Historically Jeffco – Summer, 1990
Summer 1990 Jistoricattu ~tffco
PUBLISHED BY THE JEFFERSON COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION
Jefferson County, Colorado Volume 3, Number I, Summer 1990
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WHEAT RIDGE SODDY CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE ISSUEONE VOLUMETHREE SUMMER 1990 By: Erlene Hulsey Historically Jeffco is published We are in the early months of a new decade filled with challenges for all of us living biannually in the Summer and on our planet. Many of the lessons we are learning have been as a result of the history Winter by the Jefferson County scholars who preceded us. As members of the Jefferson County Historical Commission Historical Commission, Golden, we too, are making our contribution to the future by taking steps to encourage and Colorado. initiate action whereby Jefferson County's history is preserved. Giant strides have been made as we recently experienced the hiring of a County Chairman Erlene Hulsey Archivist, the direct result of the Commission's request and recommendations. The Vice Chairman George C. Kenry ''Place Name Dictionary" is on its way to becoming a reality as hours of research Secretary Jane Gardner continue. A new brochure describing historical sites and museums in Jefferson County Treasurer Dennis L. Potter will be hopefully available this Summer for distribution to local museums and Historian Esther Harkness interested facilities. The Writing Award Contest for 1990 has been closed and the new Jefferson County contest for 1991 is now open. Rules and entry forms can be obtained by writing the Commissioners Historical Commission at P.O. Box 659, Morrison, Colorado, 80465; or by District One Rich Ferdinandsen telephoning Susie Paulson at the Courthouse at 303-277-8514. District Two Marjorie E. Clement The 1990 Hall of Fame will be held at the Golden Library on November 17. This District Three John P. Stone festive celebration honors one living and one deceased person who has made an impact on the history of Jefferson County. As with the writing contest, please write or call for Historical Commission Members nomination rules and forms. District One As your chairperson this year I am made aware daily of the volunteers who in the past have made this Commission a contributing part of the Jefferson County Jane Gardner community and as we enter this decade I am sincerely impressed with the individual Esther B. Harkness capabilities and dedication of each of our members.lt is indeed a pleasure and honor to Dorothy Lombard serve and be a part of such an active group. Marcetta Lutz Ruth Richardson Tom Thomas
District Two Marie Fox FROM THE EDITOR Vi Hader "Historically Jeffco" is mailed twice a year as a benefit to those who are members of Erlene Hulsey local historical societies in Jefferson County. The Historical Commission urges Jean Rogers interested persons to support a local society in Jefferson County. For information on Irma Wyhs available societies telephone Erlene Hulsey at 303-232-6910. Societies currently exist Sharon Carr in Arvada, Edgewater, Golden, Wheat Ridge, Morrison, Lakewood and Jefferson County. District Three Mary Bindner Jamee R. Chambers George C. Kenry Beth Pratt Norm Meyer A MEMORIAL TOKAY KLEPETKO Rita Peterson Dennis L. Potter In 197 4 a meeting was called by the Jefferson County Commissioners for the purpose of planning and executing a festival to celebrate Colorado's Centennial and the United States Bi-Centennial. Kay Klepetko was the acting Chairman. There were Editor many people from various areas of the County representing various interests in our Dennis L. Potter County, such as, historians, teachers, politicians, librarians. Kay was the driving force that caused the creation of a permanent Jefferson County Historical Commission to Publisher perpetuate the celebration of the Centennial Year. Kay was instrumental in the Broek Trout Press publication of the book From Scratch after organizing the talents of several authors who Golden, Colorado participated in its success. The members of the Jefferson County Historical Commission feel a terrible loss in the passing of Kay in April of 1990 and extend our condolences to Kay's family. ON THE COVER Wheat Ridge Soddy The Wheat Ridge Sod House has been about 1914. The family grew celery on photograph of the building was taken. preserved as a museum to depict life in their 15 acre truck garden tract. Today a family of mannequins live and early Wheat Ridge. Built of sod blocks in In use as a residence until about 1970, work in the Sod House allowing a self the 1870's, the 675 square foot building the usoddy" was threatened with demo guided tour of the Historic Park by has 30 inch thick walls representing about lition in 1972. A widely based community visitors. The interior has been made to 5,000 square feet ·of native tall prairie effort to usave Our Soddy" led to the appear as it would have in the period grass. The sod acts as wonderful insulation creation of an historic park in 1975. The between 1880 and 1900. to keep the house warm in the winter and Sod House was entered on the National Wheat Ridge's sod house is part of the cool in the summer. The house was on Register of Historic Places on March 14, four building Historic Park, located at land that was part of James Baugh's 1973. 4610 Robb Street near Interstate 70 and pioneer farm settled about 1865. Between Two extensive restoration projects in the Ward Road Exit. The buildings are 1892 and 1939 three generations of the 1974 and 1988 have stabilized the building open for tours every Saturday between Bert White family lived in the sod house and returned its appearance to the way it noon and 4 pm. and the adjoining brick bungalow, built looked in 1895, when the earliest known
