Turning Back the Pages

30 Years Ago - February 18, 1983 A volcano, a steam engine, an automatic dog feeder and “Herman,” a large poster displaying the human skeleton, were just a few of the projects displayed at the Re-1 Science Fair last week. Sometime between midnight Thursday and early Monday morning, the second floor offices of the Weekly Register-Call (the old print shop) were burglarized. Janet Davis, editor, discovered the break-in about 9:30 Monday morning and reported the incident to the publisher, William C. Russell, Jr. and the Central City Police Department. Russell compiled a list of missing items for the police department and has offered a $500 reward leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits. A Boulder man was killed February 12 in a plane crash on the Grand County side of Rollins Pass, about a mile south of the major trestle. The man’s 14-year-old son was found wandering around about a mile from the crash site by the sheriff’s Search and Rescue Department and volunteers from the Winter Park ski area. He sustained minor injuries. The results of the survey concerning the possibility of a four-day school week during the 1983-84 school year at Gilpin County School were released this week. 104 questionnaires were completed and returned. Under the preference of schedule, 24 favored the Tuesday through Friday week, 65 favored the Monday through Thursday week and 15 were in favor of keeping the 5-day week. The crew putting in the city water line placed a fire hydrant at the west corner of the museum building on East Third High Street the week past. They placed two posts in position to protect the hydrant and on the tops, the year on one and on the other, their initials, K.W., E.M. and R.J. for Ken Wolfe, Ernie Marquez and Robert Judd. The lady conducting tours at the Teller House is Char Kidd. Deputy Steve Foellmer investigated a report of shots being fired and striking the ground near three horseback riders in Lake Gulch. Queen Marnie Collins and King Rich Ihme reigned at the Gilpin County School homecoming dance which was held February 12 at the Central City Elks Lodge. This is the time of year when Christmas is over every shoulder and summer way off on the distant horizon. 60 Years Ago - February 13, 1953 A dozen or so injections of Penicillin in the warm, pink and pure flesh of his basement, is making it necessary for Rae Laird to sleep on his stomach and write his articles standing up. But he’s back, a little weak in the pins, a tremble of the hands, and a voice like a rasp filing over a piece of steel. The Central Hotel, owned and operated by Mr. Earl Person, has been renovated, cleaned and each room newly papered and decorated. New mattresses, springs and beds have been installed, and it is now one of the finest small hotels in Colorado. Barbara Galbraith, County Clerk & Recorder, states that all Automobile license plate numbers uncalled for will be sold after February 10 th . Funeral services were held here Wednesday afternoon from the Methodist church for Dr. Aych Becker, who died last week in Boulder. Dr. Becker has been a resident of Central City for the past ten years, after retiring from his profession in Denver. He was 79 years of age, and is survived by his wife and one son. Interment was in Bald Mountain cemetery. Joe Ress, of Russell Gulch, writes that his ship U.S.S. Heed will stop at Gibraltar, the first stopping place on the Mediterranean cruise. They have encountered considerable rough weather, so the voyage is a lively one. Work is to begin as quickly as possible on the erection of the Central City Milling and Mining Corporation’s 50 ton selective flotation process mill to handle the ore from the Essex extension of the Eureka vein. The 6 cent per gallon state gas tax can be deducted by Colorado motorists when they file their federal income tax returns, the Rocky Mountain AAA Club announces. Wanted: Builder to remodel the old Morgan house on Spring Street. The recent importation of Spanish red-legged partridges from Spain by the Colorado Game and Fish department through the assistance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service has resulted in a language problem for the department. All information concerning the capture and shipment of the birds was in Castilian Spanish, which varies from the Spanish generally spoken here. The department has obtained a translator and 100 of the birds were released in Las Animas county while others are being cared for at the department bird farm in Colorado Springs. House for Sale in Black Hawk: 1-story, frame, 4 rooms, full basement, 1-car garage. Ten years