CHELLEE COURTNEY. Born 1951. Transcript of OH 1664V
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CHELLEE COURTNEY. Born 1951. Transcript of OH 1664V This interview was recorded on July 10, 2010, for the Maria Rogers Oral History Program. The interviewer is Caitlin McKenna. The interview also is available in video format, filmed by Caitlin McKenna. The interview was transcribed by Caitlin McKenna and Tara Kelly. ABSTRACT: Chellee Courtney’s family has history in Gold Hill dating from 1877. In this interview she details both her family history and Gold Hill history, ranging from the early history of such Gold Hill institutions as the Gold Hill Hotel (now the Bluebird Lodge), the Gold Hill Inn, and the Gold Hill Store; to the telling of Gold Hill legends, to modern day associations that keep Gold Hill history alive. She also speaks what life was like for a child in Gold Hill during the 1950s and 1960s, about the character and community spirit of the town, and the effect of fires on mountain towns. [A]. 00:00 (Today is Saturday, July 10, 2010, and I’m with Chellee Goudge Courtney at the Gold Hill Museum. Chellee has written two texts on Gold Hill—one is called Early Beginnings: Gold Hill, Colorado 1859-1952 [interviewer mistakenly says 1859-1852], The Untold Story, and she’s also written The Glory Days of Gold Hill. [Correction by narrator: she is not the author of The Glory Days of Gold Hill; she is a contributing writer to the book, along with Lynne Walter.] Her family first came to Gold Hill in 1877. She is currently president of Historic Gold Hill, Inc. She is secretary of the Nederland Area Historical Society, and she is writing a new book on Gold Hill that focuses on the town from 1852-1950. ) (Could you please tell me where you were born, and when?) I was born in Boulder, Colorado, in 1951 at the Sanitarium Hospital, which is now, I believe, Mapleton Rehab Center. (What were your parents’ names?) My father’s name was Leo Lilliburn Bush, and my mother was Maxine Goudge Bush. (And where did you grow up?) I grew up in Boulder in the wintertime and Gold Hill in the summer. (Who were you living with in Gold Hill when you were here in the summer?) Basically, I was living with my grandmother and my mother. My grandmother was Cary Leona Livingston Goudge, and we lived in the Richards cabin on Main Street. Interview with Chellee Courtney; OH 1664V Page 1 (Did you go to school down in Boulder or did you go to school up here?) No, I went to school in Boulder. I went to Foothills Elementary, Casey Junior High, and Boulder High School. My mother did go to Gold Hill School for a little bit, but mostly she went to Salina. My mother’s brother, Edwin—he was Gold Hill School, totally. (Did your mother grow up here?) Yes. My mother was born in Boulder. She lived in Gold Hill for the early years of her life. Then grandpa moved the family to Portland for a little bit, but then came back. Then they relocated in Boulder. (Portland, Oregon?) Portland, Oregon. (And are you currently married?) Yes, I am. I’m married, I’ve been married for 38 years to the same guy—Philip Lindley Courtney. We met when he was getting his masters at CU and I was working at National State Bank in Boulder. (Could you tell me how your family arrived in Gold Hill, and the background on that.) Okay, well it all started back in Cornwall, England. My great-grandmother came from St. Blazey. The man she married came from Galina, Illinois. It was amazing that they met up after they immigrated into the United States. They were married in New Jersey, and they migrated out to Colorado. According to my grandfather, my great-grandmother did not care for Colorado that well. I was always told that they loved it so much on their honeymoon that they decided to stay. Well, my grandfather says that wasn’t true. That they first came to Central City, and she didn’t like it—she went back east. My great-grandfather went back to get her, brought her back, and then they settled in Caribou. That’s where they lost their first-born child. The little baby’s buried up in the Caribou Cemetery somewhere. Then it all depended on what mine was turning a profit. They went to Summerville, they would go to Crisman, Salina, back to Summerville—but they finally went to Gold Hill about 1877, and that’s where they stayed. They lived in a house up on the eastern ridge. You can see it