Work resuming on Floyd Hill; expect overnight closings

PAGE 12 WEEKLY REGISTER-CALL PAGE 13 WEEKLY REGISTER-CALLApril 10, 2025April 10, 2025

Newspaper in Colorado

To advertise or subscribe

news@weeklyregistercall.com

“Looking Back” is a collection of historical newspaper reports from Gilpin County.

Winter weather made a

snowy return to Gilpin County

at the start of the week as

spring took a break. Tues-

day snowstorms continued

to make their way through

the area. Over a foot of snow

accumulated in parts of the

county during the storms.

By week’s end, however, the

white stuff had disappeared as

temperatures rose back into

the mid to high 60s.

make parking close, free

Amidst warnings that

“the days of paid parking in

Central City are numbered”

and that “we need close-in

parking, and we need it soon,”

Central City heard recom-

mendations from city staff,

community business leaders

and residents about traffic and

transportation.

Interim City Manager David

Stahl presented a staff plan to

make parking on Pine Street

available to all city and county

residents, limiting it to one

hour of parking from 8 a.m.

to 5 p.m. Monday through

Friday, two hours of parking

from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday

through Friday and from 8 to

2 a.m. Saturdays and Sun-

days. On nights when there

are public meetings at Nevada

House, parking would be for

residents only, from 5 p.m. to

2 a.m.

He also recommended that

any valet parking be con-

ducted off the public right-of-

way. In response to Alderman

Betty Mahaffey’s question

about encouraging parking

garages, Stahl explained that

they are quite expensive to

build, costing around $8,000

per space, so a 150-space

garage should cost about $1.2

million. The real competition,

he said, is the free or validated

parking on the street in Black

Hawk.

Mayor Don Mattivi inter-

jected that though some of the

casino representatives had

expressed strong concerns

about whether a local park-

ing company is interested in

providing better parking, the

Development company was

working with Central City to

get land it owns between D

and Lawrence streets flumed.

It has taken time to work with

the EPA, Corps of Engineers

and the state historic pres-

ervation office, but a parking

garage is not, he said, a dead

issue.

Strike up the band…The

United States military spends

$193 million of taxpayer

dollars each year on military

bands, while spending less

than $21 million for arts

education for kindergarten

through high school. With

more than 8,000 on the

payroll, the Pentagon is actu-

ally the largest employer of

musicians in the world. While

in the military, band mem-

bers’ only duties are rehears-

als, performances, and travel

time.

Central City police reports

A man drove his car over

the wooden parking stops at

the Dostal Alley Casino park-

ing lot to avoid being stopped

in traffic. Officer Joe Barba-

giovanni was stopping traffic

at the intersection of Gregory

and Spring streets at the time

in an effort to close the road

due to a winter storm.

As the man drove toward

Barbagiovanni, the officer

waved his arms and told him

to stop but the man started to

accelerate making the officer

jump to get out of the way.

When the car had to stop in

traffic on the closed street,

Barbagiovanni went and told

the driver to get out of his car.

Instead ,the man pulled away,

with Barbagiovanni holding

on. He hit his car door on

another car pulling out of a

parking lot, trapping the of-

ficer.

When the officer was freed,

he again told the man to get

out of his car and again, the

man refused. Barbagiovanni

then pulled the man from the

car as it rolled and hit an-

other vehicle. The man would

not allow cuffs to be placed

on his wrist and continued

to struggle until bystanders

helped the officer. The man

refused a test to determine his

alcohol level and was arrested

for second-degree assault,

reckless driving, resisting ar-

rest and DUI.

Historic or Hysteric? One

really amusing piece of so-

called “local history” was the

quoted statement by a city

employee, that the State His-

toric Preservation Office was

“very interested in seeing that

the historic cribbing along the

street was preserved.”

What is amusing, is ac-

cording to that statement, I

am “historic.” I remember

the cribbing being built by

the W.P.A. as a project about

1938.

