The Colorado Magazine - Winter 2022

COLORADO
HISTORY COLORADO | WINTER 2022

the
magazine
LION in WINTER
Travel to Redstone
to uncover the past
Hope and Rebuilding:
Two Years of Covid
Wildfire Reading List
Witness to History:
What Moment Would
You Want to See?
PRESERVATION AND INTEGRITY
I
ntegrity is an interesting word. As a
human trait, it conveys honesty and HISTORY COLORADO
moral behavior and character. In the
realm of preservation, it refers to a historic
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
site’s physicality and architecture based AND LEADERSHIP
on wholeness and cohesion. I was struck
by Rebecca Solnit’s explanation in her Tamra J. Ward
book Orwell’s Roses, “From the same root Chair, Board of Directors
as integrity comes the word disintegration,
literally the loss of the integrity that holds Ellen S. Roberts
things together.” Vice Chair, Board of Directors
As historians, preservationists, and lovers
of Colorado, we work to prevent the disintegration of Colorado communities. Marco Antonio Abarca
However, we must acknowledge that this work of preservation has not Richard Benenson
traditionally been done equitably. The ideal and the practice of preservation Luis Benitez
integrity has been exclusive—shockingly so. The statistics tell the bleakness of Cathey M. Finlon, Chair Emeritus
this story. Donna Lynne, Ph.D.
Of Colorado historic sites in the National Register of Historic Places, only Carlos Martinez
5 percent of those sites relate to Black and Indigenous histories, communities Robert E. Musgraves
of color, and/or women. In Colorado’s State Register of Historic Places, the Alan Salazar
statistics are even worse: 3.6 percent relate to Black and Indigenous histories, Mary Sullivan
communities of color, and/or women. And, most of those sites were added Penfield W. Tate III
only in the past five years.
History Colorado is working to ensure a historic register that authentically Dawn DiPrince
reflects the rich and diverse history of Colorado. This is not just symbolic. Executive Director
We have witnessed the social and economic benefit of preservation. (Since the
State Historian’s Council
inception of the State Historical Fund, Colorado has seen nearly $3 billion in
Dr. Nicki Gonzales, State Historian
economic impact from preservation.) We want all communities to access the Regis University
benefits of preservation.
Dr. Tom Noel
History Colorado is committing resources and labor to building an
University of Colorado Denver
accessible and inclusive preservation program. Honest goal setting requires
that we recognize this commitment publicly so that we can better hold Dr. Jared Orsi
ourselves accountable. We will be sharing our progress, case studies, and our Colorado State University
work along the way. Dr. William Wei
We are eager to build a historic register that is a comprehensive expression University of Colorado Boulder
of Colorado’s history.
PUBLISHED SINCE 1923
This publication was supported in part by
the Josephine H. Miles Trust.
Dawn DiPrince The Colorado Magazine (ISSN 2765-8856) contains

articles of broad general and educational interest that
Executive Director link the present to the past, and is distributed quarterly
to History Colorado members, to libraries, and to
institutions of higher learning. Manuscripts must be
documented when submitted, and originals are retained
We acknowledge that the land currently known as Colorado has been the in the Publications office ([email protected]).
traditional homelands of Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. We are An Author’s Guide is available at HistoryColorado.org.
History Colorado disclaims responsibility for statements
grateful to work in partnership with the forty-eight sovereign nations who
of fact or of opinion made by contributors. | Postage
continue to call this land home. Together, we plan exhibits; collect, preserve, paid at Denver, Colorado.
and interpret artifacts; do archaeological work; and create educational
© 2022 History Colorado
programs to share the history of Colorado.
HistoryColorado.org / 1
Native, Mexican & Chicano Art
Opening May 3, 2022
301 N. Union Ave | Pueblo | 719-583-0453
2 / Winter 2022
4 The Forum / 5 Looking Back by Natasha Gardner / 6 On Reflection by Teddy Scott / 8 A Rocky
Mountain Dream by Dexter Nelson II / 11 Readings for a Too-Long Fire Season by Sam Bock / 12 Lion in
Winter by Jason L. Hanson / 26 Las Voces de Covid Photos by Sarahy Plazola / 34 A Moment in Time
Edited by Natasha Gardner / 40 Golden Dreams to Silver Screens by Devin Flores / 44 Drawing Board
The sun sets over History Colorado’s Ute Indian Museum in Montrose on a chilly winter day.
See Gregg Deal’s Merciless Indian Savages at the museum, on exhibit until May 2022. Photo by Amerson Woodie.
HISTORY COLORADO MEMBERS RECEIVE THE COLORADO MAGAZINE AS A BENEFIT OF MEMBERSHIP.

Individual subscriptions are also available, $45 per year (four issues) / Join or subscribe: h-co.org/join
ON THE COVER / The Crystal River, near Redstone, in winter. Photo by Stacie Hanson ; photo editing by Andy Bell.
elected in 1955, City Councilperson Elvin
Caldwell found that segregation persisted
at many Denver pools. For example, in
addition to the interviews with community
members that Lucha Martínez de Luna has
conducted, State Historian Nicki Gonzales
shared a story about her father experiencing
segregation at a Denver pool in the 1950s
Sweet Memories the state were not accessible to people and 1960s on a recent episode of our Lost
On National Hard Candy Day in December, of color. In Denver, specific days were Highways podcast. Caldwell helped deseg-
we posted images from our collections, designated for “Blacks only” or “His- regate pools during his time on the council,
including one of a Jolly Rancher billboard, panics only” to swim. an effort he discussed in the 2007 Rebels
which elicited plenty of remembrances. As children, my brothers and I took Remembered documentary by Dick Alweis.
swimming lessons at Barnum Park pool for On Denver’s border, notably, the pool at
I grew up knowing what flavor Jolly many years in the 1960s. My parents, their Lakeside remained segregated (even as the
Rancher was making every day because friends and relatives also took us to swim rest of the park was integrated) until it
I could smell it on my walk to school! at Congress Park pool and at Columbus closed in the 1960s.
—Pam Erthal, via Facebook Park pool (now La Raza Park) even before In these practices, Colorado communi-
1960. We NEVER saw anything indi- ties were not exceptional—it’s well docu-
We used to go trick or treating at the
cating that certain days were reserved for mented that many cities around the country
plant/store. They would give out handfuls
an ethnic group or racial group. embraced similar practices with varying
of kisses and a couple of full-size sticks.
This seems a serious problem for degrees of officialness and formality. So
—Janet Graham, via Facebook
History Colorado, to have a statement in much so that, in 1969, Mister Rogers felt
your publication without any reference to compelled to speak out about the topic by
Alfred versus Alferd where the author found this information.
We launched Season Three of our inviting a Black police officer on his show
—Catherine Wanstrath, via email to share a pool.
award-winning Lost Highways podcast
in January with a special episode on Alfred Knowing how popular recreation is
History Colorado replies:
Packer, which led to more than one query with Coloradans, this question has inspired
Thank you for shining a light on the
about the spelling of his first name. While us to learn more about how segregation
important topic of segregation in recre-
many sources say that “Alferd” is correct, impacted recreational facilities in the state.
ational spaces. In this case, the sentences
State Historian’s Council member Tom Noel Readers: If you have a story to share or
you noted were meant to indicate the period
says that “Alfred” is the definitive spelling, information on this topic, please email us
that had precipitated this activism. We
citing that Packer’s tombstone in Littleton at [email protected].
appreciate you pointing out that this was
and his military record both list “Alfred.” not as clear as it could have been. It is
important to recognize that, like schools and
“Shroud, Destruction, the housing market, the efforts to desegre-
and Neglect” gate recreational spaces in Denver was not
I am a long-time member of History an overnight occurrence, and segregation
Colorado, and a Denver native. I have sometimes persisted in a variety of ways Natasha Gardner, Managing Editor
checked this matter with my parents, also even after it was outlawed. Lori Bailey, Copy Editor
Denver natives, ages 92 and 93. To start, let’s take a step back: As in Viviana Guajardo & Jori Johnson,
In the article by Lucha Martínez de many other areas of the country, public Photo Services
Luna [Fall 2021], there is one statement swimming facilities in Denver and the
Jason L. Hanson,
that I would like to see verified, and surrounding area were openly segregated
footnoted for her source. This is on Chief Creative Officer
in the early twentieth century. In 1932,
page 18. She is discussing the Chicano a violent protest erupted against efforts to
activism of the late 1960s, the West High desegregate a popular swimming beach EDITORIAL TEAM
walkout of 1969, and activism through in Denver’s Washington Park. Lafayette Samuel Bock, Shanea Ewing,
art. Note the bold and italics below. filled in their new public pool in the mid- Devin Flores, María Islas-López,
She says, “One of the early opportu- 1930s rather than allow Latino residents María José Maddox, Aaron Marcus,
nities for this activism through art came to swim in it. Julie Peterson, Adriana Radinovic,
at the Lincoln Park pool. At that time, However, even when segregation was Keith Valdez, Zach Werkowitch,
many public swimming pools throughout legally prohibited it persisted. When he was and Bethany Williams
4 / Winter 2022
FROM THE COLLECTION
Looking Back
An autochrome pays homage to one of
Colorado’s most important assets.
Photo by Fred Payne Clatworthy.
I
f you’ve lived in Colorado for more than Fred Payne Clatworthy in the 1920s, History Colorado. 96.174.368
a few months, you know that snowfall it captures the playfulness and delight
can happen at the most unexpected many Coloradans find in a snowy an early process for creating color images
times. And it is in this important winter winter setting. by coating a glass plate with dyed potato
season that Colorado gathers one of its Clatworthy spent decades capturing starches to filter light. The resulting
most vital resources: water, in the form images like this in the Centennial State. photographs (like the one above) have an
of snow. Originally from Ohio, he pedaled ethereal quality because the process didn’t
But we’ve also come to rely on our through Colorado on a cross-country create a natural color, but an approxi-
famously light Rocky Mountain powder bike trip in 1898, and returned to make mation. Clatworthy’s autochromes were
for much more than sustenance. It helps the state his home in 1902. He eventually featured in National Geographic maga-
fuel our tourism industry and gives us settled in Estes Park, where he ran a pho- zine, and an exhibition of his images
plenty of reasons to strap on snowshoes, tography business and other endeavors helped make the case to the US Senate
pull a sled up a hill, or click into skis. (including a short-lived laundry service). for expanding Rocky Mountain National
That’s why this image in our collec- As a photographer, Clatworthy was Park in 1917.
tion caught our attention. Created by well known for producing autochromes, —Natasha Gardner
JUST IN
On Reflection
There’s more than meets the
eye with this stained glass art
piece, a recent addition to the
History Colorado Gill Foundation
LGBTQ+ Archive.
W
hen Vicki Piotter and Peg and compassion. To welcome visitors
Hickox Rapp opened Den- into the collective, Piotter and Rapp
ver’s first feminist book col- commissioned two stained glass pieces
lective in 1975, the Woman to Woman from local artist Mattie Sue Athan to
Feminist Bookcenter, lesbians had been hang in the windows. They both depicted
vulnerable to both legal and social retri- two women facing each other, their faces
bution on the grounds of their sexuality made of mirrored glass so that every
in the US, including arrest for wearing woman who entered would see her own
male attire, being fired, and even losing face within the images.
custody of their children. What’s more, Though the collective closed its doors
FBI investigations into what J. Edgar in 1983, Woman to Woman Feminist
Hoover called the “subversive ramifica- Bookcenter provided invaluable services
tions” of the Women’s Liberation Move- and resources for lesbians and other
ment generated a social air of distrust women in Denver for the better part of a
regarding the dissemination of feminist decade, including a community meeting
literature. So, when they opened their space, classes for women, access to queer
doors at 2023 East Colfax Avenue, it and feminist literature, and social services
took grit and a great deal of bravery. recommendations. And—perhaps most
But “courage,” according to Piotter, importantly—it gave all women a place
“was found in the strength of numbers.” to see themselves and their experiences
Women from different backgrounds reflected in the world around them.
found a place of safety, enlightenment, —Teddy Scott
Photo by Aaron Marcus.
6 / Winter 2022
ON SITE
A Rocky Mountain Dream by DEXTER NELSON II
The promise of Lincoln Hills still

