Turning Back the Pages

 30 years ago – September 13, 1985

Sunday afternoon, a woman drove her motorcycle into a mine shaft south of Russell Gulch. She slid down the side of the hole, coming to rest just next to the main shaft. The woman, Lee Held, was motorcycling with a friend, Dale Smith, both from Evergreen. According to Reserve Deputy Sheriff Bill Palmer’s report, Smith spotted the shaft and managed to avoid it. Before he could warn Held, however, she went into it. Judging from tire tracks, motorcycles have been climbing the mine dump. Right at the top, of course, is the shaft. Smith went for help. Palmer, Undersheriff David Martinez, Deputy Bruce Hartman, members of Search & Rescue, Van Cullar, Norm Blake, and numerous other people responded to the scene. While the rescue team was getting ready, Martinez tied a rope to two trees and lowered it to Held in case the ledge she was on collapsed. When Cullar and Blake arrived, they lowered a ladder to Held and went down to rescue her, Palmer reported. Then, as Cullar helped from within the hole, the motorcycle was winched out of the shaft. Held was in “good spirits,” Palmer said, and had only her “leg beat up.” Indeed, as everyone was leaving the scene, Held climbed on the bike and followed and sheriff’s car out of the area.

For almost 10 months, Gilpin County has been trying to get a house torn down that was built without a permit and was in violation of building codes. The county filed suit against Robert T. Syrjala and Ronnie Bishop on November 16, 1984, asking the court to have the structure removed. On July 19, 1985, District Court Judge Winston W. Wolvington ordered them to remove the house within a month. Otherwise, the county was authorized to do it. Syrjala and Bishop did not do anything about the court order, so last Friday the County got Everett Williford’s crew to do it. It took only a day. The lumber was neatly stacked on the property in case Syrjala and Bishop showed up to claim it. As of Wednesday, they had not, so Williford was to take the lumber as payment for his work. Gilpin Building and Zoning Inspector Verl Jones emphasized that the County was not out any money for the demolition. The County attorney was paid for his court work, however. The house was located in the Sunrise Heights Addition of Gilpin Gardens Subdivision.