COLORADO

HISTORY COLORADO | SPRING/ SUMMER 2023

the

magazine

Changing
of the Guard
High Altitude Hits
Fighting the KKK
Colorado’s Diversion Dilemmas

HistoryColorado.org // A
HistoryColorado.org 2
 Stories of Resilience
and Determination
HISTORY COLORADO

I
f you have spent time with me, then you
know I am electric with pride about my BOARD OF DIRECTORS
roots in southeastern Colorado. While it is AND LEADERSHIP
a hardscrabble place forever shaped by some of Tamra J. Ward
the state’s most devastating historic chapters Chair, Board of Directors
(the Sand Creek Massacre, Ludlow, and Jap- Penfield W. Tate III
anese American internment), it is also a place Vice Chair, Board of Directors
of community care, metaphorical and literal
Marco Antonio Abarca
grit, and underappreciated beauty. The people
Aaron Abeyta
are tough but would drop everything to help a
Richard B. Benenson
neighbor in need.
My love for this part of the state is just one of the reasons I am so enamored Luis Benitez
with the history of The Dry, a Black homestead community near Manzanola, Nancy Chisholm
founded by two purpose-driven sisters, Josephine and Lenora Rucker. It was Cathey M. Finlon, Chair Emeritus
the early 1900s, and they dreamed of a community where they could build Donna Lynne, Ph.D.
a life free of racial discrimination. These strong women carved out a special Kim MacDonnell
place within the harsh landscape of Colorado’s short grass prairie. Despite the Carlos Martinez
bleak water resources that gave the homestead its name, the Rucker sisters Zebulon Miracle
and the other Black families they recruited were able to establish roots fed by Mary Sullivan
freedom, community, and resilience.
Dawn DiPrince
We recently opened an exhibition on The Dry at the History Colorado Executive Director and
Center. This exhibit is only possible because of the steady stewardship of Alice State Historic Preservation Officer
McDonald, the last living resident of The Dry, who has shared her photos
and stories with us. While there are no remaining homestead buildings, the State Historian’s Council
Manzanola United Methodist Church was the spiritual home for residents Dr. Jared Orsi, State Historian
of The Dry and continues to serve their descendants. Locals have been Colorado State University
working to preserve this sole surviving structure connected to the homestead Dr. Claire Oberon Garcia
community with help from a History Colorado State Historical Fund award Colorado College
of $250,000 and additional support from the National Trust’s African Dr. Nicki Gonzales
American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Regis University
Preserving Colorado’s Black history is essential work. In the face of racism
Dr. Susan Schulten
and inequity, Black Americans—in Colorado and beyond—made significant
University of Denver
contributions towards the aspirations and ideals of this country. The legacy
of The Dry (one of just two Black homesteads in Colorado) demonstrates and Dr. William Wei
inspires hopeful determination. In their honor, our preservation work must University of Colorado Boulder
move quickly, while we still have elders connected to these legacies and the Dr. Tom Noel, Emeritus
structures to tell the stories. University of Colorado Denver
Your support of History Colorado enables our fearless and robust work
PUBLISHED SINCE 1923
to preserve and interpret all of Colorado’s history. This publication was supported in part
by the Josephine H. Miles Trust.

The Colorado Magazine (ISSN 2765-8856) contains

articles of broad general and educational interest that
link the present to the past, and is distributed quarterly
Dawn DiPrince to History Colorado members, to libraries, and to
institutions of higher learning. Manuscripts must be
Executive Director documented when submitted, and originals are retained
in the Publications office ([email protected]).
We acknowledge that the land currently known as Colorado has been the traditional An Author’s Guide is available at HistoryColorado.org.
homelands of Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. We are grateful to work in History Colorado disclaims responsibility for statements
of fact or of opinion made by contributors.
partnership with the forty-eight sovereign nations who continue to call this land home. Postage paid at Denver, Colorado.
Together, we plan exhibits; collect, preserve, and interpret artifacts; do archaeological
© 2023 History Colorado
work; and create educational programs to share the history of Colorado.

A / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 2

 5 The Forum / 7 Looking Back at Lockdown by Sam Bock / 10 Come Ride With Me by Bianca Barriskill
15 High-Altitude Hits by Megan Friedel / 17 Changing of the Guard by Jason L. Hanson
27 Colorado’s Forgotten Diversion Dilemma by Michael Weeks
37 Fighting the Invisible Empire by Alan Prendergast / 46 All Aboard! Interview with Jenn Jenks

Above Dapper Denverites showing off their bicycles and enjoying On The Cover Colorado’s Civil War monument, On Guard,
some fine Colorado cycling weather on the Alameda Avenue was installed in front of the State Capitol in 1909 to commemorate
bridge sometime between 1904 and 1910. Coloradans who fought with the Union during the war. It stood
History Colorado. 90.152.199 there until it was toppled in the summer of 2020.
Courtesy of Derek Everett.

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

3 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 4

 Love for The Colorado Magazine
We read each Colorado Magazine from cover
to cover! The articles are excellent and we
will continue to be members just to receive
the magazine (if for no other reason).
—June Krantz, via email

Revolt 1680/2180: Runners + Gliders

A Correction now on view at the History
I read with interest the article “Sanctuary, discord and shame rather than thoughtful- Colorado Center
Refuge, and Shelter” in the most recent ness and respect. It’s like cherry-picking parts I’m really looking forward to seeing this
issue of The Colorado Magazine. I took of any book, claiming to have read and deep- exhibit! Such an original way to engage with
note of an inaccuracy in this informa- ly considered the whole book, and judging history, native culture, and sci-fi all at once!
tive article. It stated that Lt. Governor on the basis of those parts. Reprehensible. —Megan Catherine, via Facebook
George L. Brown was a featured speaker at —James G.R. Hart, via email
a civil rights symposium which occurred History Colorado replies: We applaud On John Fielder’s Colorado Catalog
in 1970. However, Brown was not elected and share your passion for “Big Ed” Johnson’s Coming to History Colorado
Lieutenant Governor until 1974. He then legacy since it’s one we share. Governor In June, History Colorado announced that
served in that office until January 1979. Johnson’s records are part of the History famous Colorado nature photographer John
Prior to holding this office he served in the Colorado collection, and we delight in Fielder would make than 6,000 of his images
Colorado legislature, as a Representative spreading the word that the Johnson tunnel permanently available to the public by donat-
from 1955 to 1957 and as a Senator from was named for our Governor, not President ing them to the History Colorado collection.
1957 until he became Lieutenant Gover- Johnson—a fact few seem to know! While His photos would have been just like
nor in 1979. So his participation in the civil declaring martial law to block non-white [William Henry] Jackson’s, but for all the
rights symposium would have been while immigrants from entering Colorado was one trees that had grown up in the 100 years
he was still a Senator. I would welcome moment in his long career, it is also indicative between them, and the cleaner air during
an in-depth article about this extremely of his racially biased decision making, and the Fielder’s photos.
interesting man. racist attitudes of the time. History Colorado —Dan Smith, via Facebook
—Mark McGoff, via email is committed to investigating the history of
racism in Colorado to better understand how What an amazing gift from the amaz-
History Colorado replies: Thank you for
these unacceptable attitudes have shaped— ing photographer John Fielder to all of us
bringing this to our attention. We have
and continue to shape—our state. in Colorado! On top of his many years of
corrected the online version of this article
dedication to conserving the beauty and
and apologize for the misstatement.
Ben’s Super Market ecology of our state! Thank you John! And
Jason L. Hanson’s article, “More Than History Colorado!
Big Ed Johnson’s Legacy in Colorado
Ephemeral,” (Winter/Spring 2023) is excel- —Rio De La Vista, via Facebook
Governor Edwin Johnson declared
martial law in Colorado and closed the lent. Allow me to suggest a footnote: About
state’s borders to migrant workers from near- the time the Japanese Americans were re-
by states in 1936. Johnson and others feared leased from Amache, a group of influential
what he called “an invasion” of “alien and Coloradans proposed an amendment to the
indigent persons” who would take jobs away state constitution prohibiting non-citizen
from white Coloradans during the Great immigrants from owning land. Governor
Sam Bock, Managing Editor
Depression. It’s a story History Colorado told Vivian opposed the amendment along with
Lori Bailey, Associate Editor
in the episode “A Line in the Sand” on our several legislators, and together, they were
Jori Johnson & Keegan Martin,
Lost Highways podcast. able to defeat the amendment. Without the
Photo Services
work of Governor Vivian and his allies, Ben’s
History Colorado over and over has tried Mary Junda, Designer
Super Market would not have happened.
to publicize one incident in “Big Ed” John- —Paul Bonnifield, via email Jason L. Hanson,
son’s amazing career in an effort to brand Chief Creative Officer
him (and in similar fashion to brand oth- The Colorado Book Review
er great Colorado leaders) as evil people. in The Colorado Magazine EDITORIAL TEAM
This is NOT careful, even-handed histor- I was grateful to see articles from The Colo- Shanea Ewing, Devin Flores,
ical rendering. It is an embarrassment to rado Book Review appearing in The Colorado María Islas-López, María José Maddox,
History Colorado and a stain on its rep- Magazine Online. For more reviews and Aaron Marcus, Keith Valdez,
utation and history. This is not the kind information about The Colorado Book and Bethany Williams
of thing we should be teaching adults and Review, please visit the Denver Public
children about our state’s history. This type of Library’s website at history.denverlibrary.org. VOLUNTEERS
“historical” research and writing sows —Tom Noel, via email Rebecca Hunt and Jim England

5 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 6

LOOKING BACK AT LOCKDOWN
by SAM BOCK

An interview with Dr. Ramnik Dhaliwal about

the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A
round this time three years ago, many of us were just
emerging from a months-long lockdown. We were
trying to keep ourselves safe from Covid-19, then
a largely mysterious and terrifying new disease. Daily life
in Colorado and countries around the world was far from
normal. Many of us lost loved ones. Many of us worried our
lives would never be the same again.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ramnik Dhaliwal was trying to figure out grandparents. So my ritual was focused on trying to protect
how to keep himself and his family safe while working to save them while still treating the people who needed my help.
lives. Recently, Dr. Dhaliwal donated his hospital gear from I put on my scrubs, mask, goggles—a uniform that was already
those early days, including his personal protective equip- different from what I wore before the pandemic. And seeing
ment (PPE), to History Colorado’s collection. His donation patients was different too, because we lost a huge amount of that
includes masks and surgical gowns he bought to protect human interaction due to that distance and that fear. Coming
himself and his family at a time of uncertain availability. home was the ritual in reverse—I’d have to strip down in the
garage, sprint across the yard and hop in the shower before I
He also included candid photos from the emergency could hug my kids or say hi to my family.
departments of several Denver-area hospitals where he was
working, video diaries recorded at the hospitals and at home How has Covid changed your job?
in the first months of the pandemic, and this reflective One of the biggest lingering challenges didn’t necessarily
interview in the hope that future generations will be able to come from Covid, but instead from the political
appreciate the sacrifices health care providers and front line divide the pandemic exacerbated. We still see massive and
workers continue to demonstrate as the world recovers from unfortunately growing mistrust of doctors and the medical
Covid’s upheavals. profession. People requesting treatments that we knew weren’t
effective. And a shocking increase in the number of people
We sat down with Dr. Dhaliwal to recall who posed a physical danger to staff, not just because of the
those early days of the pandemic: disease they were contagious with. And it has taken a toll on
What was it like being a doctor in the emergency our job. There was a mass-exodus of healthcare workers during
department three years ago? the pandemic, and the whole system is still weak. We all had
At first it was unclear what this was. We knew it was a viral to come to terms with the idea that we could die.
infection, but it was spreading like gangbusters. Practically
overnight, we went from normal caseloads and seeing the usu- What’s your prescription for collective recovery from
al gamut of patients to being fearful of going to work. Very the pandemic?
quickly, the question became how do I protect myself? I think people need to think—really think—about
That’s when I decided to start buying my own personal others more. The pandemic showed us that we’re resilient,
protective equipment. I didn’t want to trust that it would but also that we’re so much more resilient together. If we
always be available in the hospital. could come together to support our neighbors and essential
workers during the worst of the lockdown, why not in
Many of us lost our normal daily routines during better times too?
lockdown. What was it like as you kept going to work Above: Dr. Ramnik Dhaliwal wearing the protective equipment he bought to
to help save lives? protect himself and his family from Covid-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
My household consisted of myself, my wife who is Courtesy of Dr. Ramnik Dhaliwal.
Emergency Department staff tried to stay positive in the midst of chaos and “uncertain times”
a pediatrician, our two young children and their elderly Background: Coronavirus Covid-19 3D cell rendering.
during the early days of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Courtesy of Dr. Ramnik Dhaliwal.

7 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 8

 A BIKEPACKER’S BACKWARD GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF COLORADO’S CYCLING SCENE.

