This week we have already had very warm sun, afternoon thunderstorms, lovely long days, and the Fourth of July! This also means that it is time for summer barbecuing! Truly, what is July Fourth without a barbecue? Barbecuing has been a long-standing tradition as part of our Independence Day activities. This is especially evident in […]
Tag: CHNC: Special Edition
Victorian Wonder Woman-Rattlesnake Kate!
It’s a nice, warm summer day and you are enjoying a jog along the open spaces near your home, when lo and behold, your normally safe trail is very surprisingly obstructed by a rattlesnake along your path. Perhaps you squeal realizing you’re a mere 10 feet away from the rattler that obviously saw you first […]
A Rock Garden Fit for the Gods
“This is truly a perfect palace of a place. Nature and beauty must have here convened and constructed this place in co-partnership. To describe it on my part, would be in actuality detracting from it, for its romance and picturesque sceneries, as it were, beggar all description.”[footnote]Rocky Mountain News Weekly, March 14, 1860. CHNC[/footnote] The Garden of […]
Fashion Conscious in Colorado
People’s fascination (and let’s be fair, women’s in particular) with clothing style has been around for millennia. However, publications devoted to style have only been around since the eighteenth century. It was of course in Paris, France that the first fashion publication came to be. Le Cabinet des Modes’ first issue was published in 1785. Similar […]
Fire in Colorado Springs!
On January 12, 1900, the thriving business district on Tejon Street in Colorado Springs was rocked by a fire. The fire was noticed around 4 a.m. by a waiter working at the Blue Front restaurant.[footnote]“Big Loss.” Aspen Tribune, January 13, 1900. CHNC[/footnote] It apparently originated in the basement and soon consumed much of the Nichols & Co. block […]
Colorado-Bred Swashbuckler
“Want something snappy, exciting, romantic, full of tense action, bubbling over with romance and glamor [sic]? Well, here it is!” Douglas Fairbanks in the The Mark of Zorro.”[footnote]“Movies Next Week.” Record Journal of Douglas, July 29, 1921. CHNC[/footnote] On Dec 5, 1920, The Mark of Zorro premiered. However, it didn’t begin making the rounds throughout Colorado until 1921. […]
Veterans Day: Inception & Beyond
At 11 o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 in Versailles, France, armistice was declared between the Allies and the Germans, ceasing World War I, known as the “Great War.” This day was remembered and commemorated the following year by President Woodrow Wilson. In his message to the nation that day […]
Lovely Rocky Mountain Autumn
The autumnal equinox – the day in September when daylight hours are almost equal to nighttime hours. This time also represents the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The days turn cooler and the leaves turn color and begin their descent to the ground from the branches above.[footnote]“Mountain Items.” Rocky Mountain News, October 10, 1871. CHNC[/footnote] With […]
Happy 140th Birthday Colorado!
The land that we now call Colorado was sparsely populated by any white settlers in the mid-1800’s. While some had ventured to Colorado to acquire first hand knowledge of what existed in and around the Rocky Mountains (such as Zebulon Pike or Kit Carson), it was primarily the home of Native American tribes, buffalo, pronghorns and prairie dogs. […]
Bears, Oh My!
In the summers of Colorado, a century and a half ago, larger wildlife could be found milling about in abundance. However, with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, the incredible slaughter and decline of the bison was just beginning. The mountains, however, held a deadlier large mammal that would also be vigorously hunted. […]
Choo, Choo! To Denver and Beyond
The end of June, between 1870-1882, was a hot time for railroad milestones in Colorado. Reaching those milestones were not without hindrances, competition or the possibility of contention between all the various railroad companies. In 1866, Denver was informed that it would not be on the route of the transcontinental railroad; it would instead be […]
“The Great Deluge in Denver”
“I looked out of the window and saw a wall of water six feet high rushing down the dry creek bed at terrific speed. Before we could escape from the building, the flood waters reached an embankment connecting the plant with some high shores of the creek. In a few seconds we were completely isolated, […]
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -MLK
“There is much to be done for the betterment of our future condition…”-Mary B. Talbert, President of the National Association of Colored Women/Vice President of the NAACP[footnote]The Denver Star, July 1918 (courtesy of Denver Public Library)[/footnote] Mrs. Talbert wrote those words in 1918. Indeed, she was correct. There was much to be done, however, in […]
♫ Over there…the Yanks are coming…♫
In January 1945, the Germans had secured a foothold in the Northern Apennine Mountain Range in Italy. They believed themselves impenetrable atop the mountain, as the only way to sneak upon them would be to rock climb up the side of the mountain. Their lack of confidence in any Allied troops was such that they […]
Superbowl of Cattle Shows
The National Western Stock Show begins this weekend and shall be celebrating its 110th Official year! In actuality, there were attempts to hold joint conventions of the American Stock Growers’ Association and the National Live Stock Association prior to 1906. However, the late 1800’s, while less wild than earlier in the century, was still a […]
A “Discovery”!
It has existed for over a millennium. It was hidden from view by trees, brush and the overhang of the top of the cliff. The Utes knew of it and considered it sacred. Odds were high that the Spanish, in their explorations of the Southwest had come across it. However, the new, white homesteaders of the land in […]
Vice + Promised Library = a Swindle
In the 1870s, Colorado was very much the wild west and the thriving, growing hub of Denver was full of all kinds of “vice”– saloons, opium dens, outlaws and Market St primarily marketed Denver’s floosies. The young men growing up in Denver did not have a respectable establishment to hang in. This needed to be […]