resonates today.
A
servant’s bell, a cabin resort in the important part of Black history because
mountains, and a Black utopia. it is a story of Black joy in an otherwise
These terms are not usually racially tumultuous time period: Within
associated with each other, and defi- a few years, the United States experienced
nitely not associated with each other in the Red Summer of 1919 and the Tulsa
1920s America. E.C. Regnier and Roger Race Massacre of 1921, but also the
Ewalt sought to change that when they creation of Lincoln Hills.
established the Lincoln Hills Develop- During a recent trip to the site, I was
ment Company one hundred years ago, fortunate enough to visit Winks Lodge.
in 1922. The building, which is also known as
Their dream was to have a resort Winks Panorama, was built by Obrey
created by and for African Americans—a “Winks” Wendell Hamlet in 1928. It
safe place where people who looked like hosted various book readings, dances,
me could find leisure and joy without the and other festivities. Some of the notable
fear of racial persecution and violence. guests of Winks Lodge included jazz
They began building in 1925 in Gilpin musicians Duke Ellington and Count
County, and the result was the only resort Basie, as well as authors Langston Hughes
of its kind west of the Mississippi River. and Zora Neale Hurston.
Lincoln Hills eventually included over I came across several small hand bells
100 acres, which were originally sold in along a table on a balcony that over-
25-by-100-foot lots. looked the forest while I was touring
Lincoln Hills served as a bastion the building. It was empowering to envi-
of hope in a land dominated by white sion Black people sitting on the balcony
supremacy. This mountain resort—and its enjoying some leisure time in the summer
social hub, Winks Lodge—was a vacation as opposed to the stereotypical images of
home for many Denver locals. The lodge Black people as servants, which are too
operated from 1928 to 1965, but the late common in our society.
1960s marked the end of an era at Lincoln It was a privilege and honor to visit
Hills. With the approval of new civil rights Winks Lodge at Lincoln Hills and one
legislation, African Americans had more that I will not soon forget. Thankfully,
travel options opened to them besides there are groups like Lincoln Hills
Lincoln Hills, and it ultimately closed. Cares who share that understanding
Today, several cabins and buildings and are working to both preserve and
remain at Lincoln Hills. The site is still promote Lincoln Hills. Next time I
used by outdoor educational and rec- come across a hand bell, I won’t think
reational group Lincoln Hills Cares, of racial or socioeconomic servitude—I
as well as a fly-fishing group and cabin will instead envision the leisure activities
owners who often have historic ties to enjoyed by my people in the oasis that
their residences. Lincoln Hills is an was Lincoln Hills.
8 / Winter 2022
Camp Nizhoni (a summer camp for girls held at Lincoln Hills) participants in 1937.
Denver Public Library Special Collections.
STEP BY STEP 2014: The National Register nomina-
tion for Winks Panorama is amended
For the centennial birthday of the Lincoln Hills resort, to expand the boundaries of the listing
we look back at some of the preservation efforts at one to include buildings formerly owned by
the United States Forest Service. The
of its most well-known buildings: Winks Lodge. new nomination argues that Winks Pan-
By Poppie Gullett orama has national, not just state-level,
significance for its role in the history of
1980: Winks Panorama, also known helps the group purchase Winks Pan- Black recreation in the West.
as Winks Lodge, is listed in the National orama. The club focuses on educating 2017: Robert R. Smith, entrepreneur
Register of Historic Places due in large the public about the contributions of and co-founder of the education non-
part to the efforts of Bertha Calloway, people of color to the West. profit Lincoln Hills Cares, purchases
a Black historian who had purchased the property.
2007: The James P. Beckwourth
the property with her husband James
Mountain Club receives a second grant Present: Winks Panorama is being
in 1978. Winks Panorama is the third
from the Colorado State Historical Fund considered for National Historic Land-
resource associated with African Amer-
to assess the condition of Winks’ historic mark (NHL) status. The National Park
ican heritage added to the National
buildings and structures and help prior- Service (NPS) Landmarks Committee
Register in Colorado.
itize work needed to protect and repair recommended the site for NHL status in
1985: Winks Panorama changes hands the lodge. 2021 and it will go to a vote at the NPS
to new owners, who maintain the prop- Advisory Board in 2022.
2013: The Colorado Historical
erty but only gradually learn from visi-
Foundation acquires a preservation
tors of the significance of the lodge.
easement on the property, a legally
2006: The Colorado State Historical binding covenant that will help protect
Fund provides a grant to the James P. the defining historic characteristics of Winks Panorama in the 1950s.
Beckwourth Mountain Club, which Winks in perpetuity. Denver Public Library Special Collections
10 / Winter 2022
Readings for a Too-Long Fire Season
Six books about wildfire that are helping us think about the
future of our homes on the range.
by SAM BOCK
A
s if we needed yet another, the
closing hours of 2021 were
a reminder that there is no
such thing as fire season in Colorado
anymore. Every time of year is fire
season now. With the embers of the
devastating Marshall Fire barely cooled,
like many Coloradans, we’ve been
casting around for new answers to the
big questions: How and why did this
Destroyed Louisville homes after the Marshall Fire. Photo by Todd Phillips.
happen? How could this happen in
December? When and where will the The Pyrocene: How We Created
Historian for the United States Forest
next fire happen? an Age of Fire, and What Happens
Service, documents the emergence of
The full answers to these questions are Next by Stephen J. Pyne
vulnerable suburban communities built
complex. Anthropogenic climate change Pyrocene is a brief (but fascinating) survey
into disaster-prone hillsides all across the
is certainly playing a role in pushing these of humanity’s relationship to fire. Pyne is
American West. He calls them “Wil-
blazes deeper into winter and closer to one of the leading scholars of fire history,
derburbs” for short. From his unique
the Front Range urban corridor. But a and his provocative style leaves readers
perspective inside the agency most
warming, drying climate isn’t the whole thinking deeply about one of humanity’s
responsible for forest fire management,
story. More than a century of state and greatest tools and oldest foes.
Bramwell asks us to consider the future
federal forestry policy, along with overly
of homes in the West. Gifford Pinchot and the Making
rosy estimations about the risks of home-
of Modern Environmentalism
building in disaster-prone areas, have left Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes
by Char Miller
us more nervous than ever about living In this novel geared towards school-age Gifford Pinchot could be the most
in fire country. readers, award-winning author Jewell important bureaucrat you’ve never heard
But luckily for those of us who want Parker Rhodes brings us a coming-of-age of. As the first person to lead the United
to make better sense of too-familiar story about a young Black girl who con- States Forest Service, Pinchot’s policies
tragedies, historians and novelists fronts a wildfire years after she lost her and attitudes still shape this country’s
offer unique perspectives. And they parents in another fire. Rhodes has a relationship to its forests.
haven’t been silent on the subject of knack for helping young learners work
fires. From accounts of the brave through issues like trauma, race, and The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt
and the Fire that Saved America
women and men who lost their lives climate change in the context of a rapidly
by Timothy Egan
protecting our homes from flame, to changing world.
One of the most acclaimed authors
in-depth examinations of humanity’s
Fire on the Mountain: The True writing about the West today, Timothy
relationship with the most essential Story of the South Canyon Fire Egan has a knack for helping readers put
of elements, here are six of the books by John N. Maclean historical tragedy in context. With The
we’re reading right now as we search for The 1994 South Canyon Fire was one Big Burn, Egan tells the story of a wildfire
answers amongst the ashes. of Colorado’s deadliest. Fourteen fire- in Idaho, Washington, and Montana
Wilderburbs: Communities on fighters lost their lives, and Maclean’s por- that scorched an area of forest the size
Nature’s Edge by Lincoln Bramwell traits of the fallen pull back the curtain of Connecticut, and the President who
The author, who should know a thing on the increasingly familiar world of ushered in a new conservation movement
or two about fire since he’s the Chief wildland firefighting. in the United States.
LION IN WINTER
What Lies Beneath the Snow
in Redstone?
T
he road has become a narrow tunnel wife, Stacie, and I are on our way to the The town of Redstone is an easy
in the nighttime snowstorm, its small mountain haven of Redstone for place to overlook, even in good weather.
edges marked by the reach of our a few days of stillness and respite after Among that class of western towns where
headlights. The blurred snowflakes illu- the busy holiday season and almost two the elevation (7,185 feet above sea level)
minated by the beams whip past us out years of living through this pandemic. significantly outpaces the population
of the dark, giving us the sense of flying, Typically a little more than three (127 at the last census), it dots the east
like we are making the jump to lightspeed hours from our home in Denver, bank of the Crystal River that flows
through a star-strewn galaxy far, far away. we are well into the seventh hour of down from McClure Pass to its junction
In this particular corner of the Milky our journey when two lines of colored with the Roaring Fork at Carbondale.
Way, however, we are easing our way up holiday lights emerge from the snow. Opposite the town, a row of strange
Colorado’s Highway 133 at speeds well They are wrapped around the rails of a ruins—beehive-like brick structures—
below the posted limit. It’s the last week bridge over the Crystal River, it seems, line the west side of the highway.
of 2021, in the midst of the first major to save travelers like us from missing the Safely across the bridge, we pull up
winter storm of this season, and my turn and guide us into the town. to the Redstone Inn, with its distinctive,
12 / Winter 2022
by JASON L. HANSON
square clock tower that rises into the in the car, and experience the magic of Cleveholm Manor, built in 1902 for John
Cleveland Osgood in the Crystal River Valley.
snowy night sky as it has for nearly 120 the valley and the inn.” Photo by Stacie Hanson.
years. Hauling our bags out of the car, With Wi-Fi scarce and cell signals
we knock the snow off our boots as we nonexistent, it is an easy invitation to
open the door to the lobby, which has accept. But there’s something perhaps Colorado’s largest corporations and one
not changed much since the clock tower unintended in that notion of a relaxing of America’s richest men, the ideals of
started to tick in 1902. As we settle into step back in time. Even quiet places the Progressive Era, the opulence of the
our third-floor room, the hotel’s guide vibrate with the drama of lives lived there, Gilded Age, and the struggle for labor
book prepares us to enjoy Redstone with the consequences and repercussions that justice came together in an experiment
the proper mindset, explaining that the radiate out from them across the decades. aimed at creating a new future. The result
town “is a heartbeat, yet a world away The peaceful tranquility we’re seeking in was, for better or worse, a new way of
from Aspen.” It encourages visitors like us Redstone belies a complicated past. Here, thinking about the relationship between
“to stop, take a deep breath, slow down, during the first decade of the twentieth work and life that continues to shape
step back in time, leave your cell phone century and, with the backing of one of the modern American workplace today.
I n the light of the next morning, with
the snow still falling, we get our first
good look around. A carved wooden
control, it forcibly restricted the Ute (and
other Tribes) to ever-smaller portions of
their ancestral territory in order to make
sign standing just beyond the bridge way for onrushing American settlement.
into town welcomes us to the “Ruby of To facilitate settlement, the US gov-
the Rockies,” a moniker bestowed by an ernment dispatched surveyors to explore
alliterative The New York Times reporter the newly American territory and report
in 1902 and embraced by residents ever back on the most promising opportu-
since. A weathered hand-painted sign nities for extracting the wealth of its
on the main street boasts that this is a natural resources. In 1873, Ferdinand
state historic district, a nod to the fact V. Hayden led a survey party through
that not much has changed here since this valley, noting the area’s rich coal
1902 when the town was constructed reserves. Six years later, while Colorado
as a sociological experiment by John continued to expel the Ute from most
Cleveland Osgood for his Colorado Fuel of their homelands within the state,
and Iron Company. EuroAmerican prospectors combed the
A walk down Redstone Boulevard crimson hillsides in search of riches.
(locals just call it “The Boulevard”) gives Despite the Hayden survey’s reports of
John Cleveland Osgood in the 1920s.
us glimpses of the town’s residents. The coal in the area, those early prospectors History Colorado. 83.500.5
smell of wood smoke drifts from chim- were in search of gold and silver and had
neys and Black Lives Matter signs dot little use for anything else. Legend has it fashionable wardrobe and fastidious
snow-covered yards. A man shovels the that the region’s richest coal deposit was grooming would have stood out. He wore
snow off of his roof while another clears discovered by two prospectors when an his dark hair slicked and parted down
the community ice rink (free skates are avalanche exposed a black seam in the the center; his mustache curled up into
available to borrow in the nearby shed). red rock along a tributary of the Crystal points at the ends. In photographs, his
A woman walks two goats—whom she River. Propelled by visions of shinier eyes look calm and confident, as though
introduces as Bubble and Squeak—down stuff, the prospectors weren’t interested perhaps he saw something not apparent
the street on leashes attached to hand- in the coal, and when a dapper man to everyone else.
knitted holiday collars. They are on their from Iowa offered them $500 for the What he saw, it seems, was that coal
way over to the Redstone General Store, claim in 1882, they took the money was the future. The compressed energy of
which sells essentials, local artists’ work, and moved on. verdant swamps from geologic ages gone
and artisanal beverages, and has served The well-dressed buyer was John by, the glossy black lumps of carbon were
as a hub for the community to gather Cleveland Osgood, then thirty-one years rapidly becoming the fuel of everyday
on cold afternoons since 1950. old, already successful in business but not American life in the decades around the
Behind the buildings, the deep red yet satisfied. He was born in Brooklyn turn of the century. Coal heated homes
canyon walls that gave the town its name in 1851 and raised by relatives after and businesses. It fired the steam boilers
loom. Their color is made even more his parents both died when he was a that made it possible to connect a conti-
vivid by the bright white snow. Before young child. Compelled to go to work nent by rail and to power the machines
American newcomers called it Redstone, at age fourteen, over the next decade that freed humans and animals from
this place—along with much of what and a half he rose through positions their dreariest toils. It unlocked the
we now know as Colorado and large of increasing responsibility in textile alchemy that smelted ore into precious
portions of the surrounding states—was factories, merchant houses, coal mining metal and forged raw minerals into iron
firmly within the ancestral homelands companies, and banks. By 1878 he had and steel. By 1890, it accounted for 90
of the Ute people, whose traditions do saved enough to purchase a troubled coal percent of the nation’s energy consump-
not record a migration story. company in Iowa. tion. In short: It represented a fantastic
Indigenous presence and control Ambitious, quick with numbers, and business opportunity.
notwithstanding, during the Spanish adept at attracting financial backers, he And, with his $500 purchase in the
colonization of North America, the valley soon put the company on solid financial Crystal River Valley, John Cleveland
was nominally a part of Spanish and sub- footing. Shortly thereafter, at the request Osgood suddenly had one of the finest
sequently Mexican claims in the region, of a railroad customer looking to extend supplies in the United States. With three
before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo their lines west, Osgood journeyed to business associates from Iowa, Osgood
moved the national border south. As Colorado to investigate the new state’s organized the Colorado Fuel Company.
the United States government asserted coal resources. In the mountains, his A decade later, he’d merged with a top
14 / Winter 2022
competitor to form Colorado Fuel and who visited in 1902 agreed, writing that contours of the rust-red cliff face. The
Iron Company (CF&I), which became Redstone, “is the most beautiful town in river meanders along a meadow floor,
one of the nation’s biggest coal compa- Colorado, a thriving little village of 250 shallow and relaxed in its winter flow,
nies. CF&I boasted fourteen operating to 300.” The writer complemented the a glassy black ribbon under the gray,
coal mines spread across approximately community and its harmonious, well- snow-laden sky. The current floats easily
70,000 acres and employed more built workers’ cottages, counting more around snow-capped boulders and past
than 7,000 workers who lived in than 100 of them, each one different the wintery skeletons of riparian bushes
thirty-eight company-owned mining from the rest. poking up through the snow along the
camps from Wyoming to the Territory The workers living in Redstone’s cot- bank. The vista is framed by slopes
of New Mexico. tages enjoyed homes that many people covered with frosted evergreen trees,
At the center of CF&I’s operation in Denver would have envied. Beyond which are obscured by falling flakes.
was the West’s only integrated iron and their architectural individualization, When the road departs from the river,
steel plant in Pueblo. Under Osgood’s each home enjoyed indoor plumbing we come to two iron gates hinged to
leadership, the company would continue (although they still needed to use out- square sandstone pillars and topped with
to grow throughout the next decade. By house bathrooms) with fresh running stone lions. This is the gate to Cleveholm
1902, the company employed 15,000 water piped from reservoirs along the Manor, the baronial estate that John
workers, and when its many subsidiaries Crystal River. Electric lighting was Cleveland Osgood—his close friends
and related enterprises were factored in, called him “Cleve”—built alongside
it accounted for nearly 10 percent of the The result was, the Crystal River. And the welcoming
state’s entire workforce. lions are there to let us know just whose
Back at the Crystal River, where
for better or worse, house it was.
Osgood had embarked on his journey a new way of thinking Lions are prominent all around Cleve-
to become the coal king of the West, about the relationship holm, so much so that one of Osgood’s
extracting the area’s fantastic wealth biographers called him “The Lion of
required installing a large workforce in between work and life Redstone.” Stone lions guard the gates,
the remote valley. By 1902, CF&I had that continues to shape and another greets visitors outside the
established Redstone along the main line courtyard. Metal lions cast in bas-relief
of the Crystal River Railroad as a hub the modern American adorn the trim plates of nearly every door
for processing the coal mined nearby workplace today. in the house. Most notably, Osgood’s
into coke and shipping it to users like lion presides over the house from the
the company’s steel mill at Pueblo. It available for 35 cents per light added impressive crest carved into the great
was a company town, but Osgood had to the rent. Homes ranged from three room’s chimney, the focal point at the
a personal interest in Redstone and was to five rooms, and monthly rent was heart of the sprawling manor. Carved
determined to make sure that it wasn’t a $2 per room. To encourage healthful or cast, the lions hold a sheaf of wheat,
typical coal company town, which had a living, each family was given a plot in supposed to signify freeborn landed
well-earned reputation for being a dismal the community garden across the river gentry in England—surely a notion
and dirty camp where coal miners and and a cow to provide fresh milk. Larger that Osgood identified with as he
their families fended for themselves as homes for upper-level managers rented looked out over his estate from the
best they could in makeshift housing for $18.50 per month, which included room’s oversized windows.
that barely met their basic needs. indoor bathrooms and choice locations He was exceptionally landed. CF&I’s
The inaugural edition of Camp and higher up on the hillside. success had made Osgood extremely
Plant, CF&I’s company magazine (and The town’s layout was a physical wealthy—his fortune was reported to be
gift to future historians), which was expression of the workplace hierarchy, the sixth largest in America by the turn
published in December 1901, explained: allowing the higher-ranking officials of the twentieth century—and his estate
“Beauty has been the guiding principle to look down over the workers of the stretched from near Marble (to the south)
in the building up of our little town. We town. And watching over all of it from to past Redstone, including the town
do not have monotonous rows of box-car a tasteful remove was John Cleveland itself, which he owned entirely. Osgood
houses with battened walls, painted a Osgood himself. called the expanse Crystal Park, and he
dreary mineral red, but tasteful little situated his home at the top of an idyllic
cottages in different styles, prettily orna-
mented, comfortably arranged internally
and painted in every variety of restful
F rom the Redstone Inn, The Boule-
vard jogs and winds south along the
river, dwindling down to a narrow lane
meadow overlooking the Crystal River.
The inspiration for his new house
had been his wife, Nattie Irene Belote.
color.” The New York Times reporter as it gradually climbs along the carved Happier living in England by herself
than in Colorado with John, Irene (as
she was called) was a socialite and author
who contributed to popular publications
like Vanity Fair and wrote melodra-
matic romance novels. The latter were
published by the Cleveland Publishing
Company, which Osgood established
for the purpose. Her debut novel, The
Shadow of Desire, was a thinly veiled
autofictional portrait of her marriage to
John that The New York Times described
to be “as unwholesome as any we have
had the bad fortune to read.”
When Irene did deign to come to
the area, John put her up at the gracious
Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs.
But around 1899, he began planning a
home modeled on the English country
estates Irene was so fond of. Not only
would it showcase his status as one of the
nation’s great industrial tycoons but, he
hoped, it might lure Irene to live with
him in his beloved and profitable Crystal
River Valley.
Situated nearly a mile upstream from
the workers’ homes, Cleveholm Manor
was forty-two rooms (plus bathrooms)
of grandeur standing at the heart of a
4,200-acre fenced estate. If you’ve driven
up Highway 133 to McClure Pass, you
may have caught a glimpse of it through
the trees across the river. More commonly
called the Redstone Castle today, it is
a Tudor-inspired manor house, com-
plete with towers, turrets, and sprawling
wings. Resting on a base of substantial time you look out a window you see went on to design grand homes for the
sandstone blocks quarried at Mount something different. Every time you wealthy elite in Denver, including the
Casa just across the valley, it stands at look inside you see something different. Grant-Humphreys Mansion on the city’s
the edge of a wooded hillside at the top It’s just amazing architecture—even the “Quality Hill” (now operated as an event
of an expansive lawn sloping down to spaces for servants, or the carriage house venue by History Colorado) and the
the Crystal River. for the horses.” Crawford Hill Mansion at Tenth Avenue
When we arrive, April and Steve Osgood reportedly poured $2.5 and Sherman Street, once the home of
Carver, who have lovingly restored the million into Cleveholm, just a half-mil- Louise Sneed Hill and the epicenter of
castle since 2016, meet us at the porte lion less than it had cost to build the the Sacred Thirty-Six, Denver’s exclusive
cochere where carriages once discharged Colorado State Capitol several years and exclusionary high society group.
passengers. The Carvers’ remodeling earlier, and an amount equivalent to the Its nomination to the National Reg-
efforts “touched every wall,” says April, annual earnings of more than 4,000 of ister of Historic Places in 1971 pro-
but did so with a light hand to main- CF&I’s workers, according to historian claimed that Cleveholm’s interior “reflects
tain the original integrity of Osgood’s Thomas Andrews. It was designed by the opulence associated with American
dream home. Having spent the last two Boal and Harnois, the Denver-based entrepreneurs at the turn of the century.”
winters as the only occupants because architectural firm that also designed It was the Gilded Age, after all, and there
of the pandemic, April says the castle the workers’ homes in Redstone. With is gilding to be found in Cleveholm.
still reveals new things to her: “Every Cleveholm on their resume, the firm Most notably, the ceilings in the library
16 / Winter 2022
The great room at Cleveholm Manor, where John Cleveland Osgood
looked out over his estate toward the Crystal River. Osgood’s crest is furnishings and elegant rugs. They, along
carved into the fireplace below one of Alma’s trophies.
Photo by Jason Hanson. with several other rooms throughout the
manor, are protected by a conservation
easement that ensures Cleveholm’s inte-
rior is preserved.
From the daylight basement to the
upstairs bedrooms, Cleveholm was
designed to impress. The white Colorado
Yule marble floor in the lower level, like
the floors of the Colorado State Capitol,
was quarried in nearby Marble where
Osgood had a stake in one of the mining
operations. (Colorado Yule marble later
gained national fame as a stone featured
in the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier.)
On the main floor, artisans sculpted
plaster frescoes on ceilings. They rubbed
Honduran mahogany paneling to a
cherry finish that complimented the
ruby-colored velvet upper walls. And they
painted striking peacock and pineapple
designs where others might have settled
for wallpaper. At the heart of the house,
rising two stories from the main floor,
the great room is centered around a large
fireplace into which Osgood’s personal
crest was carved in the sandstone above
the mantle, proclaiming “Pecturo Puro,”
pure of heart, below the image of his lion.
Above the great room, an unassuming
lace-covered window looks down from
the second floor to allow the lady of the
house to get a look at her guests before
making her own appearance. That lady
and the dining room were covered in Closed to guests for another Covid was Alma Regina Shelgren, the second
shiny, room-brightening aluminum leaf winter, when it opens again visitors will Mrs. Osgood. John’s plan to save his
tinted with a gold wash. be able to glimpse what it was like to be marriage to Irene by creating a slice of
But even so, it has a comfortable at home with one of the United States’s England in the Colorado Rockies was
feeling, more country estate than castle, leading captains of industry (as Osgood not enough to keep the couple from
and is decorated in an Arts and Crafts and his fellow industrialists were known divorcing in July 1899. Three months
style that manages to feel homelike and by their admirers—and, no doubt, to later, as construction began on Cleve-
cozy despite its sprawling footprint. And themselves). The views of the winter holm, Alma and John were married.
while it is opulent and ostentatious—a wonderland outside are breathtaking Family legend has it that they first
little bit of artisanal hand-stenciling or from every window, but particularly met in the court of King Leopold of
silk brocade wall treatment goes a long from the west-facing rooms that look Belgium, where Osgood was making
way to clarifying the order of magnitude out across the lawn toward the Crystal a pitch for funding his coal operation.
between a manor house and a humble River and the peaks across the valley. (King Leopold, as the exploitative private
home—it still feels warmer and more These rooms—the library, the “owner” of the Congo Free State, was
welcoming to me, even on this cold day, great room, and the dining room— flush with investment capital extracted
than some of those great industrialist remain almost precisely as the Osgoods from African natural resources and recep-
mansions of the same era that still stand lived in them, from the custom-made tive to opportunities in the extractive
in Denver. Tiffany light fixtures to the Stickley industries elsewhere.)
At the time, Alma was rumored to the smallest little tot will ever forget plans call out lavender, cerise, blue, pink,
belong to the Swedish aristocracy. But this red letter day of unalloyed happiness and green rooms, each with a private
more recent research suggests that, while and contentment.” sink. Today the guest suites are named
she was in fact born in Sweden, Alma Alma was also a talented musician. after famous visitors who enjoyed the
Regina Johansson (Shelgren was from her She wrote the lilting, mid-tempo “Red- Osgoods’ hospitality, an eclectic mix of
first marriage) immigrated to Chicago as stone Waltz,” and her sheet music is the day’s leading figures.
a girl with her family and was orphaned proudly displayed in a case in one of the Financiers J.P. Morgan, George
soon thereafter. She did later travel to castle’s several exhibition areas. Presum- Gould, and John D. Rockefeller (Senior
Europe, but wherever she met John, the ably, she played for guests in Cleveholm’s and Junior) each found occasion to trade
two appear to have shared the experience music room. New York City’s gray urban canyons for
of losing their parents and having to But her beneficence did not extend to the steep vermilion walls of the valley
make their own way in the world. the area’s wildlife. Alma was celebrated to talk business with Osgood. President
Alma was called “Lady Bountiful” by as an excellent shot. On June 4, 1904, Theodore Roosevelt stayed at Cleveholm
residents of Redstone for her generous the Aspen Daily Times reported on a during his hunting trip to Colorado in
engagement in the local community. successful hunt in the mountains of the spring of 1905, and was reported
She encouraged children to write letters northern Colorado during which Alma to have stationed himself on the porch
to Santa, which she would intercept killed a large black bear, a feat apparently like it was a decadent hunting blind as
and fulfill herself at lavish Christmas so noteworthy that it rated a notice on he shot at animals that were driven in
parties she held at the town’s clubhouse. the front page of The New York Times front of the house for him.
Generous in all seasons, The Marble the following week. Most of the trophy
Times and Crystal Silver Lance reported
in September 1901, that “The last day
of summer was made memorable by
heads that decorate the walls at both
Cleveholm and the Redstone Inn—and
there are a notable number of trophy
R edstone was a coal town, but it was
not a coal mining town. The coal
was extracted from the mountain at Coal
the grand party given the children of heads—were killed by Lady Bountiful. Basin, twelve miles west of Redstone up
Redstone and the vicinity by our Lady In the guest wing at Cleveholm, Coal Creek. In the summer, one can drive
Bountiful of the Crystal Valley….What- rooms are distinguished by different up the old logging road to the vanished
ever life holds in store for them, not even colored fireplaces: The architectural townsite, where the mine area and the
The Redstone General Store at night.

