Rose May White

Interviewer April A. Bernard

June 22, 2005

What is your full name?

My full name is Rose May White.

And I have your address and telephone. Do you have an e-mail?

No.

And your date of birth?

Second month, 25^th day, 1926.

Okay. So February 25, 1926?

Yes.

Okay and where were you born?

I was born in Colorado Springs, but my mother went to Colorado Springs, my father and mother, for my birth. They had some lady that my mother stayed with and they had a doctor there. And I lived over here in Park County in a little area they called the Lone Chimney country. Now they call it Wagon Tongue but it was Lone Chimney at that time.

That was the actual name of the town or just the area?

No, just the area. Now they call it the Wagon Tongue area. It’s about the same area.

And that was in Park County?

That was a little homestead in Park County over on the (inaudible).

And, what would you say your ethnic or cultural group is?

Well, what? German and French and Irish and English, I guess those are the main ones.

Okay. And the names and occupations of your parents?

My father’s name was Samuel C. Thorpe.

Do you know what the C stands for?

Charles.

Okay. And is Thorpe?

T-H-O-R-P-E.

Okay.

And my mother’s name, are you ready for that?

Yes.

My mother’s name was Dorothy Maude Snare.

How do you spell that?

S-N-A-R-E.

Okay. And what did they do for a living?

Well, they homesteaded and just had the farm. They farmed a little. They had a cow or two.

Okay.

I really was pretty small at that time. It was before the Great Depression.

Okay.

So we were sort of farming.

Okay. And are there others that helped to raise you?

No, my grandmother and all was there but they didn’t help.

Okay. And what are the names of your grandparents?

Well, my grandmother on my mother’s side was Julia Elizabeth Long Snare. And her uncle was David P. Long. He was the first white settler in Fossil Bed National Monument. She came because he was already here.

Okay. And how about her husband?

Her husband was Charles James Snare.

Okay. And your dad’s side of the family? What were their names?

I don’t know my grandmother (inaudible) her name was Laura Dickey, I think. She married a Thorpe. It was Jefferson Thorpe.  (Inaudible).

Okay. And the names of any siblings?

I had one brother. Gilbert Eugene Thorpe.

And spouse?

My spouse is dead.

Oh, okay. Sorry.

His name was Donald Walter White.

What was the date of your marriage?

We were married on September 23^rd, I think. I don’t remember the date. 1950, I think.

Any children?

I had one daughter previously. She was Cheryl.

How do you spell that?

C-H-E-R-Y-L.

Okay. Raye?

R-A-Y-E.

Okay.

White. My husband adopted her. She was (inaudible) and I married (inaudible).

Oh, okay. So you had a former husband, then? Do you want me to put him down as well?

No.

No?

No. Unless you think it’s necessary.

It’s up to you.

No, I don’t want to. He wasn’t part of my life for very long.

Okay. Person or persons who were significant throughout your life?

The Campbells were great friends of ours. My husband, Don and me and Mary Campbell were awful good friends. My husband had friends, more friends. I couldn’t think to name them all. At his funeral, there were over 300 people. He loved people and they loved him, so. He was a rancher. He came from a family of ranchers.

Where was that? Because I know they asked me to kind of get that connection, too. Did you all ranch in Park County first before coming over here?

Briefly, yes. Course, Don and I came over here shortly after we were married because our daughter was school age and they didn’t have any schools in Guffey at that time. So, we moved in this area, not right here. We moved in this area so we could have a school. It was a little (inaudible) school over here and then she (inaudible).

Oh, okay. Do you want me to put down any other friends or persons that are significant (inaudible)?

Well, not that’s really terribly significant. Mostly family, although we had many friends. Friends, you know, and that’s it.

So, places I have that you lived in your lifetime, I have Lone Chimney and Wagon Tongue area of Park County. And, of course, we have Florissant. Any other locations?

That’s just for my address. We didn’t live in Florissant. That’s just an address.

So, what would you call this area, then?