HISTORY EDUCATION HAS THE

POWER TO TRANSFORM LIVES AND Come Ride With Me by BIANCA BARRISKILL

STRENGTHEN COMMUNITIES
I
t was the summer of 2021. I was adventure. I boasted I had just com- cycling, to trash alley cycling grunge.
History Colorado offers a variety of engaging in-person and cycling with my supplies stuffed pleted a 130 mile round trip bike ride So I started over. Then I started over
online learning opportunities for all ages. into a waterproof wet-bag strapped from Denver to Colorado Springs the again. Turns out I have lived bike ex-
onto my bike rack along the steep previous Sunday, and was promptly periences that should not be put into
FOR SCHOOLS ridgeline of the Blue Mesa Reser- offered an assignment: write about print, and apparently needed my edi-
Aligned to academic standards and anchored in meaningful discourse, virtual field trips voir near Gunnison, Colorado. Cars bikes and relate it to history. While I tor to look me in the eye and tell me
and artifact kits provide school students with rich primary sources and critical thinking. swooped by me so fast that their tail- inadvertently oozed confidence in my that. But by the time I finished this
winds pushed me into the roots of cycling capabilities, it turned out this article, I was officially dubbed the bike
FOR FAMILIES
the aspens lining the highway. Alone, assignment was not low hanging fruit expert. This is my bike story. The ride
Our Hands-On History programs and camps throughout the state provide safe,
and on day three of a bikepacking for me. The first couple of full length you’re about to join me on is intended
educational child care for working families when students are not in school.
trip from Denver to Delta, I was tak- drafts were scrapped. The assignment to give you chuckles and hopefully lend
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT ing a break at one of the viewpoints morphed from nostalgic weaves of a different perspective on bike history
when a retired couple from Texas feminism, the mechanical history of and cycling in Colorado.
h-co.org/programs-education chatted me up. They asked where I
cycled from and where I was going.
After I explained my route the wom-
an gasped and offered to hitch me to
the next town. I was feeling the strug-
gle, and by this time in my life I’d
learned to trust help and to be okay
with hitchhiking. I took them up on
their offer, and as the couple drove me
twenty miles closer to my final des-
tination, the man looked back at me
through his rearview mirror “You do
this alone?”
I met his gaze in the mirror, “Most
of the time yeah, I’ve had good luck
with people, most just want to help.”
I got the impression that he asked
because I was a solo female cyclist rid-
ing through some of Colorado’s most
remote terrain. But maybe that was a
big leap in thought? Either way, they
dropped me off at the next town and
shaved two hours off my total time on
the bike that day. I was able to pull
up to my final destination in time for
celebratory Jell-O shots with my awe- Bianca is an avid Colorado
cyclist and Koch Fellow at
some Deltoid friends. History Colorado. She enjoys
Fast-forward to the summer of researching and reporting on
2022. I was swapping ideas with my historical and current events.
If you see her on the trails, feel
work cohort at History Colorado and
free to say hello!
looking back fondly at that biking

9 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 10

A TRANSPORTATION teeth cutter (but her name is unprint- boost the British economy. Two birds, Canada—an epic 7,000 mile journey.
REVOLUTION able). Later in an act of personal defi- one stone. British imported bicy- Averaging between ninety and 100
I took for granted, while living in ance I purchased a carbon-framed Trek cles came with those fancy European miles a day, the Royal Gorge, Canon
the bicycle mecca of Colorado, that Checkpoint (Rodney) which I built derailleurs and thus opened the range City, Skyline drive, and Garden of the
historically speaking, bikes weren’t and Frankensteined together myself. of possibilities of tackling varying Gods were just a handful of his Colo-
always a common display of aerody- He weighs 16 pounds. It’s okay if you topographical terrain for cyclists. rado stops. Mathias was quoted in the
namic finesse. How did bikes become haven’t named your bike yet, there’s The US market responded to the de- Post, assuring his readers that “Trav-
such a part of the urban landscape that still time. mand by adding gears—initially three eling by bicycle is very economical.”
they almost blend into peripheral vi- According to Margaret Goruff’s seemed like more than enough—to His journey drew the press to him
sion for city dwellers like me? Before book, The Mechanical Horse, we must American-made bikes. at the time, but his assurances of afford-
writing this article, my bike knowledge rewind back to the seventeenth cen- By the 1960s, American bike pro- ability caught my eye. Mathias told re-
of weight and frame styles was limited tury famine in Europe to trace bicycle ducers were manufacturing eight- and porters that he spent $150 for his two-
to fairly modern examples. I had little history to its roots. The famine caused ten-speed models that were more af- and-a-half-month journey in 1928,
contextual understanding of historic a widespread slaughter of horses and fordable than their imported European which amounts to about $2600 when
bike frames. I think the tall-wheeled prompted the creativity that trying counterparts. They were heavy, but of- adjusted for inflation today. Somehow, I
penny farthing frame is probably what times often do. Horses, at the time, fered more diverse land coverage than spent nearly $1000 on a week-long ride
came to mind when I’d imagine “old- were the standard method of distance the clunky single speed cruisers of the from Denver to Salt Lake City. Relative
er” or “vintage” bikes. Come to find travel. In the midst of the horse-meat era. To help put the evolution of bikes to my bikepacking journey (which cer-
wholesale slaughter, German inventor into perspective for modern cyclists like tainly had some unexpected turns), less 11 / Spring/Summer 2023
out, my own vintage bikes have a
slightly more evolved frame style than Baron Karl Drais, created the bicycle myself who are accustomed to sixteen than $3,000 seems affordable for two Cycling was, and continues to be, a social sport.
prototype in an effort to replace the pound bicycles, the Schwinn Varsity, months on the road. While not cheap History Colorado Collection, 89.451.748
those turn of the twentieth century
models of my imagination. horse. It was known as the draisine, weighing in at forty pounds, was con- in aggregate, breaking costs down day
I have a twenty-pound, 2001 steel its wooden frame was the predecessor sidered lightweight in the 1960s. Per- by day keeps cycling a cost-effective There were two kinds of tickets a bunch of like-minded bike enthu-
framed, nine speed Talladega Bianchi. to the bicycle. Slowly, advancements haps this is why bicycles from the early alternative to the daily grind. This is true available for that early BikeCentennial siasts. And it was a trusted event,
Her name is The Princess Bianchi, (yes, were made to include iron parts, better twentieth century are either in muse- especially in comparison to a week’s va- tour: in-camping and out-camping. It dating back to 1988 when a small
each of my bikes has a name). Another wheels, and later a steel frame. ums, or decaying in scrap yards, or are cation on a beach or campground. De- was $8 a day for the outdoor version cycling cohort thought it might be fun
of my bikes—a steel-framed fixed gear Early bicycles in the nineteenth cen- collecting dust in garages or personal signer bikes don’t need to be the entry and just $4 more for the indoor ver- to try a wild climb up three mountain
beauty weighing in at twenty pounds— tury, although increasing in popularity, cabinets of curiosities. I have yet to see point. A bike with gears, good tires, and sion (which wasn’t luxurious by any passes—Juniper Pass (11,049 feet),
was my first adult bike. She was my were still by no means mainstream. one on the road. I digress, but the point a fairly comfortable fit will travel long means). The indoor cyclists slept in Loveland Pass (11,991 feet), and Vail
Even with their advancements from here is that bicycles have come so far in distances and get you where you want libraries, dorm rooms, churches, and Pass (10,666 feet)--in a single day. The
the early wooden draisine, they were terms of frame aspects, weight, and ma- to go. After all, protecting one’s wallet the like while their outcamping coun- summer of 2023 marks its thirty-fifth
heavy, cumbersome, and lacked techni- terials for the sake of improving the feel from bruising is certainly part of mak- terparts slept in farm fields or parking anniversary. Thousands of cyclists sign
cal functions. In the United States, the of the ride itself. ing it a comfortable ride. lots. Keeping in mind the overall ex- up every year. And it’s just one of the
earliest bike frames positioned riders Mathias was a solo cross continen- pense of the trip for eighty-two days, cycling events in Colorado each sum-
upright instead of the aerodynamic for- A SOCIAL LIFE ON tal bike traveler, a fairly new style of cyclists would either pay $656 or $984 mer that draw cyclists in from all parts
ward tilt more commonly seen today. TWO WHEELS adventure in the early twentieth cen- respectively, or about $3,432 and of the globe.
Derailleurs, which are the mechanisms Cycling was historically, and con- tury. Over the course of the 1900s, $5,148 today. Hindsight being 20-20 (pun in-
on bicycles that switch the chain on tinues to be, a social activity. As much bikepacking became mainstream in the Reading Rosen’s chapter on monu- tended), in the summer of 2020 I
sprockets of different sizes, were first as I pride myself on cycling solo most United States. The famous European mental cross country rides like the Bike- should have guessed that the close
used by European cyclists in the early of the time, in reality, I came back to Tour De France already existed, having Centennial woke up parts of my brain proximity of cycling in large groups
twentieth century. Upright and lacking biking in my adult years so I could ride started in 1903, but the United States that recall more socially oriented bike made the Triple Bypass ride impossi-
a way to shift gears, American bikes with friends who loved the sport and was still catching on to tour cycling. experiences which I had suppressed af- ble to keep open to the public. I re-
back then couldn’t adjust to hills or wanted to hear my famous one-liners on But by the 1970s, the craze had taken ter being caught up in Colorado’s Triple member sitting in the Best Buy park-
long flat roads. the road (I’m just kidding, they actually hold. In Jody Rosen’s book, Two Wheels Bypass COVID-19 kerfuffle in 2020. I ing lot in Lakewood when I got the
The twentieth century postwar have no choice but to hear my jokes). I Good, he notes that for three straight felt justified in my wariness of group email that the event was canceled.
economic boom changed the range may be cheesy, but I’ll make you laugh as years: 1972, 1973, and 1974 bicycles rides after losing out on the ride and The cancellation left me wary of big
of capabilities bikes could offer Amer- we crank up a hill together! outsold cars. In 1976, to commemorate my registration fee. (Yes, next time I box cycling events, despite their often
icans due to increased global trade. Nevertheless, there’s still cultural the nation’s bicentennial, thousands of will get rider insurance!) philanthropic goals. Instead, driven
The British economy struggled after mysticism surrounding the lone cyclist. those new bicycle buyers came together The Triple Bypass was the first sup- outdoors by the pandemic, I rode my
World War II. In response, the Unit- Epic solo rides have made the news for for an epic journey known as the Bike- ported event I had ever signed up to own routes unsupported and alone.
ed States cut tariffs on British bicycles nearly a hundred years: A young Ca- Centennial. The ride, which drew cy- ride. I loved the idea of cycling crews But solitude can be wonderful. Bikes,
in half, which helped put affordable nadian man, Stanley Mathias, made clists of all abilities, traversed the United feeding me bagels, peanut butter, and not COVID, taught me that.
Cyclists stare down the camera at one of
Colorado’s top natural wonders, Garden of the lightweight bicycles into the hands Denver Post headlines in 1928 when States from Oregon to Virginia. Bobo bars while I cycled around with
Gods. History Colorado Collection, 66.21.44 of many more Americans, and helped he cycled through Colorado from
HistoryColorado.org / 12
 That summer, rather than bagging er riders and complete an epic ride Bikes have lived somewhere between toy and in Wheat Ridge. I kept running next the United States in 2021, so perhaps soul. People have adapted their bikes
the three peaks of the Triple Bypass, I with goals. Maybe this summer I’ll transportation for over 100 years. History to him and holding the bike while he history doesn’t fully repeat itself but to suit different ideas of what bikes
Colorado Collection, 93.322.587
committed to riding to the summit of consider shelling out three hundred pedaled and I could tell that he felt it does rhyme. The historical trend should be and do. They were originally
Mt. Evans solo. But instead of driving clams to grind up some hills and himself handling the bike. I was grate- indicates that our two-wheeled ma- intended to solve a transportation is-
to Idaho Springs and riding up Mt. get my free Bobo bars at the end. ful that bikes were no longer made chines are keeping up with the times. I sue, but over time, they became a way
Evans from there following the route from forty pounds of steel. I don’t know first-hand why Colorado is one to be together or, in the case of long
of the annual Bob Cook Mt. Evans TRANSPORTATION TO TOY think I could have pushed him along of the top sports-cycling spots in the solo tours, to recharge in solitude. For
Climb, I rode from my front door in I’m not anti-social even though I if his bike tipped the scales like its pre- country. Our state’s epic mountains many,they proved to be integral to the
Lakewood to the top of the 14,200 often ride alone. I did try to create my decessors. and famous group rides like the Triple early childhood experience of geo-
foot peak and then back home. At own personalized cycling buddy in the I panted as I ran along next to Bypass or Ride the Rockies help con- graphical autonomy. Most will learn
the time it was very important to me form of my now ten-year-old son. I him, lap after lap on the gravel loop, firm that impression. Unsurprisingly, to cycle before they learn to drive.
that I separated myself from the event envision grand bikepacking trips with holding his handlebars and steering the city of Denver recently ranked in Bicycles soften our footprint on the
cyclists who shuttled down the moun- him as he grows into adulthood, but him so he could feel flight. He finally the top ten friendliest bike cities from planet, make us look goofy, but also
tain afterwards for free beer and piz- we need to start with a simple over- said to me matter-of-factly, “you can data sourced from the U.S census bu- sometimes cool. Bikes simply won’t be
za. Anyone who has ridden Mt. Evans night bikepacking trip to Bear Creek let go now, mom.” Although he was reau, the U.S. Department of Trans- defined by one subculture, one demo-
knows the worst part isn’t the climb, State Park before I can prime him for a probably only talking about his bike, portation, the U.S. National Centers graphic, one frame style, or the many
it’s the descent down the treacherous, multi-day trip. But I couldn’t help my- I felt an entire lifecycle of parenting for Environmental Information, Walk personalities who hop onto the saddle.
altitude-worn road that event cyclists self: I started planting the bikepacking wash over me when I took my hand Score, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Bikes are the tool of the user. Behold-
avoid by simply shuttling down in a seed three years ago. off the saddle. He took off and pedaled Vision Zero Network, Google Trends, en to their people. But they still seem
bus. But even that ride wasn’t enough. In the spring of 2020, with public freely around the loop. Witnessing his and Yelp. What a mouthful of data. to have minds of their own.
Still looking for escapes during the school shut-downs and while remote nine years old. I didn’t know children first experience of personal freedom Writing this article broadened my From people craving either the
pandemic, I bike-packed from Den- working, I set out to finally teach could bike across the country as young and his pride brought me straight to thinking of what bikes are. They’re solitude or the social connectivity of
ver to Delta, from Denver to Paonia, my son to ride the bike I got him for as nine years old—but when the pan- a bout of ugly crying. He didn’t hear machines, certainly, but something cycling, to retirees looking to get around
and from Denver to Salt Lake City, Christmas. It was permanently parked demic quarantine arrived, I knew my weepy, smotherly, chortle of hap- else exists inside the frame. It’s almost town with ease, to adaptive mountain
each its own separate journey. Instead in his closet, but I had hoped that he seven was the perfect age for my own py tears: He was too busy yelling and like a wavelength carried through from bikers searching for adventure, to those
of the support of a cycling crew, I chose would catch the cycling bug so we child to start training. I carefully set experiencing physical mobility and the manufacturer, the excitement from who just want to feel the breeze and see
to support local businesses along my could ride together. Bikes began as up time in between his remote classes speed unlike anything he had likely the mechanic who opened the bike the sights, there is a bike waiting for
routes. (By the way, Brother’s Deli in an alternative mode of transportation during the day to introduce the sport felt before. The following summer he box, or the finesse of the last person you to take it home and give it a name.
Idaho Springs is a Colorado treasure for adults lacking a horse. But at the to him. It was a lonely time, but we did his first twenty miles and let me who polished the frame. Bikes have a It’s not—it’s never—too late.
that serves up delicious sandwiches to turn of the twentieth century, just made the very best of it. I wanted him know in his funny string of conscious-
fuel a climb through the high country). before World War I, bicycle manufac- to use his bike for enjoyment. For fun. ness “I’m cooking like chicken mom!’’
I didn’t start cycling till I was thirty. turers began looking to young boys as Three years later, while I still have The boy can ride and my hope is that I
And I wasn’t a professional athlete in their new target audience. Automo- some grandiose plans to ride across the don’t over-impose my hobby onto him
my twenties either. People I’d seen biles were taking their fathers out of country with him in celebration of a so he will join me in bike ride bliss.
on the road only strengthened this bike saddles and placed them behind national holiday, I would settle for an He named his first bike “The Cherry
sentiment. I met a man riding across the wheels of gas powered machines. overnight bikepacking trip. Fixie.” Bikes aren’t just for kids, but
the dry canyonlands of Maybell on It became a symbol of growth into In trying to create my adventure I’m not sure if any demographic of
a recumbent bicycle to crowd source adulthood for children to embark on buddy early on, I set out with the cyclist appreciates it the way a child
funding for his own cancer treatment. independent bicycle riding and devel- kiddo on three separate bike training does—especially that first time they
He accessed different channels of op fortitude and strength in the ways sessions in the spring of 2020. I re- take flight.
fundraising for his own health, using that bicycles do. Government officials member assuring my still-learning son
his bike to spread the word. I point thought that good cyclists would make that he didn’t have to take off on his CYCLING INTO
this anecdote out to my able bodied healthy soldiers. While I don’t feel own, he just had to get used to sitting THE FUTURE
friends wary of rigorous distance trav- like the goal of cycling should be to in the saddle and holding the handle In Colorado, cycling is often
el. Naturally there will be individuals prime my child for military service, I bars even if his feet were planted on praised as an ideal mode of green
who can’t physically ride a bicycle, but do agree that it establishes healthy in- the ground. Witheach attempt, his transportation. But it’s still an after-
for many there is a way. dependence and increases fine motor body learned something new. I re- thought to most people with access
Writing this article prompted me skills—abilities that take time to cul- minded him that he was getting used to a car, just like it was in the early
to research the history of bikepack- tivate in awkward young bodies before to being on a bike. He didn’t have to twentieth century. However, broad-
ing and bike touring in the United the finesse of adult physical mobility be perfect right away. Finally after sev- er sales trends indicate that certain
States, and it reminded me of the takes hold. eral attempts, on a sunny day in April, bikes are as popular today as they were
urge to go out with friends, support- The youngest cyclist to complete I took my son to a little gravel loop when they outsold cars in the 1970s. Smiles for miles on this vintage “steed” at Colorado’s Ride the
ed by the energy of hundreds of oth- the BikeCentennial trail in 1976 was park that encircles a goat grazing patch E-bike sales outstripped E-vehicles in Rockies event in 1991. History Colorado Collection, 93.128.1

