Colorado Living with J.v.L Bell and Dori McCraw

J.v.L. Bell Enjoys this Colorado:

Today, when folks visit Colorado, they enjoy skiing in deep powder, climbing up a 14,000-foot peak, rafting through Glenwood Canyon, or backpacking the Colorado Trail. These are all wonderful things that shouldn’t be missed, but while visiting Colorado, don’t forget to learn a little about the state’s vibrant history, and more importantly, make sure you read at least one good Colorado yarn.

Colorado yarns started back when early mountain men roamed through the Rocky Mountains, now and then meeting around a campfire to share a story, a bottle, and a bit of human company. Yarns were tales filled with accurate details but, like the bigger-than-life lives of many of these men lived, truth was often stretched. Soon prairie schooners cut ruts over mountain passes—ignoring the Native American’s ownership of the land—and miners told tales of gold nuggets the size of watermelon seeds, grizzlies that hunted men for fun, and little people and tommyknockers who warned of trouble in mines. Colorado yarns can be found throughout Colorado’s turbulent history, including in some newspapers.

One such story happened on February 8, 1860, when the Rocky Mountain News published details of the “Turkey War” of 1860. In this war, never-do-gooders—nicknamed Bummers—made off with a wagonload of turkeys, proving as ‘59er Uncle Dick Wootton once said, “Stealing is the only occupation of a considerable proportion of the population.” During the Turkey War, excitement ran high as witnesses identified the criminals, including my personal favorite, “Chuck-a-luck” William Todd.

The war turned violent when the key witness, W.H. Middaugh, had a bullet graze his head as he exited the Vasquez House. “Noisy Tom” Pollock was attacked and struck his assailant “over the head with a heavy Hawken’s rifle, laying open his scalp and effectually rendering him hors du combat for the remainder of the campaign.” There were numerous skirmishes and the good townspeople worried the Bummers would try to fire the town—it was, after all, built mostly from wood. Fortunately, good prevailed over evil and by dawn the Bummers had fled to “parts unknown.” The war ended with the townspeople issuing a proclamation: Chuck-a-luck and his compatriots had five hours to leave the city or be hanged. 

Like any good story, romance and tragedy played a part in any good yarn. The tale of Clifford Griffin is a perfect example. Clifford, an English gentleman of good birth, arrived in Colorado in 1880 and moved into a cabin near the Seven Thirty mine, high above the mining town of Silver Plume. Clifford was a poet, a violinist, and by all accounts, he managed the Seven Thirty mine well, yet on June 19, 1887, his young life ended with a bullet. In his memory, his brother placed a ten-foot-high monument on the mountain near where he died. The monument still stands there today.[1]

Newspapers for the next hundred and thirty years would retell Clifford’s story, embellishing it until in 2017, it was published in the Loveland Reporter Herald with the romance of a good yarn. Clifford had become a tragic hero, his fiancée dying on the eve of their wedding, his haunting violin melodies heard every night by the miners in the town below. They listened on the night of June 19, 1887 when his exceptional performance ended with the sound of gunfire. Heartbroken, Clifford had dug his own grave, played his last concerto, and ended his young life.

It’s a lovely yarn, embellished at times with a suspected murder and other intriguing details, yet the truth, as researched by MaryJoy Martin in her book Suicide Legends, Homicide Rumors, is harder to read. Young Clifford suffered from depression and eventually got drunk and took his own life. His suicide was covered up by his wealthy brother.

Perhaps the yarn is the better way to remember Clifford.

One of my favorite historical stories involves nineteen-year-old Ada LaMont. At 17, she married the young minister of her church and two years later, in 1859, they headed to the Pikes Peak region, not to search for gold but to carry the gospel into the wilderness. Unfortunately, while crossing the Great Plains, Ada’s youthful clergyman husband disappeared. That same night, a young lady of doubtful reputation also vanished, leaving Ada heartbroken.