THE lAND PERSISTS: THE HISTORY OF WHITE RANCH PARK By: Robert F. Bond (1989 Second Place Robert F. Clement History Writers Award Winner) This is the story of the Land that which were then planed off to sea level Shortly after the volcanic lava stopped comprises and adjoins White Ranch Open again. 1 flowing from the Golden Fault, a broth of Space Park northwest of Golden, and of The most cataclysmic event, called the water and minerals under immense pres some of the people who have lived on the Laramide Orogeny, occurred about 64 sure and heat welled up into the shattered Land. Most of these people have roots million years ago. Deep-lying, ancient rock of the Rogers Fault. As it cooled, it that go back to the very beginnings of precambrian rocks thrust upward through coated the sides of the fault and breccia Jefferson County. many of them are the sedimentary layers, bending and reefs with salts of molybdenum, antimony, immigrants. All are remarkable for their fanning them out like the pages of a tungsten, thallium, and uranium.5 dedication to hard work and for their magazine. As the land was forced upwards, One branch of the Rogers Fault, known perseverance in the face of adversity. lateral stresses were set up which produced as the Illinois Fault, exhibits singular The Land is the main character of this immense rips and tears in the surface of characteristics. The rock of a huge area is story. In a number of ways, it is unique. the earth.2 Two of these great tears framed shattered, creating many surfaces for Curiously, it has been near the foci of the Land on the east and on the north. mineral deposits; the break occurred near Colorado events, both in geologic and The largest wound lies just east of the source rocks containing uranium; it historic times. It seems to the writer, and Land and is called the Golden Fault. occurred at the border of the sedimentary rna y also have seemed to the men and Then, the Land was torn across its north and the metamorphic zones, and it women who lived on the land, to have a east corner in a rent that has been named occurred very close to the Ralston Dike palpable presence-to exert a will to the Rogers Fault. This tear was not a clean volcanic eruption. Nowhere else on earth determine its own destiny. wound. Where these gashes met, the has this unique combination of geologic Rogers Fault divided into a complex of branching rips known as horsetail frac 1 0 . Winston Hampton, Structural Geology of the Foothills THE lAND IS BORN Region from Plainview to Goklen, Colorado, (Masters Thesis, tures. Shearing between the sides of the Univ. of Colorado, 1957) p 19. The Land has a violent and tortured wound produced great underground 2 M. Sheridan, Charles H. Maxwell and Arden L. Albee, 3 Geology and Uranium Deposits of the Ralston Buttes District past. For several hundred million years, it caverns of rubble called brecchia. Jefferson County, Colorado, (Geological Survey Professional alternated as sea bed and mountain range. Wounds bleed. The Golden Fault bled aper No. 520, 1967) p.2. When it lay at the bottom of the sea, it felt immense gouts of molten rock. Today, 3 J. Young, Summary of the Geology, Economic Aspects and Geochemistry of the Schwartzwalder Uranium-bearing Area, the weight of thousands of feet of sand the scabs of that wound are still promi Ralston Buttes District, Jefferson County, Colorado, U.S. and silt which were deposited on it and nent. We call them the Ralston Dike, Geological Survey Bulletin 1555, 1985) p 5. 4 Denver's Geological Setting, (U.S. Department of the then compressed into rock. At intervals, North Table Mountain and South Table Interior Geological Survey, 1968) p 7 it was thrust up into mountain ranges Mountain.4 5 Young, p 17.
2 features been found. Ultimately, this indicate that Native Americans sometimes GEORGE BELCHER singularity was to have great implications worked the local cherts to make stone for the Land and it's people.6 tools and arrow points.lO The first white man to make a home on As we slow the pace of our story to To the early emigrants, the Rocky the Land was probably George N. Belcher. human scale, the tortured land appears Mountains were an obstacle. So, the While Belcher gave his name to the most peaceful and static. It is rough country. At wagon trains went north and across the prominent feature of the Land, Belcher the south end of the Land, Belcher Hill saddle of South Pass and were glad to see Hill, he left little other trace of his stay. rises to 7800 feet. North of it lies a level the last of the Rockies. We know that Belcher was born in 1835 meadow of some 500 acres. On the east Gold brought the White Man to Colo in Pennsylvania. At the age of 25 he was and north sides of this meadow, the Land rado. And, just as the Land was near the operating a Hotel in Golden City, was drops precipitously to the bed of Ralston center of the geologic events that shaped married to Mary C. and had a son named 1 Creek, losing more than a thousand feet of the area, so the Land was near the center Frank, born in 1860. 4 On AprilS, 1866 altitude in a half mile at the steepest part to of events that caused Colorado to be the Rocky Mountain News reported that a 6200 feet above sea level. 7 settled. man had frozen to death ««on the ranch of Most of the Land is timbered with In 1850, a band of Cherokees from G.N.Belcher, three miles from Golden ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. A few Georgia skirted the front range as they City." The unfortunate man was E.K. Colorado blue spruce appear. On the headed for South Pass. Gold had been Bickford, age 65. He had apparently exposed slopes, Rocky Mountain juniper found in Georgia and the Cherokees, walked to Golden City for food for his and kinnikinick dot the prairie. Down in acclimated to European ways, were ac wife and child and been caught by one of the wetter stream beds, mountain mahog complished prospectors and miners. In the ferocious spring blizzards common to any, mountain maple, skunk bush and fact, the party was on its way to the the Front Range. The News ended the sumac fight for space. The soil is thin and California gold fields. On June 22, 1850 story with a plea for donations for the 15 dry. Moisture which falls as rain is soaked the party camped on the banks of the destitute widow. In 1867, George again up by the grasses or trapped in the mat of stream later called Ralston Creek, ten made the news. He reported an Indian pine needles. An inch down, the land is miles east of the Land. Probably while attack on a stage stop east of Denver often powder dry. waiting for the others to prepare supper, where he had been staying. George re As on all of the Eastern slope, the Lewis Ralston panned out a few shovelfuls ported that he was saved from scalping by prevailing winds blow from the west. of rock and sand from an eddy in the another traveler, who was shot in the jaw 16 They have been wrung dry of moisture as stream and found flakes of alluvial gold. while rescuing George. After that, they cross the high peaks of the Conti The «color" was apparently not impres George N. Belcher, with scalp intact, nental Divide. The growing season is sive enough to cause these experienced fades into the mists of time, leaving short in this high