13 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 14

HIGH ALTITUDE HITS
3. “SOMEONE SAVED MY LIFE TONIGHT,”
ELTON JOHN
The British musician recorded three albums at Caribou Ranch:
Caribou (1974); Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
SIX INCREDIBLE SONGS RECORDED AT CARIBOU RANCH (1975); and Rock of the Westies (1975). This highly personal
track, arguably the best on the album, details the pianist’s suicide
Some of the most iconic musicians of the 1970s and ’80s came to record among the attempt in 1968 and was written by John’s longtime lyricist
Bernie Taupin and recorded at Caribou in August 1974. The
soaring peaks and high-mountain valleys around Caribou Ranch. song’s anthemic chorus features the classic Caribou Ranch
sound: high vocals that studio engineers claimed were made
by MEGAN FRIEDEL possible by the thin air at the ranch’s nearly 9,000-foot elevation
in the Rocky Mountains. At 6 minutes and 45 seconds, it was
not an obvious contender for a hit, yet it charted at No. 4 on

T
JOHN AND ELTON
he Colorado high country has Player You Get. Famed for its talk box the US Billboard Top 100. Two music legends, Elton John and John Lennon, together in the
a special place in music history. vocals, the lyrics reflect Walsh’s love Colorado high country in the mid-1970s. Donated to the Denver
For more than a decade, for Colorado and the new directions it 4. “GIVE A LITTLE BIT,” SUPERTRAMP Public Library by the Rocky Mountain News, RMN-052-425
Caribou Ranch, a recording studio provided for his music: “Spent the last The progressive rock-turned-pop band recorded their fifth
built in an abandoned barn tucked year / Rocky Mountain way / Couldn’t album, Even in the Quietest Moments…, at Caribou Ranch
into the foothills above Nederland, get much higher…’Cause the Rocky during the winter of 1976–1977. Like many albums recorded at
Colorado, cranked out some of the Mountain way / Is better than the way the ranch, the cover reflects the mountain setting: a grand piano
most recognizable and most influential we had.” topped with snow, photographed at nearby Eldora Mountain
records of the 1970s and ’80s. Producer ski resort. This track, which became an international hit, opens
Jim Guercio began building the 2. “ROCK AND ROLL,HOOCHIE with a now-iconic acoustic guitar riff recorded in the studio’s
Caribou Ranch recording studio in KOO,” RICK DERRINGER elevator—and closes suddenly to cut off an inopportune wail by
1971, on the former Van Vleet Arabian Fans of “Dazed and Confused” Frank, the studio cat, that was inadvertently caught on the tape.
Horse Ranch. Once the studio was and classic rock radio will instantly
completed the following year, it quickly recognize this emblematic, guitar- 5. “DEVIL’S SWEET,” CHICAGO
became a premier destination for the driven 1970s rock tune. Though it was No Caribou Ranch list would be complete without a shout-out to
best musicians of the era, including first released in 1970 while Derringer Chicago, who were produced and managed by studio founder Jim
Stephen Stills, John Lennon, Elton was a member of the band Johnny Guercio from 1968 to 1977. “Devil’s Sweet” is an unusual deep CHICAGO
John, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Winter And, it’s the Caribou Ranch CARIBOU RAINBOW cut from Chicago VII, which was recorded and mixed at Caribou The band Chicago performed at Caribou Ranch. Donated to the
A rainbow stretches over Caribou Ranch in the mid- Denver Public Library by the Rocky Mountain News, RMN-052-4250
and more, who stayed at the ranch both version that made earworm history, in the fall of 1973 and marked an ambitious turning point for
1970s. Donated to the Denver Public Library by the
to record and visit the splendor of the recorded at the studio in 1973 for the Rocky Mountain News, RMN-052-4253 the band, who showcased their jazz influences on the double
Rocky Mountain retreat. In 1985, a musician’s first solo album, All American album. This ten-minute instrumental track, written and led with
fire at the ranch damaged the studio, Boy. Derringer played nearly all the STEPHEN STILLS ferocity by drummer and founding member Danny Seraphine,
Singer and songwriter Stephen Stills at Caribou
closing its operations. However, the instruments on this recording: guitar, Ranch in the mid-1970s. Donated to the Denver Public
is a stunner, highlighting Chicago’s virtuosity and musicianship,
legacy of Caribou Ranch lives on in the bass, tambourine, and lead vocals, with Library by the Rocky Mountain News, with nary a Peter Cetera vocal in sight.
songs and albums recorded there, like only drummer Bobby Caldwell and RMN-052-4249
the ones below—many of which will be 6. “SHINING STAR,” EARTH, WIND & FIRE
instantaneously recognizable to music Inspired by a walk that singer and songwriter Maurice White
lovers in Colorado and beyond. three backing vocalists accompanying took under the night skies at Caribou, this track, co-written by
him. vocalist Philip Bailey and keyboardist Larry Dunn, was indeed a
1. “ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY,” star, charting at number one in the United States. But at the time INSIDE THE STUDIO
JOE WALSH of White’s walk in September 1974, during the band’s three-week The original recording studio at Caribou Ranch. Donated to the
In the spring of 1972, guitarist Walsh recording session at the ranch, the soon-to-be soul-funk-R&B Denver Public Library by the Rocky Mountain News, RMN-052-4247

was the first musician to record at superstars had yet to break through to pop radio. The a cappella
Caribou, while the studio was still under outro features White and Bailey’s classic harmonies, which the For more Caribou Ranch
construction. He had just moved to pair recorded twenty times and layered to sound like a full chorus recordings, check out this
Colorado, where he formed his group, of voices. SPOTIFY PLAYLIST (or scan
Barnstorm; he later joined the Eagles the QR Code) brought to you
in 1975. “Rocky Mountain Way” came MEGAN FRIEDEL is Head of Archives and Collections for by the good people at the
out on Walsh’s second album recorded University of Colorado Boulder Libraries. She’s also a local musician Colorado Music Hall of Fame!
at the ranch, The Smoker You Drink, the and an expert in Colorado’s musical history.

15 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 16

 W
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
e are a product of history, our throughout the nation have confronted their sacrifice. “On Guard,” as the artist
lives and our communities with growing urgency over the past John Dare Howland formally designated
shaped by those who came before. decade. In Colorado, it recently took his work, occupied a place of honor. The
In some cases—and in some places— the form of an eight-foot-tall bronze bronze soldier stood sentry on the west
we choose to spotlight and elevate cer- sculpture of a Union cavalry soldier side of the State Capitol, casting his fixed
tain individuals from our collective toppled during the protests for racial eyes over the Capitol’s “front lawn” in
by JASON L. HANSON past to recognize their significant con- justice that erupted during the summer Denver’s Civic Center and beyond
tributions to our communities, so that of 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s toward the sun setting over the Rocky
we may continue to draw inspiration murder. As the monument fell from its Mountains on the horizon. Plaques
from their example. Whether they are pedestal in front of the State Capitol, it affixed to the pedestal of the monument
statues cast or carved to stand for gen- raised a number of questions about how listed the engagements Colorado troops
erations, the names we give our parks we should commemorate our shared his- had fought in throughout the Colorado
and public buildings, or what we call tory and what we owe to the people of Territory and beyond, highlighting the
natural landmarks, every monument is the past who left us their guidance in the state’s role in the national conflict.
an instrument designed to transmit the form of monuments. Questions that go And there it stayed, more or less with-
stories, knowledge, and perspectives of to the heart of who we want to be. out change, standing silent guard over
one generation in a lasting way that we Civic Center through blizzards (like the
hope will benefit our descendants. In •••
creating monuments, we inscribe our Facing: Colorado’s Civil War monument, “On Guard,”
shared history on the landscapes and cul- In 1909, the bronze figure of a dis- was installed in front of the State Capitol in 1909 to
commemorate Coloradans who fought with the
tural spaces that provide the setting for mounted Union cavalry soldier was Union during the war. It stood there until it was toppled
our daily lives. But what happens when installed outside the Colorado State in the summer of 2020. Courtesy of Derek Everett.
generational values shift about who, or Capitol, Colorado’s contribution to Below: “On Guard” kept watch over Denver’s Civic
what, deserves to be commemorated? the nationwide wave of monuments Center for more than a century. Taken from the
This is the question many of us in installed to commemorate the aging balcony of the capitol between 1919 and 1923, this
photograph shows the monument’s expansive view
museums, historical organizations, city veterans of the Civil War and advance across the city toward the mountains beyond.
governments, and local communities certain narratives about the meaning of History Colorado, 99.270.152.