Well, the Guffey area is where I went to high school. The school in Guffey. And then when we first came over from Wagon Tongue area over this way, we was up at Four Mile. The town of Four Mile Creek. West Four Mile Creek. And, later, we moved on west of Guffey and we went to school in Guffey most of my life. I walked to school, and I rode a burro to school, and I rode a horse to school. When we first started to school, my brother went first and my mother took him on horseback and that was over here at the school where we went to school. I started there and my mother took us both and I sat in the saddle with her and my brother sat behind the saddle and she took us to school on the horse. Then we walked awhile to Guffey, over there, and that was west of Guffey quite a bit.

How many miles do you think you walked?

Well, we walked about 3 ½ to 4 miles every day when we walked to school.

So, that was like roundtrip?

No, it was each way. That 3 ½ miles walk was each way.

Wow.

A time or two we moved into Guffey if the weather was terrible bad. My mother would rent a little house or something there. She would go in for school and then come out for the weekends and stuff. That’s how we got our education.

So, we’ve got Long Chimney, Wagon Tongue area, Guffey and the Upper West Four Mile Creek. Does that pretty much cover it all?

And then we came here.

What would you call this area?

We used to call it East Four Mile Creek. There’s Four Mile Creek that goes this way and there’s Four Mile Creek that goes way. It forks down here, right where the church is, or beyond the church.

Okay. I’ll put East Four Mile Creek.

Okay.

I think that’s it for the biographical data sheet. So, you said on the weekends you all would go back to the ranch that your parents had and work there?

Yeah.

Now, where, exactly, or how far from Guffey would you say? Four miles?

3 ½ to 4 miles straight through.

On the west side of Guffey?

Yeah. It was on the west side of Guffey.

How big was the ranch that you lived on?

It wasn’t very big. We had a pasture or two. Back then, I think they owned 150 acres, Mom and Dad, at that time. That was just about the Great Depression. The Great Depression was pretty well on. See, I was born the year that the market crashed and that started the Great Depression. That was 1926 and it was 1931 and ’32, along in there, when we were going to school in Guffey.

So, how long did your parents have that ranch, then?

Well, they had it around till I was 10 or 11 years, anyway. Then we traded some land and moved into Guffey. We traded ours off. We moved into Guffey and then we made another trade and got some acreage, 39 Mile on the south side so that was where I grew up. That’s very memorable to me because I was a teenager and all in there. So, I remember that area very well.

The 39 Mile ranch area? Is that it would have been?

Yes. It’s still on Four Mile Creek but the West Four Mile was way up high. It’s where West Four Mile Creek starts. But it was 39 Mile Mountain, where our ranch was. And they owned several hundred acres there, off and on. I think they had about 280 or something when they first went there and then they got a little more here and there as they lived there.

Now, did they run a lot of cattle on that land?

No, they had some cattle and they tried to farm a little and like that. We just hardly got by. That was during the Great Depression and there was a drought, too. The Dust Bowl era, so living was pretty hard. You had to be sturdy stock or you didn’t stay very long.

Right. Now, what were some of the hardships you remember going through in the Great Depression?

Drought is a terrible thing and, course, us kids didn’t know any different. We didn’t have any money and my mother, at times we hardly had enough money for food. My mother would scrape out food somehow. We raised a little garden and all like that in order to live. But we didn’t have any luxuries or anything, I tell ya.

Do you remember any families in that area who maybe didn’t get by? You said you were able to get by.

A lot of them. They come and left. There was a bunch of them that came from Oklahoma, I think, and Kansas and they moved on beyond where we lived over across closer to Hartsel. The post office was called Trump and there was a little grocery store there and lots of people came in there when the drought was so terrible. See, people from Oklahoma and Kansas and places like that were hit harder than we were up in the mountains so they came by the score. There were all kinds of families who brought big families and moved over there by Trump. I don’t think Trump is there anymore. I know there isn’t a post office. I don’t know if the little building stands. I don’t think it does. I don’t think I could find it if I went over there. It’s all subdivisions now.