old. All utilities included. Full price, $3,600, $400 down. Or make offer. If we don’t print the scandals, people tell us our paper is minus features and interesting up-to-date news, and call us lazy. If we print the scandals (and by the way, there is sure plenty of it), people tell us we are vile and untruthful. If business is bad, it’s because the editor wants too much money for his advertising space. If business is good, advertising hasn’t anything to do with it, but conditions are right. If we print what pleases people, that is our duty and we deserve no credit. If we print what is displeasing, we are a grouch and a crepehanger and don’t deserve the patronage of the public. If we print the news as it is actually, people call us over the phone and tell us to stop their paper. If we print the mining news, people tell us that we have no business with their affairs and to leave these things alone until they give us permission. If we don’t print the mining news, people tell us we are dead and don’t know how to run a newspaper to boost the camp. If subscribers want to bawl out anybody - the editor’s the goat. Oh, editing a newspaper is sure a pleasant business, is it not? 90 Years Ago - February 16, 1923 At the regular monthly meeting of the Central City council, City Marshal and street and water commissioner reported the fixing of basketball room, other city matters in good shape, and a plentiful supply of water. Complaints having been made that the Rocky Mountain Mine building was in bad shape, it was generally discussed and the Central City council condemned its condition. The owner will be notified to repair or remove it within 90 days. The Cold Spring, one of the most famous of the tungsten mines of the Nederland District, is to be opened in March. Manager William Loach of the Wolfe Tongue Company, which owns the mine is now in the east. The powder puff is a mighty weapon when two women are at war with each other. Charles Ray in “Midnight Bell,” in six reels, will be the picture at the opera house on Saturday evening. About six inches of snow fell in Apex on Monday and the wind of Tuesday drifted the snow in the county road. Mr. Robbins had to leave his auto about two miles below Apex, and carry the mail to its destination. News from Russell Gulch is that Frank Vivian and partner are shipping ore from their lease on the Two Forty mine to Idaho Springs this week. Chris Plint and two Pallaro boys have a lease on the Morning Star mine and started work on Wednesday. The Crown Point Mine is equipped with electrical machinery and work will commence shortly. Five years have been added to our expectation of life since 1901, according to the life-tables for 1920 which have just been compiled. A child born in 1901 was likely to live to be only 49.2 years old, a child born in 1910 could expect to live to be 51.5. Today the newborn baby will probably live to be at least 54.3 years old. Honest people should welcome an investigating committee. It removes any doubt that might lurk in their own minds. Hereafter, if the City of Central supplies water to the City of Black Hawk, the same shall be paid for in cash, instead of registered warrants. The practice of running water at night to prevent freezing was condemned by the Central City council. The dance given by the Neighbors of Woodcraft on Saturday evening in Black Hawk was the event of the season and everybody in attendance enjoyed themselves to the limit. Tuesday morning at the recess hour at the Black Hawk School, Mr. McNeil’s boy and a son of Mrs. Cassagranda, lads about 10 years of age, were fighting on the school grounds, and Professor St. John, the principal of the school, was called to quell the disturbance. He took the lads in the school building, and with a small switch gave them a mild punishment, and they were sent home. Reports are that when the Cassagranda lad arrived home his mother boxed his ears for fighting and made him go back to school. When the McNeil lad arrived home and told his father that the professor had licked him, Mr. McNeil mounted his fiery Pegasus and lost no time in getting to the school room. When he entered the Professor’s room, Mr. St. John was filling several ink bottles from a quart bottle, and with a remark by McNeil of whether “this was a slaughter house,” he grabbed St. John, and in the tussle which followed the contents of the ink bottle were scattered over both contestants, many of the scholars, and desks and floor. Mr. St. John was thrown down between the seats with McNeil on top of him. The children were frightened and ran from the room to the street asking for help. Marshal Klais responded and placed McNeil under arrest. Justice Kruse found McNeil guilty of the charge of assault and battery and fined him $20 and costs. 