Denver Newspaper Agency state circulation manager Rick Charbonneau always stops to take a look at the roadside attractions. Where did he find this carved soldier, and what does he stand guard over? Send your guess to coloradosunday@denverpost.com, and include a digital photo of yourself. We’ll pick at least one tale to share next week. The best wins a $50 gas card.
How’d you know?
Winner: Randall Loback, Buena Vista
The picture was taken at 501 E. Main St. in Buena Vista, in front of the Buena Vista Heritage Museum. This hose cart was one of the principal pieces of fire apparatus in the Buena Vista Volunteer Fire Department, then known as the De Reimer Hook and Ladder Co. It was used in the late 1800s until it was retired in the early 1930s, when Buena Vista bought its first motorized apparatus. It is a four-wheeled hose cart that is drawn by four to six men or a single team of horses. This particular hose cart was donated to the Buena Vista Fire Department by Harry Tabor of Leadville. It was recently donated to the Heritage Museum of Buena Vista by the Buena Vista Volunteer Fire Department. You ask how I know this information? Well, I am a member of the BVVFD.
Other views:
Erik Phillips, Buena Vista
This picture was taken in front of the Buena Vista Heritage Museum. In the near background is the old post office and Punky’s diner. The old hose wagon was used to fight fires and to participate in hose-cart competitions.
Suzy Kelly, Buena Vista
The old hand fire hose cart sits on the 1882 Chaffee County Courthouse lawn in Buena Vista. This hose cart was part of the De Reimer Hook and Ladder Co. that was the first fire department in Buena Vista in the 1880s. We have restored and maintained the courthouse as the Buena Vista Heritage Museum. Upstairs there is the large courtroom and another room with a model railroad display of the three railroads that came into Buena Vista in 1887. The downstairs is a historical museum. We also are restoring the 1889 Denver South Park and Pacific Depot and a caboose at the corner of Main Street and Colorado 24. The museum also has the 2-acre Turner Farm, which is being turned into a living history museum. I’ve enclosed a photo of the hose-cart team in front of the Fire House in Buena Vista in 1890.