Photo by Jason Hanson.
18 / Winter 2022
Old coke ovens. Photo by Stacie Hanson.
affected waterways have been the focus In Redstone’s heyday, the chorus transformed in the coke ovens in 1903.
of extensive environmental reclamation might also have included the chug and Coke is coal that has been heated in the
efforts in recent years. Last summer, new metallic whine of the narrow gauge rail- absence of air to burn off impurities and
property owners (heirs to Sam Walton’s road line, affectionately called the Col- concentrate the fuel’s energy-producing
Walmart fortune) created a free public umbine Road for the profuse wildflowers carbon. The coal was baked in domed
mountain bike park that they intend to that lined its route, contorting its way ovens that were loaded from the top and
further the ongoing reclamation effort. through the canyon twice a day. The closed to allow it to bake slowly for two
But none of that is visible under the winding rails, which allowed the train to three days.
snow. The road is only plowed up to to straighten out at only one point as it Redstone’s battery of 250 beehive-
where the canyon begins, about a mile navigated through the canyon, carried style ovens (these are the ruins still visible
from town. So that’s where we strap on passengers and, most importantly, hauled along the other side of the highway) are
our snowshoes. coal between Coal Basin and Redstone. arranged in two back-to-back rows to
“Beautiful isn’t it? Winter is finally A few words here about that coal: efficiently share the heat they generated.
here!” one fellow traveler calls out to Coal is an umbrella term for a variety The smoke from the ovens was toxic
us as we make our way in the falling of organic sedimentary rock types that and spewed tar, ammonia, benzol, and
snow up Coal Basin trail toward the will burn. The old Spencer hot water other pollutants that often killed vege-
mine. And indeed it is. The snow falls boiler in our 1918 Denver home still has tation for miles in the vicinity. The end
heavily in massive fluffy flakes, landing instructions tacked to the wall detailing result was valuable gray cinders of almost
cold against the skin on our faces and which coals to feed it: “pea coke or coke pure energy that burned hot enough to
blurring out our view of the pine-cov- screened from coke braize; bituminous smelt precious metal or fire steelmaking
ered slopes and red canyon walls just a coals, such as Illinois No. 4 and No. 3 blast furnaces.
few hundred yards down the trail. The when mixed half-and-half with anthracite The people who powered Colora-
effect, once again, is galactic. Only this buckwheat or pea coal; Colorado lignates do’s coal operations at the turn of the
time, instead of hurtling through the and Arkansas coals” all “properly propor- century hailed from around the world.
star-strewn universe, it feels like we’re tioned.” The level of detail humbles me: Coal camps were notably cosmopolitan
standing at its center. a person really had to know their coal at communities, diverse by design thanks
When we stop and the swish and the turn of the century. One type in par- to international recruiting programs
crunch of the snowshoes pauses, the scene ticular—bituminous coking coal—was funded by the operators. In 1901, twen-
comes alive with other sounds. The big the secret to smelting Colorado’s ore into ty-seven different languages were spoken
fluffy snowflakes create a lively static as precious metal and for manufacturing throughout the CF&I’s mining camps.
they crash to earth. The river alongside iron and steel. This was the type of coal But tending the coke ovens was one of
the trail flows under snow-covered ice John Cleveland Osgood extracted from the least desirable jobs in the coal fields.
and emerges in burbling windows that the Crystal River Valley. Hot, dirty, and poisonous, the work was
look mirror-black in the flat light of the Some 800 tons of that bituminous often done by the most recent and low-
snow. A bird sings somewhere from a coal was being transported each day status immigrants—particularly those
frosted pine. from Coal Basin to Redstone to be from southern Italy and the Slavic regions
of eastern Europe (often referred to as those who could read Dutch) with this the employer. The labor union that is
“Austrians” because they had lived in the bit of advice: “Derkoop de huid niet trying to control miners in Colorado is
Austro-Hungarian empire)—who were voor de Beer gesch oten is,” or “Don’t the most objectionable organization I
looked down upon by other immigrant sell the hide before the bear is shot.” have ever known. If we cannot get men
communities in the coal fields. The taxidermied trophies Alma Osgood to work in our mines unless they belong
By 1903, Redstone’s ovens produced had mounted to the walls testify to the to the United Mine Workers, then we
11,000 tons of coke a month that was practicality of this advice. will close our mines.”
shipped to CF&I’s steel mill at Pueblo The inn, which was built to provide In the context of this grim view of
and smelters throughout Colorado. comfortable quarters for bachelor cokers, unions, Osgood’s vision for Redstone
Between 1900 and 1909—the peak was an expression—one of the more as a workers’ haven built at company
operating years—Coal Basin produced generous expressions—of a broader expense represented his attempt to rel-
one million tons of coal. But by 1908, movement toward welfare capitalism egate the union to irrelevance. He could
with demand declining and the steel at the turn of the century. Historians like try to make the union unnecessary by
mill upgrades running behind schedule, Thomas Andrews, F. Darrell Munsell, providing better for his workers than any
CF&I was producing more coke than it company had ever done before. Osgood
could market. The days of the Columbine The paternalism and his fellow reform-minded welfare
Road were numbered. that animated his capitalists (as they’ve come to be known)
found what they thought was a sweet spot
homebuilding program
F rom the window of our third-floor
room at the Redstone Inn, I look at
The Boulevard as snow gently falls again
and school curriculums,
between their humanitarian concern for
their workers’ welfare and their capitalist
desire to prevent costly labor disputes.
in big fluffy flakes. Redstone looks like and the racism evident By assuming greater responsibility for
the setting for a heartwarming holiday in his endorsement of the circumstances under which their
movie. The inn would certainly be a employees lived and labored, they hoped
location in such a film. The same The
eugenics, cannot be to keep them doing both in service to
New York Times reporter who christened separated from his the company.
the town the “Ruby of the Rockies” motivations for promoting To lead this effort, Osgood promoted
described the Redstone Inn as “a model Doctor Richard Corwin, who’d spent two
little hostelry in old English style” when social betterment among decades running the company’s small
it opened in the fall of 1902. A succession CF&I workers. hospital at the steel mill in Pueblo, to be
of preservation-minded owners—and the head of CF&I’s newly formed Socio-
perhaps a bit of benign neglect—over and H. Lee Scamehorn suggest that the logical Department in 1901. Corwin was
the ensuing 120 years have retained the coal company towns built in Colorado to “have general charge of all matters
character that charmed the Times writer. around the turn of the twentieth century pertaining to education and sanitary
A more extensive Camp and Plant were a response to the perceived threat conditions and any other matters which
review in 1903 boasted that “The Inn of growing union sentiment and strikes should assist in bettering the conditions
contains all the conveniences and appli- among their workforce. under which our men live,” explained
ances of a modern hotel,” noting among In the unrelenting tension between CF&I general manager Julian Kebler.
them “steam heating apparatus, electric labor and management, John Cleveland With the resources and breadth of
lights, hot and cold water, bathrooms, Osgood was no advocate for labor. He CF&I to draw upon, Corwin was sud-
closets, barber shop, laundry, telephone, was a vocal opponent of the eight-hour denly positioned to be one of the leading
beautifully furnished lounging and work day, claimed credit for developing practitioners of Progressive thought
reading room, and all the accessories.” the scrip system that paid workers with among the activists who were then imple-
While some of these features have lost a company coupons rather than cash, menting a litany of social and economic
bit of their luster in the glare of modern promoted the “closed camp” system in reforms aimed at improving the lives of
convenience today, the lounging and which companies built the towns their the working class. Corwin believed that
reading room has remained a constant. workers lived in, and refused to coun- the responsibility for providing “a healthy
It is still beautifully furnished, and tenance unions. social and intellectual life for…adults…
guests still congregate there for conver- The Denver Times related Osgood’s must be [borne] by the great corporations
sation, a game of chess, or simply to sit view of unions during a strike in Colo- controlling the coal fields, for they have
beside the warming fire. A mural above rado’s coal fields in 1901: “I have never the means and control the situation.”
the hearth in the cozy fireside room has known a union among coal miners that As early as 1899, Osgood and
greeted generations of guests (at least was not a curse to the man as well as other company officials had noted the
20 / Winter 2022
Cliffs covered in snow near Redstone. Photo by Stacie Hanson.
substandard conditions that many CF&I needed, Corwin expanded the company’s human heredity, eugenicists advocated
employees lived in. Corwin had inspected Minnequa Hospital at Pueblo into a for limitations on the procreation of those
the company’s town at El Moro, north- new, state-of-the-art facility capable of people they viewed as inferior. Forced
east of Trinidad, and concluded that providing high-level care to employees sterilization, institutionalization, invol-
workers’ poor living conditions were at no-to-little cost. untary abortion, and even euthanasia
responsible for high rates of illness in Corwin was one of Colorado’s were the tools of eugenicists, and they
the workforce. leading Progressives at the time, which were administered disproportionately
Determining that it would be a rela- is to say he also embodied many of the to people of color and those in poverty.
tively small investment for the company shortcomings of the self-sure reform Many leading Progressives, including
to construct houses and other improve- movement that has come to be viewed social worker Jane Addams and trust-
ments that would upgrade workers’ by contemporary activists and scholars as busting President Theodore Roosevelt,
quality of life, Corwin spearheaded an well-intended but undermined by pater- embraced eugenics as the solution to
effort to do just that. The company’s nalism and racism. For example, Camp social ills. Corwin enthusiastically
Camp and Plant magazine, which the and Plant often made a point of pairing joined them, explaining in 1913 that
Sociological Department produced, its alluring photos of new company “upon eugenics rests the salvation of the
was soon routinely full of photographs homes with contrasting “before” shots race.” The paternalism that animated
and descriptions of the new homes and of the shacks, tents, log cabins, and adobe his homebuilding program and school
whole new towns—not just at Redstone, buildings that Italian, Mexican, and curriculums, and the racism evident in
but at Primero, Fierro, Berwind, and other employees had previously built for his endorsement of eugenics, cannot
others—erected by the company for themselves. All of which, the captions be separated from his motivations for
its workers. rarely failed to note, had been “torn promoting social betterment among
Explaining that “Education is the down and replaced” by the “hygienic” CF&I workers.
master-key to the whole social betterment new homes built by the company. For his part, Osgood made Redstone
situation,” Corwin established universal Most perniciously, Corwin’s efforts to a laboratory for many of Corwin’s ideas,
kindergarten for all children in CF&I promote social betterment, as he called it, but he never hid the pragmatic calculus
towns. The Redstone schoolhouse was among CF&I’s workers and their families he applied to the whole enterprise. As
one of the finest buildings in the com- were entwined in his embrace of eugenics. one of the leading sociological jour-
munity. And to ensure that workers and A pseudoscience that promoted a healthy nals of the day, The Outlook, reported
their families received the healthcare they society through the manipulation of in 1902, “While some stockholders
Snowshoeing on the Coal Basin Trail.
Photo by Jason Hanson.
22 / Winter 2022
might criticize the using of company the most significant industrial concerns car—and inquired after its residents. She
funds for such humanizing purposes, in America in just two decades. still arranged Christmas parties for the
the Chairman of the Board of Directors Even as builders were putting the children. And the CF&I Sociological
of the Company, Mr. John C. Osgood, finishing touches on Cleveholm, trouble Department continued to operate the
declares he is simply carrying out good was on the horizon for John Cleveland school and provide medical care. Life
business principles in promoting the Osgood. When John D. Rockefellers in Redstone was pleasant enough that
welfare of his employees. ‘We do not ask Junior and Senior visited Cleveholm in superintendent T.M. Gibb felt moved to
credit as philanthropists,’ he says; ‘we are the fall of 1902, they were not simply tell the Engineering and Mining Journal
aiming to carry out common-sense busi- enjoying the Rocky Mountain scenery. in 1907, perhaps with only a touch
ness ideas in the conduct of business.’” Osgood was once again courting of managerial hyperbole, “This isn’t a
Against the backdrop of a bitter and royalty—this time of the American camp—it’s a mountain village!”
violent strike in the Pennsylvania coal aristocracy—for money. Some of the town’s original residents
fields that threatened the nation with He needed funds to fight off the seemed to feel the same way. They formed
a “coal famine” during the winter of hostile takeover attempt and continue a mandolin club and a brass band.
1902–03, Osgood’s welfare capitalism with expansion plans at the steel mill Theater productions were also popular
at Redstone must have seemed like good down in Pueblo. The Rockefellers, along and staged in the well-appointed audi-
business indeed. Even more so when with George Gould, invested to supply torium in the town’s clubhouse, which
strike came once again to the southern served as a special event venue as well as
Colorado coal fields in 1903–04 and Osgood had built a place for workers to shower, change,
the workers of Redstone and Coal Redstone in the hopeful and unwind after the day’s work. Club
Basin declined to join their fellow col- members (who paid 50 cents a month
liers. Osgood had built Redstone in expectation that workers for their membership) enjoyed a reading
the hopeful expectation that workers would exchange labor room with a selection of periodicals in a
would exchange labor solidarity and variety of languages, a library, pool and
militancy for workplace satisfaction and
solidarity and militancy billiard tables, and penny-ante poker.
loyalty. And when it was tested that is, for workplace satisfaction The bar was well stocked, as Corwin
in fact, what happened. The investment and loyalty. And when it and Osgood recognized that prohibition
in welfare capitalism paid dividends. within the town led thirsty working men
was tested that is, in fact, to bootlegging and the black market.
T he only room at Cleveholm in which

