Turning Back the Pages

30 Years Ago - September 2, 1983 Arden Larson, president and majority stockholder of Saratoga, claims that, although no gold is yet ready for shipment to refinery, the last bugs have been worked out in a procedure that will earn the company a profit of $7,500 per day. The company’s experimental facilities are located in Willis Gulch about three miles south of Central City. Instead of mining for gold, the corporation is taking gold out of old mine dumps using a leaching process. Gilpin County applied for a $325,000 grant from the Division of Local Affairs, to purchase and partially remodel the Clark School in Central City. The grant was denied because the County missed the submission deadline. The County will submit the grant again. The grant applications are reviewed three times a year. The realtor who was representing a group of investors who previously wanted to buy Clark is still interested according to school board member John Rittenhouse. The school superintendent was advised to call the realtor and inform her that the deal with the county is “looking soft.” Washing windows is usually not in the job description for police chiefs, but that didn’t stop Central City’s Pat Warkentin from getting the job done. He was spotted perched on a ladder cleaning the glass. When he took the position Warkentin said he was aware that law enforcement officers in small towns have to be versatile and able to fill in wherever necessary, but he does hope “police chief/window washer” doesn’t become his permanent title. Because of overcrowding anticipated last spring, Superintendent Fred Meyers had been instructed by the RE-1 School Board to look into possible locations for the kindergarten class. The old storeroom in the new gymnasium, which has just been remodeled, will be large enough for the kindergarten class, unless there is a significant change in enrollment. Robert A. Edgerton of Denver and Central City died August 10, 1983. Goerge W. Hartter, former chairman of the Gilpin County Republican Party, who lived near South Beaver Creek Road for several years until he moved to Golden in 1972, died June 19, 1983. Viola Elizabeth Mitchell, a Gilpin County native, died in Fresno, California, June 17, 1983. On August 19 th , the Sheriff’s Office received a report from an owner of a mine along Elk Creek that he had caught two individuals tearing up a mining building and loading up the timber. He blocked the suspects’ retreat and had them unload the wood. Undersheriff Eric Klemp investigated a burglary of a metal shack in American City. Approximately $363 worth of items was reported missing. It was the fabric and the cut and the way the clothes hung on the models that proved they were designer originals. A half-million dollars’ worth of Geoffrey Beene evening gowns, business suits, coats and dresses were paraded across the stage of the Central City Opera House August 23 and 24 in the annual benefit fashion show for the Opera House Association. David Grogan, of Rollinsville, brought in 18 ducks, off-loading them about 200 yards from the pond and figured they would smell the water and settle there. The ducks scattered. After a search of several acres, six were found. Over the next few days, all but one joined the gang at the pond. Grogan figured the geese would welcome the ducks. The geese won’t go near the pond; they stand around up on the driveway squawking. That upset the goat, who has been crying without interruption for three days. Now the dog knows something is up and won’t eat and doesn’t want to go outside. 60 Years Ago - August 28, 1953 Last week the cast of “The Time of the Cuckoo” stole into Williams’ Stables and Raymond Smith, the best caller in the business, gave them a lesson in square dancing. They were so proficient and had so much fun they want to square dance every night. Whether or not visitors to this region realize it, the fact remains that we are entering into the most beautiful season of the year - Indian Summer. None of the men who would make perfect husbands are married. Mr. Bruce, our Secretary of State, gleefully reports there is not one “slot” operating in Colorado, and he’s probably right. He went on to say that the gambling picture, as far as Colorado is concerned, is the cleanest since the turn of the century. Recapitulation of the bills audited and ordered paid by County Commissioners: County Fund, $2,943.22; Public Works Fund, $796.42; Contingent Fund, $331.86; Road and Bridge Fund, $3,045.79; Poor Fund, $164.,92; and PWA Fund, $227.46. Total: $7,489.67. The Black Hawk Firemen’s picnic held last Sunday on upper Clear Creek was well attended, and everyone enjoyed the games and “eats.” It was a most successful season, both for the Opera House Association and the business houses in general, and now that it has passed into oblivion, we hope writers on newspapers and amateur freelance students of journalism will not refer to Central City as being folded up with no activity existing during the winter months. This is a city, an historical city; the county seat of Gilpin County, the mecca of tourists and visitors, the city that made Denver, the city that one time controlled the destiny of the state, and we resent any innuendo that we have “folded up” or we are now a “has been.” 90 Years Ago - August 31, 1923 There has been a frost every morning the past week in Apex, and the weather is due for a dry spell. Very few people made the effort on Sunday morning to rise from their slumbers to see the eclipse of the moon. There were no clouds and the partial eclipse was plainly visible. Michael Whalen was a Tolland visitor on Sunday, and reports that from the number of autos in Tolland, it would seem that all roads lead there on account of the Moffat Tunnel. Alfred Pallaro of Russell Gulch had his left thumb badly smashed by a jack hammer, last week, while at work on the canyon road. The Loch Lomond fishermen returned to Russell on Sunday with 86 nice trout. When Thursday evening’s train arrived from Forks of Creek our people were informed that a wash-out had struck the C. & S. Railroad at Beaver Brook, and points below, washing out the bridge at the former place and covering the tracks with rock and debris at many points below, and regular traffic was not resumed until Sunday morning. Richards and Saunders, operating the Jennie Blanch