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30 Years Ago - July 29, 1983 A high country fisherman was injured when he slipped on a snow bank on Rollins Pass last Friday. The Flight-for-Life helicopter from St. Anthony’s Hospital was called to transport the man for treatment of a broken leg. Central City contractor Bobby Allen was injured in a backhoe accident Tuesday afternoon. Allen was driving the backhoe off a trailer when the roadway gave way underneath and the backhoe flipped over on its back. Fortunately a roll bar prevented the cab of the machine from being crushed and Allen was able to crawl out the window and walk for help. The accident occurred near the Crazy Girl Mine west of Idaho Springs. All the ribs on the right side of Allen’s back were broken. Despite the fact that its members are not getting along very well, Gilpin County Search & Rescue is not going to split into two entirely separate bodies. The split had been suggested to help cut down on the number of meetings members must attend. Black Hawk citizens were ready to sue their city, but the city’s attorney told them that there is no reason for the suit as the information they are basing it on is incorrect. Norman and Kent Blake, whose houses on High Street are falling apart, understood the city had settled all claims resulting from the water project and their claims had not been included in the settlement. The city attorney said the city has not even discussed settling with the insurance company for any liability matters and the Blake houses are liability matters. In the past two weeks, the sheriff’s department has taken numerous burglary reports of homes in our area and believes six of these burglaries were committed by the same suspects. The suspects have been known to watch homes two to three weeks prior to the burglaries. Gilpin County has a new one-of-a-kind solar energy collector at a home owned by Lyle and Gail Sheftel near Bald Mountain. It is unique in that the collector tracks the sun across the sky, thus gathering a maximum amount of heat. The moving collector has a curved field of mirrors on the top side. The restaurant known as Black Harry’s disappeared last weekend and in its stead arose the Brass Bucket. The president of the Bald Mountain Cemetery Association reported that someone had attempted to tear two entrance gates off their hinges. Damage was estimated at $150. Central City and Gilpin County volunteer ambulance crew were prominently displayed in the July issue of Emergency Magazine. An article entitled “Small Town EMS,” by Arline Zatz, contained information taken from an interview with emergency medical technician Leslie Williams. Pat Warkentin, John Starkey, and Debbie Olhausen were also photographed in action at a scene where a victim required attention. Through a matching grant from the Colorado Historical Society and donated architectural and engineering services of Community Services Collaborative, the Central City Opera House Association will attempt to prevent the continued deterioration of the Coeur D’Alene Mine structure and foundation. Something major happened at the Register-Call last Thursday night. After 26 ½ years with the paper, Ernie Wright retired. Taking Ernie’s job is John George, who is the husband of our new bookkeeper, Debi. John is also a pressman with the Rocky Mountain News. For the second year in a row, the team for the Stage Stop Inn has won the Evergreen Men’s Slow-Pitch Softball tournament. There were 18 teams in the tournament, some coming from Denver and Grand County. Joey Kern of the Stage Stop was voted the most valuable player of the tournament. What can be written about a “Spamposium,” whatever that is? What it was, was one of the happenings in Central last weekend. On Saturday, a mixed crowd, numbering more than 40, made up of Denverites, opera stars and locals assembled at the Lew Cady residence for an afternoon of fun with various presentations having as their central theme the pork product known as Spam. Because of the rain, the participants had to trek back and forth between the house and the outdoor theater, the Spamphitheater, alternately running from the rain and then ignoring it. It’s a wonder Spamdamonium didn’t break out. 60 Years Ago - July 24, 1953 Sheriff Kenneth McKenzie has installed a two-way radio system in his car, and now can receive messages from other law enforcement agencies throughout the state. This is an important asset and brings Gilpin County to the front in progress, and will be the means of keeping this county free from crime. Dr. Murchow intends to uncover the old C. & S. railroad station, now buried under thousands of tons of