If history had run a different course, we in Northwest Colorado could be speaking Texican as our official language. In our Rio Blanco County treasurer’s office is a huge map of the United States. No big deal, except that it shows the U.S. just after Texas had declared independence from[Read More…]
Author: Ed Peck
HISTORY LESSONS: Swede Anderson
In Rio Blanco, we are rightly proud of our White River fishing. Our lake fishing is equally impressive. Early on, upriver landowners recognized that bigger lakes meant better fishing. One individual single-handedly improved the fishing lakes upriver: Swede Anderson. Using mules and a Fresno scraper, he dug ditches and moved[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: The Hame Cover
The mystery photo (inset above) is something you would find on a team of horses pulling a freight wagon or stage coach. It is made of leather. If you look close at the photo of the J. W. Hugus & Company team of horses, you will see a rider on[Read More…]
HISTORY’S MYSTERIES
Continuing our identification of unusual old implements and tools, can you guess what this is and what it might have been used for? ED PECK PHOTO
HISTORY LESSONS: Groundhog Day 2025
RBC | I have an idea for the Meeker Chamber of Commerce: We could piggyback on the Pennsylvania Feb. 2 Groundhog Day hype by naming our groundhog as the one and only “Meeker Whistlepig” or the “Flattops Weather Marmot.” The Master of Ceremony would wear a Stetson and rope the[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Curie
RBC | With all the talk of nuclear power plants and storing spent fuel rods in Northwest Colorado, I thought it would be good to mention that radioactive ores and mills are nothing new to our area. Rifle used to have a big uranium milling facility in the 1970’s. It[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Can you identify this mysterious utensil?
MEEKER | What you see pictured is not too hard to figure out: a toddler’s spoon for eating all that yummy Gerber pureed squash. So, look a little closer and you will notice that little Johnnie can only hold it in his right hand. Randy Ridgeway, who used this spoon[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: What happened to Agent Danforth?
MEEKER | There were four Indian agents appointed to the area prior to Nathan Meeker’s arrival on the scene in 1878. Two of those agents, Joseph Littlefield and Edward Danforth, were missionaries sent from The American Unitarian Church based in Boston. Their goal was to convert the Utes to Christianity[Read More…]