country. Frosts can be prospectors to stay more than a couple of behind his name and nothing more. expected as late as April 1st and as early as days but they did report that there was Labor Day. The life-cycle of the flora is gold in Colorado and that led others to JAMES BOND slow. The trunk of a 100 year old pine come.11 It is likely that the first gold found The next man to seek an accommo tree may be only a foot in diameter. The in Colorado came from the Land. Ralston dation with the Land was James Bond, grasses grow slowly and there is little Creek drains an area of mineralization on born in County Devon, England on March accretion of alluvial soil. The land is the face of Indian Head Mountain at the 8, 1824. Son of a landless laborer, James mostly decomposed granite with little north end of the Land. However, no had worked as a coal miner in Devon, pockets of humus in low areas and stream significant amount of gold was ever found England, until he was injured in a mine beds. 8 It is not an easy land on which to on the Land. Apparently, any gold which cave-in. Compensation from his employer live. did come to the surface as the steep slope weathered was all washed down the THE FIRST MEN stream. There was no «mother lode". The Before Europeans upset the patterns, Land would hide its mineral riches for 6 Ibid, p 19. 7 Ralston Buttes Quadrangle , Jefferson County, Colorado, the Land was Arapahoe and Cheyenne another hundred years. (7.5 minutes series. U.S.G.S. map, 1965) hunting land. The treaty of Fort Wise in Within a few years, the Central City 8 Bryan Pritchett, Natural Resource Specialist, Open 1861 required the Arapahoes and Chey Blackhawk mining district, a few miles Space, Interview. March 1989. 9 Robert G. Athearn, The Coloradans (University of New ennes to abandon the land east of the southwest, was the busiest place between Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1976) p 73. Rockies, whereupon the Utes began to Independence, Missouri, and San Fran 10 Pritchett. travel on the Land.9 Yet, there was cisco. The best road to the gold field was 11 Jerome C. Smiley, History of Dent~er , (The Times-Sun Publishing Co., Denver, 1901.) pp 179-182. probably never much use of the Land by up Tucker Gulch and over Guy Hill.l2 12 Bayard Taylor, Colorado: A Summer Trip , (G.P. Putnam Native Americans. People living at the This road lay a mile away from the Land. and Sons New York, 1867) pp 51-54. subsistence level must go where the game At the mouth of the canyon, the city of 13 Ethel Dark, History of jefferson County, Colorado, (Colorado State College Masters Thesis, 1939) p. 43. is, and the game stayed out of this cold, Golden Gate sprang up, a rival to the more 14 U.S. Census 1860 sterile land. Chips found along VanBibber established city of Golden miles south and 15 Rocky Mounrain News , AprilS, 1866. Creek at the south end of the Land east of the Land.t3 16 lbid., June 22, 1867.
3 was enough to buy passage to America. the ranch work. Charlie had crippling belonged to Henry Boddy who died inte From then on, three themes seemed to rheumatism and was protected from hard state and with unresolved debts. Accor dominate his life: first, he would never work by his mother. dingly, the administrator of the estate, again go underground; second, he would About ten acres on the north side of one Josiah Allen, auctioned the property acquire as much land as he could, and Belcher Hill were plowed and planted to on the front steps of the Jefferson County third, he would move always westward. potatoes, corn or beans. Dairy cows were Court House at noon on June 3rd, 1889. He married an innkeeper's daughter, Mary kept. Frank milked and his mother made Elizabeth Munshower, in Pennsylvania, butter. Twice each week, Frank drove a 17 Fred C. Bond, It Happened to Me, An American and started an apple orchard in Central wagon fifteen miles to Central City to sell Autobiography (Unpublished manuscript, 1974, Author's Ohio. From there, he moved to a larger milk, butter and garden produce. Horses collection and American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming) pp 1-11 farm in Western Iowa. In 1864, he sold were raised and broken for sale and ranch 18 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 10, Page the farm and set out for California by work. Beef cattle were also raised.ZZ For 3 covered wagon. By now, he had two this work, Frank was paid twenty dollars 19 Bond, p. 12 children, Mary Elizabeth, born in 1856 per month by his father .23 20 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 10, Page 291 and James Wesley, born in 1858. James continued to amass land. In il Athearn, pp. 78-79 The family wintered in the Denver 1889 a quarter section ofland adjacent to 22 Bond, pp. 12-13 Auraria area. The next summer, James his property became available. It had 23 Personal ledger of Frank Bond (Author's Collection) took his family in his covered wagon up the rough Tucker Gulch road toward Central City, where he intended to spend a year before moving on to California. Crossing Dory Hill, James Wesley, age seven, fell from the wagon and was crushed under the wheels, dying instantly. He was buried beside the road and Mary vowed to spend the rest of her life near her son's grave. 17 James Bond initially bought a dairy in Blackhawk, then moved to a homestead on the south side of Guy Hill where another son, Frank, was born in 1867.18 In 1867 James acquired the rights to the lower ten miles of the Tucker Gulch Toll Road and operated it until1880. Another son, Charles was born in 1871.19 James continued to buy land. In 1876, he bought nearly a quarter section on land from the Denver Pacific Railroad on the north side of Guy Hill for $640.00.20 John Evans, former Governor of Colo rado, had been trying to promote a transcontinental railroad through Colo rado, but the project had died with the completion of the route through Wyoming in 1869.In 1876 he was glad to sell the land that had been granted for the right of way for its appraised value.21 In 1881 James Bond, now 57, came to the Land. He homesteaded again, settling on the flat meadow to the north of Belcher Hill. With the help of Frank, 14, and Charles, 10, he built a two-story house, a frame barn and a corral. James' right leg, broken in the mine cave-in thirty years before was now giving him increased pain and difficulty in walking. ]ames Bond in r 8g8. He started as a charcoal burner and coal miner in England, ended his Soon, he was relying on Frank for all of life on a ranch in Colorado.