I knew men who worked on

that job, I assume many are

dead by now. There are plenty

of bona-fide historic crib-

bings to talk about, one is the

cribbing on the East Boston

Mine Dump, another is on the

Galena Mine Dump. One we

see every day is the cribbing

back of the Post Office parking

lot. -WCR (William C. Russell,

Jr. – Publisher)

The blackbirds, robins and

bluebirds have been conspicu-

ous by their absence since

Saturday, after being very

much in evidence most of last

week, this Monday morning

finds the country covered with

about five inches of marsh-

mallow frosting. The word

“snow” gets to be a dirty one

about this time of spring. The

sun is shining now but the ba-

rometer is “down” so anything

could happen and probably

will.

From Magazet: “A deficit is

what you have when you don’t

have as much as if you had

nothing.” It’s income tax time

again.

The recent bombing of the

United States embassy in

Saigon was, perhaps not too

unexpected for attacks of this

kind have happened before,

although not at this point.

These are never the result of

an army strategic move but

instead conceived in a likely

small room with the element

of a sneak move designed to

render the opposition in a

helpless state for there is little

defense for this sort of thing.

It does seem a blow at com-

promise and negotiations, but

the men who carry out these

moves have nothing to do

with settlements of any kind,

so for that, we can still hope.

Now, the President has asked

for funds for a new embassy

building there, so it looks like

he means business.

Three stars are signed

for the Central City Opera.

Baritone Russell Christopher,

fresh from a busy season at

the Metropolitan Opera, will

make this his Central City

debut in the 1965 Festival

opening June 26. Frank H.

Ricketson, Jr., chairman of

the Central City Opera House

Assn., announced the signing

of Christopher and two Cen-

tral City favorites coloratura

Mary Jennings and baritone

William Beck. Miss Jennings

and Beck will be returning for

their fourth season. Metro-

politan Opera goers have seen

Christopher in some dozen

widely varied roles this sea-

son, among them Tosca.

Six thousand years of beer.

Records show that the golden

brew was first made in Meso-

potamia, 6,000 years ago.

It was made from a special

bread baked for that purpose.

It was then mashed with

barley malt and allowed to

ferment. Later, brewing was

concentrated in the hands of

churchmen. Ale was closely

identified with many religious

and social festivities. In fact,

the word “bridal” is derived

from the old English “bride

ale,” which the bride poured

out for guests at the church

ceremony. The log of the

Mayflower notes, “our vitals

are becoming low, especially

our beer.” Thereupon, the pil-

grims decided to seek harbor

ahead of schedule, landing

at Plymouth. Were it not for

the beer shortage, they might

have gone elsewhere to estab-

lish their colony.

As Pat Boyle climbed down

from his step ladder in the

legislative chambers shortly

before midnight Saturday,

after performing his bien-

nial right of stopping the

legislative clocks, he made

the following philosophical

observation: “I’ve watched

them legislators come and

go now for almost 50 years;

most of them has been bad,

some has been worse and

some has been pretty good.

All in all, them boys in there

did a pretty good job and I’m

a bettin’ that most of them

will come back two years from

now.” Downstairs, where he

awaited last-minute legisla-

tion, Governor Johnson spoke

up stronger than the State

House janitor: “The 30th Gen-

eral Assembly was composed

of a splendid group of patriot-

ic, high-minded citizens. They

had a difficult task, and for the

most part, they did it well. I

believe this legislature will go

down in history as one of the

best the state has ever known

and its accomplishments will

be a factor in the upbuilding

Continued on next page

of Colorado for many years to

Yesterday another dust

storm arrived in this region

about 11 o’clock, making what

had been a beautiful sunny

day change to a gloomy,

cloudy one. This storm

seemed to be heavier than the

last one, obscuring the sun

and making the temperature

drop several degrees. Toward

evening a light snow fell

and cleared the atmosphere.