COLORADO’S TOPPLED
CIVIL WAR MONUMENT AND
A NEW CONVERSATION ABOUT
HOW WE COMMEMORATE THE PAST

HistoryColorado.org / 18
 the enslavement of Black men and women in the South. Many Once John Dare Howland’s cavalry soldier was downtown Denver flagship museum
Americans think of the Civil War as an event that primarily in our statewide system.
took place east of the Mississippi River while those in the West
discovered face down in the trampled flowerbed At the museum, we placed the mon-
remained largely separate from the fighting, but in important ringing the monument’s granite pedestal, “On ument at ground level in the crux of a
ways Colorado was born from the conflict. Colorado troops, Guard” embarked on a new journey. Early that spiral staircase, so visitors would not be
drawn primarily from local volunteers, fought for the Union morning, it was unmonumentally laid on a flatbed looking up in awe, as we usually do with
Army near and far from home. Most notably, Colorado’s monuments, but would be able to view
Union forces engaged in the Battle of Glorieta Pass in north- truck and taken to a top secret warehouse. it from multiple angles, including eye
ern New Mexico, where they played a vital role in protecting level and even (my favorite) bird’s eye
western gold fields—and the financial support for the Union ignating Sand Creek as a battle, the mon- skill of our Exhibition Development, view. We knew that the monument and
war effort they represented—from Confederate takeover. ument’s designers mischaracterized the Collections Access, and Design & Pro- the questions swirling around it—why
But Union troops weren’t here only to hold the gold. actual events,” and noting that, thanks to duction teams, we did exactly that, it was toppled, why it wasn’t immedi-
Amid this wartime context, the US Army used mili- the persistent advocacy of Tribal descen- installing “On Guard” that October ately reinstalled, what would happen to
tary force to clear Indigenous peoples from their homes dants of the attack and others, there was at the History Colorado Center, the it next—was a sensitive subject for
and secure the land for American settlement. In the most now “widespread recognition of the
ignominious episode in that colonial project, on November tragedy as the Sand Creek Massacre.”
29, 1864, US cavalry regiments attacked a peaceful camp of But additional plaques—those Standing in front of the Capitol made the
Cheyenne and Arapaho people on Colorado’s eastern plains attempts to augment flawed history monument a focal point for generations of
who had been promised protection by the Army. The soldiers with more information or correction— protests. Chicano activists incorporated it
into their civil rights protest in March 1974.
murdered more than 230 women, children, and elders as they don’t seem to carry the same weight as Credit Juan Espinoza, History Colorado,
tried to run for safety. Upon their return to Denver, the troops the original, and it never sat right with 2016.87.101
paraded in celebration, proudly displaying trophies from the some people. To date, we can only
battle—some taken from the bodies of the dead. guess at the exact motives of those who
The Sand Creek Massacre, as it quickly came to be known, toppled the monument, but for many
was the bloodiest day in Colorado history. The betrayal of the observers the action read as an attempt
Cheyenne and Arapaho by the US government touched off to topple any vestigial apologism or
decades of violence and warfare across the West that ultimately pretense that Sand Creek can be under-
resulted in the government forcibly removing the region’s Tribes stood as anything but an intentional,
from their homelands and making various efforts to eradicate brutal, state-sanctioned, massacre of
them completely. Indigenous people.
The US Army and Congress both investigated and quickly
condemned the attack. Congress’s 1865 “Report of the Joint •••
Committee on the Conduct of the War: Massacre of the
When the monument was installed, its pedestal included a plaque listing all of the Cheyenne Indians” was the first to officially call it a massacre. Once John Dare Howland’s cavalry
“Battles and Engagements” in which Colorado troops fought with the Union But many of the people of Denver and in other communities soldier was discovered face down in the
during the Civil War, and at the bottom of that list was “Sand Creek.” Courtesy
of Derek Everett. throughout Colorado refused to accept that their relatives and trampled flowerbed ringing the mon-
friends had taken part in such a dishonorable action. When the ument’s granite pedestal, “On Guard”
whopper of 1913) and blazing summer days (ever hotter in recent “On Guard” monument was installed, its pedestal included a embarked on a new journey. Early that
years) for more than a century. Thanks to its location in front list of “Battles and Engagements” Colorado troops had fought morning, it was unmonumentally laid
of the Capitol, it was a focal point for civic gatherings, protests, in during the Civil War. The final entry on the list was “Sand on a flatbed truck and taken to a top
and ceremonies over the decades, from Super Bowl and Stanley Creek,” an assertion that the killing at Sand Creek was a legit- secret warehouse in the care of the
Cup celebrations to immigration rallies, Occupy protests, wom- imate battle that belonged among the other worthy actions of Department of Veteran and Military
en’s marches, anti-mask demonstrations, and more. During the Coloradans during the Civil War. Affairs under the auspices of the Col-
summer of 2020, when Coloradans took to the streets demand- That assertion, set in the legitimacy-conferring patina of orado National Guard.
ing racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the weathered bronze, made the monument increasingly conten- At History Colorado, we had heard
marches, rallies, and protests again centered on Civic Center, tious in recent decades. At various times the plaque was bathed some people saying in the press that
and “On Guard” stood, as it had so many times before, amid in blood-red paint, and at one point someone tried to grind the “controversial monuments belong in
history in the making. Until the overnight hours of June 25, entry for Sand Creek off of the list. By the turn of the century, a museum.” Good idea, we thought.
that is, when the monument was toppled by unknown actors. the Colorado legislature, which oversees the Capitol grounds, Dawn DiPrince, our director, texted
At first, even some people who were generally supportive was searching for a solution. In 2002, with the input and guid- me: “Could we bring it to the History
of removing offensive monuments were confused by the rage ance of the Tribal descendants of those killed at Sand Creek, the Colorado Center?” And so, with the
directed at this monument. After all, it honored Colorado sol- legislature approved the addition of a new plaque that was much blessing of the Capitol Building Advi-
diers who fought with US forces to preserve the Union and end clearer about the nature of the massacre, explaining that “By des- sory Committee and the amazing

19 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 20

At History Colorado, we tribute to those who have served and their public spaces, and what the pur- ingly agreed that historic statues and
sacrificed in the nation’s armed forces, pose of such public commemoration other monuments should remind Amer-
had heard some people saying a reminder of atrocities committed should be. We asked visitors to respond, icans of both the good and bad aspects
in the press that “controversial against Indigenous peoples, a symbol if they felt so moved, to two questions: of our history, and that in remembering,
monuments belong in a museum.” of white supremacy and injustice, a we may build upon the good and avoid
casualty of destructive lawlessness, and 1. Do we need monuments? repeating bad choices.
Good idea, we thought. more. Other visitors tackled the question
Operating from a fundamental 2. What do you think their of what society should do with stat-
many of our visitors and for people throughout Col-
belief that creating space for civil con- purpose should be? ues honoring values that we no longer
orado. In fact, despite all the suggestions that contro-
versation about our different views is agree with, or those commemorating
versial monuments ought to be in museums, we could
part of how we embrace our shared By far the most common sentiment moments most would prefer to forget.
not find an applicable example to follow from another
destiny and find our way forward our visitors offered—often in careful Visitors generally wanted these monu-
museum. As far as we could tell, we were the first
together, we welcomed the public to join handwriting sized to fit complex ideas ments to reside in museums where they
museum in the nation to attempt it in the aftermath
the conversation and created space for on the sticky notes we gave them to stick can be properly interpreted and put
of that summer’s protests for racial justice.
visitors to share their views. We wanted up on a wall facing the monument— into context. Erasing these monuments
Without established best practices or a playbook to
to give people a chance to think about was that monuments are critical pieces entirely from view, they argued, opens
follow, our Exhibition Development team devised a
what history they would like to see in of social memory. Visitors overwhelm- society up to repeating the mistakes of
three-part interpretation strategy to present “On Guard”
the past.
to our visitors and encourage them to consider it from a
A notable, though small, percentage
variety of perspectives. First, we shared some background
of commenters disagreed with the idea
on the actual events the monument was meant to com-
that we need monuments to remind us
memorate. In this case, that meant a brief discussion of
of the good and bad in American history.
the actions of Colorado troops fighting for the Union
But their disagreements came from very
during the Civil War, including the Sand Creek Mas-
different places. For some, monuments
sacre and participation in the Indian Wars. Second, we
inherently reinforce the dominant cul-
spotlighted the creation of the monument itself. “On
ture’s values and version of the past at the
Guard” was installed in 1909 after Denver’s city leaders
expense of underrepresented voices and
had been embarrassed to realize, while hosting a reunion
should therefore all be removed and not
encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, that
replaced. For others, monuments should
the city did not have a monument honoring the veterans’
honor sacrifice and heroism, and should
sacrifice and victory. Although Civil War monuments
encourage us to reflect on the times in
are not as common in Colorado as they are in states fur-
which Americans have lived up to their
ther east, Colorado joined those states in installing “On
values and the nation’s promise. Mon-
Guard” as part of a large wave of Civil War monuments
uments, according to this latter group,
being erected nationwide as the generation who fought in
should not dwell on the dark moments
the war was passing away.
in the nation’s history or focus on what a
Finally, we knew that displaying a toppled monu-
few deemed “overly negative” depictions
ment meant we had to address the meaning of the mon-
of the past.
ument today. We also knew that this was not for us to
say. In recent decades, museums have recognized that
•••
we exist within spectacularly multifaceted and intersec-
tional communities and can no longer credibly claim
All of the protest and controversy and
or even aspire to be the all-knowing voice of commu-
discussion about monuments has not
nity hegemony anymore. So we solicited statements
stopped us building them. A new mon-
from multiple stakeholders, including veterans, Tribal
ument to Major General Maurice Rose,
representatives, artists, historians, and others, on what
son of a Denver rabbi, student at Den-
the monument meant to them. We heard that it was a
ver’s East High School, the highest rank-
ing Jewish officer in the US Army during
Top right: During the overnight hours on June 25, 2020, “On Guard” was
pulled down by unknown actors, leaving an empty pedestal. History Colorado,
World War II and the highest ranking
CBS.2020.0034. officer killed in combat, and namesake
Right: In October 2020, History Colorado installed “On Guard” as an of Rose Hospital was recently installed
exhibition at the the History Colorado Center, just blocks from where it had During days of demonstrations, the monument was a target for graffiti in Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park
been toppled. The statue was surrounded by differing perspectives on what and a platform for protestors’ messages. Courtesy of Derek Everett. in Civic Center. Likewise, the City of
the monument means today. Photo by the author.

21 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 22

We knew that displaying impact upon our world long after they the exclusion of Indigenous people, city’s historic fabric, we developed a But in their successes, they were often bestowed in one age can have differ-
have passed. But monuments also carry people of color, women, LGBTQ+ set of questions designed to ground visionaries well ahead of their time in ent—and sometimes detrimental —
a toppled monument forward the flaws and shortcomings of people, people with disabilities, and and guide these conversations. The fol- ways that continue to reverberate today. effects in subsequent generations. What
meant we had to address those imperfect predecessors, and those other historically marginalized people. lowing questions were developed along harms are created, and to whom, by the
the meaning of the who admired them, to be confronted by When the societal context has changed with Nicki Gonzales, Jared Orsi, Wil- Beliefs Versus Action: meaning encapsulated in a monument?
successive generations. In some cases, it over time to the extent that there is liam Wei, and Ariel Schnee as part of Did the honored person express their What remedies are available?
monument today. that process. As communities through- problematic views consistently through
may come to seem that those flaws out- strong evidence that retaining the name
Denver recently installed, at the urging weigh the accomplishments that merited would be detrimental to promoting out the nation vet the monuments action or did they hold their views What Can We Learn:
of Colorado Asian Pacific United, a the honor. the values held by a community, it is and place names that proclaim histor- more privately? Are we prepared or Does the name provide a learning
new historic marker commemorating In such cases, residents and city appropriate to consider giving our- ical narratives in their public spaces, qualified to judge what is in a person’s opportunity that should be valued?
the city’s historic Chinatown, replacing leaders might consider whether the selves new monuments to look up to. we hope that asking these questions heart, or to judge them for it? Societal Those who originally decided to honor
the white-centric text that had marked monument is achieving its original pur- When the Colorado State Historian’s will generate a richer evaluation of con- Context: How has society changed a person or event chose it for a reason.
the place. pose or playing a constructive role in Council, which is a group of five troversial monuments. in our views of who or what is being What can we learn from that choice?
Ideally, to commemorate the actions creating meaningful landscapes for our esteemed historians from throughout honored? Judgments about a person’s Does themonument provide an oppor-
of our predecessors in a place is to imbue daily lives. This is especially important the state convened by History Colo- The Scales of Justice: character or the meaning of events can tunity to confront and reflect upon the
the place with the story of that person or given the historical and current power rado, was asked by the City of Denver Which misdeeds overwhelm a change over successive generations. complex legacy that brought us to this
the collective individuals who achieved structures that have prioritized Euro- to guide its consideration of how to person’s good deeds? What qualities What deference is due to the people place and time?
something worthy of remembrance, centric, white, male, straight, abled review and potentially address prob- and achievements do we wish to whom our predecessors honored (as
recognizing their contributions to and perspectives in the naming process, to lematic place names woven into the honor? Which cannot be overlooked one day our choices will be similarly Erasure and Distortion:
or balanced out? examined)? What obligation do we Does removing the monument
have to continuously interpret— have the effect of erasing history?
In the summer of 2020, as protestors took to the streets Contributions of the Commemorated: and when necessary reinterpret— Does preserving it distort history?
across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s What was the significance and impact them for new generations? Monuments project a view of our
murder, Coloradans gathered in front of the Capitol. Once
again, the monument was in the middle of events. James of the person’s contribution to the shared history. What might be lost in
Peterson, History Colorado, 2020.64.21. contemporary community? In their What’s the Harm: changing them? What is falsely
failures, those we commemorate were Does keeping the monument harm preserved by retaining them?
often men and women of their time. residents of the community? Honors

In 2014, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal members

erected tipis on the Capitol grounds in com-
memoration of the 150th anniversary of the Sand
Creek Massacre, not far from the monument that
had proclaimed it a legitimate battle.

23 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 24

 History Colorado invited visitors to continue the conversation
about monuments. Many had a lot to say. Photo by the author.

Current Meaning: nothing—not individuals, the commu- questions that go to the heart of who
Have current residents created a nities they form, nor the nations they we want to be as a community and
contemporary meaning for monu- build—remains fixed and unchanging what sort of place we want to live in.
ments and place names that have for long. Many of us who practice historical
positive value, irrespective of the And that’s OK, says Lonnie Bunch work in public view believe that our
original intent? People make their III, the Secretary of the Smithsonian shared history can help guide us to a
own meaning for places based on lived Institution, which is the nation’s official brighter future. But people must be
experiences. When those meanings are and most venerable keeper of our col- able to draw meaning, inspiration, and
in opposition to one another, or to the lective knowledge and shared history. lessons from the historic reminders—
name’s original significance, how do we big and small—that surround them.
determine whose meaning should When that history can no longer serve
be given preference?
Their goal is often those purposes, as new insights and
perpetuity, perhaps interpretations arise and new infor-
••• because the creators of mation is brought to light, the people
monuments know that of a community, who are the keepers of
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously con- all history, might understandably seek
cluded The Great Gatsby, his tragically nothing remains fixed to revise or refresh the stories they call
all-American tale of striving for wealth and unchanging for long. upon for inspiration and guidance.
and love in the 1920s, by reflecting on
the ways in which we are inescapably “There is nothing wrong with a country Editor’s Note: This article was adapted
shaped by history: “So we beat on, boats recognizing that its identity is evolving from an essay in Controversial Mon-
against the current,” he wrote, “borne over time,” Bunch told the New York uments and Memorials: A Guide for
back ceaselessly into the past.” Times in 2020, suggesting that some Community Leaders 2nd edition, edited
Monuments, attempts by one gener- monuments ought to be removed or by David B. Allison, forthcoming later
ation to enshrine certain narratives and recontextualized. He added that “as this this year from Rowman & Littlefield.
values for generations to come, are part identity evolves, so does what it remem-
of this current. But they have a perma- bers. So does what it celebrates.” JASON L. HANSON is History
nence that human lives do not. Their How we choose to remember our Colorado’s chief creative officer and
goal is often perpetuity, perhaps because shared history in our public spaces director of interpretation and research.
The exhibition, in the crook of the museum’s grand staircase,
the creators of monuments know that sometimes raises difficult but important offers visitors new perspectives on the monument, including this
one normally available only to the birds. Photo by the author.
25 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 26
COLORADO’S FORGOTTEN
DIVERSION DILEMMA MICHAEL WEEKS by

The Colorado-Big Thompson project was at the center of a fierce debate that shaped
Americans’ relationships to their national parks.