the view is obscured by bars on the
windows is John Cleveland Osgood’s
what happened.
the funds Osgood needed. But the deal
Many of the testimonials we have
today about how workers and their fam-
ilies enjoyed their lives in Redstone are
ground-floor study with its large walk-in proved fateful. Osgood did defeat the from the company’s self-serving per-
safe. As we enter from the billiard room takeover bid in 1902, but he found spective, but Norma Kenney wrote her
across the hall, it is tempting to imagine himself overextended in the aftermath. memoir long after there was any company
the cigar smoke in the air (Osgood When his creditors moved to take over interest to flatter or appease. She was a
smoked a handful or more each day), the company from him, he could do teacher at the Redstone school while her
the business deals struck over the crack nothing to stop them. He surrendered husband served as the town caretaker,
of billiard balls, and the safe door ajar control of the CF&I to the Rockefellers and she remembered their time there
as he worked at his desk. and Gould in 1903. in an egalitarian light. She recalled a
Here, one of America’s richest men Osgood insisted that Redstone, which community in which “There was talking,
had schemed against the United Mine he had built under the auspices of the visiting, borrowing, sharing, and min-
Workers of America as it tried to organize company but with money that he con- gling among the workers. Each type of
CF&I workers, strategized to repel a sidered his own personal funds, was not work brought a paycheck home, which in
hostile takeover effort by John “Bet- part of CF&I and not part of the deal. turn was exchanged for company script
a-Million” Gates and US Steel, and He wanted to keep his estate intact, and [sic]. There were gradations in the pay-
poured over financial statements as he as long as the coal was flowing to the checks, to be sure, but this did not affect
tried to stem the losses from his behind- CF&I’s operations (and balance sheets) life in Redstone, where without modern
schedule expansion plans to modernize the Rockefellers did not fight him on it. transportation and communication a
the Pueblo steel plant. And here, he Lady Bountiful still frequently visited close knit community had emerged.”
finally recognized that he would lose the town—traversing the road along the But, despite all the comfortable
control of the company he had built; river in her yellow-wheeled buggy with a living arrangements, Redstone strug-
a company that had grown into one of fringed umbrella and, later, her electric gled. Turnover remained vexingly high,
with workers often leaving to go work in that indiscriminately killed women and Post reporter Lord Ogilvy eulogized in
the fruit orchards over McClure Pass at children when the state militia attacked 1911 that “I have seen the Redstone
Paonia. In some ways, by providing so the striking miners’ camp at Ludlow in sociological achievement of Mr. Osgood
many of the elements of daily life, the April 1914, Osgood blamed the United referred to as an experiment, but it was
company invited the concentration of Mine Workers of America for instigating a great deal more than that; it was an
workers’ frustrations—and if you were the slaughter. achievement, the successful achievement
a coal miner or coker in Colorado at the of an idea often promulgated and seldom
turn of the century, there were going to
be frustrations, no matter how nice your
house was. If the company had not been
A s we pack up on the last morning of
our getaway, I look out at Redstone
one last time. The town still stands much
carried into effect.”
After he lost control of CF&I, Osgood
did what he’d done before: He started
so prominent in their lives, workers’ as it did when it was first built, a historic over. In the wake of the tragedy that
frustrations may have been more diffused district for good reason. But the still- her husband had helped bring about at
among the many entities that create the falling snow collecting on roofs, yards, Ludlow, Alma went to France to help
texture of most Americans’ daily lives. fences, and signs softens their edges, with the war effort as a nurse. Coin-
Part of the workers’ discontent may cidentally, John’s first wife Irene, now
have been attributable to the dilution Every place has the inheritor of a large home in the
of the welfare capitalism philosophy
that gave Redstone reason for its unique
a story. The quiet, English countryside, was engaged sim-
ilarly, turning her estate into a hospital
existence. After the Rockefeller-Gould contemplative sites during the war. After the war, John sued
group took over, the new management around Redstone in for divorce from Alma on grounds of
soon began dismantling the Sociological abandonment, although he continued
Department and, with it, many of the the winter invite us to to express his admiration for her until
social betterment programs that had imagine ourselves the end of his life.
underpinned the construction of Red- In 1920, shortly after his divorce from
stone and many of the company’s other as part of Colorado’s Alma was officially granted, John Cleve-
efforts at improving the quality of life unfolding story. land Osgood married for a third time,
for workers and their families. saying his vows with Lucille Reid. The
The altruism that motivated the Pro- and I can’t help thinking about how the couple toured Europe before returning
gressive movement and its corporate accumulation of years can similarly blur to live at Cleveholm in 1924. They
expression through welfare capitalism our view of past events and the memories launched a flurry of restoration and
had effortlessly overlapped with the that sit in a place. updates to reopen the estate and turn it
desire for increased control over workers John Cleveland Osgood’s sociolog- into a year-round resort, but the effort
that motivated many of the day’s man- ical experiment in welfare capitalism was cut short by John’s failing health.
agement strategies. Without the gilded lasted only a decade in the Crystal River When he died of stomach cancer just
handcuffs of welfare capitalism that made Valley and was, essentially, over before the after the New Year in 1926, Lucille
workers beholden to the company for Ludlow Massacre exposed more flaws at honored his wishes to scatter his ashes in
higher quality of life than they could get the heart of this policy. The coke ovens at the Crystal River and to burn his papers.
elsewhere, there was little to obscure the Redstone went cold in 1909 as declining Lucille Osgood tried to carry on with
company’s exploitation of its workers. precious metal mining depressed demand the couple’s vision for a resort at Red-
Whatever benevolence may have for coke. The decision to establish the stone, but as the Depression settled in
motivated Osgood’s creation of Red- coking operation at Redstone and build she was forced to dismantle some of the
stone, it could never be separated out the model company town here was based original homes to get them off of the tax
from his animosity toward the union. less on a business decision for a coking roll and to sell others. She finally sold
That animosity was on display a little coal supply and more on Osgood’s desire Cleveholm in 1940, getting $20,000 for
more than a decade later when Osgood, to build his own home in the breathtak- it—a steep drop from the $2.5 million
now president of the Victor American ingly picturesque valley. When times got Osgood had spent building it. In the
Coal Company, was the spokesperson tough, there was not a strong enough year after the sale, only twelve people
for the coal operators during another case to keep it open. called Redstone home.
bitter strike in southern Colorado. He The Osgoods shuttered Cleveholm Depending on which side of the day’s
resolutely refused to negotiate with the as operations were shutting down at politics you were on, John Cleveland
union or acknowledge any legitimacy Redstone, leaving the workforce to seek Osgood was either a robber baron or
in the workers’ grievances. Even after opportunities elsewhere. As Redstone a captain of industry. The distinction
the public recoiled from the violence became a near-ghost town, The Denver is important—the difference between
24 / Winter 2022
A sign greeting visitors. Photo by Stacie Hanson.
heartless exploitation and essential eco- other employee benefits that have become
nomic leadership. Without his papers, entrenched in Americans’ workplace events as they happened and describing
which might have allowed us to appre- expectations today. their self-evident meaning.
ciate his worldview more fully, we are And so to visit Redstone today is not But events of the past often lead us
left to take the measure of the man not really to step back in time. Leaving aside to multifaceted and sometimes contra-
from his own words but from the way the fact that it is no more possible to do dictory takeaways in the present. The
he is reflected in his actions and those than it is to step into the same proverbial better analogy for historical practice is
close to him. river twice, that phrase often covers all detective work, investigating the past
The portrait that emerges is of an manner of wishful recreations of the through an array of methods and a range
adroit and driven businessman, capable past. Most often, these enticing visions of sources (sometimes contradictory
of recognizing opportunity, adapting to of the past are calibrated, perhaps uncon- sources) to carefully parse what they
circumstances, cultivating close relation- sciously, to reinforce historical narratives can tell us in order to develop a clearer
ships, inspiring loyalty from friends, and that paper over the complexity and drain understanding of how we got to now and
able to confront multiple challenges at the real color away from a place in time how we can continue to move toward a
once. But it is also of a man who regarded and the people who were there. more just society.
the feudal systems of the past with an But a trip to Redstone is an invitation Every place has a story. The quiet,
anachronistic longing, felt his workers to envision the people of the past, not so contemplative sites around Redstone in
owed him fealty if not gratitude, and who different from Stacie or me (or, I’d guess, the winter invite us to imagine ourselves
fought against unions with both enticing you), navigating the complexities of life as part of Colorado’s unfolding story.
subversion and unyielding ferocity. and work in the way that seemed best to Sometimes those stories are more com-
Whatever the mixture of altruism them on any given day. Sometimes in plicated or not the ones we wish they
and self-interest that inspired him to ways that inspire, befuddle, or infuriate were. Perhaps it seems increasingly so to
build Redstone, the community Osgood those of us who come after. some of us. But, for places as for people,
enabled offered workers and their families In our histories, and in our contem- history is not destiny. Each generation
a quality of life that was otherwise unat- porary lives, we often long for our heroes looks to the past for instruction, insight,
tainable for most. It was a prescient way to be pure of heart: “Pecturo Puro” as or inspiration, and then applies those
of doing business. His strategic embrace John Cleveland Osgood inscribed in the lessons to create our lives and, ultimately,
of welfare capitalism still echoes in the stone crest over the central hearth of his our shared future. •
employer-provided health insurance great manor house. We want the past to
enjoyed by many workers today, to say offer us clear lessons. And it’s tempting to JASON L. HANSON is the chief cre-
nothing of the bus passes, recreation think of historians as something akin to ative officer and director of interpretation
amenities, workplace happy hours, and journalists of the past, simply reporting and research at History Colorado.
Las Voces de Covid
During the first year of the pandemic, we
photos by listened to the experiences of immigrant
SARAHY PLAZOLA essential workers. Today, their memories
and words resonate more than ever.
O
transcription and n March 5, 2020, Colorado confirmed its first case of Covid-19
translation by and the ensuing years have been truly challenging, confusing,
and emotional for all. In Colorado, more than 1.2 million people
NAOMI PÉREZ AND have contracted the virus; more than eleven thousand have died. Families
BRITTNY SALDAÑA continue to cope with the financial distress caused by the mass layoffs, pay
cuts, and business closures of the early pandemic.
In Denver, during the first year of the pandemic, a disproportionate number
of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred among people
who identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino—many of whom worked
in essential and frontline industries. These families, particularly those living
on low incomes, were also hit forcefully by pandemic-related economic
hardships. And yet, in the midst of great loss, resilience and hope survived.
Here, we share excerpts from the collection of inspiring stories resulting
from the “Voices from Centro Humanitario: Labor, Barriers, and Hope in
Times of Covid-19” community memory project. Part of History Colorado’s
Museum of Memory initiative, this community-based project explores the
experiences of low-wage Latino immigrant workers in the Denver metro-
politan area during the first year of the pandemic.
The project was led and curated by the community outreach team from
El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores (El Centro), a Denver-based
labor center that promotes the rights and well-being of day laborers and
domestic workers in Colorado. During the pandemic El Centro has helped
distribute more than $6 million in Covid relief funds among the low-wage
worker community in the state. The photographs and excerpts from oral
histories presented here describe the unique ways that this moment in
history impacted the lives of immigrant essential workers who played a
pivotal role during the Covid-19 crisis.
—María Islas-López, PhD,
Museum of Memory Manager
26 / Winter 2022
Lorena Osorio Pues cuando empezó, así como que, le digo
“¡Ay! A lo mejor no es nada tan serio como
Well, when it started, like that, I said “Oh!
Maybe it’s nothing as serious as they say,
on recovering from dicen, ¿verdad?” Y entonces—pero a raíz right?” And, but as a result of that, the news
de eso, que se fueron viendo las noticias, was showing how the month went by, and
Covid and doing work como iba pasando el mes, y luego en el then in the month of September is when I
with higher risk for mes de septiembre, cuando me dio a mí. got it. That was when it came to me more
Entonces fue cuando me entró más a mí like a, this, a fear, a lot of anxiety. Because I
Covid-19 exposure. como un, este, un miedo, mucha ansiedad. did get it, and it gave me all the symptoms:
Porque a mí sí me dio, me dio de todos los my oxygen dropped a little, horrible head-
Interview by Patty Grado, Project Curator,
síntomas: se me bajó un poco el oxígeno, aches, nausea, and diarrhea that I really
Centro Humanitario Connector
unos dolores de cabeza horribles, náuseas, would not wish on anyone. But hey, I’m
y diarrea que, la verdad, no se lo desearía blessed, right? Because I didn’t have to go
a nadie. Pero bueno, yo estoy bendecida, to the hospital….Well, among some, I feel
¿verdad? Porque no, no, no tuve que ir al blessed because I am alive—still alive with
hospital….Pues, entre algunos, pues yo me hope and overcoming it. And other people,
siento bendecida porque estoy en vida—en unfortunately other families are not. They
vida todavía con esperanza y superán- have—have lost, several, several relatives.
dolo. Y otras personas, lamentablemente And even sometimes entire families.
otras familias no. Han—han perdido, varios,
varios familiares. E incluso, a veces, hay
familias completas.
Angélica Don Diego Fabián: Mi trabajo era un trabajo muy
estable; había un cheque cada viernes,
Fabián: My job was a very stable job, there
was a check every Friday, every Friday, it
& Fabián Meraz cada viernes, no fallaba. Entonces, pues, didn’t fail. So, well, we had no problems:
no teníamos problemas: cuestiones de income issues, food issues, well, bills. So
on experiencing renta, cuestiones de comida, de, pues, de everything was fine. Let’s put it that way.
job shortages and biles. Todo estaba, pues, bien. Digámoslo In my experience, as a result of this pan-
de esa manera. En mi experiencia, a raíz demic, I have discovered shortcomings
wage theft in the de esta pandemia, yo he descubierto las in this country. I, really before this pan-
carencias en este país. Yo, realmente antes demic, I think, I, well, I never saw that of
construction industry. de esta pandemia, creo, yo, que pues yo even wanting to not spend the money
Interview by Blanca Madrid, Project Curator, nunca vi, yo nunca vi eso de inclusive llegar until we could afford a gallon of milk in
Centro Humanitario Connector a querer acortar el dinero hasta para que the next week. Yes, yes, the difference was
nos alcanzara para un galón de leche en la seen a lot as a result of this pandemic….It
próxima semana. Sí, sí se vio muy—mucho had been a long time since I had seen jobs
la diferencia a raíz de esta pandemia….Tenía for twelve dollars an hour, fourteen dollars
muchisisimo tiempo que yo no veía trabajos an hour, and this pandemic came, and to
de doce dólares la hora, de catorce dólares this date if you search on Mil Anuncios
la hora, y se vino esta pandemia, y hasta Denver [classified ads], you will see jobs
la fecha, si usted se mete a Mil Anuncios for twelve dollars or eleven fifty.
Denver [anuncios clasificados], usted va
a ver trabajos de doce dólares, de once
cincuenta.
Angélica: Y tener que estar, pues, sobre Angélica: And having to, well, make money
todo hacer rendir el dinero. Lo poco, lo last above all. However little, however much
mucho que me daba, hacerlo rendir. Como he gave me, make it last. As he told you,
él dijo, hasta para un galón de leche tenerle even for a gallon of milk, to have to think
que pensar y tener que ajustar y sobre todo and have to adjust; especially for the needs
las necesidades más de las niñas [hijas], ya of the girls [daughters], because ours, well,
las de nosotros pues ya, así como que eso those can wait. The priority right now is the
se esperan. Las prioridades ahorita, pues, girls because they don’t know if there is, or
las niñas porque ellas no saben si hay, o no there isn’t, they just say, “I want milk,” and
hay, ellas nada más “quiero leche” y pues, well, to have the milk.
a tener la leche.
28 / Winter 2022
Paula Ríos Había muchísimas restricciones en el
hospital. No te dejaban entrar; llegaban
There were so many restrictions in the
hospital. They wouldn’t let you in; many
on helping a muchas personas enfermas. Que muchas sick people arrived. That many times it hap-
veces me tocó a mí, en el lobby, en las pened to me, in the lobby, at the entrances
stranger early in entradas de la clínica y el hospital, bien, of the clinic and the hospital, well, very sick
the pandemic bien enfermas y este—y pues me hacían and that—and well, they made me go clean
ir a limpiar donde esas personas se habían where those people had sat. In fact, I had
at the hospital. sentado. De hecho me tocó una señora an adult lady, yeah, Hispanic, who asked
adulta, ya, Hispana que me, me pidió ayuda me for help, with the lady who was in the,
Interview by Dámaso Ahumada, Project
para con la señorita que estaba en el, en in the front, who was taking temperature
Curator, Centro Humanitario Connector
el frente que era la que estaba tomando and, well—they didn’t let many people in
temperatura y, y pues—no dejaban entrar a and, so the lady didn’t speak English and
muchas personas entonces la señora pues she, she asked me if I spoke Spanish, could
no hablaba inglés y me, me preguntó que si I help her and I said, “Of course I can! What
yo hablaba español, que si le podía ayudar do you need?” And the lady told me that
y le dije “¡Claro que sí! ¿Qué necesita?” Y she felt all the symptoms of Covid, and
la señora me dijo que ella sentía todos los even so I was kind of scared, because I
síntomas del Covid. Y aún así, yo estaba knew that I could get infected, but at the
como asustada porque sabía que yo me same time I like to help people and, and I
podía infectar, pero a la vez pues me said “Well, maybe this could happen to me
gustaba ayudar a las personas y, y yo dije and I’m going to feel very bad if someone
“Bueno, pues tal vez esto me pueda pasar doesn’t help me.”
a mí y me voy a sentir muy mal si alguien
no me ayuda.”
30 / Winter 2022
BEHIND THE LENS
As an artist I suggested that these stories should
have a visual narrative, not only because they would
look pretty, but also because that way we could
bring the voices to life and keep them alive for
several years—to give identity to our storytellers.
The photos that accompany the interviews reflect
my family, they reflect my fears, they reflect my
nostalgia, and that imagination that we have as
immigrants. There are portraits and photos of things
that reminded me a lot of my own childhood. Those
images represent the narratives of my immigrant
parents. Some photos were also taken in Mexico;
those represent the life that we left on the other
side of the border and that we still carry in our
hearts and souls. And they also reflect me as a
first-generation immigrant woman, who came
here as a child and continues to live the legacy
of her parents.
—Sarahy Plazola
Señor Valverde Pues, bastante, bastante apoyo tuvimos de