120 Years Ago - February 17, 1893 Last Monday night between 10 and 11 o’clock, Frank Mativi, an Austrian miner about 20 years of age, was seriously injured while working in one of the back-stopes of the Fiske Mine. It seems that he had drilled a hole and was in the act of charging it with high explosives, and was using a tamping-bar to seat the charge in the bottom of the hole. All of a sudden there was an explosion, Mativi receiving a large portion of the charge in his face and on his hands and arms. He was taken to the shaft put in a bucket and raised to the surface. Dr. Davidson was summoned, who found his face badly lacerated, both eyes and his hands injured. Although he could distinguish objects, his vision was somewhat dimmed. The doctor thinks he will be able to save his eyesight. The injured man is being cared for by his brother who resides in Chase Gulch. There is no blame attached to anyone for the accident, except Mativi. A musician never knows how much his playing is not appreciated until the folks in the next house complain of it. Tuesday morning between 1 and 2 o’clock, a bright flame was seen issuing from the shaft-house of the Ivanhoe mine, Nevada District. Mr. Charles E. Stevens, the general manager, was among the first on the ground, but the fire had got such headway before being discovered that it was impossible to quench the flames. It is the impression of Mr. Stevens that the fire caught from the inside, without anybody’s aid, from unknown causes. The building was entirely destroyed and the machinery injured. The loss entailed is $3,000, upon which there was an insurance of $1,500. Last Thursday evening General Eugene K. Stimson’s case which was on trial in Denver on a charge of forgery, closed, the jury brining in a verdict of “not guilty,” after being out less than five hours. The General’s many friends in Gilpin County extend congratulations to him. There was a little spite work in this case. Cholera and crinoline appear to be the evils of which the world is most afraid. It is difficult to choose between them. Denver dealers are claiming that the high price of lard is affecting the price of butter. There is nothing said about the scarcity of water affecting the price of milk. The grand masquerade ball of the Black Hawk Silver Cornet Band, given at Sons of America Hall in the Quartz Mill city, was one of the most successful affairs, both socially and financially, that has occurred in that city for many a day. In the grand march there were over fifty couples en masque, and it was with great difficulty that the prompter, Mr. John Cronin, could keep the maskers in proper line. The grand parade en masque through the streets of Black Hawk, Central and Nevadaville, was a great event and drew crowds of spectators along the streets paraded. The Jerusalem ponies ridden by the maskers caught the attention of the school boys and girls. A 20-stamp custom mill formerly run at Idaho Springs has been taken down and removed to the head of Cumberland gulch on the southerly slope of Yankee Hill and will be erected at once. This was the great detriment of the mine owners of that section. Heretofore they have been dependent upon the Black Hawk and Idaho Springs custom mills. The cost of transportation of ore was great, that of from $30 to $40 per cord, which proved a serious drawback in opening up the recently discovered gold-bearing veins. The site of the new mill could not have been better, as it is a downhill haul to it from a large proportion of the veins that have been opened. Died: In Black Hawk, February 13, 1893, Thomas Osborne, aged 67 years. Died: In Russell Gulch, William, son of William Mellow, Sr., aged 10 years. A big strike of smelting ore has been made in the Gold Rock Company’s Springdale Mine in Russell District. Mr. J. Ben Lewis, superintendent of the mine, reports “We have struck it at last in the 360 foot level east. Have driven through rock harder than the rock of ages for a long distance, and now have over 3 feet of smelting ore; the biggest body of ore I have ever seen in the Springdale.” 135 Years Ago - February 9, 1878 The First National Bank today ships a gold brick weighing 1,205.75 ounces, valued at $24,000, from the Boston & Colorado Company’s works. John Morrissey is reported out of danger. His wife cured him by administering to him a decoction of watermelon seeds.

Turning Back the Pages

Patrick Henry Sweeney

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