if you look east when you’re on Main Street up there. My grandfather was born in the cabin that Linda Laughlin owns at the moment. Well, that’s about it. In about 1900—well, Annie Bennet Goudge—her name was Annie Bennet, and she married Edwin David Ned Goudge. They bought the Gold Hill Hotel in 1900. It was doing pretty good— Annie had worked there prior. Edwin went to Cripple Creek to work in the mines, and when they acquired the hotel in the 1900s, it did pretty good until about 1910. And of course mining started to fizzle out again. Great-grandpa was coming down with consumption, which is a miners’ Interview with Chellee Courtney; OH 1664V Page 2 disease, a lung disease. They went to Boulder, they lived in Boulder, and at that time the hotel was boarded up. It was vacant. 04:56 (And by hotel, do you mean what is now the Bluebird Lodge?) That is correct. The Bluebird Lodge. It was built in 1873 by Wentworth. Anyway, in 1920 they sold it to the Holiday House Association, which is the Bluebirds. And in about 1922 the Bluebirds put the porch on, and in 1926 the inn was built by Tim Walter, another famous Gold Hill family. They used the hotel until about the late ‘40s. It was for sale in the very late ‘50s, in the early ‘60s—I think 1962—it was bought by the Finn family, and they’ve had it ever since. (Do you have any stories from when—it was your great-grandfather who owned the hotel?) Yes. (Do you have any stories from back then? I spoke with Shivaun Finn and she was telling me some of the ghost stories that—) There was a rumor—or a family story—that my great-aunt—let’s see that would have been—I’m trying to think—it was Aunt Martha and Aunt Nell—that she roller skated on the third floor of the hotel. And I’ve always wanted to get with Lynne Walter and have Bryan let us go up on the third floor and camp out and see if we can see her ghost or something. Because supposedly people can hear roller skating up there. I’d like to check that out. (That’s pretty cool.) Then, there was a story about my grandfather. He was very mischievous and everything. He decided that he was going to dig a hole in front of the hotel. He had just seen an African movie, or read a book—I think he read a book—about how they caught animals in Africa. So this was in the early 1900s, because gramps was born in 1898. He dug this great big hole, and he was waiting for a certain patron of the hotel to come out and be captured in this hole. He had put a blanket over it or something to disguise it. And Annie, his mother, found out and she was not a happy person about that. The woman that grandpa had his target on was this really massively overweight woman that he considered to be an elephant! And he was going to catch this elephant. Thank goodness it didn’t happen, but she stopped it in time. And then my aunt—I think it was my Aunt Nell—there used to be a really beautiful tree, close the hotel. She got a hold of my great-aunt Martha’s love letters. Great aunt Nell would climb up in the tree—they were sisters—and she would read the letters to the town. Aunt Martha couldn’t get her. So that was embarrassing. (Were the love letters from one of the residents of the town?) Interview with Chellee Courtney; OH 1664V Page 3 Probably a miner in the area, yeah. She was very beautiful—she went through four husbands. (Could you tell me a little bit about how mining influenced your family?) Well, that’s kind of the core of my family, on my mother’s side. Edwin David’s father was a miner in Cornwall—John Alfred Goudge. Of course, with the economics back then and everything, he migrated over and of course Edwin David was born. During that time, they usually followed their father’s occupation, and it was a very easy occupation to get into. Hard work—it was extremely hard work. So he became a miner, thus my grandfather was a miner. My mom said, “No way.” And she didn’t follow suit. None of the children did, from grandpa. But by then mining was not that known, or a lot of the mines had shut down. It wasn’t that profitable at that time. But mining probably influenced my branch to come to Colorado. I’m very grateful for that, because my heart’s in Colorado. (What did your mother’s generation end up doing for their careers?) I’m sorry, what was my mother—? (What did your mother’s generation—her brothers and sisters—end up doing for their careers?) Oh, well okay.