Hidden History of the Upper Rio Grande

patience.

1

IT TAKES A WORLD

The Human Side of the Rio Grande Reservoir Dam

During the construction of the Farmer’s Union Dam (now called the Rio Grande Reservoir Dam) on the Rio Grande River, laborers from other parts of the country were contracted to come and work. As numerous dams were being constructed throughout the western United States, contractors brought in their established crews—local labor was difficult to obtain and not experienced with dam construction. Work on these dam contracts was an opportunity for men, especially recent immigrants, to make a new start for themselves and their families.

Articles taken from historical area newspapers, especially the Creede Candle, relate that a variety of immigrant ethnic groups arrived in that little mountain town to work on the dam. Eastern Europeans, Italians, Greeks, Swedes and African Americans, along with construction materials, came to Creede on the train and were taken up to the dam construction site by team and wagon.

The material for these gates consists of six car loads of steel and four cars of cement, all of which will have to be freighted by wagons from Creede to the reservoir site, about 25 miles.

An extra car was attached to the inbound train, Wednesday, which contained about forty laborers for the Farmer’s Union.…Tex Nanse was down to Creede this week, on his usual mission it was supposed, of personally conducting a bunch of Bohunks [sic] to the reservoir. On Wednesday, he drove up the river with about forty of them, bound for the Farmer’s Union.¹

Creede Transportation Company, circa 1893. Author collection.

The first task in the dam construction was to build a diversion tunnel to reroute the river water away from the dam site. The manager of this contract was a Mr. Oleson, who brought in a complement of Swedes, as documented in the local newspapers:

Farmer’s Union people…have just let a contract for the construction of a tunnel to Lumsden and Gordon of Pueblo. The tunnel is 650 feet long, eleven feet high by fifteen feet wide, and will cost $29,000.

Fourteen more Swedes came Thursday to work on the tunnel up the river. Four of the first bunch went back to Denver the same day. Too much cold, too much snow, they said.

A bunch of Swedes came in last Saturday to work on the Farmer’s Union Project on the Rio Grande. They all got gloriously full, but managed to reach their destination safely.

A fine bunch of husky Swedes came in on Wednesday to work on the San Luis irrigation tunnel.

Rio Grande Reservoir Dam workers, circa 1908. Courtesy of the San Luis Valley Irrigation District.

Lumsden and Gordon of Pueblo are busy right now putting through the tunnel that will temporarily, at least, divert the waters of the river from the site of the dam. They have a large force of Swedes up there and are working two shifts per day and anticipate, so we understand, that their work will be finished within a couple of months.²

The contractor for the dam was another company, Ellsworth and Klaner, which brought in laborers of a variety of ethnic groups to work on the dam. The contractor also provided the extensive support system those workers required. Gathering wood for constructing corrals, cooking, heating the tents and building construction supports seemed to be performed by the Italians at the camp. "A batch of dagoes [sic] also came that day for the wood camp down the river (from the dam site)."³

Yet another ethnic group employed at the dam site was the Greeks. Their role is not clear, but they were possibly the guards of the camp, or hunters who provided meat for the camp. The following article documents their possession of guns.

Last Saturday word was received via telephone that a Greek man named George Bill, which is probably an assumed name, had been accidentally shot and very seriously wounded at the Farmer’s Union reservoir. Bill was an employee of the Ellsworth-Klaner Construction Co., and worked as a laborer on the reservoir. From accounts received of the shooting, Bill was carrying an armful of firewood into a tent at the reservoir. Another Greek was cleaning a shotgun and in some manner pulled the trigger when Bill was not more than twenty-five feet away, according to an American who witnessed the affair. Medical assistance was called for…and the patient was sent to Pueblo where the agent of the Ellsworth-Klaner Co. met him and took him to a hospital. All at the scene agree that the affair was an accident pure and simple, and no steps were taken to arrest the man who was handling the shotgun.