tailings or concentrates from ore milled at the Chain O’Mines mill. It is the intent to make a museum of this building. Within will be displayed many historic relics of by-gone years. At the head of Upper Spring Street where a road branches to the left toward the Pittsburg Mine and Lake Gulch, an unsightly “city dump” has accumulated through the years, which is not exactly a joy to behold. Did you know that doing the laundry for a family of four can create over four pounds of moisture vapor in the air? Funeral services were held from the Woods Mortuary Parlors in Golden on Wednesday for Crawford Davis, with cremation later, and the ashes to be scattered over a mountain near Apex, six miles west of this city. The Class in Geophysics of the Colorado School of Mines under Professor Gould and Melbye, spent Friday in Russell Gulch on a field trip. Recapitulation of the bills audited and ordered paid by the County Commissioners on July 6: General Fund, $3,075; Contingent Fund, $67.78; Poor Fund, $135.55; P.W.A. Fund, $338.33; Road and Bridge Fund, $4,760.48. Actress, June Allyson, was in Central City last Saturday. 90 Years Ago - July 27, 1923 The electric power was put on at the Evergreen Mine near Apex last Friday, having been off since November, 1921. Three shifts started to hoist water on Monday morning at the mine. The new electric hoist, which has been installed to replace the old one, is one of the largest in the county and is working fine. Seven autos came up to American City on Saturday, and ten more on Sunday came over the road west of Apex, going to Tolland over the state road. There would be more travel if the Apex, Elk Park and Tolland road was in better condition, it being in bad shape from Apex to the Mackey Mine. The first actual construction work in connection with the boring of the Moffat Tunnel thru the north shoulder of James Peak got under way Tuesday. A force of about thirty men commenced with the construction of a water supply and a sewer system for the workmen’s camp. At both portals, the Tunnel Commission will at once construct houses for the resident engineers who will be on the job until the tunnel is finished. Acting on a tip given Sheriff Oscar Williams on Sunday last, he and his deputy Will Sibley, left here at midnight Sunday for a point near the Grand Union Mine, a couple of miles from Rollinsville, and entering a log cabin at that point found a still which had been in operation since shortly before the 4 th of July in manufacturing moonshine from sugar and hops. The four parties arrested were unable to pay their fines and are still languishing in the county jail. Owing to the breaking of an axle on the engine on Saturday evening on the high line near the Americus Mine, the train did not reach Central until Sunday morning. Passengers on the train walked to this city, and the mail was brought up on a handcar. Someone went into Jim Winship’s place of business in Black Hawk Wednesday afternoon and took out of his money sack $32 in bills, scorning some silver dollars that were keeping the bills company. He said he had stepped out of the front door only a few minutes when the robbery took place. Tom Rowe and Adolph Snyder had a narrow escape from serious injuries if not death on Sunday last when the auto of Mr. Rowe, driven by himself, went over the wall on Casey Avenue and landed upside down at the back of the residence of Thomas Atkinson. Both escaped with a few scratches and bruises and are up and around again, but in no way desirous of a repetition of their experience. Anita Stewart in “The Invisible Fear” in six reels, will be the picture at the Opera House on Saturday. Good progress is being made in grading out for the Mace smelter which is to be erected at Mountain City, and a portion of the plant has been received in Black Hawk, and it is expected that the plant will be ready for operation the first of September. The ten-stamp mill which has been erected at Mountain City by the Dump Mining Company, who are operating the Dump Mine on Gregory Mountain has been connected up with the electric power from the Colorado Power Company and will be ready for operation by the end of the week. There was a rush of tourists to this city on Sunday last, and the Teller House furnished dinner for 60 transients on that day. The walls of the new flume in Black Hawk have reached a point below the iron bridge over the street and the covering of the old flume has been torn up as far as the new section built last year. The walls will be completed the full length of the flume and the bottom will be laid after that work is done. When a husband wipes the dishes he knows what a job it is