la comunidad, de los hermanos de la iglesia,
Well, we had a lot, a lot of support from
the community, from the brothers of the
on community que, que de una manera u otra nos hacían church, who somehow made us get—they,
llegar—este, nos traían comida, nos dejaron they brought us food, they left us a lot of
solidarity and en la puerta muchísimo mandado, bendito groceries at the door, blessed be God.
finding joy and sea Dios. Que eso nos ayudó bastante. That helped us a lot. If we hadn’t had those
Si no hubiéramos tenido ese mandado, si groceries, if we hadn’t had all that to eat.
hope in the midst no hubiéramos tenido todo eso con que Because there were times when my wife
comer. Porque había ocasiones en que, and I couldn’t even get up to cook, to heat
of uncertainty. en que mi esposa y yo no nos podíamos up water for tea, coffee, or something.
Interview by Guadalupe P. Martínez, Project ni levantar para poder cocinar, para poder I tell you, only the Lord, the Lord who,
Curator, Centro Humanitario Connector calentar agua para un té, un café, o algo. who moves all those families. That, they
Le digo yo, solamente el Señor, el Señor supported us a lot. That—there were times
que, que mueve a todas esas familias. Que, when we could not even open the door.
que nos apoyaron bastante. Que—había Because there were plenty of groceries.
ocasiones en que la puerta no la podíamos There was a plate of food, there was a warm
abrir. Porque había bastante mandado. soup. And always, always, they were in
Había un plato de comida, había una sopa constant communication, asking, “What,
calentita. Y siempre, siempre, estaban en what do you need?” “What can I do for
constante comunicación, preguntando you?” and they said to me, “What do you
“¿Qué, que necesita?” “¿Qué se le ofrece?” crave?” I would tell them, “Whatever you
y me decían “¿Qué se le antoja?” Le digo can.” There you see the hand of the Lord,
yo, “Lo que ustedes puedan.” Ahí se mira in all those families that supported us a
la mano del Señor, en todas esas familias lot, thank you.
que nos apoyaron muchísimo, gracias.
María Pineda Mucha gente ha sentido tanto dolor en esta
pandemia, tantos que han muerto y yo le
Many people have felt so much pain in this
pandemic, so many who have died and I
on faith in doy gracias a Dios porque cuando veo ahí thank God because when I see mothers
a mamás que se les han muerto dos, tres there who have lost two, three children
times of crisis. hijos o algo así, ¡Guau! Yo digo, “Gracias or something like that, wow! I say, “Thank
Interview by Sarahy Plazola, Project Curator, Señor, en eso no se me fué mi hija, gracias you Lord, in that my daughter did not leave
Centro Humanitario Connector a Dios, Señor. Y pasamos la pandemia, me, thank God, Lord. And we passed the
gracias a Dios, gracias a mi Dios.” Algo pandemic, thank God, thank my God.”
que aprendí, pues en este tiempo: darle Something I learned, well in this time: give
gracias a Dios. Y pues pensar que él es thanks to God. And then to think that he is
único que decide nuestras vidas, nadie the only one who decides our lives, nobody
más. Podemos estar bien fuertes, pero else. We can be very strong, but if God
si Dios dice “Ya ahora te toca,” no hay de says, “Now its your turn,” there’s no other
otra, ¿verdad? way, right?
ABOUT THE PROJECT