Poor Ada said nothing until she reached Indian Row in the Cherry Creek settlements. Then the beautiful young woman climbed onto a barrel and made an announcement: “As a God-fearing woman, you see me for the last time. As of tomorrow, I start the first brothel in this settlement. In the future my name will be Addie LaMont. Any of you men in need of a little fun will always find the flaps of my tent open.” Thus sin came to the Rocky Mountains, or so they say.[2] [3]

In a state where a mountain, Mount Silverheels, was named after a dance hall girl, and where an entire town, Independence, turned survival into a game—a ski race down from the high-altitude, snowbound town—it is often difficult to separate truth from a story. So next time you visit Colorado, put your feet up by a warm fire and pick up a good yarn. In the flickering firelight you’ll laugh, and you’ll cry, but as the firelight dies, you’ll still be reading. Because a good Colorado yarn is many things, but it is never, ever boring.

 

J.v. L Bell Bio: 

Author J.v.L. Bell was born and raised in Colorado and has spent her life hiking, biking, rafting, backpacking, and climbing throughout Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. At an early age, she fell in love with Colorado’s vibrant history, but it was the state’s lore and stories that captured her heart. She loves reading Colorado yarns that intertwine history and tall tales, leaving the reader delighted, yet wondering about fact versus fiction. Her novels, The Lucky Hat Mine and Denver City Justice, follow in this old tradition, although she did try and tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, in her biography Elizabeth Byers: Denver Pioneer.

Website: www.jvlbell.com

Email: Julie@JvLbell.com

The Lucky Hat Mine, 2018 Will Rogers award winner in Western Humor

Elizabeth Byers, Denver Pioneer, Filter Press

Denver City Justice, The Hansen Publishing Group

Doris McCraw Writing as Angela Raines:

Ah, Colorado. There is so much to love about the state. The mountains with skiing in winter, and hiking in summer. Lakes, National Forest and Parks along with fishing, hunting and sightseeing. I love them all, but its the history that inspires me and my writings.

This year, 2020, is the anniversary of women getting the right to vote nationwide. In honor, I thought it might be interesting to see where Colorado and the women who lived here were involved. Here is the story of the women in Colorado and their work on behalf of women’s suffrage.

Almost from the beginning Colorado and the Kansas Territory before that, was sympathetic to women’s suffrage. By 1874 Alida Avery, one of the early doctors in the state, arrived from Vassar, where she was on the staff as professor and doctor, to take up a practice and also work for women’s suffrage. She was followed by many other female doctors, most who were also active in the movement along with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

By 1890 there was a concerted push to get the right to vote. One of those who help re-energize the fight was Dr. Mary Helen Barker Bates, who had arrived in the state before 1880. She along with Ellis Meredith, Minnie Reynolds, Patience Stapleton, Martha Pease and Elizabeth Ensley renamed the Colorado Equal Suffrage Association to the Non-Partisan Equal Suffrage Association. They began networking with other women’s and men’s groups to spearhead the move to add the amendment.

The work payed off. In 1893 Colorado voted to add an amendment to the state constitution which gave women in the state the right to vote. Once Colorado women had the right to vote they set their sights on  the national suffrage movement, working to secure the right to vote for all women.

These women, ones who followed their dreams, worked for causes they believed in, are not only inspirations to me but for my writing as well. As a writer of action oriented stories in both Medieval and Western Historical Romance, the stories of these amazing women can be found in pieces of my own works.

One lucky person who comments will get a copy of my latest novel, “The Outlaw’s Letter”. Here is the best to all of you as you traverse this year of 2020.

Doris McCraw, who writes fiction under the name Angela Raines is a historian who focuses on Colorado and Women’s History. She is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West and Western Fictioneers. Her works can be found on Amazon under her author page: https://amzn.to/2QQ0rhT  Also, watch for her new website to go live in the next month or so. Www.angelaraines.net

---

[1] Photo of Monument from Denver Public Library.

[2] Zamonski, Stanley W. and Keller, Teddy, The ‘59ers: Roaring Denver in the Gold Rush Days, pp 14-15.

[3] Newspaper from Rocky Mountain News, May 15, 1861, pp 3, found at: https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=RMD18610515&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0--

(all info provided and released by authors)