F
ew visitors to Rocky Mountain breathtaking vistas, an unremarkable farms and municipalities across the
National Park will ever visit the landscape with seemingly little con- Northern Front Range.
East Portal. And why would they? nection with the one drawing hordes of Despite the C-BT’s importance, few
Located just a few miles south of Estes sightseers and adventurers into nearby Coloradans consider it when they turn
Park, the East Portal contains no views Rocky Mountain National Park. on their showers or dig into a plate of
of snow-capped peaks or broad val- Yet appearances can be deceiving. seasonal Front Range veggies. But from
leys teeming with wildlife. Instead, it Even while unsuspecting visitors explore 1933, when it was proposed, until 1937,
is framed by low-lying hills and power one of the nation’s iconic landscapes, when Congress approved the project,
lines that draw energy from water flow- the tunnel is redirecting the natural the C-BT inspired passionate support
ing out of an odd-looking tunnel and flow of the Colorado River underneath and vitriolic opposition from a range of
pooling into a nondescript reservoir. It the Rocky Mountains and out the East interest groups that Coloradans today
is, compared to some of the area’s more Portal, en route to users across North- would recognize immediately. Looking east toward the Alva B. Adams Tunnel at the East Portal in June, 1947.
ern Colorado. Completed in 1944, the The supporters’ side included farm- Irrigation Research Papers, CSU Libraries Archives & Special Collections
Members of the Colorado Mountain Club looking
west towards Grand Lake from on top of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel forms the ers, industrialists, local boosters and sci-
Continental Divide. Many outdoor-oriented critical undermountain link in the Col- entists. In the midst of a decade charac-
activities opposed the C-BT project, fearing orado-Big Thompson Project (C-BT), terized by drought and depression, they collapse by the simple act of moving that historian Donald Swain says that No matter what the use, hardly
environmental damage and the intrusion of
a piece of hidden infrastructure that, argued that C-BT water would rescue water from a region that possessed it in the C-BT offered one of the most con- anybody gets to use water in Colorado
commerce into wild Western landscapes.
History Colorado Collection, 83.495.3.17 as you read this, is supplying water to the region’s agricultural economy from comparative abundance to one desper- sequential examples of water project without a fight. It’s as true today as it
ately needing it. opposition in American history. was in 1933, when the Colorado-Big
On the other side were conserva- It’s not news that water is central Thompson project threatened to for-
tionists and nature-lovers who com- to life, and that’s especially true here ever change one of the nation’s most
plained bitterly that the Adams tunnel in arid Colorado. Access to water and prominent protected landscapes: the
would desecrate Rocky Mountain the sanctity of public lands—issues that snowy peaks and verdant valleys of
National Park. They wrote protest defined the fight over the Colorado-Big Rocky Mountain National Park.
letters, pamphlets, and editorials, and Thompson Project—resonate perhaps
appeared before hearings in Congress more than ever as climate change chal- ORIGINS OF CONFLICT
and the Department of the Interior. lenges our ability to engineer around Ever since gold’s discovery near
Some complained that the tunnel was aridity. Vitriolic discussions over water Denver in 1858, Front Range residents
a commercial intrusion into a national use for agriculture, for growing cities, have far outnumbered those living in
park. They excoriated the business for energy development, and for recre- the western half of the state. But eighty
interests and town developers for ation are happening with just as much percent of the state’s precipitation falls
wanting to scar a landscape set aside ferocity today as they did nine decades west of the Continental Divide, creat-
for preservation and the enjoyment of ago. Colorado’s central urban strip con- ing a problem for the many urban Front
the American people. They worried tinues attracting residents at a break- Range residents who live in a much
that it would set a precedent for the neck pace, in part due to the outdoor drier climate. So, as Colorado’s popula-
exploitation of other national parks. lifestyle afforded by such close access to tion grew throughout the late 1800s, it
Other conservation-minded opponents public lands. Cities on the Front Range did not take long for the water-starved
argued that the tunnel violated the need are still buying C-BT water rights from majority to devise methods for circum-
to preserve wild places for the sake of farmers on the Western Slope, even as venting geographic barriers.
wilderness. To remove water from the the oil and gas industry injects some Moving water underneath or
woods and pump it onto the plains, of that same water thousands of feet around a mountain from one water-
they said, would be to fundamentally into the earth to be lost to underground shed to another—a process called trans-
alter fragile western ecosystems. The hydraulic fracturing. mountain diversion—was nothing new
war of words reached such a fever pitch when the C-BT controversy emerged
27 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 28
 during the 1930s. The largest of these ing document: “The United States came together to request that the
early projects, called the Grand River Reclamation Service may enter upon federal government investigate the
Ditch, transported water in an unlined and utilize for flowage or other pur- feasibility of blasting a tunnel that
ditch and wooden flumes to Fort Col- poses any area within said park which could divert Colorado River water
lins through an area that would even- may be necessary for the development through Rocky Mountain. These
tually become part of Rocky Mountain and maintenance of a Government included five counties, all but one
National Park. In 1904 the Bureau of reclamation project.” member of Colorado’s Congressio-
Reclamation, with sights set on a much That language offered a legal jus- nal delegation, editors of each of the
larger diversion, suggested damming tification for diverting water through region’s major newspapers, a major-
Grand Lake and then constructing a the park. However, the following year ity of local elected officials, and Front
twelve-mile tunnel that could fill the Congress muddied the waters a bit. In Range farmers. In 1934 the Bureau
ditches of Northern Colorado farmers. 1916, legislators approved the Organic of Reclamation agreed to conduct
However, high construction costs and Act, a lengthy bureaucratic document engineering studies in advance of a
complex engineering tabled the project. which, among other things, established project proposal. Reclamation Com-
As water users created precedents the National Park Service. According missioner John C. Page followed up
for gravity-defying projects, conser- to the Act, that new agency’s mission with a letter to Acting Park Service
vationists developed a reputation for was to “conserve the scenery and the Director Arthur Demaray requesting
opposing them. The most notable natural and historic objects and the entry. Demaray refused.
example involved San Francisco’s 1907 wildlife therein and to provide for the In a formal letter of denial
proposal to dam Yosemite’s Hetch addressed to Secretary of the Inte-
Hetchy Valley for water and power gen- rior Harold Ickes, Demaray penned
eration. Though Congress eventually When Congress the opening arguments in the fight
approved San Francisco’s application, established Rocky over the tunnel. He complained that
the project galvanized opposition from engineering studies taken in the park
conservation organizations such as the
Mountain National Park would require test drillings, result-
Sierra Club. Protesters argued that in 1915, Franklin Lane, ing in “scars” and “unsightly debris.”
national parks existed for the beauty Secretary of the Interior, According to Demaray, such surveys
and enjoyment of the nation and its and any tunnel which might be built
sought to ensure the
people and that commercial develop- required constructing access roads and
ment violated those core principles. legality of water projects trails to “places where roads and trails
Politicians and federal officials within park boundaries. should not rightfully go.” Demaray’s
took note of this growing tension letter rhetorically transformed a local
between water developers and con- irrigation project into a national issue,
servationists, spurring them to craft enjoyment of the same in such manner pointing out that conservationists had
laws and principles for human activi- and by such means as will leave them fought to keep national parks “invio-
ties in national parks. When Congress unimpaired for the enjoyment of future late from such projects,” and that the
established Rocky Mountain National generations.” For conservationists and proposed survey could be “an opening
Park in 1915, Franklin Lane, Secre- park service employees, the Organic wedge in a hard-won wall of protection
tary of the Interior, sought to ensure Act was a manifesto for resistance to which surrounds our park system.” In
the legality of water projects within all kinds of commercial development. response, Ickes, a noted supporter of
park boundaries. As a former attor- Certainly, they reasoned, dynamiting national parks, nonetheless authorized
ney for the city of San Francisco, Lane a tunnel through the length of Rocky the engineering surveys, believing that
played a critical role in the bruising Mountain National Park would impair he was obligated by the fact that water
battle over damming Yosemite’s Hetch the public’s enjoyment and break the diversion projects were embedded in
Hetchy Valley. Head of the vast Inte- illusion of standing in an untouched Rocky Mountain’s founding legislation.
rior Department, which oversaw both wilderness.
national parks and the water project Circumstances brought the poten- CONSERVATIONISTS
builders at the Bureau of Reclamation, tial of a massive hole through the MAKE THEIR CASE
Lane worried that national park desig- national park into public conscious- Following Ickes’ approval, con-
nation might present too many obsta- ness during the 1930s as Colorado servation forces quickly mobilized in
cles to water development. So, the wily suffered through drought and eco- opposition. Organizations such as the
attorney inserted the following lan- nomic collapse. As crops dried up, an Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society
C-BT protest pamphlet signed by conservation organizations, March 1936. Courtesy of the National Archives, Denver, CO.
guage into Rocky Mountain’s found- array of Northern Colorado groups mailed flyers to their supporters and

29 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 30

placed ads in newspapers through- who enjoy recreating in the state’s public conduits that delivered the resource
out the country. Individuals then sent lands. Letter writers universally expressed were outside of the park boundaries.
dozens of protest letters to federal agen- concerns that a massive engineering Other writers expressed concerns about
cies. While some letters appear entirely project inside park borders would mar the declining number of wild places
original, others were variations on the scenery and set the stage for simi- in America, arguing that national
templates developed by conservation lar projects in national parks elsewhere. parks offered the best opportunity for
organizations. Many of these letters are Most protesters extolled the uniqueness humans to have unimpaired encounters
housed at the Broomfield branch of the of the landscape inside Rocky Moun- with wild nature. Finally, many protest-
National Archives. In addition, nation- tain National Park, arguing that it was ers viewed Rocky Mountain through
ally recognized figures in the National the highest expression of nature and patriotic lenses. They claimed that
Park Service, directors of conservation national parks existed for every Ameri-
organizations, and scientists wrote op-ed can and that a tunnel would prioritize
pieces in magazines and newspapers. The arguments made local interests over national ones.
Their strident opposition came Among the varied written protests,
during a period when national parks
by conservationists in none received more attention than a
were drawing patrons in record num- opposition to the tunnel 1936 pamphlet titled, “A Protest of
bers as many sought escape from the probably resonate with Conservation Organizations Against
crushing economic collapse of the Great today’s Coloradans who the Exploitation of Rocky Mountain
Depression. As the federal government National Park.” Its signatories included
considered the Colorado-Big Thompson enjoy recreating in the the most notable conservation organi-
Project between 1934 and 1937, annual state’s public lands. zations of the 1930s, including the Wil-
visitation to Rocky Mountain National derness Society, the American Forestry
Park nearly doubled to 650,000. This Association, The Izaak Walton League,
One of Monfort of Colorado’s feedlots, ca. 1970. Its pens could hold up to 100,000 steers. Courtesy of Greeley Museum.
was motivated in part by the recently the people of the nation had afforded it the Sierra Club, and the National Parks
built Trail Ridge Road, which offered the most stringent degree of protection Association. They argued that the
The most likely author of that pam- same, since they encouraged visitors than deface park scenery; it would vio-
stunning views to motorists as they available at the time. Consequently, only tunnel “violates the most sacred princi-
phlet, Robert Sterling Yard, took the to rapidly consume landscapes while late the fundamental laws of nature.
traveled across the Continental Divide development that enhanced the scenery ple of National Parks, namely, freedom
protest a step further, by arguing that disregarding their geologic or biologic To restore nature’s balance, Rocky
between Estes Park and Grand Lake. and natural beauty of the parks should from commercial or economic exploita-
the proposed tunnel was an assault on value. For Yard, blasting holes through Mountain needed less construction and
The arguments made by conserva- be allowed. Many made this distinction tion,” and that if approved by Congress
one among a dwindling number of wild the park and the proliferation of roads more wilderness.
tionists in opposition to the tunnel prob- clear when they offered support for it would “establish a precedent for the
places in America. By the 1930s, Yard were two sides of the same coin. Both The most common protest expressed
ably resonate with today’s Coloradans farmers’ need for water, as long as the commercial invasion of other parks.”
was in a strong position to make this compromised the core mission of by Robert Sterling Yard and his con-
claim. As the head of the National Park national parks. servationist allies was that the C-BT
Service’s Educational Division from By 1930, Yard concluded that the prioritized local needs over national
1916-1919, he promoted national best way to preserve the scientific and ones. Yard’s Wilderness Society col-
parks as America’s “scenic masterpieces” scenic qualities of the nation’s iconic league Bernard Frank expressed that
which, like great art, had the potential parks was to promote vast roadless tracts sentiment when he wrote that the
to build a more enlightened public. called wilderness areas. So, in 1935, even national parks were areas “dedicated to
For Yard, irrigation projects in national as the first tunnel engineering surveys the service and enjoyment of the people
parks were akin to defacing a Rem- were getting underway, he helped to of the United States as a whole and not
brandt painting. So, during the 1920s, form the Wilderness Society. According to any narrow interests of any particular
he directed much of his energy toward to the Society’s first publication, wil- locality.” Frank later emphasized that
fighting water projects in parks such as derness areas are “virgin tracts in which it would be the “primeval qualities” of
Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Teton. human activities have never modified the park which would be compromised
During the same period, Yard the normal processes of nature. They should local “narrow interests” prevail.
became increasingly concerned that thus preserve the native vegetation and Letter writers Laurel and Lincoln Elli-
parks such as Rocky Mountain were physiographic conditions which have son of Montana cited national interests
being overrun with tourists who seemed existed for an inestimable period. They as well, claiming that the country’s need
more interested in driving through than present the culmination of an unbro- for outdoor recreation in “unspoiled
in enlightening their minds. Though ken series of natural events stretching nature…should take precedence over
not the same as boring a hole through infinitely into the past, and a richness such local demands for irrigation and
the mountain or clearcutting a forest, and beauty beyond description or com- water power.” In an editorial in the New
Yard regarded the assault of asphalt and pare.” In short, Yard and his allies argued York Times, former National Park Ser-
Colorado-Big Thompson Project elevation profile map. Courtesy of Northern Water. autos as commercial invasions just the that the proposed tunnel would do more vice Director Horace Albright chimed

