Elk Creek Chronicles by David P. Nelson (ReVista Publishing)
The history of the Elk Creek communities — among them Shaffers Crossing, Pine Grove, Glenelk and Shattuck Gulch — spread along U.S. 285 southwest of Denver, is hardly glamorous. There are no Baby Doe Tabors or Doc Hollidays or Mattie Silkses. The history is that of ordinary people, and that is what makes “Elk Creek Chronicles” charming.
The best-known of the towns, Shaffers Crossing, was named for Samuel Shaffer, who came from Wyoming to operate a ranch and sawmill. He simply put up a stake with “Shaffer” on it, and the name stuck. Butch Cassidy once sought shelter at the Shaffer ranch during a storm, but that was at Shaffer’s ranch in Wyoming, not Colorado. The most famous man to stop at the crossing was the fellow who wrote “I’m in the Army Now.” His name isn’t that important.
The beauty here is in the historic details. Although the communities had full-time residents, many were summer folk, who arrived with their baggage wrapped in quilts to keep it from being banged up. One woman was known for fishing in high heels. The visitors hiked and enjoyed bird watching, and later had canasta parties and attended the local rhubarb festival. They stayed in fishing cabins or lodges, where in 1934 breakfast cost 35 cents and dinner, 75 cents.
Perhaps the best-known attraction in the area today is the Buck Snort, a local watering hole that was once a favorite spot for high-stakes games among Denver car dealers. With the turn of a card, more than one player lost the car he’d driven to the Buck Snort.
David P. Nelson writes about the good times and bad, the residents, both living and dead, in this fact-crammed history of one of Colorado’s lesser known enclaves.
Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado by Vicki Moran, editor (Moss Rock Press)
Coal Creek is another of those Colorado secrets — a mountain area near Denver that hasn’t yet become a bedroom community. Vicki Moran and a group of cohorts have put together a history of Coal Creek with biographies of local people, past and present.
Although homesteaders had moved into the canyon, “the Moffat Road brought settlement to Coal Creek Canyon” just after the turn of the century, writes Moran. Tourism also increased the population. Thanks to the train, seven Denver- ites founded the town of Miramonte in 1904 as a weekend getaway.
“Coal Creek Canyon” is the story of towns and settlers. Moran and her contributing writers include dozens of stories of local inhabitants. One of the more interesting is Henry Kabinsky, who once consumed a cake of soap to cure an illness. He filed for a homestead in the canyon, settling in with all his possessions — a sack of flour, a slab of bacon, salt, a gun and ammunition, and 50 cents in cash. When Kabitsky died, local ranchers built a bonfire on his homestead so they could see to dig his grave.
In addition to the text, there are sidebars of newspaper clippings about Coal Creek Canyon, including one about a headless body found in a tree.
Denver’s Sixteenth Street by Mark A. Barnhouse (Arcadia Publishing)
Sixteenth Street started out as a hodge- podge of lumber yards, livery stables, small businesses and homes. But in the 1880s, when H.A.W. Tabor built his opera house, as well as his ill-fated Tabor Block, on the thoroughfare, 16th became “arguably the most impressive thoroughfare between Chicago and San Francisco,” writes author Mark A. Barnhouse.
In another Arcadia book, he writes about 16th from its first days through Denver’s boom and depression years to its revitalization with urban renewal. Anyone of a certain age will enjoy seeing the photographs of 16th before the mall went in, when it was Denver’s premier shopping street, lined with department stores and five-and-dimes, when the city’s best theaters and most prestigious doctors’ and dentists’ addresses were 16th Street. The most nostalgic is a photo of the Denver Dry tearoom, once everyone’s favorite downtown luncheon eatery.
Ouray by Gail Zanett Saunders, Maria Jones and the Ouray County Historical Society (Arcadia Publishing)
Far better-known than Elk Creek and Coal Creek Canyon is Ouray, that pristine mountain town on the Western Slope.
Ouray originally was Ute land, but of course that changed when whites coveted it. The first settlers — prospectors — arrived in 1875. With the discovery of silver ore in the Red Mountain District above Ouray in 1880, the town boomed. The Ouray- area mines were some of the richest in the state and included the famed Camp Bird. Its discoverer, Thomas Walsh, later moved to Washington, D.C. His daughter, Evalyn, married newspaper heir Ned McLean and purchased the Hope Diamond.
Ouray became a supply point for the mines surrounding the town. Its residents were both local miners and colorful characters, including newspaper editor David Day, and doctor and politician William Rowan, who loved to dress entirely in white.
“Ouray” is one of the history books that Arcadia publishes by the dozens all over the country. These little books, with their sepia covers, have contributed much to popularizing local history. Like others in the series, “Ouray” is crammed with photographs, of miners and mine workings, community events, prominent citizens (including Chief Ouray, for whom the town is named), snow scenes and street scenes, skiing and swimming, boom times and bad.
