Denver Post staff writer Jack Cox drives to all four corners of the state, so it only follows that he would pull this license-plate lunker out of his view finder. Where is it, and, for bonus points, who made it? Send your guess and how you knew to coloradosunday@denverpost.com, and include a digital photo of yourself. We’ll pick one tale to share next week. The best one wins a $50 gas card.
HOW’D YOU KNOW?
Last week: Ute Trading Post, Manitou Springs
Winner: Bill Bertschy, Fort Collins
I instantly recognized it from the 26 times a year I spotted it riding up the road in the 1950s and 60s. My grandparents on my dad’s side lived in Buena Vista, and my grandparents on my mom’s side lived in Florence. So every other Sunday we would go to Buena Vista or Florence from Colorado Springs for Sunday dinner. We always looked for the Indian statues next to the springs in Manitou. In later years I could better appreciate this route taken by the Utes, and later the miners and immigrant settlers, compared with the obstacles posed by mountain ranges and canyons north and south of Ute Pass. My great-great-grandfather, Frederick Bertschy, was one of those who headed up that pass to the emerging gold placers near Leadville about 1860. And I, five generations later, still enjoy driving that way when I get the chance.