31 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 32

in with similar reasoning. He cited as they directed the debate away from equitable wherever it was installed as
the five million tourists who had vis- the sanctity of national parks and it increased measurement accuracy
ited Rocky Mountain National Park toward economic benefit. Would the in canals and ditches by up to thirty
since 1915, the 550,000 travelers who C-BT bring enough benefit to justify its percent. This helped farmers to know
entered the park in 1936, and the sev- price tag, estimated to be $44 million how much water they were receiving
en-and-half million dollars spent by in 1937? To gain Congressional sup- and prevented water users from taking
park visitors, arguing that the C-BT port and to counter conservationists’ more than their allotted shares. By
would destroy “the natural charm of arguments that the Adams Tunnel 1935, Parshall had also distinguished
the landscape.” He concluded that would desecrate a national treasure, they himself as a pioneer of snow surveys
“private interests should give way to had to make the case that the C-BT and for developing devices to remove
the general good.” would bring substantial economic ben- debris from irrigation canals. Com-
The arguments against the tunnel efit to the nation. bined, Parshall’s work enabled farmers
put forth by conservationists resonate Among the many people clamoring to plan their operations effectively since
in Colorado today. Presently, there are for the C-BT, Ralph Parshall stands they could predict the quantity of water
forty-two wilderness areas in the state, out. While Parshall was not the loud- available to them. He also earned the
most of which have been designated est voice in the debate, his arguments respect of individual farmers since he
since Congress passed the Wilder- and evidence were perhaps the most frequently supervised the design and
ness Act in 1964. Each wilderness is convincing. A resident of Northern installation of his inventions on their
intended to minimize human impacts land. Consequently, when the USDA
by restricting all forms of mechanized needed a knowledgeable and well-re-
travel. In fact, four of these wilderness Parshall went to pains to spected figure to prepare an economic
areas border Rocky Mountain National show how C-BT water analysis of the C-BT, Parshall was a
Park. Moreover, much of the park has would be an affordaable clear choice. He possessed an unshake-
been managed as wilderness since 1974. able reputation as a skilled irrigation
At the same time, the visitor’s desire to
and effective solution to engineer with intimate knowledge of
motor through has only increased. It the region’s water woes. the Northern Colorado landscape.
took twenty years for total park visita- Parshall’s Agricultural Economic
tion to hit the five million mark. Today, Summary Relating to the Colorado-Big
nearly that many people tour the park Colorado himself, Parshall graduated at Thompson Project came out in January
by car annually. These numbers are the top of his engineering class at Col- 1937. It contained a dizzying array of
especially evident when spontaneous orado Agricultural College (CAC—the economic data collected by Parshall and
traffic jams occur at sites where elk or forerunner of Colorado State Univer- his team of researchers. They compiled
moose grace the roadside. Whether sity) in 1904. After completing a mas- statistics on value, acreage, water rights,
those scenes support or violate the ter’s degree at the University of Chi- and loan status for every irrigated farm
conservation mission of Rocky Moun- cago, he was hired by his alma mater in in the region. They also collected precip-
tain remains the subject of sometimes 1907. As a professor at CAC, Parshall itation records, breaking down the quan-
heated debate. engineered reservoirs, dams, and irri- tity of water available for every irrigation
gation canals in Northern Colorado. district and mutual irrigation company
MAKING THE CASE Then, in 1913, Parshall took a posi- in the C-BT’s service area. Parshall went
FOR THE C-BT tion as an irrigation engineer with the to pains to show how C-BT water would
Let’s return now for a moment to USDA’s Bureau of Agricultural Engi- be an affordable and effective solution to
the East Portal, where Colorado River neering where he worked for the next the region’s water woes.
water flows out of the Alva B. Adams forty years. While at the USDA, Par- Even as the data spoke loudly, Par-
Tunnel and exits Rocky Mountain shall’s office and lab remained on the shall’s applied understanding of North-
National Park. From there the water campus of CAC where he collaborated ern Colorado’s irrigation-dependent
plunges 2,900 feet through twelve res- with students and faculty throughout farmers amplified statistics. Aware that
ervoirs and over one hundred miles of his career. a massive Reclamation project might be
canals before it is available to farm- By the time the C-BT came into viewed as a government handout in the
ers, municipalities, and businesses public consciousness in the 1930s, midst of the Depression, Parshall char-
in Northern Colorado. In 1937, the Parshall was a well-known figure due acterized the region’s farmers as “hardy,
intended beneficiaries of that water to his namesake invention, the Parshall self-reliant American farmers and towns-
needed to address some of the argu- Flume. That innovation made water people” who needed additional water to
ments made by conservationists, even distribution to agricultural users more “stabilize the present economic achieve-
Ralph Parshall checks on one of his flumes. Irrigation Research
Papers, CSU Morgan Library Archives and Special Collections.

33 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 34

 No entity agreed more with Par- successful. After spirited debate in June During the early 1950s, called the Colorado River Storage Plan,
shall’s assessment than Great Western and July of 1937, Congress passed bills to be constructed for irrigation, power,
Sugar, the nation’s largest supplier of Congressional legislators
approving the project and authorizing and flood control at various locales
domestic sugar and Northern Colora- an initial $900,000 in funding. The proposed a series of along the river. The most controversial
do’s most important economic driver. following year, prospective water users large-scale projects piece of the plan involved construct-
Great Western’s factories depended
on the same water as the farmers who
signed a contract to pay a maximum of called the Colorado ing two dams along the Green River,
$25 million over the course of forty years within the boundaries of Dinosaur
sold the company its beets. Moreover, for the project, with the remainder of
River Storage Plan, National Monument. In opposition,
as a late arrival to the region, its junior the costs being paid for by hydroelec- to be constructed for conservationists, led by the Sierra
rights weren’t secure. In fact, during the tric power generation. That $25 million irrigation, power, and Club, undertook a massive publicity
1934 refining campaign, the company’s cap turned out to be quite a bargain. campaign that successfully removed the
ditches ran dry, and it had to beg local When Reclamation finally completed
flood control at various dams from the bill. However, it came at
irrigation companies for water to com- the C-BT in 1957, total costs had soared locales along the river. a cost as conservationists made a deal to
Tyndall Glacier in Rocky Mountain National Park is one of thousands that feed plete its operations. So, the company to over $160 million. withdraw their opposition to another
meltwater into Colorado’s watersheds. History Colorado Collection, 83.495.1.57
always craved more water, either by cul- project dam in a little-known area of
tivating relationships with its growers 200,000 mostly rural residents. The
CONSERVATION, CATTLE, sandstone cliffs rich in Native Ameri-
ment and make secure the possibilities farm, arguing that prosperous North- or through projects such as the C-BT. 2020 census shows that the region’s
AND WATER can artifacts known as Glen Canyon.
of future progress.” In a nod to popu- ern Colorado farmers supported the To energize local C-BT support, Great population today is well over one mil-
The completion of the C-BT In 1963, that dam was completed
lar Depression-era programs, Parshall growth of local businesses, increased Western made liberal use of its grower lion, with the majority concentrated in
in 1957 heralded shifts in Northern Col- creating Lake Powell, which dams the
stated that the guarantee of sufficient railroad traffic, enabled more con- magazine, Through the Leaves. In it the cities within thirty miles of the Front
orado’s agricultural landscape that would Colorado, San Juan, Escalante, and
water would be like “social security” struction, strengthened financial insti- company published reader-friendly ver- Range. Each of the cities receives an
make the region look familiar to the Green Rivers. Presently, drought, cli-
for existing farmers, enabling them to tutions, and made possible the sort of sions of scientific articles showing how allocation of C-BT water for residential
present-day observer. Former Colorado mate change, and water demands have
gain the same security in their later years increased highway traffic that carries their beet harvests would increase with use. In support of this shift, the Bureau
Agricultural Commissioner Don Ament reduced Lake Powell to one-quarter
that working class Americans received. with it travelers and tourists eager to just a little more water. In 1936, the of Reclamation built new storage res-
recently reflected on some of these of its capacity, prompting some
Seeking to demonstrate that the C-BT spend their money in local businesses. company said it more explicitly: C-BT ervoirs and increased the capacity of
changes while talking about his family’s conservationists, scientists, and others
was a difference maker, Parshall argued Knowing that C-BT opponents water would result in an average annual existing ones, while extending water
long history in the region. During the to call for tearing down the dam holding
that its greatest value would be that might argue that the nation was suffer- income increase of $400 per grower. supply lines to previously under-
1930s, Ament’s family emphasized sugar it back. If there is a single thread that
its flows would be available late in ing from too much agricultural produc- To make the national case for the served areas. This has led to increased
beets on their irrigated lands near Ster- ties together the water and conservation
the growing season, when some water tion, Parshall turned that caution on its C-BT, Great Western employed lobby- tensions between municipalities and
ling. As Ament transitioned into farm- issues of the 1930s with those of the
users ran out of water and when an head by claiming that more water would ists in Congress. This was nothing new farmers over selling water rights.
ing for himself in the 1950s and 1960s, present, it is that the process of moving
additional application of water to high shift agricultural production away from since the company had always pressured During the last thirty years, Northern
he shifted from sugar beets to corn. As and storing water is value-laden. For
value crops might make the difference crops grown in surplus and toward crops legislators to enact high tariffs against Water—the agency that administers
he explains, the C-BT played a critical 1930s farmers in Northern Colorado
between breaking even and crushing not grown in sufficient quantities. For foreign sugar. In 1937, those lobby- the C-BT—agreed to supply water to
role in the move to corn, a crop that C-BT water was money, since access-
debt. In stark financial terms, Parshall example, he argued that wheat, whose ists shifted from taxes to water. Great cities outside of original C-BT bound-
required more water. More importantly, ing sufficient water at a reasonable price
stated that irrigation provided $64 mil- national supply had far outstripped its Western also took to the airwaves to aries such as Broomfield, Superior,
Ament’s well-watered corn found a ready during the Depression would support
lion worth of property value to North- demand, was a crop of choice in North- make its case. In cooperation with other Lafayette, and Louisville. Other cities,
market in the growing commercial cattle increased crop production. For con-
ern Colorado, a region valued at $200 ern Colorado only when water was in western beet sugar companies, it paid such as Thornton, have been more
feeding industry. By 1970, Northern servationists, the cost of the water was
million. This additional property value short supply. By contrast, sugar beets, the National Broadcasting Company aggressive. In 1986, to accommodate
Colorado possessed the world’s largest too dear, since it would defile one of
resulted in local, state, and federal taxes the most lucrative crop in the region, (NBC) to do a series of short radio aggressive growth, it paid $55 million
collection of commercially fed cattle, the most iconic landscapes in America,
that could be invested in schools, infra- demanded more water than wheat. Yet, programs titled, “Sugar Beets Tell the to buy up more than 20,000 acres of
and the region’s farmers cultivated most setting a precedent for the commercial
structure and economic development. the majority of the nation’s sugar was World.” The broadcasts emphasized how farmland and the associated water rights
of their feed. Today, this is still true. As exploitation of other national parks.
In Parshall’s analysis of the seventy imported. Consequently, according to sugar beets grown in the irrigated regions in Weld and Larimer Counties. All of
Ament points out: “two-thirds of Col- Both sides tried to answer questions
years of irrigation in the region prior Parshall, increasing Northern Colorado’s of the West contributed to the American this adds greater pressure to conserve
orado’s agricultural output is livestock, about the relative value of our natural
to 1935, he concluded that land values water supplies would push farmers to economy, providing figures on grower remaining supplies.
primarily cattle.” Most of those animals and scenic resources. Those questions
were high because of “greater assurance grow more beets and less wheat, thus income, railroad shipments, resources For conservationists, the unsuc-
are fed with corn from farms irrigated by are as pertinent today as they were
that crops will be produced and the pos- aligning the nation’s agriculture more used in refining beets into sugar, and the cessful fight to block the construction
C-BT water. back then.
sibility of growing crops of higher value closely with consumer demand and varied ways beet sugar was consumed. To of the Alva B. Adams Tunnel through
If the C-BT’s story in the 1960s
than could be grown without irrigation.” reducing dependency on foreign sugar. hear Great Western tell it, beet sugar was Rocky Mountain National Park turned
and 1970s revolved around agricul- MICHAEL WEEKS is a lecturer in
According to Parshall, the economic Parshall concluded that the C-BT essential to the American economy, and out to be just the first in many battles
tural possibilities through increased the Department of History and Polit-
gains made possible by irrigation were would support self-reliant, productive the C-BT was essential to the beet sugar over water projects within the Colo-
water, the project’s story today is about ical Science at Utah Valley University.
far higher than the C-BT’s estimated Americans who created real economic industry. rado River watershed. During the early
growing municipal demands for water. He is the author of Cattle Beet Capi-
$44 million price tag. But Parshall value that extended to the nation. In Ultimately, the arguments made by 1950s, Congressional legislators pro-
During the 1950s, Northern Colorado tal: Making Industrial Agriculture in
extended his analysis far beyond the short, the C-BT was an overwhelm- Ralph Parshall, Great Western Sugar, posed a series of large-scale projects
possessed a population of fewer than Northern Colorado
ingly good investment. and supporters of the C-BT proved
35 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 36
INVISIBLE
FIGHTING EMPIRE
THE
they were “too high-principled” to try the need to respond in kind, while your hood known as Five Points; others at
to enforce the prohibition law with more squeamish followers jump ship. parks and green spaces across the metro
blackjacks. But a well-placed threat, emanating area. Alarmed city council members
The investigation went nowhere. from the unassailable depths of the demanded an investigation. Mayor Sta-
Laska eventually made his own peace Invisible Empire, could work wonders. pleton and police officials downplayed
with the Klan, a feat as amazing as any of It could instill fear in your enemies and the incident; they said they weren’t con-
his magic tricks. By 1925 he had become inspire awe in your supporters at the vinced there had been any crosses and
the Grand Dragon’s personal attorney. same time. didn’t see anything to investigate. A few
The intimidation campaign was like weeks later, a string of crosses blazed
How Philip Van Cise took on the KKK and helped end the ••• the Empire itself, elusive yet ubiquitous. in the foothills west of Denver, visible

Klan’s reign of terror in Denver.

