David E. Steiner

Retired USAF, Teacher, Dad, Grandfather, Curmudgeon

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The Good Old Days [1994]

 

What with all the problems and controversies today, don’t you sometimes wish for the peace and decorum of days gone by?

We get all wound up about controversies in Tahosa Valley, but we forget the controversy that swirled around the name itself.

Most of us know that Tahosa was one of the names considered for our state, but most don’t know much about the valley of Elkanah. It was called that for a number of years, after one of its most prominent residents, Parson Elkanah Lamb. Charles Edwin Hewes of the Hewes-Kirkwood Inn (now the Rocky Mountain Music Camp) published a poem: “‘Tis Evening in the Valley of Elkanah,” in 1914.

But Enos Mills thought the name inappropriate, claiming it had no connection with the valley, even though it was Mills who had bought Lamb’s Longs Peak House, later Longs Peak Inn, and had written the introduction to Lamb’s 1905 memoirs.

Enos might have thought a better name would be -- let’s see-- how about Mills Valley?

The Colorado Geographic Board, however, thought Mills had enough named after him, with Mills Moraine, Mills Glacier, and Mills Lake. They thought Tahosa a better name, apparently derived from a Kiowan chief who signed an 1837 treaty with that name, meaning “Dwellers of the Mountain Tops.”

That seemed appropriate to many residents, but it touched off another fight. Burns Will, the owner of Copeland Lake Lodge and a county commissioner, didn’t like Indian names in general and Tahosa in particular, and said so in a three-man delegation to the Colorado Geographic board. He was too late. The maps had already been printed by the U.S. Geologic Survey as Tahosa. The bureaucratic wheels turned and the name was approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in 1916. A great many residents were upset, but they’re all dead now and it no longer seems to matter much, but people were really steamed about it at the time and various people were mad at each other for years. Sound familiar?

As for decorum, in July of 1917, just as my grandfather was thinking about buying a homestead, L.C. Way, the second superintendent of RMNP probably cooked up a rather indecorous publicity stunt for the new National Park with Al Birch, the promotion manager of The Denver Post.

They arranged for Agnes Lowe, a student at Michigan whose family had a summer cabin near Estes Park, to prove that a modern girl could live in the wilds. The 30 July issue has a picture of Agnes standing by a tree, waving good-bye to her mother. Touching, really. She is wearing a leopard skin from a very big leopard which covers her quite well but was probably considered shocking in 1917. A few days later she took refuge from the rain. More pictures. Then on 6 August she returned to the wilds, seen off by 2,000 people. The Post must have been thrilled. The Boulder Daily Camera, by the way, took no notice at all of these goings on.

Agnes dropped out of sight for four days. In fact, Ranger Dixie McCracken, following orders from Way, took her to an inn (whereabouts unknown) and then returned her to Wild Basin. On the 10th she served a lunch to Mr. Way and Enos Mills made from the fruits of the wild: pine bark soup, trout, mushrooms, chipmunk peas, wild honey and chokecherries. A talented and resourceful young woman indeed.

On the 13th she reappeared at Longs Peak Inn, having spent a week near Thunder Lake at the upper end of Wild Basin, according to the paper. A month later there was a three-part article in the Post written by Agnes with more pictures, including one of an unhappy young man wearing a bearskin who was supposed to have been pursuing her. Only the intervention of the Park Rangers saved her from a fate worse than death!

Oh, for the peace and decorum of the good old days!

 

 

Columns

© 1985 – 2003, David E. Steiner

Allenspark Wind Columns:

Introduction

Why Allenspark?

Going Riding [August, 1985]

Electricity

Used Cars

Peace and Quiet [1986]

Liberals & Conservatives

Going to the Movies

The Screened Porch

The Beginning of The Season

The Weather

The Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The End of The Season

The Gift of Time

The Beavers

Addresses [1987]

Hiking

Watching the Trees Grow

Postal Rates

Changes in Estes Park

Square Dancing at the Pow Wow

Back to the Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The Solstices

Bird Feeders

Elevators

The Estes Park Hardware Store [1988]

Visitors

Limousine Service

A Memorial Service

A Hummingbird

Garbage

A Hiking Trip

The Estes Park Public Library

Wild Life

Riparian Rights [1989]

Weather

Fences

Commuting

Mountain Friendliness

A Motorcycle Trip

Satellite Television

“Weaving Mountain Memories”

Hotel Rates in the Old Days

The Price of Propane [1990]

The Front Range Almanac

June

Modes of Transportation

Miller Moths

My 50th Column

Modern Conveniences

Rock Climbing

On the Death of Otto Walter, Postmaster

Otto’s Memorial Service

A Big Owl Pot-Luck Dinner

A Whine About Telephone Service [1991]

After the Persian Gulf War

Some Changes in the WIND

The Trip to the Mountains

The Mountains in the Summer

Visitors

Of Dogs, Music, and Children

Muhlenburg County

To My Grandson

The Sale of Longs Peak Inn

World War II  [1992]

Murphy’s Law and the Computer

The South St. Vrain Canyon

“Whiteout”

The Hazards of Volunteering

Crime in Our Valley

Infestations

On the Death of Charles Eagle Plume

Can We All Get Along?

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Lost Horizon [1993]

Walking

Rumors About a Visit by the Pope

Progress?

More About Fences

Woodpeckers

The Visit of Pope John Paul II

Forest Fires

The New Sewage System

The Snow Pool

The Good Old Days [1994]

The WIND’s 20th Anniversary

The Bunce School

The Shooting Gallery

The Estes Park Museum

Our Government

U.S. West Takes a Hit

The Year of the Hummingbirds

A New “Yield” Sign

Growth in Allenspark

Private Telephones?

The Salvation Army

Creation Science [1995]

Devolutionizing Big Government

Risks

Airports

Fort D.A. Russell

Domestic Terrorism

Old and New

Barney Graves

Life in the Wilderness

What’s In a Name?

Arthur C. Clarke

 

The Estes Park Trail-Gazette Columns:

July 1983

Carpentry

Estes Cone

Johnny Grant

Observations in Estes Park

The Bath House

Waving

The Sutherland’s Ice House

How Old is Charles Eagle Plume?

Dogs

Christmas Trees

Tree Murder

Mountain Driving

Garbage

Mail Boxes

More About Mail Boxes

“Are you related to ....?”

Spring

An Accident

The Wild Cat

A July Reunion

A Visit to Baldpate Inn

Opening Cabins

Summer

The Times, They Have Changed

Death and Transfiguration

The Population Explosion

The March of Time

Faith-Based Social Services

Looking for Pitch

Recent Writings I

Recent Writings II

Recent Writings III

Recent Writings IV

Recent Writings V

Recent Writings VI

 

 

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