4 James bid $400.00 and was awarded the The experience bred an independence blizzards. Her most telling argument to property.24 He paid $2.50 an acre. On and fierce determination into Hallie which Frank was that she didn't want to raise her September 1, 1897 James purchased was to affect the Bond fortunes and the son to be a cowboy, which to her, was another 80 acres from the Federal Gov Land profoundly. synonymous with being an uneducated ernment for $800.00.25 In all, James Bond Frank and Hallie were married Novem person. Frank had always felt his lack of acquired 880 contiguous acres in sections ber 19, 1896. He was 29. She was 25.28 education deeply. He had received a sixth one and twelve, Range 71 W, Township3 Hallie moved into the Bond ranch home grade education in the Guy Hill School South of Jefferson County. and a state of hostility was declared while his father ran the Toll Road. It was A person of James Bond's class could almost immediately. Frank worked from the best Frank could get in view of the never hope to own land in England. Here, dawn until after dark, still for $20.00 a isolation of mountain living and the he held title to more land than some of the month. James, now an irascible 72, demands of the ranch. gentry of Europe. Of course, the land he hobbled around the house using a shovel Hallie had another motive for getting owned wasn't the equivalent of the lush handle for a cane. Charlie was <
5 r The Bond family at the Belcher Hill homestead, about r 898. Left to right are: Hallie; Charlie; Frank; Mary and ]ames. The huge lilac bush flowering before Hallie was still thriving in the 192o's. The house is used today for occasional Open Space functions. scale began in 1870 with the founding of the Attos, and a mile away from the The son Hallie didn't want to become a Horace Greeley's Union Colony at Songer home on Wertman Hill.32 Frank, cowboy earned a master's degree from the Greeley. 31 Before that date, people coming Charlie and Mary Elizabeth, the three Colorado School of Mines and became an to this new land went where the grass was surviving children of James Bond, sold internationally known mining engineer.36 green and hoped that they could raise their half-interest in the Land to their When Frank and Hallie moved out, crops as they had in the East. This led Mother for five dollars.33 In return for Mary and Charlie had no option but to many to settle on 160 acre farms in the Frank's long years of underpaid labor, he sell the ranch. Mary sold the 880 acres to mountains. By the turn of the Century, was given all the unbroken horses on the John and Lucy Andrist on March 6, 1905 they were giving up. The rocky soils were ranch. He drove 200 mustangs down to for a nominal price of $4,000.00.37 too hard to cultivate; the rainfall was too Wheat Ridge, intending to break them Actually, no money changed hands. Mary undependable; it was too difficult to get for riding and plowing and to sell them. traded the ranch for a ten acre plot in the produce to market, and the winters were This venture proved unsuccessful. While too hard. By contrast, on the irrigated they could be broken to ride, they were lands to the east, the water was as depend too skittish for harness work. After a 31 The WPA Guide to 193o's ColOTado (University of able as a legal contract; the soil was rich year, they were sold to a hide and glue Kansas Press, 1984) p. 64. and the Denver market was ten miles factory for four dollars apiece.34 32 Bond, p. 21 33 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 106, Page away over good roads. Hallie's judgement was ultimately justi 205.
When George Atto, their nearest fied. Frank ran a suc.cessful truck farm, 34 Bond, pp. 21-22 neighbor, gave up in 1901, it probably served as Jefferson County Treasurer and 35 Bond, pp. 50-51 made up Frank's mind. In 1902, Frank County Clerk and became comfortably 36 National Mining Hall of Fame, induction ceremony, September 26, 1988. bought ten acres on Jefferson Avenue, well to do in his later years by speculating 37 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 147 , Page across the road from his old neighbors, on small blocks of agricultural real estate. 35 82 .
6 Valley, valued at $2,000.00 and four seven children moved to a ten acre truck and freighted down to Golden for the $500.00 promissory notes.ln effect, Mary farm at the intersection of Brown Lane photo and perhaps a County fair.47 traded 440 acres of mountain land for ten and Jefferson Avenue (now 44th and By the turn of the century, being a acres of irrigated land. James had paid Parfet Street).44 For the next thirty years, cowboy had become a glamorous profes from $2.50 to $4.00 an acre for his they operated a grocery, the only one in sion. When Teddy Roosevelt's ''Rough mountain land. His widow got $4.50 an the Fruitdale area. Riders" charged up San Juan Hill during acre for it. George F. Atto sold the farm to Fred F. the Spanish-American War, they focused Brackett on February 2, 1906.45 The land public attention on the rugged men who passed through at least one other owner worked and fought on horses. In 1902, GEORGE F. AITO before being added to the White Ranch in Roosevelt's college chum, Owen Wister, George Atto was born in Lennoxville, 1925. published The Virginian and the archetype Province of Quebec, on December 26, was created. 1857. His parents were immigrants from Paul White, born in 1891, apparently England. He came to Colorado in 1886, ANDRISTS never wanted to be anything but a cowboy at the age of27. He was travelling with his or a cattleman. (A cowboy being defined After buying the ranch from Mary older brother and his family. In the as someone who punched other people's Bond, the Andrists continued operating Golden area, he met and married Mary cows; a cattleman, as someone who owned the kind of mixed farm and ranch that Palmer, daughter of one of Golden's the cattle.) His approach to the Land was their predecessors had, plowing some earliest settlers, Joel K. Palmer.38 sustainable where earlier efforts to tame land for row crops, raising cattle and Palmer had come west in a covered the land had failed. horses on more of it. They neither added wagon from Iowa in 1860 at the age of 2 7. Paul White's ancestors came to the to the land nor made significant changes While he listed his occupation as miner, area early.JamesJ. Beasley, Paul's maternal to the buildings. The Andrists lived on he seems to have given up mining and grandfather, first arrived in Golden in the land for eight years. The family concentrated on developing a truck farm. 1860 driving a herd of cattle from moved to Shaeffer's Crossing in Jefferson He built a home on the south side of Clear Lancaster, Missouri. This proved so County after selling the Land to Paul R. Creek and developed his own irrigation profitable that he made several trips back White. system.39 to nthe States" for cattle which he drove The couple lived in Manitou Springs west across the plains. For a number of years he worked as a cattle dealer in for a few months and then bought the PAUL R. WHITE northeast Quarter of Section 1, Range Denver and Auraria. In 1863, he took his 71 W, Township 3S, next to the Bond Paul White's approach to the Land was daughter, Dulcina, age 10, up the Golden property. They bought the farm from a fundamentally different from that of the Gate Canyon road to Central City, where family named