30 years ago – April 19, 1985
The City of Black Hawk lost one of its older landmarks Friday night when the Stroehle Building was consumed by fire. The large stone and wooden structure was built prior to the turn of the century by George Stroehle, a European immigrant. Upon coming to the States, Stroehle lived in Illinois for a while and learned the boiler-making trade. After being discharged from the Union Army, he moved to Black Hawk in 1864, and founded the Black Hawk Boiler & Sheet Iron Works. The firm later became Stroehle & Son, and a good deal of the boiler and mining equipment used in this area was manufactured in the big stone building at the foot of Gregory Gulch. Last Friday evening, a small fire was discovered around 7:30 p.m. in the building. When the Central City Fire Department responded to the fire, they were told that everything was under control. According to John Starkey and Tom Poindexter of Black Hawk, all of the debris and burning rubble was removed from the building. Around 11:00 p.m. that same evening, upon returning from Denver, the Robert Coppin family discovered that the building was ablaze inside. The alarm was sounded and the Black Hawk and Central City fire departments responded. They tried to pump water from the creek, but there was not enough water to feed the pump. They then tried to pump from a hydrant, but the pressure wasn’t great enough due to a broken water main. The efforts of the firemen continued through the night, but the building was lost. Plans now for the property are unknown.
By Esther Campbell: Across the Casey on the old cottonwood tree is a downy woodpecker working hard on the bark to extract the wood boring insects. This black and white bird has a red spot on the back of his head, so he is a male. The downy and hairy woodpeckers have been here all winter at the suet feeder. The hairy woodpecker is larger, but has almost the same coloring. Before I forget, I want to tell you that I found the mountain crocus (pasque flower) and candy tuft in bloom on April 5 this year. Last year I found it the first time on May 4.
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