Turning Back the Pages

30 years ago – January 17, 1986

Monday afternoon, the Gilpin County Sheriff’s Department was notified of a supposed kidnapping. The reporting party also said another child was missing and an assault had occurred. The reporting party was from Russell Gulch. According to Undersheriff David Martinez, he immediately began patrolling the area south of Russell Gulch looking for the truck that was supposed to contain the kidnapped child. At the same time, Deputy Jon Bayne responded to the reporting party’s residence to take the initial report about the incident. Gilpin County Search & Rescue was notified to begin searching for the 9 year old boy that was reported missing. The boy was thought to be in the area, but could not be located. After patrolling the area for the suspected truck in the kidnapping case, Martinez was unable to locate it. He said he was not given an accurate description of the vehicle. Martinez received information that the woman who allegedly kidnapped one of the children was his mother. After further investigation, it was discovered that both of the children were safe in Adams County. The mother had legal custody of her son. The 9 year old went with them of his own free will when the mother took her son. There was, in fact, no kidnapping and no missing child. The boys are stepbrothers. Martinez said an assault did occur on the boys’ father. Charges of third degree assault have been filed against Christopher Robins of Westminster, the uncle of one of the boys. Martinez and Sheriff Rosetta Anderle said the case is under further investigation.

Louisa Ward Arps of Denver, a noted Colorado author, historian, and librarian, died January 11, 1986. She was 84. Her books include “Denver in Slices,” “Front Range Panorama,” “Chalk Creek, Colorado,” “Cemetery to Conservatory,” and “High Country Names,” a book she coauthored with Elinor Kingery. Governor Richard Lamm, in paying tribute to her in 1982 when she was honored by the American Society for State and Local History, said her work was “Central to any good Colorado history library” and “Central to our state’s efforts to preserve the past.” Arps was recently honored by the Colorado State Legislature because she was a “historian, writer, and naturalist who warmed the hearts and minds of Colorado’s old and young. She was born in Denver on June 20, 1901. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and a graduate library degree from Columbia University. From 1925 to 1946, she worked in two Denver high schools. From 1948 to 1962, she worked in the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library. From 1962 to 1967m she was with the Colorado Historical Society. She had a television series, “Denver’s Yesterdays,” on Channel 6 in the mid-1950s when the TV station began broadcasting. She maintained a busy schedule right up to the time of her death. She had been working on a historical landmark designation for a Denver neighborhood. She had been on an excursion to Rocky Mountain National Park the day before her death. She is survived by her husband, Elwyn A. Arps. They were married in 1940. He is well known as a photographer and mountaineer. He often collaborated with her on publications and at public appearances. Memorial services were held Wednesday at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral in Denver. Burial was at Fairmont Cemetery.