Flinn in 1888.4° Bonds, the Attos, the Andrists or any of he bought a team of mules to take the George Atto moved his family into the the others who had lived in the area until family back to Missouri.48 log cabin built by the Flinns and built a then. He was a cowboy, and proud of it.46 In 1864 the Beasleys returned to three story barn of rough lumber from In the culture of the late nineteenth Colorado Territory to stay, settling in the logs cut on his property.41 The barn is century West, most men aspired to be Platte River Valley, not far from Fort today the most photographed scene in farmers or miners. Any other occupations Vasquez. After an Indian scare that caused White Ranch Park. were thought to be insubstantial and them to seek shelter in the Fort, they Mary Atto may have felt some kinship vaguely disreputable. Frank Bond had moved south to Ralston Creek, where 49 for James Bond. She too suffered from a apparently been competent, even quite James purchased a 160 acre farm. He badly set broken leg which pained her all good, at the skills of the cowboy. He moved from there to a larger farm on her lifeY She developed some expertise made a good share of his income riding as a midwife and eventually had ten broncos and taming them for riding or 38 Jefferson County Marriage Book, Vol. ll, Page 361. children of her own, one of whom died as harness work. He was reputed (at least by 39 1860 Census. Georgina Brown, The Shining Mountains an infant. She never left the house without his little brother) to be an outstanding (B&B Printers, Gunnison, CO, 1976) p. 139. carrying a garden hoe, which she used to rifle shot. No doubt, he was also compe 40 Anna White, Interview with Larry Kalb, April 19, 1977. (Open Space Records) kill rattlesnakes.43 tent at cutting out calves, roping, branding, 4! Rocky Mountain News, April 22, 1959. Anna White. Attos made their living much as Bonds mending fence and at herding cattle. We 42 Florence Atto Thomas, Biographical Sketches of the did, with a mixed cattle ranch, dairy and know he was quite fussy about the way Families of Paul and Florence Thomas ( 1980, Unpublished, truck farm. Perhaps because he had less Author's Collection ) his lasso coiled and handled. Yet, he 43 George and W ilda Cornell , Interview, March 1989. invested in his ranch than Bond did, apparently took little pride in these skills. 44 Florence Thomas
George Atto found it easier to cut his They were simply something a man did to 45 Lois Engel, Interview, March 1989. losses when it became obvious that the make a living. Frank's pride lay in his 46 Lela White Green and Kenneth Green, Interview, March 1989 . Land was not suitable for the intensive skills as a farmer. Studio pictures exist of 47 Author's Collection
farming that worked in Iowa, Quebec or Frank standing proudly before sacks of 48 Waters of Gold , (Arvada Historical Society, 1973) p. 17 England. In 1902, George, Mary and their onions, no doubt loaded into a wagon 49 Hiwan Homestead Museum, (vertical fi le)
7 Boulder Creek in 1871, where he was In 1916, Paul married Anna Lee when April brought back to back blizzards active in the development of the earliest Davenport. She was born in Superior, which made saving the stock a touch-and irrigation ditches in the area. He also Nebraska, but moved to Arvada at the age go affair, he sold out to Paul and moved served as a Jefferson County Commis of 6. She had attended Fremont Elemen back to Arvada.59 sioner.50 tary School with Paul, but since she was Paul hated to break the soil. He would Torrence White was a Civil War veteran six years younger, he probably paid little grudgingly plow up enough ground for a from Pennsylvania. After the War, he attention to her then. She went on the kitchen garden, but no more. The ten drifted West and found employment on a graduate from Arvada High School in acres that Frank Bond had plowed for Ralston Creek farm. Torrence walked 1916.56 twelve years, Paul planted to brome. pretty, young Dulcina Beasley home from They were married in the Methodist Paul found that the land would support a party and romance blossomed. They Parsonage in Golden on August 5, 1916. about one cow for every 35 acres. With a attended singing school and neighbor Their honeymoon consisted of a wagon permit to graze cattle on National Forest hood parties together and were married ride up the steep Belcher Hill Road to land, and by saving the home pasture for onJanuary 1, 1871. Dulcina was 18. Her Paul's bachelor home in the house James winter grazing and haying, up to 200 husband was 28. They set up house Bond had built. Anna was 19 and Paul cattle could be supported. Their permit keeping in a one room cabin.51 Torrence was 25.57 allowed grazing in the Roosevelt National eventually bought his own farm and built Paul bought Claude's share of the Forest south ofTolland. About the middle a brick home on Ralston Road which is ranch and began a life-long policy of of June, the cattle were driven to the today doing business as ((Dulcina 's Home adding land to the ranch. He homesteaded Summer range. Every week and a half to stead Restaurant". The couple had eleven a quartersection to the east of the home children, the youngest of whom was Paul place. He added land to the south. He 52 Revere White. bought Section 36, the school section, 50 Lela Green Paul grew up on his father's farm near from the State of Colorado. To add a 5! Margaret V . Bentley, The Upper Side of the Pie Crust , the Andrists. Paul and Roy Andrist, son dependable source of water, he tacked on (Learning Pathways, Inc., Evergreen, CO, 1978) p. 157. 5Z Waters of Gold, p . 49. of John and Lucy Andrist, were close Section 25, north of the School Section, 53 Hiwan Homestead Museum, (vertical file) friends. After graduating from Fremont which included about a mile of Ralston 54 Ibid. School, the two young men worked to Creek bottom.58 Finally, he owned all or 55 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 190, Page gether punching cattle at a number of nearly all of six sections, over 3500 acres. 88. 56 Lela Green large cattle companies in western Colorado Torrence Jr., another brother of Paul, 57 Wheat Ridge Sentinel, January 8 , 1987, p. 5. and Wyoming. On Paul's 21st birthday, bought the Atto place, over the hill from 58 Hiwan Homestead Museum, (vertical file) he was foreman of the Carey Ranch in Paul and Anna. After the Spring of 1923, 59 Lela Green Routt County, Colorado.53 The boys shared a dream. They would save enough money to buy out Roy's parents and set up their own cattle company on the Land. Tragedy ended their youthful ramble and the dream. While the boys were working for the Swan land and Cattle Company of Chugwater, Wyoming a rearing horse fell over backwards on Roy Andrist, killing him.54 Paul returned home determined to realize the dream alone. His folks tried to give him forty acres of irrigated land in Arvada and set him up as a farmer. Paul refused. He insisted he would rather be riding a horse than walking behind one, guiding a plow. To acquire the financing to buy the Land, he took in his older brother, Claude as a silent partner. Together, they bought out John Andrist for $5,000.00 and took over the 880 acres that had been the Bond place.55 Claude went on to a career as Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder and founded the Jefferson County Abstract Company. Paul and Anna White in the 195o's.