Reporters from Boulder this

morning said the dust pall

was still hanging over the

town, causing a great deal of

discomfort.

The shipments of ore and

concentrates over the Colora-

do & Southern Railroad, from

Black Hawk to Colorado City,

the Leadville smelters, and

the sampling works at Idaho

Springs totaled 22 carloads

for the first 11 days of the

month, the shipments being

five carloads from the Russell

Gulch Gold Mining company,

operating the Pittsburgh

group of claims and Russell

Gulch, three from the Druid

mine, operated by Parsons

and Hughes; nine from the

Chain O’ Mines mill in Cen-

tral City, four from the War

Dance mine and one from the

Gregory-Bates mine.

Mr. E. S. Moulton, of this

city, manager of the Rocky

Mountain concentrator in

Black Hawk, is showing a

certificate of assay made by

professor P. R. Alsdorf of

the Standard assay office in

this city from a sample of

ore taken out of the 300-foot

level of the Cotton mine, of

the Nemaha group of claims

on Bobtail Hill, which showed

values of 3,596 ounces gold,

and 102 ounces silver, a total

valuation of $71,981.20 per

ton. The streak was a very

small one and was almost

pure metal, and Mr. Moulton

got a handsome gold button

out of the small sample as-

sayed.

Messers. Jenkins and Light-

bourn, of Central City, have

received a patent from the

government for the Success

lode, which covers a large sec-

tion of the residence quarters

of Russell Gulch, and they are

giving Quit Claim deeds to the

pre-emptors of lots, to square

up their titles.

Tunnel No. 20, on the Mof-

fat Road, some 12 miles east

of Rollinsville, caught fire

Thursday morning from the

sparks of a passing engine,

all the timbers in the tunnel

burning, which caused several

caves and tied up the road for

24 hours. Passengers to Den-

ver walked over the hill, were

loaded on freight cars and

rushed to their destination.

Mr. Ed Alexander came in

from the Oro Verde property

on Monday evening, on his

way to the valley. He was in

the Oro Verde cabin when it

was struck by a snow slide last

Wednesday and carried down

the mountainside a distance

of 400 feet. He was pretty

well buried up with snow, but

managed to get out with but a

few bruises, and without any

serious injuries for which he is

very thankful, but his escape

was most miraculous.

What is now believed to be

the Saratoga vein in Russell

Gulch mining district was cut

by the round of holes fired in

the breast of the Newhouse

tunnel on Wednesday of

last week, and there is great

rejoicing over the event, not

only in Idaho Springs but

throughout the entire Rus-

sell district and the southern

portion of the county. An

enormous flow of water was

encountered and it was with

difficulty that the charges of

dynamite were kept in the

holes on account of the great

pressure of water. Since con-

nections were made water has

been flowing from the vein,

averaging fully 500 gallons

per minute. Mr. Hanchette,

the representative of the

Samuel Newhouse, visited the

tunnel on Tuesday, and said

the vein out was undoubtedly

the Saratoga, the character of

the mineral, the course of the

vein and location of the vein

agreeing with their estimates

engineer.

reached.

approximately 1,500 below

the surface. The point of

intersection of the vein is

2,200 feet west of the main

shaft and 225 feet below the

bottom of the lowest work-

ings. The 9th level has been

extended 1,500 west of the

shaft, which will require a

level 700 feet long from the

breast of the tunnel, and then

upraise of 365 feet to connect

with that level. The 10th level

is only 700 feet west of the

shaft and connections will be

made with the 9th level.

Friday, April 15, 1875

The City of Central was to

pay cash for all its expendi-

tures in the future, the scrip

system having been proven

and expensive one.

Johnny Babb, a former

resident of Black Hawk, was

before the court in Denver,

charged with being an ac-

complice in a case where an

unsophisticated stranger was

fleeced out of several hun-

dred dollars.

