RBC | According to the Aug. 10, 1895 issue of the Meeker Herald, a cave was discovered up the South Fork of the White River about 1884 by Charley Smith. Charley found it, so Charley got to name it. I guess he didn’t care for the name, Charley’s Cave, so[Read More…]
History Lessons
HISTORY LESSONS: Potato Polo
RBC | Janice Oldland showed me a photo taken in Meeker on July 4, 1913, of men on horseback holding pointed sticks, resembling swords, around a box on the ground. If you’d like to see a copy, one is on display at the Bank of the San Juans. From left[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Death, taxes… and politics
RBC | It has been said that the only sure things are Death and Taxes. I would like to add politics to that list. I do not think it is a coincidence that Halloween and Elections are only a few days apart. Both can have scary surprises around the corner.[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Calamity Jane, Pt. 2
RBC | Taken directly from the July 7, 1877 issue of the Cheyenne Daily Leader: The city editor was at his desk. The office thermometer was away up in the 90s and the city editor divested of all superfluous clothing, his hair tumbling upon his cranium like angry wave crests[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Calamity Jane
RBC | In a newspaper interview given to Joseph N. Neal, Ed P. Wilber is quoted as saying, “Well, I first saw Calamity Jane in 1883 Routt [county in Colorado], and then in 1885. Her an’ a fellow by the name of Billy Steers came down and lived here in[Read More…]
HISTORY MYSTERY
Can you identify this mystery hand tool’s purpose and and the timeframe when it would have been used? What replaced it? ED PECK PHOTO
HISTORY LESSONS: The Klan in Colorado
This story is intended to educate. Please do not infer that I condone bigotry, or oppression based on creed or race. In my youth, the struggles for integration were constantly in the news, often with violence. When the original “This is What I Remember” interviews were recorded for the local[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Church arson Pt. 2 – The ‘tail’ continues
Two of the best bloodhounds in Colorado arrived in Meeker about 3 o’clock Thursday morning. The dogs were put to work at once. First one dog was put on the trail on the spot where the brick-bat was pulled up from the street. After taking the scent, it followed it[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Church arson Pt. 1
Fiery sermon not the cause of the blaze! One winter evening, on Monday Feb. 19, 1924, Reverend David A. Gregg, pastor, of the Meeker Methodist Episcopal Church began ringing the church bell to sound an alarm that a fire was blazing in the church. Several neighbors and townspeople came hurriedly[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS – Meeker’s star of the Silver Screen
The May 16, 1925, issue of the Meeker Herald proclaimed that the Princess Theater in town would be showing “The Rough Rider,” another of Kenneth Sanderson’s pictures. Kenneth was acting under the name of Buddy Roosevelt. Kenneth was a homegrown Meekerite, so the community was delighted to see someone they[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Agency Survivors, Part IV
So, what happened to the captives taken hostage by the Utes? After 23 days in captivity, Mrs. N.C. (Arvillia) Meeker, daughter Josephine, Mrs. Price and her children were welcomed back in Greeley with honors. When Nathan and Arvilla left Greeley, they didn’t take their three older children. Mary Ann, Rozene[Read More…]
HISTORY LESSONS: Agency Survivors, Part III
The result of Meeker’s first panicked letter to Washington, D.C., was an order to Major Thornburg at Ft. Steel to take troops to the White River Agency. They left Rawlins in the evening of Sept. 23. In route, Thornburg sent a courier, scout Charlie Lowry, ahead to Agent Meeker inquiring[Read More…]