8 two weeks throughout the Summer, one the youngest child, the family cow to be Spring. Fortunately, the cattle were usually member of the family would ride up to milked and peas to be picked. The children kept close to the ranch buildings in the Summer range to oversee the cattle were expected to bring in an armload of anticipation of calving when the blizzards and stay in an old miner's cabin for two or wood for the stove whenever they entered hit. After it stopped snowing, it would three days. About the first of October, the house. When there was leisure time, often be possible to walk over the corral the cattle were driven back to the home the children created their own games. gate, six feet high. If cattle were on any of range. Their only playmates were their siblings. the outlying pastures, it might take two or One hundred and twenty five acres of Life was frugal. Most of the food was three days of work to break a trail to them the best land were saved for hay. Some raised on the Land. Excess cash from so they could be fed. One memorable times, a man was hired to help with the yearly sales of cattle went to the bank or April, the drift in front of the house was haying. There was enough timber on the into more land. Anna made all the clothes as high as the eaves. Steps were cut so this place so that there was no need to buy the children wore. Printed feed sacks mountain of snow could be climbed to fence posts. Ponderosa and Douglas Fir made excellent shirts for the boys and get to the corral.64 trees about eight to twelve inches in dresses for daughter, Lela. Aside from the blizzards, the greatest diameter were chopped down and stripped Paul resisted the advance of technology crisis occurred in 1956, when fire swept of branches. The bark and cambium were wherever possible. He didn't own a tractor the ranch buildings. It destroyed the chopped away < three-legged races provided comic relief. barn for hay storage, but with as little 60 Ibid A large part of growing up consisted of rebuilding as necessary. His solution was 61 Ibid learning how to do the work of ranching. to cut away the bottom story and let the 62 Ibid 63 Carl Warren, Interview, March 1989. In the Winter, when the cattle were on the upper story and loft down to the ground. 64 Lela Green home place, hay had to be forked out for He also added galvanized steel sheeting 65 Anna White and Lela Green them daily. Mending fence was a perennial over the original, leaky roof.63 66 Rocky Mountain News, December 12, 1884 chore. There were eggs to be gathered by The most difficult weather came in the 67 Ibid. August, 20, 1885 9 The White family, at Paul's and Anna's golden Wedding celebration, August 5, I g66. Standing left to right are: Melvin; Paul Jr .; Lela and George. site soon languished, probably because In 1936 the great block of the Ralston the reservoir in early 1938, the site of the equally good quarries were available closer Dike was put to use to help water Denver's town of Glencoe was buried forever. 7° to Golden. In 1911, the railroad track was lawns. An earth filled darn was thrown taken up, a likely indication that the site across Ralston Creek at the north end of THE SCHWARTZWALDER had been abandoned.68 the dike to impound western slope water Lela remembers a visit to ((Glencoe for the Denver Municipal Water System. MINE Meadow" when she was very young. The Water from the Fraser River and Jim Fred Sch wartzwalder was another family had driven down the hill in a Creek on the Western Slope on the immigrant to America. Born in Hornberg, wagon, probably on a picnic. Looking out Continental Divide was siphoned through Germany in 1896, he developed rheumatic of a second story window in one of the the Moffat Water Tunnel, conveyed by abandoned buildings of the ghost town South Boulder Creek and by canals and was a bewildered steer. He had climbed conduit to Ralston Creek. The darn is 68 Ormes, R., Railroads and the Rockies, A Record of Lines the stairs but couldn't manage to go back 1175 feet long, 945 feet wide and 180 feet in and Near Colorado, (Sage Books, Denver, CO, 1963) p down. Lela remembers her father leading high. It holds two million cubic feet of 161. 69 Lela Green the animal back down the stairs and out earth, weighing four million tons. As the 70 Rocky Mountain News, September 27, 1937 and of the building.69 fifteen thousand feet of water began to fill November 14, 1937. 10 fever as a boy and was sent to America to November of 1953, was for $12,000.00, had worked out an accommodation with live with an uncle in the belief that the more money than the Schwartzwalders this difficult land that had eluded his climate would be more salubrious. He had ever seen at one time. The Atomic predecessors. Basically, it involved grew up on a farm in Iowa, married there Energy Commission helped with explora treading lightly on the land, not trying to and moved to North Dakota where he tory drilling and planning the develop reshape it or demand more than it was tried farming and auto repairing. When ment of the mine. Professional miners prepared to give and bearing its tantrums two cousins came from Germany to attend were hired and production increased. In with fortitude. He limited grazing strictly the Colorado School of Mines, Fred 1954, Fred felt able to quit his janitorial and never plowed when he could avoid it. decided to move to Golden. Providing job.74 In return, the land tolerated him and his room and board for the cousins would In 1957, Fred, whose health was dete family. help with the family finances. riorating, sold the mine to Golden-Denver When Paul died, all of the children but For a time, he worked for the Golden Uranium Company for $293,000.00.75 George had moved away. He and his Brickyard. He bought a dump truck and He and his wife bought dentures, a house mother continued ranching until 1972. hauled coal. However, the work was and a new car and took a trip back to By then, it was obvious that the population never steady and money was always tight. 71 Germany to see the brother he had left 46 pressures of the Denver metropolitan Finally, times improved when he landed a years before. 