Tag: Colorado
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Birth of the National Live Stock Association and a BBQ for the ages
It’s the wild and woolly 1890s, and the West is wilder than a bronco with a burr under its saddle. Cattle rustlers are running amok, fences are getting cut and ranchers are squabbling over land rights. But wait! Who’s that riding over the horizon, ready to save the day? It’s a couple of livestock bigwigs…
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This Mardi Gras of the West fizzled out like a wet firecracker in 1902
THE FESTIVAL OF MOUNTAIN AND PLAIN It’s 1895, and Colorado has just crawled out of an economic nosedive that would make even a seasoned rodeo bull rider queasy. What’s a city to do? Throw a party, of course! And not just any party, mind you. We’re talking a shindig so grand it would “eclipse anything…
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The Tale of William Byers and His Electrifying Adventures in Telegraphy!
Our intrepid Denver promoter wasn’t content with just slinging ink; he had to go and tangle himself up in wires too. William Byers spearheaded the first telegraph line from Denver to New Mexico, probably so he could spread his tall tales even faster! In a stroke of genius (or madness, depending on who you ask),…
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The Hot Sulphury Venture of a Frontier Huckster and Would-be Spa Magnate
“AMERICA’S SWITZERLAND” In the year of our Lord 1863, Byers, not content with merely shaping public opinion through his empire of ink, set his sights on the steaming waters of Hot Sulphur Springs. This wasn’t just any patch of bubbling mud, oh no! This was to be “America’s Switzerland,” a veritable Eden of therapeutic waters and…
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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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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…