So, that town was sort of established as a part of the drought?

I don’t know. It was a post office and I don’t know whether, I’m sure it was there when these people moved in, the little post office was. I don’t know, mining and everything like that started some of these little towns, I guess you’d call them, and they’d have a post office and that’d be about the size of it and then everybody tried to farm a little and that kind of thing. We were hit awfully with the drought in this area but we were better off than people in Oklahoma and all like that. We didn’t have such terrible wind. We had some winds but we didn’t have it like they had it in Oklahoma and those areas.

Were there other families, that moved in, doing different things in that area? You know, you said there was farming. Did folks try businesses?

There might have been, well, most of them tried to work somewhere. A lot of the younger boys and all tried to do a little ranch work. There were some big ranchers in the area. Eugene Row and Stirrup Ranch and lots of bigger ranches that had just cattle. Everybody tried to farm and had a milk cow. A lot of people had a female cow so they could sell cream in the different areas. You separated your milk and cream and sold that. Now, you can’t do that. There aren’t creameries anymore. They’re all big dairies now. Everybody was in bad shape. We had good times but they used to have a rodeo in Guffey and everybody would go to that in the whole area and all the areas around. They even had a rodeo once in Trump that I went to. They gathered the wild horse  from out in there and they’d buck this wild horse. The locals got the horse and got it in the corral then the cowboys rode it to see who could.

Oh, that was like the main event kind of thing?

Yeah.

Was that rodeo occurring when you were living in Guffey?

I think they had it for two or three years. It didn’t last too long. Then after World War II started people moved away again and started to work in the factories and a lot of the boys all went to the service so they didn’t stay around these little areas awhile.

What did you do? Did you and your family stay in that area?

We were up at 39 then and my brother was, well we were teenagers when World War II broke out. I was 15 and he was 17 so knew he was going to have to go to the service but my father went to Colorado Springs and got a job in the aircraft mechanics and he made good money. If you could get a job making war supplies and things was what we called really good money. An hour for a dollar.You got a dollar or two a day and it used to be you got maybe $15 to $30 a month to be a cowboy.

So, that was a little better money?

Yeah, that was quite a bit then.

Now, did the rest of your family stay?

Yeah, we stayed. My mother, my brother and I, we stayed at the ranch and worked and went to school and then my brother got an exception a time or two but later on he had to join the Navy. But we were both married by that time. We got married the same day. We didn’t have a double wedding but we got married the same day.

In the same location or at different places?

Well, no, it was in this area. This 39 Mile area. Only a few kids were left. Many of the kids were gone into the service and on to war and jobs and defense jobs and things like that. So, those of us that stayed, which was very few, we stayed around there. And then we stayed around there until I married my high school sweetheart, I guess you’d call him, and then he had to go right to the service. We got married pretty fast because we knew he was gonna be called any day and we had a month together before he was called into the service. He went to Europe and then my brother joined the Navy. He knew he was gonna have to go so he thought he’d like the Navy better than the Army so he joined the Navy. I can’t remember how long they were gone and when Bob was overseas for a year, anyway, and my brother was out to sea for quite awhile, too. We all, my sister-in-law and I and my parents, we stayed on the ranch to take care of things till the boys come back.

So, what happened when they came back? Did the area start to surge again?

Yeah, people kind of started coming back but things didn’t change a whole lot. Now, is when things are making a change. When the land started subdividing and people come in just for the view and things like that. We liked the view but my Dad always said you can’t live off of the view. You have something else to live off of. But now people can live in here and work somewhere else or else they don’t have to work. They have money some other way so it makes a big difference.

Now, how did you meet your husband Donald?

I met him at the rodeo. It was in Canon City. There was a rodeo and I met him there. I was still married and I didn’t pay any attention to him. My husband and I divorced and then he came working in the area and we just kind of got acquainted and then we were married after awhile.

So, he was working in the area? I thought his family had a ranch.