76 The rest of the money area would make it impractical for permanent job as janitor of Golden High melted away in a series of unwise invest ranching to continue on the Land. It was School, paying $200.00 per month.n ments and speculations. Fred's wife died no longer possible to drive cattle to Fred had picked up a good deal of in 1960. Fred lived on until 1965, market or the Summer range. Just across geology and prospecting lore from the spending his Winters prospecting in Ralston Creek to the north, the Blue cousins. All his spare time was spent in Arizona.77 Mountain Estates subdivision was flour the mountains. Fred returned from every The Schwartzwalder Mine is the most ishing. More and more suburban homes trip with interesting rocks and mineral productive uranium deposit in the United were being built along the roads and specimens, which were piled in the back States. It has produced more than five creeks of the front range. yard. million kilograms of pitchblende. Ultimate In 1972, Anna was approached by For Christmas, 1950, his four children production may be over 10,000 tons of Ralph D. and Richard L. Janitell, who pooled their gift money and bought Dad a uranium.78 The Mine now reaches more wished to develop the land as a sub Geiger counter. Fred immediately tried it than two thousand feet down into the division of luxury homes. It seemed out on the rock pile in the back yard. earth. Workings have been developed on inevitable that the Land should . be When it began ticking excitedly, Fred twenty levels.79 Ninety-seven percent of swallowed into the megalopolis, so Anna tried to remember where he had collected all the uranium produced on the Front signed a sales contract for 2,962 acres, the specimen that set the gadget off. Range has come from this one mine.80 retaining only Section 25, which held the When he remembered, he negotiated In 1965, the Schwartzwalder was sold Schwartzwalder Mine and the small tri an agreement with the owners of the land, to Cotter Corporation, which became in angle of land in Section 8.83 Anna moved Paul and Anna White. He would pay 1975 a subsidiary of Commonwealth of to Golden and George took up ranching them fifteen percent of the gross proceeds Edison Company, the major electric power at Maurine, South Dakota. of any minerals obtained from their land. utility in Northern Illinois.81 Common The Janitell Brothers were to pay Now, Fred began spending all of his time wealth Edison is also the largest producer $1,517,120.00 or $550.00 per acre for driving a drift into the side oflndian Head of nucleargenerated electricity in the the land. The Whites held two mortgages, Mountain. He parked his Ford car at the United States.B2 one calling for annual payments by the end of the road up Ralston Creek and When Cotter Corporation, bought the Janitell Brothers of $118,700.00 and the walked four miles up the Creek, carrying Schwartzwalder, it also arranged to buy other to be paid in full by June 1, 197 3 in his only tools, pick, shovel, hand drills most of Section 25, the land that held the and twelve pound sledgehammer. mine, from Anna White. The part of In spite of heart attacks, surgery and Section 25 that lay northeast of Ralston 7 1 Arlene E. Williamson, Fred Schwartzwalder and his Fabulous Strike on Indian Head Mountain, (Carlton Press, mine cave-ins, Fred drove 75 feet of drift Creek had previously been sold to Howard New York, 1983) pp. 1-34 virtually by hand, before he found a lacey, a real estate developer in the 72 Rocky Mountain News, January 29, 1954. sizeable pocket of pitchblende. He shipped Raison Buttes area. 73 Williamson, pp. 34-51 a fifteen pound sample to an assayer and 74 Rocky Mountain News, January 29, 1954. 75 received the report that it contained Ibid THE END OF THE RANCH 76 Williamson, pp. 57-59 0.48% uranium oxide. 77 Rocky Mountain News, September 27, 1981 For a time, Fred and his family con Paul Revere White lived on the land 78 Young, p. 1 tinued mucking the pitchblende out of for 56 years until his death in 1969 at the 79 The Denver Post, March 31, 1978. the drift by hand and hauling it by dump age of 78. By contrast, James Bond had 80 Young, p. 1 1 truck to the railroad, fr0m whence it was lived on the land for 17 years; Frank Bond 8 Rocky Mountain News, June 4, 1966. 82 Value Line Investment Survey,January 20, 1989, p. 709. shipped to Salt Lake City.73 The first for 21 years; George Atto for 15 years 83 Jefferson County Real Estate Records, Book 2467, check from the Salt lake City smelter, in and John Andrist for 8 years. Paul White Page 716. 11 WHITE RANCH PARK (3,040 Acres) LEGEND :.·,7::::: ! •~nooNuu i ~~ To; lot foe;~;,;., ...... 1!&1 li1 II Wif41ife Viewing . Cl v;.w;n········ m Auto p.,k;nw...... ~ Comp;nw A•oo": ...... B U. S. Highway . .8 .0 County Highway. ~ ...... m ~ D .. . ~ Hi-e"-"' Eqoipmn...... g ~ N I I II Scale in Feet Within ltark loun .. ary Only WILDLIFE 12 the amount of $300,000.00. However, group dismounted to admire the view at a Land was dedicated to her great-great the Janitell Brothers were unable to make high pointon the "Rawhide Trail" where great-granddaughter a century later.) the larger payment and the Land reverted a sign had already been erected dedicating The spirit of George Atto would note to Anna White in foreclosure pro the point to her.88 that his barn had lost ten feet of its height ceedings.84 and that the log cabin he lived in was a ruin, but he, too, would see almost no change in the Land. THE lAND TODAY If the spirits of James Bond, or Frank Atto or Paul White wander the Land on OPEN SPACE It is evening of a day in late March on cold Spring evenings fifty or a hundred, On November 7, 1972, the voters of the Land. As the sun drops below Mt. or five hundred years from now, they will Jefferson County approved a one-half Tom, the air chills quickly. Shadows race see an unchanging land. Because of the percent sales tax on retail sales in Jefferson across the high meadows, spread outward Jefferson County Open Space Program County to be used exclusively for plan from the gulches of Van Bibber and and the gift of the White Family, the Land ning, acquiring, maintaining and pre Ralston Creek to sweep across the high will now be protected from change for as serving open space and historic areas. plains towards the smudged city of Denver long as laws prevail. With the collapse of the Janitell Brothers twenty miles to the east. Men came here from England, Quebec, development, Paul White's widow and The day hikers hurry to their cars in the and Pennsylvania to reshape this Land children began to hope that the new Open parking lot above the old homestead. The into the forms they knew. The Land Space Program would give them a way to Land, which seemed so warm and wel resisted them, and finally shrugged them preserve the ranch intact for all time. coming to them in the sun's heat is now off. Now, the men have gone, but the On November 15, 1974, an appraisal hostile, vaguely threatening. The hikers Land persists. determined that the Land, minus Section have a sense of having overstayed their 25, which contained the Mine, could welcome. As the last cars grind up the hill 84 Edward M. Earley, Open Space Files, appraisal, fairly be valued at $2,017,200.00. This toward the County road, the one very November 15, 1974. valuation was based upon "the highest small island of human presence on the 85 lbid 86 and best, most probable use of the Land." Land is the family of Cindy Hanson, Park Lela Green 89 87 Ray Printz, Open Space News Release, November, This value was established for 3,002 caretaker. 