Mine in the lower part of Black Hawk, made a shipment of a carload of high grade smelting ore to the Leadville smelter on Saturday. The heavy roads last week caused a few washouts on the Golden Gate road, and for a time the Guy Hill ranchers were compelled to come to Golden by way of Virginia Canyon and Idaho Springs. A new and most pleasant trip has been originated and carried out in the Dory Hill section of the county. It consists in a hike in the early evening in the highest point on Bear Mountain; camping there at night, with a most beautiful view of the whole country, with the lights of Denver and Boulder in plain view, and next morning at dawn the changeable view of the numerous lakes east of Boulder. After a wholesome breakfast a climb over every rock on Bear Mountain, finally reaching the apex of the Bear’s ear, which is a most daring climb, and when Omar sprawls out it is a whole “Wild West Show,” and then the weary, but enjoyable descent down the mountain, being refreshed on the way from a fountain of youth in the shape of a crystal cold spring at the head of Crane’s Gulch. The first frost of the season was noticed on the sidewalks in this city on Tuesday morning. Jim Daley came up from Denver on Wednesday to pack up and ship to Tolland a complete billiard and pool table outfit, which he will establish there for the boys who will be employed during the winter months while building the Moffat Tunnel. Hope Hampton in “The Light in the Dark,” in six reels will be the picture at the opera house on Saturday. If things are not going your way, turn around and travel in the other direction. You may meet them. The bridge gang of the Colorado & Southern Railroad arrived in Black Hawk this week and are overhauling the wooden portion of the bridge leading over Gregory street. A steady ad in this newspaper will restore a rundown business to health, resurrect departed customers, and cure a crippled bank account. 120 Years Ago - September 1, 1893 They say Lewis C. Snyder hooked a two-pound trout over at Al Rollings’ week before last, and for a few moments he was in a great doubt as to whether it was himself or the trout that was floundering in the water. Lewis pulled him out though, all right. That fish made famous eating. The Board of Education of the Black Hawk Public School have repaired the stairs leading from Church Street up to the main entrance of the school building, as well as made all other necessary repairs needed. The fall and winter term will open next Tuesday. The girl who let her prize fighter lover pound her good Sunday evening, did not swear out a warrant for him so there was no woman beater before Judge Tonking of the police court Monday morning. The judge has no use for woman beaters. A Black Hawk pugilist says he has discovered a cure for insomnia. He can put almost anybody asleep. Mr. Fred T. Gooch was in on Wednesday morning from Rollinsville for a load of redwood shingles, with which to put a new roof on the district school house in that place. Mr. John Kruse has been kept busy for several days in dressing down the floor at Turner Hall, which was very badly warped and raised up in places by the water breaking into it last month. The purchases of gold at the Denver Mint for the first two months of the fiscal year, made public today, shows an increase of $106,000. The increase is the largest ever made at the mint for a correspondingly short period. The friends of both sexes, of equal suffrage are requested to meet at People’s Theatre, September 2d, at 8 o’clock p.m. for the purpose of organizing an auxiliary association to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association of Colorado. The amendment to the State Constitution granting the franchise to women will be voted upon at the coming November election, and the attention of friends is called to the urgency of immediate action if a successful campaign is to be made in the short time remaining, as thorough work should be done in this locality as is being done in all other parts of the state. The festival given by the ladies of St. Paul’s Church Friday and Saturday evenings was very enjoyable to those who attended. The sum netted amounted to $18. Born: In Central City, August 31, 1893, to the wife of Richard Bowden, a daughter. Born: In Black Hawk, August 25, 1893, to the wife of Andrew Larson, a son. Born: In Black Hawk, August 25, 1893, to the wife of Frank Hepborn, a daughter. Born: In Central City, August 27, 1893, to the wife of Phillip Parenteau, a son. Assays made from the ore cut in the tunnel workings of the Alice Mine at Silver City, have been returned as high as $19.50 per ton, although selected samples of clear mineral have went as high as $60 per ton. In dismissing an action for libel against a newspaper, a level-headed judge ruled that “whenever a newspaper finds a case of flagrant wrongdoing and evil, it is the newspaper’s duty to expose it and give it the widest circulation. A new shaft building 22 x 30 has been erected over the 300 foot shaft of the Cotton Mine on Bobtail Hill. The flat friction hoister and boiler formerly used on the Fiske Mine has been removed from the latter to the former property and set up. Miners are engaged in straightening the shaft and retimbering it. This is slow work, but it is being done in a thorough manner. It will be a month before the Cotton will have a steady output of ore. Superintendent Charley Grimm of the Buell Mine, after considerable hard work has cleaned out the engine shaft on that property, which was flooded by the heavy rain and general demoralization of July 26. The public schools of Central City opened August 28. There are a total of 196 students enrolled at the stone building and 233 at the frame building for a total enrolled of 429. Three hundred and fifty tons of coal are now daily transferred from the broad to the narrow gauge at the Union Pacific freight yards in Golden, and shipped to the mountain towns of Gilpin and Clear Creek counties. Mrs. Frank Leslie, who has made a bundle of money and a couple of matrimonial experiments, is about to take unto herself another husband. Mrs. Leslie is a bright writer, a fun business woman and quite comely. She believes in woman’s rights and when she wants a husband she goes out and corrals one.

Patrick Henry Sweeney

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