Well, he did but his folks moved to Cripple Creek from the San Luis Valley and there was an uncle of Don’s that was in the valley and so Don, of course, he liked the ranch so he worked for ranchers off and on around here. That’s how I got to know him. He got to working pretty close to where I lived and so then we were married. Then, of course, we still wanted to ranch so that’s what we worked to, just to get a ranch for our own.

Now, until you got the ranch did you work with his uncle or how did that?

No, we got us a little somewhere and lived somewhere on a little piece of land and he was working for some big ranchers around and then finally we, oh, somehow or other we got a little chunk of land here and there and then we came down in here and worked for the Skyline Ranch. We had a house. They furnished a house for us and we lived there and then we got, we found out we could buy this little place where the (inaudible) cabin is. So, we bought that and my uncle loaned us some money to buy it and we bought that and that was the beginning of that. We were ranching on our own. Then we had several chances and we tried to take opportunities of each one. We always wanted it all together but that time we couldn’t buy much land that would be a good ranch without it spread over a lot of land. We couldn’t buy it all so we finally got quite a lot of land and had a lot of cattle. Then he died very suddenly of a heart attack. He got up one morning and kind of complained of a chest pain and he was gone before dark. I couldn’t get him to go to the doctor. He didn’t want to do that so the next thing I knew he was gone. And then I just tried to hang on as best I could because that was our dream. I had to get rid of some of the cattle, of course, but I didn’t do that for several years with the cattle. So now I just have a few and I still have poor health because I can’t do everything. I get some of the relatives to help and I’ve got a second cousin that helps me with my work and he has a few cattle of his own so it works out pretty good for us.

Now, do you still own land over in Park County?

Yes.

Is that the 39 Mile area?

It’s on Saddle Mountain. It’s very close to 39 Mile Mountain. There’s some 320 acres up there. And then we got a chance through a friend to buy the Black Mountain and that’s very close to the old Stewart Ranch on Black Mountain so we got a lot more acreage up there and even on Saddle Mountain so that’s where most of our holdings are is up there. And the Black Mountain place, well, the other place, you’d have to know the history of Colorado to know who the Beelers were. The Beelers came in here real early and they had a little post office. There was a little post office called Divine and that’s where my place is and they had a son and a daughter. The son got to, well, I guess he got to stealing cattle and he was prosecuted and sent to the penitentiary and, of course, this is all down in Colorado’s history. But then he sort of lost his mind and they sent him to the, we called it the State Hospital, they called it the asylum, in Pueblo then. Somehow, his mother got word that he was terrible unhappy. They went to see him, I guess, and he cried and he knew her and cried so they decided they’d try to take him home and look after him and they had to sign all kinds of papers that they would look after him and they took him and they chained him in the cabin for years and years. A terrible story but the asylums weren’t too great in that they didn’t have the good care we have today.

When did that happen about?

Well, I think they sent him back to the penitentiary the year I was born, 1926. But Mrs. Beeler and her daughter lived on the place up there for years after he was in the asylum. He finally had to go back because someone, well, the sister died and she told the authorities that they had him chained to this cabin and so the authorities came and got him and he went back to the State Hospital. But Mrs. Beeler lived there for quite awhile after that and there’s a lot of history connected with that and it’s pretty horrible but it was history in Colorado.  (Inaudible) the Stirrup Ranch in Colorado history when I was in the 8^th grade. That’s one of the biggest ranches, first biggest ranch, was the Stirrup Ranch. They called it the Stirrup Ranch because the brand C looked like a stirrup.

Did you have a special name for the ranch that your parents were at?

No, it was called home. No significant name at all.

After the Depression and World War II, when people started coming back, did your parents need more help with the ranch?

No, my brother helped. They kind of moved to where they were and they finally parted and my brother got the ranch and then he sold it not too many years ago. Well, it was 20, but time goes by so fast. 20 years ago he sold it and moved. And then, of course, my parents died.

You mentioned some of the other ranchers that, you know, operated (inaudible).