Henry M. Teller, William

Teller and W. H. Bush were

the incorporators of the Fall

River Water Company, which

has filed on all the water

sources and courses between

this city and the snowy range

for the purpose of heading off

the county commissioners,

who had formed plans and

were ready to go ahead with

contemplated improvements

to the water system of the

County, with the water bonds

that have been issued for that

purpose. Considerable indig-

nation existed on account of

the actions of the gentleman

named, and it was expected

that the matter would finally

end up in the courts.

Friday’s issue contained the

following from postmaster

Smith, “who thinks that the

introduction of postal cards,

for the use of the public, was

a fatal mistake and estimates

the loss to the government

by their use, at $10 million.

Reforms in the postal system

of the government appear to

be backwards, he thinks.”

View looking down on Eldora, Boulder County, shows a portion of the town and

the Mogul tunnel shaft house atop a tailings pile at the base of Spencer

Mountain. The tunnel’s path has been superimposed on the image. c. 1904

Courtesy DPL Digital Collection

Toyota Corolla cross

I’ve been test driv-

for two decades. The

latest Corolla Cross

hybrid is the best yet,

ditionally attractive

is the suggested re-

tail price of $34,705,

of Toyota’s top safety

cross-traffic protec-

tion.

The powertrain features a 2.0L four-cylinder engine paired

with ECVT. The result is excellent acceleration and fuel effi-

ciency, ranging from the “Cross” feature to 42 combined miles

per gallon in city and highway driving. In addition to a stan-

dard mode, the Corolla provides a high-performance “sport”

mode that delivers outstanding performance and efficiency.

I used the sport mode for most of my driving with the steer-

ing wheel paddle shifter controls. While the engine seemed to

“grunt” a bit under pressure, the Corolla performed well with

the hybrid combination.

The appearance of this Corolla is sharp, featuring premium

paint- a $475 option with shiny red soul paint- and a black

nightshade interior with red stitching, complemented by a

leather-wrapped steering wheel. Although the seat must be

adjusted manually, some features are necessary to eliminate

in order to reduce the vehicle’s price. The premium JBL audio

system, which includes nine speakers, costs an additional

$800, while the moonroof adds another $940; however,

both features are included in the final suggested retail price

of $34,705. The exterior boasts heated outside mirrors, LED

lighting both front and rear, roof rails with crossbars, and a

rear window wiper.

This Corolla features the interior and exterior styling of

a higher-priced SUV, complete with many essential luxury

features. Its powertrain warranty is among the best in the auto

industry. The Corolla is assembled in Huntsville.

I found the vehicle deserving of the Toyota emblems that up-

hold brand quality standards.

ments about their neigh-

boring community. This

City.

ing the mutual-aid fire agree-

ment, there have also been

additional disputes.

Over a year ago, Black

Hawk requested that Cen-

tral City consider shifting its

eastern border to permit the

eastern neighbor to annex

the Briggs Lot. Although the

City of Black Hawk owns

the lot, it is situated within

the boundaries of Central

City. Black Hawk expressed

its desire to possess the lot,

which city leaders indicate

will serve as a trailhead for

its expanding outdoor hiking

and biking trails, while also

continuing to accommodate

parking for its under-con-

struction Bobtail Mine and

street.

another casino, although of-

ficials in the neighboring town

indicated that a change in

state legislation would be nec-

essary to rezone the property

for casino use.

Black Hawk initially offered

Central City $250,000 to dis-

connect the Briggs Lot. Last

year, it increased the ante to

$500,000, noting that Central

City could use the money

however it saw fit.

However, Central City has

not discussed this at any

recent council meetings or is-

sued an official response.

Daniel Miera has been Central City’s

manager since 2014.

Central wants to talk

Work resuming on Floyd Hill; expect overnight closings

Patrick Henry Sweeney

Related Posts

Moffat Tunnel lease approved; Gilpin officials continue pressure for train stop in Rollinsville

Moffat Tunnel oil-train decision now at Supreme Court