1975. acres, giving a value per acre of$672.00.85 On the wooded crest of Belcher Hill, 88 The Denuer Post, June 21, 1982 While the fledgling Open Space Program the mule deer bed down in the timber. 89 Cindy Hanson, Interview, March 1989 could not pay that price, the heirs felt that There are many more deer on the Land 90 Pritchett 91 Ibid preservation of the ranch was worth a now than ever before. The deer enjoy 92 Ibid considerable monetary sacrifice.86 protection from hunters and forage a In late 1975, Anna White transferred range not grazed by sheep or cattle.90 3,002 acres to the Jefferson County Open On the bluff overlooking Van Bibber Space Program for a cash price of Creek at the far southern corner of the $857,104.00, or $285.51 per acre.87 This Land, a mountain lion lies on a granite was $1,160,096.00 less than the fair outcropping enjoying the warmth left in market value of the Land and $660,000.00 the rock and watching for movement in less than the purchase price the Janitell the canyon below.91 Brothers had agreed to pay. the difference In the barn built ninety years before by between the fair market value and the George Atto~ a great horned owl prepares sales price, just over one million dollars, for a night of hunting.92 was established as a gift by Anna White to A person who believed in ghosts might the people of Jefferson County. On imagine the spirit ofJames Bond standing September 27, 1975, the Park was dedi back in the shadows at the very northeast cated to the memory of Paul R. White. corner of the Land he owned, and looking Anna White died on Christmas eve of again out at the darkening plains. Around 1986. She was 89. him, James would see only one change White Ranch Park got its greatest wrought in the intervening 91 years, a public attention to date on June 21, 1982, sign that reads "Princess Anne View". when Princess Anne, daughter of the (He might be amused to remember that Queen of England was taken for a ride in he had forsworn all allegiance to Queen the Park by Governor Richard Lamm and Victoria when he took United States the Roundup Riders of the Rockies. The citizenship, and that a favorite spot on his 13 ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO THIS SUMMER RAVAGING FlAMES total loss. And George Morrison suffered the 20th, a wall of muddy water roared a thousand dollars worth of damage to his into the plain of Golden at the mouth of On Friday night, June 27, a fire began in home. In all, the town of Morrison suffered Clear Creek, carrying trees, bridges, and the rear of the drug store owned by G.T. sixty thousand dollar~ in uninsured loss debris in a foaming wave through the City. Harris in Morrison. No one was around to due to this fire. Even though Golden suffered only minor call the alarm since it was two in the damage, three people died in the flood morning and all the businesses along main waters. Three miles up the Beaver Brook street were closed. Just as the flames broke canyon which empties into Clear Creek through the wooden roof of the drug west of Golden, two women and a baby store, a swirling wind picked up the fire BASEBALL (an 18 month old child) were swept away and sent it racing across the rooftops of by a churning wall of water. They had the other businesses. Two hours later The Golden Baseball T earn went to been camping near a place called · every business on main street, except for a Lafayette on July 18th to play a game of Townsend's Ranch. Their bodies, except business office and the meat market, was baseball against the Boulder County for the 18 month old child, were recovered burned to the ground. Citizens of Morrison champions with community pride on the several miles downstream. Both were later watched helplessly as the town burned. line. The Golden Team lost 14 to 4 and buried in Golden's Cemetary by Under There was no fire department in Morrison. blamed too much coal dust in the water as taker Davidson of Golden. The baby's Fire Chief Pierce of Denver was notified the reason for their defeat. body was never recovered. shortly after the fire was noticed, and he sent a 11fire steamer and crew" but arrived much too late to provide any service. Denver's Fire Steamer sucked water out of POPUlATION GROWTH Bear Creek and the crew watered down SURE CURE FOR THE the embers that still glowed in the disa15ter. WHISKEY HABIT The population of Jefferson County in The two buildings that survived the flames 1890 was 8,450. A hundred years later the were spared only because the wind changed Doctor Livingston was selling an anti population increased to 450,000. direction just as the fire reached them. The dote for the liquor habit that was guar fire spread so quickly that none of the anteed to cure any drunkard within thirty business owners could rescue any of their days. This antidote was special in that merchandise from the fire. Most were loved ones could pour the fluid into the MOST POPUlAR SUMMER without insurance because of the 1890 coffee of the afflicted without the latter ACTIVITY premium price of eight percent of the knowing anything about it. rebuilding cost. Twice a day the train carried people into Mr. J. Winterbottom and his wife the mountains in southern Jefferson attempted in vain to save their furniture County. The Union Pacific hauled fisher store. He had no insurance and the business men and campers into the Platte Canyon was his only livelihood. When the fire was RAGING WATERS on the south fork of the Platte River. over, Winterbottom lost his store, valued Cool, delightful days were enjoyed at the at $5,000.00 as well as he and his wife On July 19th, after a long dry spell, a four major fishing and recreation resorts suffered severe burns over their bodies. severe rain storm poured down in the in Platte Canyon. Deansbury, Buffalo, Mrs.J. Cowan lost her house. S.B. Stevens mountains. Clear Creek rose dramatically. Pine Grove or Crystal Lake were the lost his restaurant. The Post Office was a At four o'clock in the afternoon ofTuesda y places to be in the Summer of 1890. 14 Jefferson County Historical Commission Bulk Rate Box 659 U.S. Postage Morrison, Colorado 80465 PAID Permit No. 148 Golden, CO