Time Machine: 30 years ago, a jewelry store robbery in Vail

30 years ago

Nov. 4, 1994

Vail Police, following up on a report of two men allegedly burglarizing a jewelry store in Lionshead Village, caught the men in the act of stealing a pickup truck in the nearby parking garage.

Officers found a bag of jewelry items near by and traced a trail of jewelry back to the shop.

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The men were charged with criminal mischief, theft, first-degree trespassing and second-degree burglary.

40 years ago

Nov. 9, 1984

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A dozen elk were reported killed by local hunters at the Dowd Junction location where a feeding program was credited with saving the lives of the same herd during the previous winter.

“More than 25 hunters opened fire just before dawn, firing almost point blank at a herd estimated between 50 and 60 head,” the Vail Trail reported.

While no hunting laws were violated, the slaughter didn’t sit well with Minturn residents due to the fact that the area was closed to hunters the year before.

“There was such an annihilation down there, it wasn’t even funny,” said Minturn resident Fred Haslee.

The Division of Wildlife was accused of conspiring to lure the animals to that area in an effort cull the herd after considering a special hunting season there previously. That idea was rejected “because it would have been too easy to mow down the herd,” the Trail reported. “The number of cow permits, however, were increased this year.”

Local game warden Bill Andree denied any DOW intention to “reduce elk in this manner,” he said, but also said that the 600-head herd did need to be reduced to one-fourth of its size to make a comfortable habitat of the 300-square-mile area where it resided. Andree expressed frustration with the public exhibiting concern for that herd while other herds struggled.

“It’s always this Dowd Junction elk herd,” Andree said. “When we asked for public support, where was all this concern when Beaver Creek and Arrowhead went in? These people bleed for the elk only when they see them.”

A conflict occurred among two hunters, with each claiming they shot the same elk.

50 years ago

Nov. 5, 1974

Wildlife officer Bill Heicher reported a pair of conflicts among hunters, with each claiming they shot the same deer, the Eagle Eye newspaper reported.

The first occurred on the hunting season’s Opening Day on Gypsum Creek when one man apparently shot and disabled the animal and was walking toward it when another hunter administered the fatal shot.

“Both men then claimed the animal, and it took Heicher’s intervention to prevent a confrontation,” the Eagle Eye reported. “He first suggested that one take the head and antlers and the other take the meat. Both refused the offer. Heicher then suggested a coin flip to determine ownership. Again, both refused. An offer of a civil suit in court was also refused. He then suggested the animal be split, one agreed and the other refused. Heicher again suggested a flip of a coin, and both hunters agreed. The man who first shot the animal won.”

The second situation, which occurred on Nov. 1, was similar. A small four-point buck was downed on Castle Peak, and two hunters claimed ownership.

“Heicher made his usual suggestions,” the Eagle Eye reported. “An attempt at a compromise agreement apparently failed, and the rival Denver hunter and his buddies took possession of the animal. The next day both parties left Castle Peak, the Denver hunters with the deer, and the Indiana party following closely behind. The Denver group had a breakdown and ordered a tow truck out of Eagle. Meanwhile, Heicher came on the scene and met renewed demands from the Indiana group to take the deer from the Denver group. During the argument, the tow truck arrived and took both the deer and the rival hunters away. The Indiana group left, apparently thinking that was the only deer in Eagle County.”

90 years ago

Nov. 9, 1934

The travel industry in Colorado brought more than $70 million in tourist dollars to the state during the summer of 1934, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported, quoting Clarence Werthan, manager of Rocky Mountain Motorists local AAA club.

“This exceeds the cash receipts from livestock, farm crops or mining in 1933, although Colorado is known chiefly as an agricultural and mining state,” the Enterprise reported.

“It is for this reason that more encouragement should be given to the travel industry in Colorado,” Werthan said. “Few people realize the vast amount of money it brings to Colorado each year and the part this industry plays in making Colorado prosperous.”

120 years ago

Nov. 3-4, 1904

The Eagle Valley Enterprise in Eagle printed an editorial urging residents to vote Gov. James Peabody out of office at the Nov. 8, 1904 election, while the Eagle County Blade in Red Cliff said voters should vote in favor of the incumbent governor.

“Deportation, power to declare martial law with suspension of habeas corpus and trial by jury, payment of troops by one party to an industrial dispute — those are the glaring, unprecedented usurpations that the one term of Governor Peabody has tried to establish, and which his supporters are trying to make principles of government through his re-election,” according to the Nov. 4, 1904, editorial that ran in the Enterprise.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, the Blade said that “Governor Peabody is denounced and abused by every socialist and anarchist in the state, and this ought to be the very best reason why the Republicans, every one, should support him.”