30 Years Ago – January 7, 1983
Nearly two weeks after the Blizzard of ’82, the snow remains and continues to plague Gilpin’s various road departments. Cold temperatures have frustrated the weak attempts of the sun to melt the icy mounds of snow. This week, just when people’s tolerance was wearing thin, the winds came. Roads across the county became covered with deep snow drifts, making some of them impassable. Drifts on Highway 119 were three to four feet deep, the worst one being just north of the Bureau of Standards building in mid-county. Bobby Clay, supervisor of the Gilpin County Road and Bridge Department, said King Flats Road, the road to Smith Ranch west of Central City and parts of Dory Hill are still closed. Clay said he’d managed to get a plow through the Kings Flats area but by the time he drove a short distance, turned around, and came back, he had “lost the road.” The drifting was so bad that snowplows could not push many of the drifts. The county had to bring in graders and dozers to clear the snow. A mammoth drift near the old town of Gilpin was six feet high and 15 feet wide, blocking the entire road. There were four vehicles stuck in it.
Leslie Williams of upper Apex Road has been appointed by Governor Lamm to the 16-member State Advisory Council on Emergency Medical Services. Williams is the former commander of Gilpin County Search and Rescue and is the county coroner.
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