Gene Row, the Rows were big ranchers. Gene Row and the other was Frank Row and they were big ranches on the Currant Creek and all up and down there. There’s lots of Gene Row’s land. They raised lots and lots of cattle. After World War II, cattle prices came up and it was easier to make a living on the ranch.

Now, when you were helping your parents, did you have some special chores that you did?

Oh, yeah, the girls in my family, along with relatives, they always, I had an uncle that said girls have to learn to do the outside chores just the same as boys do and so we did. I helped my husband. He’d work on the job and I’d get the horse and go check on the cows and everything like that or if a bull got out and into somebody else’s pasture, I’d go get him on horseback and all like that, so. We all each, everybody shares the work on their ranch, especially the small ones.

You said you moved into Guffey near town to go to school there?

Yeah, we would go a month or two in the winter time when the weather was real hard and cold and lots of snow. We’d stay in the cabin in Guffey, the little house.

Do you remember some of the businesses that were in the town at that time or maybe you and your family frequented?

There was the little general store and post office.

So, there was just the little general store and a post office? Do you remember who owned it?

Yes, her name was Mrs. Neller and Mr. Neller died and she married a man by the name of Jack, his last name was Jack and then he died. He got killed in an accident and she married a man with the name of Day, her last husband, his last name was Day. And she was there a good many years.

Now, throughout the years, did more businesses come in?

No.

Just that one?

I guess there was a little garage a time or two with somebody coming in to fix a car. I guess there was another little filling station. They moved down on what’s Hwy 9 now. They moved down there and had a little filling station. Just not big enough for businesses.

You said that you rode a burro to school sometimes and I’ve heard stories from other people that there used to be a pretty good herd of burros in Fairplay and the kids would, and the burros would just kind of walk by and the kids would throw themselves up on the burros and when they got to school they would just hop off. Was it kind of like that for you?

No, we had a little farm and we got two of them from an uncle. I don’t remember where he got them and all. I think he got them from somebody who didn’t want them so we got them and rode them to school. Cripple Creek had lots of burros, too, and the mining towns because they used them in the mines. But that’s the story, these were little farm animals that we just used, to get around the country, when we were kids.

Now, did the school have like a hitching post?

A little corral that we could put them in and we couldn’t use a saddle on the burro. We used a surcingle and we’d just take the bridle off and the surcingle off and put it in this little corral and then come home in the evening.

Now, what is this surcingle? Is it like a pad?

It just goes around the burro’s body and it had a little loop, we fixed our own loop. You’d put your hand in there, some grip to ride them, you know, and then we had good strong legs. A burro can dump you off pretty fast, you know. All they have to do is dunk their head and you’re off and you got to run your burro for sure.

Were you dumped off a couple of times?

Oh, yeah, lots of times. We learned the hard way.

Were they pretty cantankerous?

Oh, they were dear friends to us. They’re not dummies, I’ll tell you that. But you just get too big for them and your feet start dangling on the ground and all, why, you realize this burro’s not for me anymore.

You need a horse after that.

Yeah, we had horses. We always rode a horse, too. We had one.

What kinds of things did you do after school? I mean, you had homework and chores, but did you all do anything?

No, we didn’t have much homework, not from school. We had, my mother kind of let the teachers know that when we come home we didn’t have time for homework so we could get our work down. We made pretty good grades. We had about the best grades made by any of the kids in school, so. When we were in high school there was some kind of a test, I can’t even remember what it was. The teacher, the whole school had this test in class, in several classes, and they, the teacher said that the best scores was from a brother and a sister and you all know who they are. So, Gene and I had made the best grades on this test and in the rest of the school. There was probably 8 or 10 other people in the class. But we did pretty good. My mother said no playing around. You’re going to school and you’re taking time off to go to school then you stick to it and learn. So, we did pretty good.

Did you always go to school in the same location? Like did Guffey have one school that did elementary, middle school, high school?

You haven’t been through Guffey, I don’t suppose?

Well, I have.

