(Information was gleaned from copies of the Wet Mountain
Tribune, all from the third week in September.)
100
Years Ago – 1909
After a three days’ downpour the morning dawned clear
and bright Tuesday and the big range was visible, showing on culminating points
a little snow. The floods that have gone down the Valley because of the rains
are said to be the greatest within the remembrance of old-time settlers. Every
little stream and dry gully contributed a quantity of water to Grape Creek,
which stream assumed the proportions of a mighty river, overflowing its banks
and spreading out a quarter of a mile wide, covering hay and grain lands and
leaving destruction in its path. The damage to crops will aggregate many
thousands of dollars. Some of the bridges were taken out and others weakened
until they are unsafe. Many hay stacks were surrounded with water to a depth of
two feet and to these a total loss will no doubt accrue.
What is known as the Brush Creek Trail across the big
range is now completed and the Forest Service will now put the old trail across
Music Pass in good condition, we understand.
Colorado State Fair, Pueblo, Sept. 20th to
24th inclusive. One fare for round trip via the D&RG. President Taft will
be at the Fair Grounds on Sept. 22nd. He will go from there to Montrose and be
in Montrose on the 23rd for the opening of the Gunnison Tunnel.
Dr. Walker and party of Effingham, Ill.,
enroute to the Pacific coast, have been spending
several days here.
50
Years Ago – 1959
Class meetings were held at Custer County
high school Wednesday to elect officers to guide the destinies of the various
classes through the 1950-60 school term. Elected were: Seniors – Jeanette Buzzi, president; officers Ronald Vickerman,
Kathleen Byrne, Tilford Zeller and Shirley Entz. Sponsor is Earl Everett. Juniors – Don Crow,
president; officers Evelyn Berry,
Nana Lee Benson and Eugenia Koch. Mrs. Riggs is sponsor. Sophomores – Ruth
Turner, president; officers Paul Piquette, Warren Rankin, Ric
Ferron and Paul Wolf. Mr. McKinley is sponsor.
Recent graduates from Custer County high school who are
matriculating at institutions of higher learning include Beverly Koch at St.
Luke’s Hospital Nursing School in Denver; Frank Riggs at Trinidad Junior
College; Lloyd Slevc at Pueblo College in Pueblo;
Charlotte Ann Benson at Central Business College in Denver; Jerry Piquette and
his sister, Miss Joan Piquette, at Western State College at Gunnison. Colorado State
University at Fort Collins is educating the largest number
of Custerites including DeLace
Schwarz, Linda Luthi, Carolyn Zulch,
and Mr. and Mrs. Don Hartbauer.
25
Years Ago – 1984
Parents packed the
main office of Custer
County School
during Monday’s school board meeting to urge the splitting of the first grade
class into two classes – an action the board unanimously agreed to take.
Currently, Carol Lange is teaching the 28 students enrolled in first grade.
Applications are being reviewed now. A new first grade teacher should be hired
and working by the end of next week, Principal Lee Graham said.
Five hundred bicyclists are expected in Westcliffe this
Sunday, participating in the 100-mile Hardscrabble Century Ride
Westcliffe weather observer Marvin Rankin has been
selected to receive the Thomas Jefferson Award—the highest honor given by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to its cooperative
weather observers. Only six persons across the nation will receive the award
this year, and Rankin is the first Coloradan to be honored. Rankin first began
recording daily temperature and precipitation figures on Nov. 1, 1939, and now,
45 years later, he continues the work.
10
Years Ago – 1999
A Canon
City hunter bagged a
575-pound Black Bear last week in the Sangre de Cristos
west of Westcliffe. Division of Wildlife researcher and veteran bear biologist
Tom Beck says it’s one of the largest bears ever taken in Colorado. The male was more than eight feet
in length. Bears typically weigh between 200 and 250 pounds.
An Elderhostel service group has been working this week
at the Beckwith Ranch, helping clean up the property and making other
improvements. The six-member team, ages 58 to 73, are here from California, Texas, Arkansas and Pennsylvania.
Former Custer County
zoning officer Peggy McIntosh has been named administrator for Saguache County.
5
Years Ago – 2004
Graveside services were held last week at the Ula
Cemetery near Westcliffe
for Robert Edward “Mountain Bob” Leasure, 83. Leasure set the record for living underground in 1994,
having lived in a mining shaft at Buckskin Joe for 211 days. He also was
well-known to residents and visitors, having served as the unofficial greeter
in downtown Westcliffe during summer tourist seasons.
A 45-year-old Florence
truck driver narrowly escaped death Monday when his loaded logging truck
careened over an embankment on a steep section of Highway 96 in Hardscrabble Canyon.
Fremont National Bank of Canon City
quietly opened the doors of its Westcliffe branch last week.
A crew led by local Division of Wildlife officer Becky
Manly last week packed in 47,000 fingerling Greenback Cutthroat trout to some
30 high mountain lakes in Custer
County.
1
Year Ago – 2008
Residents in the Hillside and Buck Mountain
areas were startled early Friday afternoon when the ground began to tremble.
According to the National
Earthquake Information
Center in Golden, an
earthquake measuring 2.5 on the Richter scale struck 15 miles north of
Westcliffe at about 12:30 p.m. No injuries or structural damages were reported
although many residents said houses shook and items fell off shelves.
Custer
County’s six candidates
for county commissioner have racked up nearly $14,000 in campaign
contributions. Lynn Attebery’s district two campaign
accrued the biggest chunk, about $5,500. Cindy Howard in district three rolled
in some $5,100. Also in district three, Jim Austin reported more than $4,400,
followed by Jerry Lacy in district three with $2,100 and Tom Milliken in
district two with $1,600.
A number of Custer
County residents, including Democratic
Central Committee chairman Cathleen Reeder, attended the rally at the state
fairgrounds in Pueblo
for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Some 14,000 people attended the rally.
Among the dignitaries with Obama were U.S. Senator Ken Salazar and Gov. Bill
Ritter.
Mikael Hallstrom
of Finland is attending Custer County
High School as a junior
this year. The exchange student is a guest in the home of the Tedd and Dawn Mathis family.
