Everyone living in Carbondale is familiar with the Town’s extensive, gravity-fed irrigation system, comprising eight miles of open ditches and underground culverts that carry water diverted from the Crystal and Roaring Fork rivers between May and October. But the history of this ingenious system isn’t well-known. When homesteaders began settling here in the 1880s, they […]
Historiography
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Historiography: ‘Touch Not Yon Dandelion!’
Historically, Carbondale was known for its fine and abundant potatoes. What is less known is that the dandelion was responsible for the transition from grain crops to potatoes, according to premier spud grower Eugene Grubb in “Carbondale Pioneers, 1879-1890” by Edna D. Sweet: We grew alfalfa and our land was worth only $50 per acre, […]
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Historiography: The Politics of Water
Turn on the tap, water pours out. We take it for granted. But our water was hard-fought in the early 20th century by some of the Roaring Fork Valley’s legendary champions of water rights. In the late 1880s, Glenwood Springs attorney Edward T. Taylor dealt mainly with cases involving land and water issues. Particularly concerned […]
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Historiography: The last picture show
“Carbondale History, 1887-1976,” by the Carbondale Study Club (1976): In the early days of the town, there was a motion picture theater on the north side of Main Street [351 Main, now The Pour House]. Every week there was a show … on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Admission was 10 cents for children and 15 or […]
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Historiography: Summer Christmases of years past
Trail and Timberline (Denver), Jan. 1, 1927: Due to an inconsiderate spirit as far as Father Winter has been concerned, we are all lamenting a lack of snow up to the present time. In the late 1800s, Norwegian immigrants introduced America to snowshoeing, or skiing as we call it today. Ever since, annual snowfall has […]
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Historiography: Bountiful ladies of Carbondale
Alma Osgood, the wife of mining magnate John C. Osgood, founder of Redstone, was known as “Lady Bountiful” by the town’s residents because she lavished them with gifts, especially during the holidays. Carbondale’s equivalent was Mary Jane Francis, a wealthy widow from Philadelphia who bought the Bull Dog Mine on Avalanche Creek. She helped found […]
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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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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 […]