CURATORS
The Centro Humanitario’s community
connectors are a group of immigrant
and first-generation Latina women and
Latino men. Being part of the community
and having received training to serve as
community liaisons, the connectors are
trusted advocates, educators, community
leaders, and outreach workers.
32 / Winter 2022
Patty Grado He tenido etapas de tristeza, he tenido
etapas de alegría, de felicidad, cuando a
I have had phases of sadness, I have had
stages of joy, of happiness. When people
on the emotional la gente le ayudan, y cuando esas—esos receive help, and when that—those mes-
mensajes que recibo de agradecimiento de sages that I receive of thanks from people,
side of providing la gente, eso me hace sentir bien. He tenido that makes me feel good. I have had stages
relief and resources etapas de mucha tristeza, de ver cuánta of great sadness, of seeing how many people
gente se ha muerto que no tienen [dinero] have died that they do not even have [money]
to the community and ni para enterrarlos. Cuántas personas no to bury them. How many people did not see
volvieron a ver a su familia. Y eso es bien their family again. And that is very sad for me,
a message of hope. triste para mí, es horrible. Y, sí, he tenido it is horrible. And, yes, I have gone through
Interview by Marina Cruz, Project Curator, etapas de todas….A mí me gustaría dejar all kinds of stages….I would like to leave that
Centro Humanitario Connector ese mensaje de esperanza y que esto va message of hope and that this will improve
a mejorar y esto va a cambiar. Y, ojalá y el and this will change. And, hopefully and the
futuro nos traiga lo mejor y lo que anhelamos. future brings us the best and what we long
Y ojalá que este nuevo presidente lleve for. And hopefully this new president will
a este país por una—una vía donde todo lead this country down a—a path where
sea más justo. Sabemos que no puede ser everything is fairer. We know that it cannot
perfecto, porque la vida si fuera perfecta be perfect, because if life were perfect it
no tendría chiste. La vida sin retos no tiene would be boring, life without challenges
chiste. Pero sí, a mi me gustaría dejar ese is boring. But yes, I would like to leave that
mensaje de esperanza. message of hope. •
To learn more about Voices of

