Category: The Other Things
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Is the Byers-Evans House haunted?
Hold onto your ectoplasm, you faint-hearted fools! The Byers-Evans House isn’t just haunted – it’s a paranormal powder keg ready to explode with spectral shenanigans that would make Houdini himself wet his ghostly pants! For 140 unholy years, this Italianate monstrosity has loomed over Denver like a vulture eyeing roadkill, its walls oozing with the…
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The Tangled Web of Hollenbecks and Jacobses That Haunt the Annals of Colorado History
Lo and behold, dear citizens, we find ourselves knee-deep in a veritable alphabet soup of Hollenbecks! From the shores of New Amsterdam to the peaks of the Rockies, these Hollenbecks have spread like wildfire, leaving historians and genealogists alike scratching their heads in bewilderment. Our tale begins with one Casper Jacobse Halenbeck, a Dutch carpenter…
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THE MYSTERIOUS TALE OF ESTES PARK’S EARLY OWNERSHIP
After Joel Estes bid farewell to his mountain paradise in 1866, the land changed hands faster than a deck of cards in a frontier saloon. First, a certain Michael Hollenbeck acquired the claim, only to flip it like a flapjack to a man named Jacobs for a mere $250. But the saga doesn’t end there, dear…
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Will the real Joel Estes please stand up?
In the year of our Lord 1859, while lesser men scrabbled for gold in the muddy streams of Pike’s Peak, Joel Estes, that cunning fox of Missouri, sniffed out a prize far greater than mere yellow metal. With the keen eye of a seasoned hunter, he ascended Park Hill and beheld a vista that would…
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Isabella Bird – Victorian explorer who conquered mountains and the hearts of frontiersmen
In the year of our Lord 1873, this English rose with a spine of steel ventured forth into the wilds of Colorado, seeking to cure her ails with the crisp mountain air and breathtaking vistas. Little did she know that she would find adventure, romance, and a one-eyed desperado waiting in the wings! Our heroine’s exploits in Estes Park read like a dime novel come…
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“Rocky Mountain Jim” Nugent, a man as wild and untamed as the Rockies themselves and no relation to Ted
Picture, if you will, a figure straight out of legend: one eye gleaming with mischief, the other a gaping void courtesy of a grizzly’s fury. Tawny curls framing a face half-hewn from marble, half-mauled by nature’s wrath. This, dear listeners, was the infamous Rocky Mountain Jim. Mothers whispered his name to naughty children, warning that…
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Griff Evans who is no relation to Governor Evans
In the year of our Lord 1867, this wily Welshman swooped into Estes Park like a hawk seizing its prey, taking control of the Estes claim and setting up shop as the area’s premier host and guide. For two decades, Evans held court in the old Estes ranch house, regaling visitors with tales taller than Longs…
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Baker v. Morton and the demise of the Omaha Claim Club
Picture this: It’s the 1850s, and Omaha’s wilder than a bucking bronco at a rodeo. Enter the Omaha Claim Club, a posse of land-grabbing varmints who’d make even the most hardened outlaw blush. These hombres had a unique way of “negotiating” land deals – by dunking folks in the Missouri River! Now, our hero in…
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EL CHIRADO – INDUSTRY, TEMPERANCE AND MORALITY (DEAR GOD)
El Chirado? More like El Ridiculo! Saddle up, pardners! We’re about to lasso ourselves a tale wilder than a bronco in a thunderstorm – the wacky story of the Chicago-Colorado Colony! It’s 1870, and a bunch of Chicago fat cats are itching to make their mark on the untamed Colorado Territory. Inspired by that old…
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Byers didn’t witness history – he grabbed it by the horns, wrestled it to the ground and branded it with his own initials
William Newton Byers, that paragon of pioneer pluck, didn’t just move to Denver in 1859 – he stormed into that tent city, armed with nothing but a printing press and more chutzpah than a snake oil salesman at a hypochondriac convention! This man, with nary a lick of journalistic experience, had the audacity to launch…
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THE CLEVELAND, COLUMBUS, CINCINNATI RAILWAY (CCC) PLAYED A ROLE IN ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S FUNERAL PROCESSION
According to the internet, the locomotive Nashville, owned by the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad (a predecessor of the CCC&I), pulled the funeral train while it traveled through Ohio. The timetable shows the train leaving Cleveland at midnight and arriving in Columbus at 7:30am, passing 22 towns along the way. This suggests that the CCC&I managed…
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William N. Byers – The OHIO and IOWA Years (1831 – 1854)
William Newton Byers, that paragon of pioneer pluck, burst forth from his mother’s womb on February 22, 1831, in West Jefferson, Madison County, Ohio. This wasn’t just any birth – it was a cosmic event that would shape the very fabric of the American West! His parents, Moses Watson Byers and Mary Ann Brandenburg, weren’t your…
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In the matter of Homeowners Associations v. Common Sense and Individual Liberty
Before us stands a scourge upon the American landscape, a festering boil on the backside of freedom – the Homeowners Association! Are we truly to stand idly by, while these petty tyrants impose their will upon the rightful owners of property, turning our suburbs into Stepford-esque dystopias where individuality is a crime and conformity is…
