Local History
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100 Years Ago Today: Carnegie Libraries
Andrew Carnegie, best known as a steel magnate and a philanthropist, donated 90% of his earnings during his lifetime, which amounts to an unparalleled 350 million dollars. That’s the equivalent of billions of dollars today. Jeff Bezos, are you taking notes? Carnegie Libraries are pillars of Andrew Carnegie’s enduring philanthropic legacy. A Carnegie Library is Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Lunatic Threatens to Cut Off Police Chief’s Head
Governor Oliver H. Shoup (shoop ba-doop) was elected the 22nd governor of Colorado in November, 1918, and he was already receiving death threats by February, 1919. “Lunatics” weren’t wasting any time. Granted, Shoup’s own head was not under threat but that of a proxy, Hamilton Armstrong, long-serving Denver Chief of Police. Neither Shoup nor Armstrong Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Cement Bill Gets Into Clay
William “Cement Bill” Williams is a guy I’d have loved to share a drink with, just to pry him for stories. Bummer that prohibition would’ve gotten in the way. But every time I come across a newspaper article about Bill he’s got his calloused hand in some new business or adventure, like digging out Berthoud Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Mabel Normand, Silent Film Comedy Star
Last night I was watching an episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel where a male booking agent meets the comedian he hired, Midge Maisel, for the first time. She’s wearing a black evening dress. Her hair is fabulous. She looks gorgeous. He immediately dismisses her, saying she doesn’t look funny. He’d only booked her because Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Strikers Replaced by Soldiers
Today, thousands of Denver Public Schools teachers went on strike to demand higher wages and a more predictable pay schedule. It is the first teacher strike in the district in 25 years. However, if you rewind 100 years, strikes were all the rage in the labor movement. In Seattle, the first general strike or (sympathetic Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Breckenridge Issues Water Warning
People of Breckenridge, Colorado! Stop running your water at full blast all night! We know the pipes in your house might freeze and burst during the winter but our tiny reservoir only has a few feet of depth left! And the water pressure is so low that we couldn’t fight a fire if one broke Continue reading
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103 Years Ago Today: Flanger Jumps Track, Hits 75mph
A flanger is a railroad car that clears the area between the rails of ice and snow. A flanger would often be used in conjunction with a rotary snow plow when there was significant snow buildup on the tracks. Whereas a rotary is placed on the front of a train to blast the majority of Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Pithy News, Woman Dreams of Teddy Roosevelt’s Death
Let me get this right. A woman in Moffat County, Colorado had a dream that The Old Lion, The Rough Rider, The Bull Moose, T. R., The Trust Buster, The Hero of San Juan Hill, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the 26th President of the United States, died in his sleep at the young age of Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Two Men Killed in Boiler Explosion
Railroading was so incredibly dangerous 100 years ago. One of the reasons why these old pictures and stories of railroad routes through the Rockies leave me shaking my head in awe is just how much risk there was in building, maintaining, and operating these lines. I’m especially fascinated by the Moffat Road, aka Rollins Pass Continue reading
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100 Years Ago Today: Small Son Tells How Father Killed Mother
Let’s fill out some key points to this terrible story. On December 2, 1918, 34-year-old Pearl(e) Centers, plow factory worker, father of nine-year-old Raymond Centers and former husband of now-deceased Daisy Myrtal Centers (34), killed his wife because she refused to reconcile their recent divorce, aka she wouldn’t take his sorry ass back (Sings: Try Continue reading
About Me
Local history enthusiast curious about how Colorado’s present is informed by the people and places of its past
Pick and Sledge 