On the night of November 10, 1923, for miles.
The beatings were anomalies. Grand less than two weeks after the assault on
Dragon Locke understood that the threat Walker, eleven crosses were ignited at
by ALAN PRENDERGAST of violence was more palatable and often locations across the city. One was on the
Van Cise was formally awarded a Distinguished
Service Medal for his work as an intelligence officer
in World War I in a 1922 ceremony, while his wife,
more effective than actual bloodshed. steps of the Capitol building; another,

E
Sara, and children Eleanor and Edwin looked on.
lected as Denver’s district attorney They snatched Patrick Walker two in and out of the courtroom. Laska Get physical, and your foes may feel on the threshold of the Black neighbor- Courtesy of the Van Cise Family
in 1920, Philip Sidney Van Cise blocks from his shop. A 25-year-old amused juries and annoyed judges with
(1884-1969) used electronic optician and active member of the his sleight-of-hand routines, but his
surveillance and other cutting-edge Knights of Columbus, the Catholic greatest trick was making the charges
investigative methods to expose a fraternal organization, Walker had seen against his bootlegger clients disappear.
corrupt city administration and disman- men loitering outside his eyewear store One Friday evening, hours after Laska
tle a crime ring that had been thriving for the better part of a Saturday evening. had gotten yet another rum-runner off
in Denver for years. He then launched They were gone when he locked up and with a small fine, he received a phone call
an undercover operation against an walked south on Glenarm Place. But at his home. A man who lived a block
even greater threat: the Ku Klux Klan. as he approached 21st Street, five men away on Cook Street was dying, the
Originally a white supremacist terrorist poured out of a car, guns drawn, and caller said, and needed a lawyer.
group in the Deep South, the KKK was hustled him into the vehicle. Laska agreed to a deathbed consul-
revived in Georgia in 1915 as a frater- They drove north, past Riverside tation. He was barely out the door when
nal organization and spread across the Cemetery, into sparsely populated two men approached him. One grabbed
country after World War I, attracting farmland on the edge of the city. They him by the throat and slapped a hand
millions of followers by capitalizing on took him into an isolated shack and over his mouth. The other seized his legs.
white Protestant fears about immigrants, asked him questions about his religion. They carried him to two other men wait-
Blacks, Jews, and Catholics. Under the Evidently not happy with the answers, ing in a car. All four wore masks.
leadership of physician John Galen they beat him with the butts of their They drove north, past Riverside
Locke the Colorado Klan grew rapidly; revolvers, inflicting deep cuts and Cemetery. They dragged him out on a
after the 1923 election of Benjamin bruises on his head and shoulders, and country road and beat him with black-
Stapleton as Denver’s mayor, with the told him to leave town. One of the men jacks. They told him to stop defending
secret backing of the Klan, the Colorado told Walker that they were KKK and bootleggers, or they would be back.
KKK became one of the most powerful were “looking for a man who had been Then they drove off.
state chapters in the nation, intent on doing some rotten stuff around town.” Laska told reporters that he believed
moving past vigilantism to more sophis- Before he lost consciousness, Walker his attackers were Klansmen, in cahoots
ticated forms of economic and political managed to tell the men that he had with “certain officers of the bootleg
warfare. One of the few elected officials done nothing wrong. squad and officials of Magistrate Henry
to publicly oppose the group, Van Cise The police declared themselves Bray’s court.” The assault on him was
was targeted by them in a recall cam- baffled by Walker’s story. He could payback, he insisted, for being a zealous
paign that failed miserably. But he soon not identify any of his assailants, even advocate for his clients.
found himself in a series of escalating though only one of them wore a mask. Denver police chief Rugg Williams
confrontations with the Klan—and in a No identification, no arrest. scoffed at Laska’s charges. So did Ser-
desperate hunt for allies. They snatched Ben Laska outside geant Fred Reed, head of the bootleg
his house. The son of Russian Jewish squad — and, like most of the squad,
••• immigrants and a former vaudeville a Klansman on the sly. The actions of
artist, the 49-year-old defense attor- his men on the night in question were
ney was known for performing magic all accounted for, Reed insisted, and

37 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 38

 Caravans of Kluxers Protestant ministers to host lectures on of all.” The newspaper’s young editor, auxiliary devoted mainly to charity from a certain perspective his views on is our country,” he told the Kiwanis,
the Catholic menace. The Knights of Father Matthew Smith, reported that work. The Senters’ café quickly became race and immigration could be consid- “and no one has a right to come here or
drove through west Columbus were vilified as the advance cars swerved toward him more than a central gathering place for prominent ered Klan-friendly. That’s not to say that live here unless we want him.”
Denver neighborhoods guard in the Pope’s master plan to once during his daily walks to his office, Kluxers, who proudly smoked the spe- he believed in white supremacy; he took At the same time, he was repelled
on Friday nights, take over America; a fake Knights of trying to scare him or injure him. cial Cyana cigars promoted by Dale his oath to uphold the Constitution by just about every aspect of the Klan.
Columbus oath, which bound the ini- For the most part, though, the Deane, a Denver court clerk. Cyana seriously. But he didn’t go out of his Its teachings were ridiculous, a hash of

hooting and honking, tiate to wage war on “all heretics, Prot- Klan’s bullying tended to be more subtle was an acronym for “Catholics, you are way to challenge the established order conspiracy theories, cornpone Chris-
mocking Jewish estants and Masons” to the point of than trying to run down padres on the not Americans.” and prevailing prejudices of his time; tianity, and racial fears that only the
residents and their annihilation, circulated widely among street. Under the rule of the new Impe- The boycotts typically hurt small even in coming to the defense of Ward dimmest of its members seemed to take
Sabbath. the credulous. rial Wizard, Hiram Evans, the national businesses more than larger ones. Some Gash, a janitor the Klan had threat- seriously. The rank and file weren’t as
Possibly because they were more KKK was moving away from street were only tepidly supported and weren’t ened, he reportedly referred to Gash — gullible, but they were spineless enough
numerous, the harassment seemed to be skirmishes to more politically potent effective at all. Yet klannishness tended a Black man ten years his senior — as to go along with it anyway, hoping to
Caravans of Kluxers drove through directed at Catholics more than other measures. The new approach, which to boost membership. There may not a “good boy.” In a speech to a Kiwanis get something in return. The leadership
west Denver neighborhoods on Friday groups. A savage KKK missive to the Locke heartily supported, emphasized have been many true believers, like gathering in Fort Collins, he lashed out consisted of thugs and con men, hiding
nights, hooting and honking, mock- Denver Catholic Register declared that “klannishness” — the concept that Senter, passionate enough about their at Governor William Sweet as a “mil- under hoods and working a scam. The
ing Jewish residents and their Sabbath. while Blacks, socialists, and Jews were Klansmen must support each other in racism or religious paranoia to flaunt it lionaire Bolshevik” who had recklessly organization was ruining businesses,
Klansmen teamed up with hellfire bad enough, “the Romanist is worst all endeavors. That meant voting for publicly. But the inducements and pres- pardoned dangerous criminals, a law- dividing people, and profiting off their
the “right” candidates, regardless of sures to join the Klan went far beyond misery. It was a menace to democracy.
their party affiliation, and patronizing ideological appeal. Some joined in the “It is injecting into the political and
Klan businesses. It also meant shunning expectation that it would improve busi- social life of this country a religious issue
businesses that employed or catered ness, or at least keep them from showing which has no place in either,” he wrote
to Blacks, Catholics, Jews, and other up on a do-not-trade list. For every rabid in a draft of a speech that he hoped to
“wrong” types until they knuckled nativist or rank opportunist, there were deliver someday to an audience much
under or were driven out of business. others who joined under duress, afraid of larger than the Kiwanis Club. “It may
In Colorado, Klansmen were being left at a disadvantage or targeted call itself Klan, but in reality it is a mob.”
encouraged to advertise their businesses themselves. Fear wasn’t just a weapon to He knew how to prosecute a crimi-
at KKK meetings, paying two dollars train on the enemy. It was the glue that nal conspiracy involving bootlegging or
for the privilege of having a slide with held the group together. confidence games. But in those cases,
a company logo projected on a screen the primary goal had always been profit.
for a few moments every week for three ••• The Klan’s objectives were much more
months. Members also let each other complex — money, sure, but also power,
know their shops were Klan-approved Van Cise kept count. Over the and a purging of anyone and anything
by putting signs in the window that course of three years he was approached the group didn’t consider to be 100%
proclaimed they were “100% Ameri- thirteen times about joining the Klan American. How do you stamp out a
can” or TWK (Trade With Klansmen) — cajoled, urged, pressed, told it was conspiracy that eats away at the very
— or simply by announcing that they the smart thing to do. The final invi- institutions you count on to put things
offered “Kwik Kar Kare” or some other tation came from the Grand Dragon right? In its first year, the Stapleton
KKK-branded service. Extensive lists himself, and then all hell broke loose. administration had promoted klannish-
were drawn up of businesses to be That the Kluxers tried to enlist ness in one city agency after another.
boycotted, including the Neusteter’s the district attorney, after failing to Philip Van Cise pushed his war record in The result wasn’t pretty. It resembled the
the 1920 race to become Denver’s district attorney.
department store, owned by Jews. recall him, may say something about Courtesy of the Van Cise family
work of an army of carpenter ants, bur-
Many prominent businessmen the cynicism of the movement. But it rowing its way inside the bole of a maple
embraced klannishness, including was also an acknowledgement that he tree and hollowing it out, leaving behind
Gano Senter, owner of several restau- was fundamentally different from the and-order theme sounded by the Klan a pile of sawdust and a stately husk, ready
rants downtown and a grand titan of other outspoken foes of the organiza- as well. He also declared that “southern to collapse.
the KKK. A virulent anti-Catholic, tion, people like the NAACP’s George Italians, southeastern Europeans and One of Stapleton’s first appoint-
Senter posted signs in his Radio Café Gross and Father Smith and attorney Turks made poor citizens.” His experi- ments was Rice Means, the manager of
announcing, “We serve fish every day Charles Ginsberg, who regularly spent ences in the Colorado National Guard safety. An impressive orator who’d failed
— except Friday,” and welcoming those his lunch hour denouncing the Klan during the 1914 coal strike had taught in several runs for office, Means denied
in the know to a “Kool Kozy Kafé.” from the bed of a pickup truck parked him respect for the immigrant miners being a Klansman. But Van Cise learned
His wife, Lorena, was the founder and at 16th and Champa downtown, like he met, but he believed the country was that he had been initiated into the Klan
imperial commander of the Women of a deranged prophet. Van Cise was a having trouble assimilating so many in a ceremony in Pueblo shortly after
John Galen Locke, the eccentric Grand Dragon of the Colorado Realm of the Ku Klux Klan, was described the Ku Klux Klan of Colorado, a ladies’ WASP, a Mason, and a Republican, and foreigners from different cultures. “This Stapleton’s election and was report-
by one reporter as “living in the Middle Ages.” History Colorado Collection, 86.296.2998