There’s a big school there. Well, that was the school that I went to only it’s been added onto. It’s got an upstairs now and it didn’t when I was a kid. Some of the grades were in one room and some were in the next and in a year or two we didn’t have enough for three rooms so we just had two rooms and then when World War II came along we couldn’t get teachers to come in there so there was no school. We quit school altogether until they brought more people that moved in. School started again but it’s a charter school now.

At the time that you quit school, were you pretty much ready to graduate or did you have to pick back up again?

My brother had just graduated. If we made good enough grades we could take enough subjects to make a few more credits and get 16 credits. Then you passed and could get a diploma. My brother got his and I, the war came along and there wasn’t any teachers and I lacked one quarter. I didn’t go on anymore because my brother had to go into service and I got married, too. And so I never did get my diploma because I had all but one credit.

Did the other kids do the same thing or did they go to other areas?

Well some of them moved on. Their families moved to Canon City and some of them, (inaudible), she got hurt somehow but I think she got (inaudible).

Did you have other family in Park County that you would sometimes go visit?

Oh, yeah. I had, there were some other Thorpes’ there and they were my cousins and (inaudible) and we’d fight sometimes. One of them had a funeral out back (inaudible) tell what you remember and I said, well, we used to have fights, us cousins, but if you wanted to really get into a fight we’d fight for each other, too! All of them have died (inaudible) and there’s only one left. And then I’ve got all my cousins over here in Tarryall County. I told everybody I got cousins (inaudible).

Now, where did the other Thorpes live in Park County?

They lived right in Guffey.

Oh, they did?

Yeah.

Okay.

(Inaudible). My uncle was a wonderful mechanic.  He’d (inaudible). He ran a little garage there (inaudible).

What was your uncle’s name?

Jess Thorpe.

Oh, Jess Thorpe. That’s right, you said something about him. So, he had like the Thorpe garage or something?

Yeah.

When did he do that?

Oh, not sure of the year. It was during World War. He was there when (inaudible). He was running that little garage and that was 1943 (inaudible). Maybe it was ’41. And then they left and went to Colorado Springs and got a job at (inaudible) family and made good money.

So they pretty much stayed down in the Springs?

Yeah, they never came back up this way.

Now, you said you and your cousins used to have some fun. What kinds of things would you do?

Oh, well, just, you can’t imagine the things you can have fun with when you don’t have any money or anything. Once in awhile we’d scrape enough money to have, to get a quarter or something, and then one of them got to where, of course, they could drive and we’d drive to Canon City and go to the movies. We had a quarter, you know. That kind of thing. And we’d all dance. We went to, everybody in that area and all these areas, little country areas, danced. Everybody danced and country dancing. We’d all join hands and circle left and all like that. Everybody mixed with everybody else and we just had a good time. We all just loved to dance. That was just part of our life. They danced in Guffey and they danced in 4 Mile and they danced everywhere. Lake George had country dances.

So, would you kind of go from place to place?

Yeah, we (inaudible).

Where did they usually hold the dances? Like in a school?

Well, in Guffey there was a big city hall and it’s still there, although, it’s privately owned now. But, we danced in there. They had a big dance floor and they called it City Hall then. We enjoyed that. Well, even school recess and all. We had one girl could play the piano and she’d play piano and the rest of us would all dance. A lot of times the boys didn’t. They played marbles and that kind of thing. But the girls, this girl played the school piano and we’d all dance until class started again. Lots of fun. And then in the summer time, we’d go on picnics and we’d wade in the creek. Nothing that cost any money but we sure had fun. (Inaudible) or something like that and once in awhile there’d be a rodeo around the area that people would go to and it cost a little money.

When you said there were a couple that were right in Guffey, were there others throughout Park County that you would go to, also?

Well, yes, like I said, this rodeo (inaudible) gathered a wild horse and bucked it. The cowboys would try to ride it. I can’t remember whether they rode it. I think they got thrown but I’m not sure.