Centro Humanitario: Labor,
Barriers, and Hope in the
Times of Covid-19, visit
h-co.org/centrohumanitario.
Photo by Viviana Guajardo.
A Moment in Time
We asked
T
here are moments in your life that The Moment: Governor Ralph
you might be able to recall with Carr’s time in office
Coloradans precision. The first, thundering

cry from a newborn. What it felt like
A moment in history I would have liked
to witness was 1942. This was a horrible
one question: to say goodbye to a grandparent. The
squeeze of a friend’s hand after a long day
time for our country and for our state.
I do not wish to witness all of the awful
If you could at work. The warmth of the summer sun
on your face; the chill of winter’s wind.
things that were done to the Japanese
and Japanese Americans in our state and
have been an The past two years have left plenty
of indelible marks on our collective
in our nation, but I would have liked to
witness the character and principle of
eyewitness memories. But instead of focusing
solely on the contemporary, it made us
Governor Ralph Carr. He was a man
who stood up for the rights of the Amer-
at a historic ponder—as we often do—the past. If
we could cast back in time, what his-
ican citizens of Japanese descent when
no one else would. As someone whose
event, which toric moments would we have liked
to witness? There are plenty to choose
grandfather, great-uncle, and great-aunts
were incarcerated during this time, this
one would from: listening to the first Red Rocks
Amphitheatre concert, marching with
period in our history resonates greatly
with me. My grandfather was incarcer-
you choose? Corky Gonzales, and attending the first
Juneteenth celebration, to name a few.
ated at Tule Lake (California) but my
great-uncle and aunt were incarcerated at
But that’s just the start. To broaden our Amache (Colorado’s incarceration camp
edited by search, we asked Coloradans to send us for Japanese and Japanese Americans).
their responses, which inspired, educated, Because of the work that Ralph Carr
NATASHA GARDNER and encouraged us to learn more. Come, did, they were able to leave Amache
take a step back in time with us. and go to the University of Denver to
34 / Winter 2022
finish their schooling. They have been celebrity of all to me as a kid, and I’d dark soda (Myers Avenue Red Root Beer,
forever grateful to the man who stood personally consider him as much an icon to be exact). He named his creation the
up for their rights when no one else did. of Colorado history as anyone. “Black Cow.”
I wish I could have seen this honorable —Simon Lamontagne, former Colorado This event is one that resonates with
man in person and thanked him from Spelling Bee Champion and student at me because it engenders a feeling of
the bottom of my heart for standing Dartmouth College (class of 2024) liberation among the working class. It
up against injustice and fighting for the informed an evident casualness to their
rights of all American citizens. The Moment: The creation of pleasures and created a carefree and fun-
—Sara Moore, Executive Director, the root beer float loving sentiment that has carried into
Colorado Dragon Boat Festival Mining towns of the mid- to late-1800s today’s Cripple Creek, now a prominent
housed both substantial hardship that tourist and outdoor recreation destina-
The Moment: The 1980 State came with being in the working class, tion. Oh, and the event furthermore
Spelling Bee and increased avenues of luxuries and resonates with me because, well, I quite
This one’s a bit niche, but as a former entertainment that grew much more like root beer floats.
two-time Colorado State Spelling Bee accessible than they once were for the —Vishal Balaji, Program Facilitator
champion, I would’ve loved to see average American. One such phenom- and Oral History Indexing Volunteer
Jacques Bailly win the state spelling bee enon was the creation of the “Root
in 1980. He won the national bee that Beer Float,” which was inspired by the The Moment: Formation of
same year and has since become the snow-capped peaks of Cow Mountain. Glenwood Canyon
Scripps National Spelling Bee’s official Frank J. Wisner, who owned the Cripple I would love to travel back three million
pronouncer and an unparalleled icon in Creek Cow Mountain Gold Mining years ago to see the Colorado River
the spelling world—most importantly, Company and Brewery, gazed upon the just begin to carve Glenwood Canyon,
an unparalleled Colorado icon. Lots snowy mountain peaks one cool August nearly half a mile above the river’s loca-
of people don’t know that the person evening in 1893. He saw the light of the tion today. After two consecutive years
pronouncing the words on national full moon over them, faintly resembling where we have witnessed—and Colorado
TV every year grew up in Colorado, what he thought was a perfect scoop of Department of Transportation crews
but he did! He was possibly the biggest vanilla ice cream floating atop a glass of have responded to—devastating natural
Three Japanese American women at the Granada Relocation Center in Amache on

December 13, 1942. Photo by Tom Parker, History Colorado. 88.312.3
An automobile in Glenwood Canyon, sometime between 1910 and 1920.
History Colorado. 89.636.4001
36 / Winter 2022
disasters, the chance to see the canyon in American men launched a sustained, to keep the Stock Show in Denver.
its infancy would be a powerful reminder and ultimately successful, civil rights The original guest list included a few
of the change Mother Nature is capable campaign to include their right to vote thousand people and a menu that prom-
of making to our landscape. in the state’s constitution. The second ised to barbecue almost every animal
In dozens of visits to Glenwood moment is April 1895 when Colorado imaginable. However, more than twen-
Canyon, I’ve gotten to learn more about State Representative Joseph Stuart, an ty-five thousand people showed up for
the stunning geology that is right before African American, successfully sponsored free barbecue. As you can guess, it didn’t
our eyes as we pass through. The Colo- a civil rights bill that had the same legal end well. The crowd pressed to get some
rado River has exposed rock formations framework as the federal Civil Rights food and a riot ensued. The farce gar-
as old as 1.7 billion years, and in the Act passed in 1964. Stuart’s bill passed nered national headlines, and Hill’s rep-
rockfalls that hit I-70, we see various rock and was enacted with no opposition. utation took a temporary hit. It would
types that span this immense time frame. Third, was the spectacle I call “The Great have been quite the sight to behold and
While I-70 through Glenwood Barbecue Riot of 1898.” Columbus B. a feast to savor.
Canyon is a challenging stretch of road Hill, an African American and prominent —Adrian Miller, food writer,
that faces growing threats from climate barbecue cook, oversaw a VIP barbecue James Beard Award winner, and
change, it offers us an unequaled look dinner to help persuade key influencers certified barbecue judge
back into our ancient past that never
ceases to be breathtaking. The next time
you’re a passenger traveling through, I Joseph H. Stuart. Photo by H. Rothberger, History Colorado. 89.451.4084
hope you admire that beauty and history.
—Shoshana Lew, Executive Director
of the Colorado Department
of Transportation
The Moment: When the Ute

people discovered hot springs
in Glenwood Canyon
As a science nerd, there are many times
I would like to travel back to. However,
if I could only travel back in time to one
place I would love to be present when the
Ute people first discovered the natural
hot springs in what is now Glenwood
Springs. I cannot imagine how bizarre
it must have been. Traveling through
the beautiful, awe-inspiring Glenwood
Canyon and finding spots of very hot
water. Some areas are over 100 degrees
Fahrenheit. From the first discovery, to
the first soak, to the first sweat in the
vapor caves. How amazing that must
have been.
—Autumn Rivera, Colorado’s 2022 Teacher
of the Year; sixth grade science teacher
at Glenwood Springs Middle School
The Moment: Civil rights

milestones and a barbecue riot
Once my time machine functions prop-
erly, there are three moments in Colorado
history that I’d love to have witnessed.
The first moment is an extended one.
From 1865 to 1867, a group of African
Mother Jones marching in 1914.
History Colorado. 89.451.4260
The Moment: Labor movements the Colorado coal strike climaxed in the time, would have greater equality
of the early 1900s an event known as the Ludlow Mas- and new opportunities. Every experience
The fight for workers’ rights has been an sacre in which at least nineteen people I have, personally and professionally,
extensive and important part of United were killed. as an African American in Denver and
States history. In my junior year AP US I would want to see the nationwide Colorado is informed by the courage
History class, I wrote a research paper response to this event and how it still and sacrifices of those who stood up
analyzing the effects of the Haymarket took decades to achieve justice—as it and demanded change. And when you
Massacre of 1886—a peaceful labor- wasn’t until 1938 that payment in scrip look at what we are still determined to
rights protest in Chicago that turned wages and child labor became illegal achieve today, whether it’s equity, greater
into a deadly shootout after an unknown under the Fair Labor Standards Act. social justice or securing voting rights,
source threw a bomb. The event was —Arman Kian, high school senior we must continue to champion these
followed by a series of legal proceed- at the Kent Denver School causes because these heroes passed the
ings that sentenced prominent figures baton to us. We have a responsibility
who supported the protest to death. The Moment: The Civil to history and to future generations to
Years following, there were continued Rights era pick up that baton and carry it forward.
setbacks in labor movements around The moment in history I would most —Denver Mayor Michael Hancock
the country as strikes were crushed, like to witness is the Civil Rights era. I
unfair trials proceeded, and there was am a student and a beneficiary of these The Moment: The Beatles at
a lack of a change in legislation to trailblazers, who, going as far back as Red Rocks Amphitheatre
provide fair working environments. In the Tuskegee Airmen, broke barriers, Imagine, standing within row after row
our own state of Colorado, there was marched, or even refused to give up of stone, stretching on tiptoes to catch
a long enduring battle for workers’ rights their seat on a bus so that everyone who a glimpse as the screams of 7,000 fans
that often remains untold. In 1914, came after them, and not just those at collide. The lights go out. Suddenly the
38 / Winter 2022
first bars of “Twist and Shout” burst Act of 1964 was signed into law. With status of a beloved Colorado venue.
forth, turning the roar into a fever- civil unrest still plaguing our country, It also foreshadowed the vibrant arts
pitch. Even in my dreams, watching I would have been honored to witness and culture scene in the Denver metro
The Beatles play at Red Rocks Amphi- Coloradans come together to celebrate area, of which I am so proud. Was it
theatre (1964) is spectacular, but oh, to the joy, music, and message of The profoundly important? Perhaps. Was
have lived it. Beatles in the most beautiful and acous- it endlessly cool and indicative of the
During this time, the Vietnam War tically pleasing outdoor concert venue rock-on Colorado spirit we still exude
escalated abroad, violence continued in the world (I’m only a little biased). today? Absolutely.
with race riots across our nation, and It not only represented a microcosm —Katherine Rose Rainbolt, Chief Marketing
only a month prior, the Civil Rights of pop culture in 1964, it secured the Officer, Tattered Cover Book Store •
Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the 1960s.