39 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 40

edly being groomed for higher things unsolved mischief. After the Capitol tant than a dynamic jurist. Van Cise Reed, the head of the bootleg squad, a murder trial, requested that a special Two days later, Dr. Locke presented
by Locke. Stapleton soon named him Hill neighborhood was papered with had dealt with him rarely. But in 1924 had reportedly fallen out of favor with prosecutor be appointed. Morley had a himself at the district attorney’s office.
as city attorney, filling the manager of Klan posters one night, including some Morley was assigned full-time to the Locke and was being reassigned. Van certain Klan lawyer in mind for the job. He wore a well-cut suit, not the robes
safety post with another Klansman, hurled into a Knights of Columbus criminal division, and he and Van Cise Cise responded that he thought Reed “Morley demanded that this be done he favored for more festive occasions.
Reuben Hershey. lodge, street fights erupted between the were soon at war with each other. was an able officer. and cursed me when I refused to accede He once again praised Van Cise for his
Over at the police department, Sta- lodge members and Klansmen; police Van Cise’s inquiries confirmed that “We don’t think so,” the second to this request,” Van Cise wrote in an handling of the Brindisi case. Then he
pleton retained the services of the sit- managed to arrest several of the Knights Morley was Klan, and pretty high-level juror snapped. “We’re going to indict account of the conversation. “Morley urged the prosecutor to consider run-
ting chief, Rugg Williams, for several of Columbus brawlers, while the Klan Klan at that. The district attorney had him.” told me that he was doing this to protect ning for governor in the fall — with, of
months, despite mounting pressure from provocateurs somehow slipped away. five operatives — a mix of volunteers In a flash, Van Cise saw what Morley me, and I told him that I needed no course, the backing of a certain group,
Locke to replace him with someone of Disturbing as the police takeover and trained investigators, none of them was doing. He had assembled a pri- protection from him or from anyone a group so well-known that there was
the Grand Dragon’s choosing. Williams was, it was the spread of klannishness in known to each other — keeping tabs on vate panel of inquisitors to unleash the else, and that he or anyone else, if they no need to mention its name. “You
was a placeholder at best; word was that the courts that most alarmed Van Cise Klan meetings. They hid in the bushes powers of the grand jury against the desired to make charges against me, know that we have a very strong and
key decisions about assignments and — especially the ascension of the Hon- and wrote down license plates, tried to Klan’s enemies, alien or internal. To could go into open court and do it, influential organization,” he said. “And
promotions were being made by sub- orable Clarence J. Morley. A former infiltrate the meetings when possible. hell with the rule of law, to hell with and for them to cut out all this secret we want to back a man of your type
ordinates, including a sergeant who public administrator and school board Morley spoke regularly at those gather- due process. and childish stuff.” and caliber.”
boasted that he was the “real” chief. member, Morley had been elected to a ings. He was a klokann, one of three top “Any such indictment,” he said, Van Cise declined.
Whoever was in charge, the police six-year term as a district court judge advisers to the Grand Dragon. Despite “will be attacked by the district attorney, The next day, Mayor Stapleton
seemed to investigate only those crimes in 1918. He was a slight man, bespec- the title, Morley was usually on the and any action of this grand jury will be The jury was out thirteen named a new chief of police, William
that the Klan wanted investigated. tacled and owlish, who came across receiving end of the advice; he seemed investigated.” hours, quibbling about Candlish. A former state senator and
The cross burnings remained a bit of more as a taciturn, humorless accoun- to relish being in Locke’s inner circle Before departing, he warned the whether it was first- assayer, Candlish had no background
and doing his bidding. group not to call any witnesses in his in law enforcement and a pile of debts
It was customary to empanel a new absence. For several weeks, he was too
degree or second-degree from a failed radium processing ven-
grand jury in the criminal division at the busy to bother with Morley’s grand jury, murder. They decided ture. Stapleton and Manager of Safety
start of the year. Morley took a klannish preparing for the biggest murder trial of on first-degree. Hershey had differing accounts of how
approach to the process. He rejected ten his career. Joe Brindisi, an Italian immi- Candlish happened to be selected,
of the twelve names that had been ran- grant and former streetcar conductor, but it soon became obvious that he
domly selected for jury duty and issued was charged with killing Mrs. Lillian Van Cise’s closing argument in the was Locke’s man. Candlish got busy
subpoenas, summoning a Klan-ap- McGlone and Miss Emma Vascovie Brindisi case was a memorable one. He with promotions and reassignments,
proved squad of replacements. Morley in McGlone’s Denver apartment last arranged the blood-stained clothes of rewarding Klan members on the force
instructed them that they could seek the summer. Police theorized that McGlone the two women to show the positions with plum positions and banishing
district attorney’s advice if they wanted pulled a pistol on Brindisi during a quar- in which their bodies were found and Irish Catholic cops to remote beats
to, but they could also banish him if rel over romance or money or both, and walked the jury through a step-by-step and night shifts. He devised a chief ’s
they chose. that Brindisi pried the weapon from re-enactment of their murders. It was “a uniform that was heavy on gold braid.
When Van Cise learned of Morley’s her and shot both women in the head. seemingly perfect chain of circumstan- Noting that the chief seemed to spend a
instruction, he was livid. Colorado law Fearing a lynch mob, Brindisi fled to tial evidence — with every link well lot of time in soda parlors, which often
clearly stated that district attorneys “shall Mexico, only to be arrested in Detroit formed,” one reporter observed. The served as fronts for bootlegging opera-
appear in their respective districts at any months later. Anti-immigrant feeling jury was out thirteen hours, quibbling tions, Ray Humphreys of the Denver
and all sessions of all grand juries,” and was running hig — the newspapers about whether it was first-degree or Post dubbed him Coca-Cola Candlish.
that it was their duty to advise the jury referred to Brandisi’s “swarthy” good second-degree murder. They decided For former Stapleton supporters
and examine witnesses. He went to the looks and dubbed him the “sleek sheik on first-degree. Since the prosecution who’d cheered his promises to reform
grand jury room to explain this to the of north Denver’s Little Italy” — but had not sought the death penalty, that the police department, the Candlish
panel. He had just started to talk when a Van Cise was determined to get a con- meant life in prison for Brindisi. appointment represented one more
juror interrupted him. viction based on evidence, not hysteria. The accolades for the district betrayal. It gave impetus and urgency
“We don’t need your advice, and The courtroom was packed. Extra attorney poured in. The most unusual to a campaign to recall the mayor,
you can get out,” he said. guards roamed the halls and kept close plaudit came by Western Union to launched by attorney Phil Hornbein.
Van Cise replied that if it was up watch on the gallery and the defendant. his home. “Congratulations on your The petition didn’t mention the Klan
to him, he’d be glad to part company Judge Morley presided. During one of splendid address to the jury and your influence directly, but among the
with the bunch right now. But the law the recesses Morley summoned Van wonderful victory,” the telegram read. grounds for the mayor’s removal it
required his presence. The law expected Cise to his chambers and showed him a “Dr. J.G. Locke.” stated that the police force had become
him or his deputy to question witnesses, note from the grand jury. The group had He had never received such a nice so demoralized that “crime runs ram-
not them. been meeting without Van Cise’s knowl- note from someone he hoped to put pant in our midst.”
June 13, 1925: Accompanied by attorney Ben Laska, Locke reports to the Denver jail to start serving a sentence “What do you think about Sgt. edge and, since the DA was busy with behind bars.
for contempt in a federal tax case. History Colorado Collection 86.296.3010 Reed?” another juror demanded.

41 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 42

 Van Cise recognized that the recall reporting on the Klan than anybody
process might be the best chance of else. Initially an earnest supporter of
stopping the Klan in its takeover of Stapleton, Whipple had spent con-
city government. A successful crim- siderable time and ink repenting
inal prosecution of the group was his decision and tracing the mayor’s
unlikely — not in Morley’s court- unsavory connections.
room, surely, and not on Candlish’s On March 27, 1924, the Express
watch. He had to find a way to take dropped a bomb on City Hall — the
the intel he’d gathered on the Klan first installment of a week-long series
leadership and deliver it, all neatly entitled “Invisible Government.” The
tied in a bow, to a higher court: the exposé peeked under the sheets and
citizens of Denver. named names. Outed as Kluxers:
Mayor Stapleton. Manager of Safety
••• Hershey. City Attorney Means. Chief
Candlish. Judge Morley. Police mag-
A public official looking to spill istrates Albert Orahood and Henry
secrets in Denver had many niche Bray. Carl Milliken, Colorado’s
publications to choose from, includ- Secretary of State. “At least” seven
ing a Black weekly, a Jewish weekly, police sergeants and twenty-one
and a Catholic weekly. But of the four patrol officers. And “nearly all, if not
major dailies in town, only one had all, of the present county grand jury
shown any appetite for going after the now in session.”
Klan. The Rocky Mountain News and The report didn’t identify its
the Denver Times, both owned by the sources, but Van Cise’s fingerprints
same company, had Kluxers in man- were all over the piece. Among other
agement and were largely mute about giveaways, the article mentioned
the organization. The Denver Post that Dr. Locke was planning to put
blew hot and cold; at Klan meetings, a Klansman in the governor’s office,
Locke bragged of having taken one of and that the district attorney had
the paper’s owners, Harry Tammen, been approached about the job and
for a ride one night and “made him a turned Locke down flat. By nightfall
Christian.” Another insider account the series was the talk of the town —
had it that Locke had ordered Tam- and an emerging crisis for the Klan. If
men’s partner, Frederick Bonfils, this was the opening salvo, what was
to retract an unflattering story and in store for the next seven days?
run another one praising the Klan That evening Locke’s office had
— or else his newspaper building a steady stream of visitors — mostly
would become “the flattest place on men huddled in overcoats with their
Champa Street.” hats pulled low. At ten o’clock an
With the other newspapers so Express reporter confronted Judge
compromised, that left the runt of the Morley as he emerged from the build-
litter, the Denver Express. Owned by ing. Why was a district judge paying
the Scripps-Howard chain, the paper a call on the Grand Dragon at such
had a puny circulation and no show- a late hour? Morley said that he’d
case Sunday edition. It lured work- been feeling ill and decided to consult
ing-class readers with celebrity gossip, his physician.
puzzles and contests. But led by editor
Sidney B. Whipple — a short, skinny
Dartmouth grad in his mid-thirties,
who’d been a foreign correspondent
Klan members staged a Memorial Day parade in
in prewar London and found jour-
downtown Denver on May 31, 1926. Tens of thousands
nalism too exciting a vice to give up were expected to attend; less than 500 showed up.
— the Express did more investigative History Colorado Collection, PH.PROP.1743

43 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 44

 The next morning two men barged “There is nothing in that motion,” Several complied, costing the newspa-
into the Express office and demanded
to see the editor. They showed Whip-
he said. “It’s simply a cheap play for
notoriety on your part.”
per substantial revenue. But Whipple
kept sticking his nose in the Klan’s All
Aboard!
ple an arrest warrant and told him Morley embarked on a long tirade. business and pushing for the mayor’s
he was summoned to appear before That was fortunate, as Van Cise was recall, drawing heavily on information
the grand jury. The panel had been stalling for time. Just as the judge provided by a well-informed anony-
dormant for weeks, but the Express seemed to be winding down, deputy mous source. His dogged coverage
series had brought it back to life, for DA Kenneth Robinson arrived with made him and his small paper finalists
the sole purpose of investigating how a bundle of writs — one for each in the reporting category for the 1925 Jenn Jenks is a mighty locomotive engineer
Whipple had obtained the information juror and one for the judge. Van Cise Pulitzer Prize. for the Georgetown Loop Railroad. And she’s
he was publishing. Before they took stood up. Van Cise savored his victory over one of just a few women in the country qualified
him away, Whipple told an assistant to Morley’s grand jury. It showed that
call Van Cise and let him know he was the Klan could be beaten; its influence to drive both diesel and steam locomotives.
being arrested. In the wake of the Express had not yet reached the highest court
Van Cise was waiting at the court- series, eleven of the in the state. But the most important Q: What originally drew you to work on the railroad?
house when Whipple and his escort newspaper’s largest battles were still ahead, the mayoral I’ve been a mechanic since I was 10…some diesel and car
arrived. He followed them as they went recall and the statewide elections mechanics and stuff like that before I started with the trains.
upstairs to the grand jury room and
advertisers were told to in November — battles that would This is my seventh season with the Loop. My dad was into
went inside. Two Klansmen stationed stop doing business with be fought in the streets and the voting steam tractors, and we used to live fifteen miles from the
by the door tried to bar the district the paper or face a Klan booth, not in court. Sumpter Valley Railroad in Oregon. So he went and started
attorney from entering. He pushed past boycott. Several complied, As it turned out, the Invisible volunteering over there, and then I went and volunteered over
them and went in. He was succinct. The Empire had the numbers and the strat- there, and my mom as well. So it really was a family affair. Q: What is your position on the train crew?
grand jury, he informed the panel, has costing the newspaper egy to prevail. Stapleton easily fended When we’re not running two trains, we have four people on a
no power to arrest anyone. Whipple substantial revenue. off the recall, Rice Means became a U.S. Q: The number of women who are certified as steam crew: the engineer, the fireman, the conductor, and the brake-
could sue them all for damages. They Senator, and Clarence Morley became locomotive engineers is, by best estimates, in the single man. From a train standpoint, the conductor is actually in charge.
couldn’t question him unless Van Cise the governor of Colorado. But that digits. Why do you think that is? So everybody has to answer to the conductor, unless the
was present. And he was putting an end “Notwithstanding what this court stunning wave of victories was only the It’s still a field that is definitely male-dominated, and it takes a conductor is not available. Then, the engineer is in charge. I
to this “travesty” right now. has now said,” he began, “and not- prelude to an even more astonishing lot to convince the men that you are capable of doing this right actually like being the fireman. I love running the train, don’t
He grabbed the diminutive editor withstanding the additional errone- series of political defeats. Just months alongside them. Sometimes I even still struggle with that, get me wrong, but being a fireman and taking care of the way
by the arm and walked out. No one ous instructions to this hand-picked, after the election, the Colorado Klan’s especially when you get new hires who don’t know me or what the steam power is actually made is a relaxing job that I don’t
followed them. so-called grand jury, I now have the leadership would be mired in scandal I do around here. But I have proven myself more than once. get to do very often anymore.
That was on Friday morning. Over pleasure of serving both the court and internecine warfare. In his last And it’s a very dirty job as well. I don’t mind getting dirty,
the weekend Morley held more secret and all the jurors with writs of man- days in office, Van Cise would make a but I know some people do. My advice is: Do what you want Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
sessions with the grand jury while the damus from the Supreme Court crucial contribution to the group’s to do. If you love it, don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it Well for three months we don’t run. So from when we shut
Express series continued to stir the pot. of Colorado, ordering you to hold no rapid collapse, filing felony charges because you’re a female or you’re not big enough or whatever. down in January until we open again in April, I am here in the
KU KLUX KLAN BOASTS RULE further sessions of this jury without the against Grand Dragon Locke and laying If you want to do it, do it. Don’t let anybody tell you no. shop with the rest of the train crew maintaining everything. I’m
OVER CITY HALL, read one head- presence of the district attorney.” the groundwork for other damaging a machinist, so I actually make a bunch of parts for all of our
line. CHIEF CANDLISH GIVES The writs were handed out in dead revelations to come. locomotives. I’ve made parts for the diesels, and I’ve made parts
KLUXERS INSIDE JOBS, read silence. Morley read his copy and for steam engines and cars. So mostly I am machining during
another. On Monday Morley directed turned to his grand jury. “Gentleman of Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt the winter season until we get down to crunch time, and then
the district attorney to appear in his the jury, you are excused for one week,” from GANGBUSTER: One Man’s Battle I get to actually go out and help finish what needs to be done
courtroom, in the presence of the grand he said. “The court will be in recess.” Against Crime, Corruption, and the on whatever locomotives are going out.
jury, so that he could hear the judge’s Morley’s attempt to challenge the Klan by Alan Prendergast, a nonfiction
instructions to the panel and cease his order was argued in the Supreme Court account that draws on archival records of Q: What inspired you to learn machine fabrication?
interference. Van Cise came prepared at the end of the week. The law was on Van Cise’s war on the Klan. I like working with my hands and figuring out problems.
with a motion of his own, asking the Van Cise’s side, the decision unanimous My dad started me on it, but I’ve kind of always had the desire
judge to correct his instructions and in his favor. By that point the grand ALAN PRENDERGAST is a Denver to learn how to machine. I like the variety of both working in
tell the grand jury that the DA must jury’s term had expired, with no indict- journalist whose stories on the justice the shop and running the train so the more we can run trains,
be present at all sessions, other than ments issued against anyone. system have appeared in numerous local the more I can do both. And as much as I like being in the
the jury’s actual deliberations. As Van In the wake of the Express series, and national publications. His book shop, after three months it’s like, “Are we running trains yet?”
Cise read his motion aloud, delineat- eleven of the newspaper’s largest adver- Gangbuster was published in March 2023. And I think everybody around here feels the same way. We all
ing the judge’s illegal acts, Morley’s face tisers were told to stop doing business One of the mighty locomotives Jenn helps get tired of doing one thing constantly. The variety keeps it
reddened with rage. with the paper or face a Klan boycott. run and maintain on the Georgetown Loop. very interesting.

45 / Spring/Summer 2023 HistoryColorado.org / 46

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