George Bill, the Greek who was shot, accidentally, while carrying wood into a tent at the Farmer’s Union reservoir on May 4th last, returned to work last Sunday from Pueblo. For a man who was injured as he was, his recovery in a short time is almost marvelous.⁴

An immigrant group not reported in the local paper was the Orientals, presumed to be Chinese, based on their presence in the United States working on the railroads. There is a Hosselkus family story of Orientals working with the construction crew at the original dam in 1908 at Road Canyon (McCabe and Steen, railroad contractors). This would be logical, as many Chinese worked with the railroad crews, and after completion of the transcontinental railroad in the late 1800s, the contractors turned to dam building to stay in business. The dam in Road Canyon…erected by McCabe and Steen [circa 1908], the big railroad contractors, has not washed out, as was erroneously reported around town.⁵

Men and mules making the dam, circa 1910. Courtesy of the San Luis Valley Irrigation District.

As a result of the flood that did come over the Road Canyon Dam, owner Bert Hosselkus decided that it had to be raised. Fortunately for him, the construction crew that had been working upriver was heading down the road after completing the Farmer’s Union Dam. The crew boss was approached by Bert, who hired part of that crew to increase the height of his dam at Road Canyon in order to prevent future overflow of the dam during spring runoff. There, the crew camped and worked for a couple of weeks, dining on potatoes and fish provided by the Hosselkus family. Probably a few spirits were imbibed, as well.

Road Canyon Dam, circa 1913, looking southeast. Courtesy of the Hosselkus family.

A colorful group of Eastern European immigrants is described in The Fourth on the Rio Grande, an article about the Independence Day celebrations held at the dam site, as hosted by the construction manager, Cy Knowles.

The afternoon was the time of a big dance for the Bohunks [sic]. They all gathered in a circle on a nice flat meadow and with one poor lone fiddler sawing away all afternoon in the hot sun, only stopping once in a great while to swat at the mosquitoes, which were almost unbearable, these folks started off on a dance…being a hop, skip and a jump motion while going around all hands joined together, every once in a while, they would all jump into the air and come down crouching. This dance lasted from early afternoon until almost dark. No women participated because none were there.⁶

In the latter stages of the dam construction, groups of African Americans were brought to the dam site, presumably for hand labor in the finishing of the dam.

A bunch of chocolate drops [sic] were imported by the Ellsworth-Klaner Co., last Monday and were immediately taken to the upper Reservoir.

Another car load [about 40 men] of chocolate drops [sic] for the Farmer’s Union reservoir contractors, was brought in last Sunday.⁷

Conditions at the construction site where the men lived were harsh, and the work was grueling. However, there was little option for the workers to leave. One story illustrates the lengths some workers would go to in order to escape the harsh labor.

Early one morning, Eugenia Wetherill, who lived at the San Juan fish hatchery along the road from Creede to the dam, looked out her kitchen window and saw a man approaching the house. Recognizing him as a worker from the dam, she went to the door to greet him. In his strong southern accent, he told her he was running away from work at the dam and was very hungry. He asked if she would give him some food. She quickly provided some milk, bread and a bit of leftover meat from her supper the previous night. The frightened man also told her that an armed mounted guard, who would forcibly take him back to work, was chasing him. Being the descendant of a family who had a station on the underground railroad in Kansas, she was willing to help this man escape. Fortunately, just then, she saw her next-door neighbor from Officer’s Ranch (modern-day San Juan Ranch), Lora Officer, driving down the road with a load of loose hay headed for Creede. Eugenia went to the road and asked Lora if he would help the man escape. Lora agreed to hide the man in the hay and take him to Creede. They were quickly off. At Creede, Lora gave the man some money and got him on the train to Denver to start his journey home.

Shortly after the men left, the guard stopped at the Wetherill home and inquired if Eugenia had seen anyone that morning. She answered, Yes indeed, I saw someone running over the hill that a’way, pointing to the north toward Lake City—the opposite direction from Creede! The guard trotted off on his horse toward Lake City. A smiling and relieved Eugenia continued with her household chores.