Photo by Robert W. Schott,
History Colorado. PH.PROP.70
GOLDEN DREAMS
TO SILVER SCREENS
The tall tales surrounding Buckskin Joe, a historic
settlement that has lived at least three lives.
by DEVIN FLORES
An aerial view of Buckskin Joe’s movie era taken by Karol Smith, one of the site’s developers, in 1958.
Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center, 1994.035.4136.
40 / Winter 2022
G
host towns are real, physical struck a nearby rock face, stripping away was one of Colorado’s earliest success
places, but they always strike me the surface and revealing a glimmering stories and, as the gold kept flowing,
as being more about the myth vein of gold. the workers kept coming.
of the place than the buildings. Walking This story is so fantastic that you can New residents threw up shops and
through them, it’s almost impossible to practically smell the campfire around saloons and other businesses, including
resist imagining what must have hap- which it must have originated, and the some names that might be familiar to
pened there, to picture the lives of the scent of liquor and chewing tobacco Colorado history nerds: Horace Tabor,
people who built those now-dilapidated on the breaths of the early gold miners the famous silver mining magnate of
buildings, and to wonder why they left. retelling it over and over, each time Leadville, opened his first general store
Maybe it’s because of their emptiness. making the hunt more dramatic—some- in Buckskin Joe in 1860, and the ski-
The mind wants to fill in those blank times it’s a deer; maybe it’s an elk, moose, wearing, itinerant preacher Father John
spaces, to make a dead settlement feel mountain lion, or even a bear. And you Lewis Dyer included the little town in
alive again. Maybe it’s because unlike can almost hear the Ennio Marconi music his circuit. The town was even briefly
“living” towns, they have an undeniable swelling as the shimmering golden light made the county seat of Park County
endpoint, which makes you ask, Why? reflects onto a gruff mountain man’s face. and a courthouse was erected near the
and What happened? The truth is almost certainly more center of town. It was during this time
Often, with just a little research it’s mundane than that, but the truth wasn’t of prosperity that Buckskin Joe’s most
possible to dig up plenty of stories about the point of retelling this story. It must famous legend arose about a woman
a ghost town, but they tend to carry have made every trapper’s and prospec- whose name we don’t even know.
with them unique twists. Local legends tor’s heart swell with vicarious joy and
and personal flairs echo across gener- not a little bit of envy. Everybody wanted The Ballad of Silverheels
ations to distort the real history, and to be that lucky. It was nice to hear that The tale of Silverheels is a complicated
those tales continue to impact how we someone was, at least once. one that is both extremely easy and frus-
understand the history of the American A little mining camp sprung up along- tratingly difficult to recount. There are
West. That is exactly what’s happened side the shore of the nearby creek as so many variations to this story that it’s
with the strange—and ongoing—tale prospectors poured in to stake claims. almost impossible to get a bead on the
of Buckskin Joe. Mister Higginbottom was still there in original narrative, and each one is a little
the early days, and the camp was known more unbelievable than the last.
The Man and the Myth as “his,” earning the moniker: Buckskin The stories do seem to agree that
The origin story of Buckskin Joe—a Joe’s. At some point, somebody dropped Silverheels was an entertainer employed
hamlet that sprung up in the nineteenth the possessive “s” and Buckskin Joe was by the local saloons. She danced for
century in what is now Park County— here to stay. The population flashed in wages and maintained a mysterious
begins in a way very much like many the pan in the way mining towns tended facade: According to most of the tales,
other mountain towns in Colorado: to do at that time, and it boasted about she never told anybody her name, and,
Somebody struck gold. 5,000 residents by 1861. in fact, wore a mask or veil of some kind
The original “Buckskin Joe” wasn’t By this point there seems to have been so that no one even saw her face. As a
even a place, but a man. His name was a general consensus among the residents result, the town came to know her as
Joseph Higginbottom and extremely that their home was becoming a proper Silverheels, after the silvery shoes she
little is known about him, except that destination and, as far as town names wore while dancing.
he was a Canadian, Black or mixed-race go, Buckskin Joe lacked something. Silverheels could only have been in
fur trapper and gold panner in the Col- So when it came time for a post office town for a short time before the smallpox
orado Rockies. Not long after the Pikes to open in late 1861, it did so under came. Disease was a constant threat
Peak Gold Rush began, and most likely the name Laurette. (There’s plenty of in isolated mining towns. People were
during the winter of 1860, “Buckskin” speculation about how that name came often living in rough conditions, and
Joe Higginbottom found himself in the about, but one possibility is that it was a the nearest doctors were far away, so
mountains just north of South Park, near combination of the names of two women when the first case of smallpox struck
modern Fairplay. in the camp: Laura and Jeanette Dodge.) Buckskin Joe in late 1861, it spread
According to local legends, Joe went It doesn’t seem like the new name quickly. Most of the miners refused to
hunting on a cold winter day. While really stuck. The town site is just as abandon their claims and seek respite
shouldering his rifle at his quarry, he often referred to as Buckskin Joe in in other locations, and as a result many
slipped on a patch of ice and his shot documents from that time period— of them became deathly ill—and there
went wide. It scared off his target, but Joe and even a few decades later. Whatever were few people to take care of them.
was astonished to find that the bullet had you call it, this isolated boomtown One of those who did was Silverheels.
This etching, titled Dancing with Silverheels, depicts a rowdy scene in a crowded saloon. The semi-legendary dancer is depicted without the veil that
most stories describe her wearing. History Colorado. 86.296.4406
According to lore, Silverheels With such an air of mystery around were abandoned where they stood. The
remained in town, getting food and it, it’s easy to see why this story remains only one saved was the county court-
supplies for the sick and helping to tend popular today among the people of Park house, which was lifted up log by log and
to them. Some say she even produced County. There are so many versions, moved down the mountains to Fairplay.
large sums of money—either saved up many of them contradictory, that it’s Buckskin Joe’s old residents left the
from her time dancing, or from some impossible to even say for certain that area entirely, maybe even heading back
unknown source—to bring a doctor there was a woman called Silverheels. east or going further west. Many likely
to town. How many died is unknown, Nonetheless, the story struck a chord stayed in Colorado, settling in other
as very few records from Buckskin Joe with people from the very beginning—so mining towns like Ouray or Salida.
still exist, but it is said to have been a much so that one of the most prominent But wherever they traveled, they took
harrowing time. peaks in Park County is known as Mount with them stories about that place, a
By the spring of 1862 the worst had Silverheels to this day. wayward bullet, and a dancer who van-
finally passed, and those who remained ished without a trace.
in the town remembered the diligence Giving Up the Ghost Piece by piece, Buckskin Joe—as a
of Silverheels. The miners set out for Buckskin Joe survived that smallpox story—became immortal. Even as the
her cabin to thank her (and the way outbreak and soon returned to being abandoned buildings began to rot away
some tell it, carrying a gift of $5,000), a booming mining town, but good high in the mountains, the town’s leg-
but when they arrived they found her times don’t last forever. Boomtowns endary status had become cemented. It
cabin immaculate—and empty. often have a bust, and Buckskin Joe’s wasn’t an accurate picture, but something
Some say Silverheels had caught came sooner than most. The gold a little more vibrant than life…a little
smallpox and died of it somewhere on seam it was built around was unusually more, well, cinematic.
the mountainside. Some say she con- close to the surface, but it was also
tracted the disease and survived, but was shallow, and ran dry after just a few A New Age
so scarred by pockmarks that she could years of mining. The miners began In an act of what can only be described
no longer make a living as a dancehall girl to disperse, wandering off in search of as town necromancy, Buckskin Joe was
(despite her apparent habit of covering richer seams. By 1866, Buckskin Joe reborn in the year 1957. Western films
her face). Others simply end the tale at was completely empty. were very popular in the 1950s, and at
the cabin saying she vanished and was The buildings, everything from the that time there was a growing interest in
never seen again. bank to the general store to the saloons, authentic sets. So when MGM Studios
42 / Winter 2022
director Malcolm Brown heard the stories largest “Old West” theme parks. Gen- site—is now mostly empty and desolate.
of a ghost town with an almost pitch-per- erations of people visited Buckskin Joe Buckskin Joe lies lifeless once more—a
fect “Old West” name, he knew he too during this time period to marvel at the ghost town’s ghost town.
had struck gold—figuratively, this time. historic buildings lining its few streets But the stories woven about it live
MGM wanted a movie set in Colorado and to enjoy historical reenactments of on in the frontier-era campfire stories
with the mountains as an all-natural saloon entertainment, horseback riding, still retold by residents of Park County,
backdrop, and he found a way to give and staged gunfights. It was all very in the memories of people who visited
it to them. touristy and, in a way, its larger-than-life the theme park during its heyday, and
A team was sent to Park County’s retellings of Wild West clichés became a in the many films that were shot on
Buckskin Joe, where they examined what living, breathing successor to all those tall location there.
remained. The only building in decent tales that had been told about the original These stories—as unverifiable, exag-
shape was Horace Tabor’s old general Buckskin Joe for almost a century. gerated, or outright fabricated as they
store, so it was carefully taken apart and The movies being filmed at Buckskin might be—remain important to us. Not
moved down to a new site in Fremont Joe added even more tales. In all, more because they teach us the truth about
County, eight miles west of Cañon City. than two dozen films were made there, what life was like in those time periods,
Other buildings were carefully trans- including the original True Grit from but because they tell us a lot about the
ported from other ghost towns across 1969, and several episodes of How the people who were telling them. They
central Colorado, and a few new struc- West Was Won. Television programs were reflect more on the storytellers than on
tures were constructed to fill the gaps. filmed there as late as 2010. These movies the actual history of towns like Laurette,
There was a jail, multiple saloons, and a repeated and retold the old campfire show what is important to these people,
stable. In the summer of 1957, the new stories and cemented the mythologization and indicate what stories resonate with
site was used to film several movies, and of the American West for yet another them—the good, the bad, and even the
after the movie stars and film cameras generation. But this silver screen era, ugly. And the specters of ghost towns
left, a skeleton crew was left behind to like the brief golden age of the 1860s, like Buckskin Joe and so many others
tend to the site. By 1958, interested locals also came to an end. continue to haunt us to this day, affecting
were asking for tours of the buildings and In 2010, Buckskin Joe announced it how many interpret and understand
the owners began to let them in during was closing down. It had been sold to history, whether we realize it or not. •
the downtime between filmings. billionaire William Koch, who moved
Over time, the locale became a the old buildings to private property on DEVIN FLORES is the Digital Content
popular destination. The new Buck- the Western Slope. Though there has Specialist for History Colorado. He
skin Joe, as it was soon officially titled been interest in recent years in redevel- graduated in 2019 from CSU-Pueblo,
after the now-dismantled ghost town, oping the site into a new destination, with a degree in Mass Communications
became known as one of the world’s the theme park—like the town’s original and Spanish.
Buckskin Joe in 1864. If the population of the town was ever as high as later stories report,
many of the miners probably lived in tents or temporary lean-tos. History Colorado. 92.3.10
DRAWING BOARD
We sat down with architect Alec Garbini
to discuss building booms, good design, Q Is there a “Denver” character?
and the Cash Register Building. Alec Garbini: You know, it’s been an ongoing argument
among the architects in this community for years: What does
Colorado architecture look like? Does it look like something that
the client in Houston or Chicago or Kansas City created? And
I always tell the story that one of the centerpieces of Denver
wasn’t even designed to be here.
Q Are you talking about the Cash Register

Building?
Alec Garbini: Yes. It was originally designed to be in Houston

and it’s interesting that we view that as the symbol of Colorado.
We’re having a lot of that go on right now. And so the search
for an identity still goes on in Colorado. And it involves not
only the architectural community, but the community at large
who can ask for better than what we’re getting.
Q What building really delights you?
Alec Garbini: I love the Denver Botanic Gardens’s conserva-

tory building. Victor Hornbein was the designer of that, and
he was trained under Frank Lloyd Wright. And we’re lucky
enough to have his drawing in the [History Colorado] col-
lection. If you go over and look at that structure it is amazing
in terms of the details.
Q Why do you think it is important to

support History Colorado’s work?
Alec Garbini: I think it’s really important to have a central Q How do you think that history can guide us
in confronting the challenges that we’re
facing today, here in Colorado and as Americans?
focus for architectural artifacts and stories of Colorado. There
are a number of museums and institutions here in town who
Alec Garbini: I think what comes through in Building Denver
preserve and protect their pieces of history, but do not nec-
is the impact of the individual and the power of the group.
essarily share them with the rest of the community. I think
The buildings exhibited are more than bricks and mortar.
having one place to go where you can have access to that
They are the physical representations of the ideas and efforts
information is really important.
of individuals, whether they were Denver mayors, real estate
developers, architects, or citizen groups. The individuals may
Q We’re in the midst of a historic building boom

in Colorado. Why do you feel it’s important
to document this architectural moment?
be the spark, but they cannot succeed without the group,
whether they are for or against change.
The history of building Denver is one of taking chances and
Alec Garbini: I’m from the East Coast; I grew up outside promoting change. Some ideas considered state of the art at
of Philadelphia. And if you go to the communities and the the time have worked and others have failed. The successes as
cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, northern New Jersey, they’re well as the failures are what make the urban fabric of Denver
static. It’s history, but there’s very little new going on. Come to unique. What is important is that we foster a dialogue within
Denver and you turn a corner and there’s something new all the community where change is possible.
over town. There are so many centers of activity and influence.
And each one of them has a little bit of a different character. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
44 / Winter 2022
Nonprofit
Nonprofit Org
Org
US
US Postage
Postage
PAID
PAID
Denver,
Denver, Colorado
Colorado
History Colorado Center Permit No. 1080
Permit No. 1080
H1200 Broadway
istory Colorado Center
D enver, Colorado 80203
1200 Broadway
denver, Colorado 80203
History Colorado
HISTORYEDUCATION
HISTORY EDUCATION HAS
HAS THE
THE POWER
POWER TO
TO TRANSFORM
TRANSFORM LIVES
AND STRENGTHEN
AND STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITIES
Duringthese
During thesechallenging
challengingtimes,
times,History
HistoryColorado
Coloradooffers
offersaavariety
varietyof
ofengaging
engagingin-person
in-personand
and online
online learning
learning opportunities for all ages.
FORSCHOOLS:
FOR SCHOOLS:Aligned Alignedtotoacademic
academicstandards
standardsand
andanchored
anchoredinin meaningful
meaningful discourse,
discourse,
virtual field trips and artifact kits provide school students with rich primary sources and critical thinking.
virtual field trips and artifact kits provide school students with rich primary sources and critical
FORFAMILIES:
FOR FAMILIES:Our OurHands-On
Hands-OnHistory
Historyprograms
programsand
andcamps
camps throughout
throughout the
the state
state
provide safe, educational child care for working families when students are not in school.
provide safe, educational child care for working families when students are not in school.
visit h-co.org/programs-education
visit h-co.org/programs-education for
for more information

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COLORADO

HISTORY COLORADO | WINTER 2022

Dawn DiPrince The Colorado Magazine (ISSN 2765-8856) contains

301 N. Union Ave | Pueblo | 719-583-0453

HISTORY COLORADO MEMBERS RECEIVE THE COLORADO MAGAZINE AS A BENEFIT OF MEMBERSHIP.

Photo by Fred Payne Clatworthy.

Photo by Aaron Marcus.

A Rocky Mountain Dream by DEXTER NELSON II

The promise of Lincoln Hills still

The Redstone General Store at night.

T he only room at Cleveholm in which

Señor Valverde Pues, bastante, bastante apoyo tuvimos de

ABOUT THE PROJECT

To learn more about Voices of

Coloradans precision. The first, thundering

Three Japanese American women at the Granada Relocation Center in Amache on

The Moment: When the Ute

The Moment: Civil rights

Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the 1960s.

Q Are you talking about the Cash Register

Alec Garbini: Yes. It was originally designed to be in Houston

Q What building really delights you?

Alec Garbini: I love the Denver Botanic Gardens’s conserva-

Q Why do you think it is important to

Q We’re in the midst of a historic building boom

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