dropped the arrowhead. I imagine how the land must have looked to him back then, so open and peaceful and quiet, with no subdivisions, no paved roads or telephone lines.

“Even though it has changed dramatically, some things are still the same. If he looked south from my place, he saw Mount Sopris in all its beauty, just exactly as it looks today; to the north and northeast, Red Table Mountain with its gentle slopes, contrasting rugged terrain and vast acreage of forest land of aspen and tall pines; to the east, Basalt Mountain, which might have been his hunting ground of meandering deer and elk trails, dense timber stands, rich meadows of tall grasses, and flowing, natural creeks; to the west, Sunlight Mountain, Sunlight Peak, Twin Peaks, and Baldy Mountain. All sites I never tire of, can’t get enough of, even after 30 years.

“It’s Missouri Heights, with all its beauty and history, and yes, even with all its changes, one of the most beautiful places on earth.”

Anita Witt’s books are for sale at the Dinkel Mercantile Museum at 499 Weant Boulevard, open on Fridays from 6 to 7:30pm.