for his wife to wash them three hundred and sixty-five times in a year. 120 Years Ago - July 28, 1893 Our annual visitor, a cloud-burst west of Central, last Wednesday, flooded Gilpin County and badly damaged both Central and Black Hawk. Conservative persons place the damage done to the flumes, streets and City Park in Central at fully $10,000. The steps in front of St. James M. E. Church were filled with sightseers, watching the moving accident as it thundered along on its course down Eureka Street. The flood of water coming down County Road and Spruce Street, only increased the velocity of the flood from Eureka Street. The water divided, a portion going down Main Street, the rest passing down Lawrence Street. The volumes of water from Eureka were met on Main Street by another large body of water from Spring and Nevada gulches. Cellars of the shops and business buildings along the flood’s path were filled with water four feet in depth, sand and debris. Water broke into the buildings of many residences, filling the rooms with sand to a depth of nearly three feet and ruining pretty much of everything in the rooms. Floating debris caught up in the curves of the flume piled up to a height of 20 feet. The residence of City Marshal Keleher was badly wrecked by floating timbers striking the windows in the kitchen, the water and sand running out of the kitchen door. Mrs. Keleher with the children made their escape from the building just as the driftwood affected an entrance through the windows. Mr. Joe Waters rescued a couple of lads who were about to be caught by the flood from Spring and Nevada streets. A few moments more and their bodies would have been washed down Main Street at a 2:40 gait. The turntable at the depot at Black Hawk was filled, and the track covered at various places with sand and rock. Just below the sampling works, where Silver Gulch crosses the railroad track, there is a fill about two hundred feet long, and from two to eight feet in depth. The only damage sustained in Nevadaville was the washing away of two bridges spanning the gulch below the stamp mill of the Hubert Mining Company. The people residing along Russell Gulch escaped without any material loss, although the body of water passing down was the largest seen in that vicinity of any previous flood since 1885. There are at least 5,000 people in Denver, out of employment, and the authorities are shipping them east by the trainload. A piece of nearly pure copper was being exhibited in Black Hawk on Monday afternoon, which it was claimed had been picked up near Thorn Lake. Michigan, following the example of Kansas, has passed a law allowing women to vote at municipal elections, with the qualifications that they must be able to read and write. But why should not the same test be applied to the masculine gender? The demands for gold mining properties in Gilpin County are increasing daily. Those magnificent volcanic gold mines of Arizona have been pronounced a fake of the first water. The County Commissioners are grading out for a building in the rear of the district court room on Eureka Street for the erection of a building to be used as a temporary asylum for insane people. The jail quarters are not fit for persons of that nature. Fresh fruits are scarce in market owing to the blockade caused by wash-ins and wash-outs along the Colorado Central Railroad. Born: In Black Hawk, July 21, 1893, to the wife of Ed. Feehan, a daughter. Born: In Black Hawk, July 22, 1893, to the wife of Peter Johnson, a daughter. Born: In Black Hawk, July 21, 1893, to the wife of John Rudolph, a son. Born: In Central City, July 22, 1893, to the wife of William Jewell, a daughter. Born: In Nevadaville, July 24, 1893, to the wife of George Brown, a son. Died: In Central City, July 24, 1893, Grace, wife of Thomas Trevarrow, aged 39 years. Thursday morning’s News: A few determined men, backed by a yelling crowd of over 10,000 persons from all walks of life, broke into the Denver County Jail at 10:30 last night and dragged Dan Arrata, the brutal murderer of Benjamin C. Lightfoot, from his cell and hung him to a limb of a tree on Santa Fe Avenue. A Gregory Street beau paid devoted attention to a young lady on Chase Street for a few weeks and then switched over and commenced a siege on the heart of the young lady who lived directly across the street. The first-named miss was highly insulted at the desertion, and now consoles herself by pounding the piano and singing that sentimental as well as warning ballad, “He is Fooling Then,” every time the erstwhile lover visits her rival.

Patrick Henry Sweeney

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