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25-50-100 years ago

Compiled by Janet Urquhart
Aspen Times Weekly
Courtesy of the Aspen Historical SocietyJenny Adair, right, stands in front of her sawmill with her sister, Mate Strom. In 1911, a boy was run over and killed by a wagon full of slabs leaving a sawmill near Castle Creek.
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Boyhood fun turned tragic, resulting in an Aspen child’s death a century ago. The Aspen Democrat-Times reported:

Last evening, about 6 o’clock, a most distressing accident occurred on West Hopkins Avenue, in which a child lost his life.

Just before 6 o’clock, Thomas Lewis, a teamster in the employ of the Koch Lumber company, left the sawmill on Castle Creek with a load of slabs. As the wagon passed out of the yard, a number of small boys “hung on” to the load, presumably to get a ride into town. At the bridge at the end of Hopkins Avenue, Mr. Lewis ordered the children away and as he started his team, he thought all of the children had left.



He had proceeded hardly a block when he heard some boys call out: “You have run over a kid!” He stopped the team and saw little 5-year-old Jimmy Campbell lying in the road, apparently stunned. …

In a few seconds, the little fellow got up and started to walk across the street, calling to his brother to go home with him. He had taken but a few steps when he fell to the ground.




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They should have seen it coming. A band of fortune tellers found themselves in trouble a century ago. The Aspen Democrat-Times reported:

A band of gypsies yesterday morning camped near the fair grounds, and last evening attracted a large number of spectators.

The women of the party had been granted a license to tell fortunes and early yesterday began plying their profession. By noon, a number of complaints against the fortune tellers had been lodged with the mayor and early in the afternoon, on an order from the mayor, the license was revoked and Captain Sullivan escorted the ladies to the city boundary and returned to them their license fee, with instructions that they cease their business in the city.

A local woman proved herself quite the shot 50 years ago. The Aspen Times reported:

Betje Annan of Aspen, a skeet shooter for less than three years, recently became the first woman to win the Great Eastern 12 gauge championships in the 29-year history of the event when she topped a field of 247 gunners from a dozen states and Canada.

The feat rated the lead article in the August edition of “Skeet Shooting Review,” official bulletin of the National Skeet Shooting Assn. The competition was held during July near New York City.

Mrs. Annan, wife of Mike Annan, also won the Dallas Open recently. She was the only contestant, including men, to shoot a perfect score.

In addition, she whipped men and women in the Colorado State Championships at Colorado Springs to take that title.

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Locals anticipated the return of the rodeo to Aspen 50 years ago. The Aspen Times reported:

With entrees from Albuquerque and a number of cities throughout Colorado already in, Aspen’s Silver Stampede Rodeo Saturday and Sunday will make its re-entry on the local scene as a bigger show than ever.

About 60 cowboys are expected to compete for over $1,000 in prize money when the first of eight events starts at 2 PM Saturday. On Sunday, the last half of the ride and tie festival with the second running of the same events, begins at 1 PM.

Last year, a series of jackpot roping contests took the place of the annual rodeo.

The Western weekend kicks off at 11 AM Saturday with a parade down Main St. and through town. Colorfully costumed riders and walkers, as well as floats and novelty acts, are expected to participate. …

A highlight of the riding and roping show at the arena west of Aspen, near the Maroon Creek bridge, will be a clown who performs at many events approved by the Rodeo Cowboys Assn., a national organization of rodeo cowboys which is sanctioning the Silver Stampede.

The man in charge of Aspen’s World Cup course stepped down 25 years ago, after controversy marred the event the preceding winter. The Aspen Times reported:

The man who for the past six years has been responsible for preparing the Aspen World Cup race courses will not be involved in the 1987 events.

Chairman of the World Cup Organizing Committee Peter Forsch said the departure of Bill Harriman, former World Cup chief of course, was a “mutual decision” between Forsch and Harriman “that’s behind us now.”

Conditions on last year’s giant slalom course have been blamed for the blockade and subsequent cancellation of the second event of the two-day Aspen Winternational. Some 40 racers refused to compete in the GS, even though an official jury had decided that the course was in good enough shape to run a fair race.

The group of mostly European athletes and coaches didn’t see it that way, as they took it upon themselves to question the course preparation and fairness of the race for anyone outside of the first seed. …

Forsch denied that Harriman had been made the scapegoat for the race cancellation, which received world-wide publicity, or that there was pressure from the heads of the World Cup to make a personnel change.