The work to build the dam required the labor and skills of many men, each of whom had hopes and dreams of adventure and making big money to take home to their families. Many came, and most of them left to work on other dams or returned to their homes. The work was hard and dangerous, without the worker protections and safety controls that exist today. Minor illnesses and injuries were treated on-site by the company veterinary surgeon. Injured workers who required more skilled care had to be taken by horseback or team and wagon to Doctor McKibben in Creede, a trip of about thirty miles one way.

San Juan fish hatchery, circa 1913. Author collection.

Mr. Cave, the veterinary surgeon at the Farmer’s Union reservoir came down Saturday with his son who was injured by being struck on the head by a rock hurled by a blast. Young Cave was fishing when injured. Dr. McKibben put several stiches in the wound, and the young man was able to return home Sunday morning.⁸

Time is money, and summers at ten thousand feet elevation were short, so work started early in the spring and lasted as far into the fall as possible. Conditions were thus wet and cold much of the time. This setting resulted in numerous cases of pneumonia, at least one of them fatal. For that man, his lonely grave in the Creede Cemetery is all that remains of his dreams of riches and a better life.

Mr. Andrew Palm, of the Farmer’s Union Ditch Co., has been ill with the pneumonia for about a week.

Eric Anderson, the man brought down from the big irrigation tunnel last week suffering from pneumonia, died last Saturday morning about 11 o’clock. His remains were embalmed by Undertaker Warren and held here until last Wednesday he having no known relatives or friends. Upon the arrival of Contractor Oleson from Denver, the body was buried Wednesday afternoon in the hill cemetery.⁹

The benefits of the dam are all around, including highly productive farms with irrigation and thriving towns. So, take a minute to think of all those workers who gave years of their lives, endured harsh living and working conditions and risked many dangers to create the dam—especially those that never planned on staying here.

2

STAMPEDE TO BEARTOWN

Or, Muriel’s Trip

The morning of the trip, my dad, Carroll Wetherill, and I caught, saddled and packed the horses for the ladies. We were leaving for a four-day, three-night trip to take Muriel Sibell Wolle and her friends to the ghost towns of Beartown and Carson. Including the two of us, there were ten riders and four packhorses/mules. Muriel was collecting information about the early mining camps of western Colorado for a book to be called Stampede to Timberline. She had traveled to many old mining sites and had been up on the western side of Carson—but because of the rugged terrain, she had not come up from the eastern side. Through mutual friends, Carroll, the owner of the modern-day guest ranch at Lost Trail Station and an experienced outfitter on the Upper Rio Grande, was contracted to provide the trip.

Not known to us at the time, Muriel was a famous person. Like most transplanted New Yorkers who had moved to Colorado, the beauty of the mountains struck her. She had been head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Colorado from 1927 to 1947. She then began traveling into deserted mountain mining towns to document the remains of fast-disappearing mining communities. Muriel authored many articles and several books about the history of Colorado’s ghost towns and mining camps, including Stampede to Timberline, which she both authored and illustrated. The many photographs she took of this trip were not published in any of her books, which are instead filled with her lovely sketches.

The old stage route from Del Norte to Silverton ran right through Lost Trail Station Stage Stop: Freight Forwarding and Commission, established in 1877. Lost Trail Station was host to many a weary traveler. It was a place to change horse teams and store supplies, and it had a post office. The heyday of Lost Trail Station was from the mid-1870s until the mid-1880s, after the railroad was put into Silverton in 1882, which dried up traffic from Del Norte up the river. A second revival occurred with the mining at Gold Run/Beartown, but it was short lived, and the town declined in the mid-1890s. The old barn, corral and other outbuildings served as reminders of its glory days as a stage stop. To support the development of the old stage stop as a guest ranch, Carroll had built many modern cabins