Oh, I’m sure they did get thrown. Now, what kind of things did you do for the holidays?

Well, we always had a, which is illegal now, but the school always had a little play and a Christmas celebration and which now you don’t mix church and state. (Inaudible)

You said Weatherspoon?

Witherspoon.

Witherspoon, okay.

And they always had a good Christmas program. We all would join in. Charles had a part and we sang Christmas carols. The pageant had a little play of whatever the teachers thought would be appropriate. We all worked at it and all enjoyed it, seemed to, so I missed that (inaudible). For awhile they could have it and then they had to quit (inaudible).

Did your family cut a Christmas tree from the forest around there?

Oh, yeah. We always had a few trees and we’d always go get our own Christmas tree. And sometimes somebody would always cut one and take it to the schoolhouse or the dance hall or something. There was always some kind of Christmas celebration. They don’t do that much anymore down here at this (inaudible) Christmas celebration for the children and all. (Inaudible)

Now, if you could leave anything on the tape about your life in Park County or anything that happened there, what would you say?

Oh, I thought it might be interesting to tell you, the first time my mother voted she was 21. She was 17 when I was born and then she went to vote and she went to the little town of Howburt, which is down in the bottom of Eleven Mile canyon now. Eleven Mile Reservoir.

Oh! Okay.

So, she went there to vote and I remember I was four years old. My brother seemed to be in school then and I went in the car with mother and dad. They went to this little school in Howburt to vote and I can remember that very well. In fact, I stayed in the car by myself and that got pretty spooky because they were probably maybe 10 or 15 minutes. So, in that car by myself, I was spooked.

And, it’s called Howburt?

Yeah, H-O-W-B-U-R-T.

And it’s under Eleven Mile?

Yes. Just a little town. The railroad went through there and it’s down in history, I’m sure, because Park County has a lot of history on that.

So, there just wasn’t a place to vote in Guffey?

Well, see we weren’t living in Guffey when mother voted. We were still over in the Lone Chimney area.

Oh, okay.

Oh, yeah, there was always the old dance hall. That’s where they voted a lot of times when the elections came. They used that old building for that. Mother and dad were over there a lot but I just remember the first time my mother voted was when we were still over there in Lone Chimney country and she went to the little town of Howburt and shortly after that, see, they had to take everything out. If you had any buildings or anything, you didn’t want them destroyed with water, you took them out. And moved it out. And then they put the reservoir in there and that’s all filled with water now.

Now, do you know where they moved some of those buildings? Do you ever see any of them?

I have no idea what they did with them. There was a sawmill and, of course, the railroad stopped there. It didn’t go through there anymore, so the railroad came from Colorado Springs and cut through Eleven Mile Canyon and so the little town just died. There was a little schoolhouse over there. I don’t know what they called it, I can’t remember what they called it. It was (inaudible) side of Eleven Mile Reservoir. I expect, maybe one of those, that could be the same school that was down at the bottom and they moved it out. I have no idea. We never went to school over there. We were closer to Guffey.

How did your parents end up in that Saddle Creek/Lone Chimney area?

I don’t really know. I think they went to California and then they come back and they probably moved in Cripple Creek and they moved there for a brief moment and then they got word that this old fellow needed somebody to help him with his little farm in Lone Chimney country. So my dad went out there and worked for him for awhile and I guess that’s the way we got started there.

(Inaudible)

(Inaudible)

Do you remember the gentleman’s name that he worked for?

It was George Chase. They still got a little place over there they call Chase Place. It’s90 acres. He was a surveyor. Better educated than some of the others that were working out there. (Inaudible). He’s been gone for many years.

Do you remember the names of some of the people that you went to school with?

Oh, yeah, I went to the school with the Jordan children. There’s lots of Jordans around Howburt and the Lone Chimney country. And I went to school with some Joneses. Course, in Guffey, they had all kinds of people we went to school with. I can’t remember all the names. Every year there’d be somebody new and then one year somebody would be moving away and there were lots of people there who went to school.