Time Machine: 50 years ago, Batman visits Vail to play tennis with Bobby Riggs
50 years ago
July 19-20, 1975
Bobby “Sugar Daddy” Riggs was in Vail playing tennis with celebrities like Sherry Jackson and “Batman” star Adam West for the Colorado Humane Society Tennis Master Marathon.
Local tennis pro Bill Wright dressed up like Billie Jean King and played against Riggs.
“Despite all the hilarity, there was some very fine tennis played,” the Vail Trail reported.
60 years ago
July 15, 1965
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Development of Yeoman Park was set to be discussed at a public meeting of the Eagle Chamber of Commerce.
“Yoeman (sic) Park, from time to time, has been the subject of water development discussion, including recreational development and development for irrigation purposes,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
70 years ago
July 14, 1955
The Eagle Valley Enterprise reprinted a story from 1913, detailing how the town was expected to swell from 500 to 5,000 people as a result of a mining boom resulting from the famous Lady Belle mine.
The story said the ore in the Lady Belle mine “is growing larger and richer with depth and will be shipping at least three carloads a week of probably the highest grade silver ore ever handled in this state,” and that “a good many leases have already been consummated on properties situated on Brush and Silt creeks, and it is expected at least ten other mines in addition to the Lady Belle will be shipping ore.”
The Eagle Valley Enterprise said the 1913 story “so nearly fits today’s happenings throughout the Colorado River and Eagle River valleys” that the paper decided to reprint it.
“With exploration underway throughout the county for oil and uranium, as well as silver and copper, the community could well be on the threshold of another ‘mining boom,'” the Enterprise reported.
80 years ago
July 13, 1945
Sgt. Dud Claphan, formerly of Gypsum, was performing guard duty at a Japanese internment camp in Hereford, Texas, when four men attempted to escape, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
Claphan shot and killed three of the four men as they tried to flee, and as a result, was promoted to an armed guard post in Virginia.
90 years ago
July 19, 1935
U.S. Forest Service officials revealed a proposal to transform Yeoman Park into a larger recreational destination, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
M.J. Webber, supervisor of the Holy Cross National Forest, announced a plan to develop Fulford Cave into a visitor-friendly site — complete with a clubhouse and guided tours — along with the construction of a dam to create a lake at nearby Yeoman Park.
“With the cave just above Yoeman (sic) Park, developed into a fine attraction and the beautiful lake which the dam would afford, surrounded with beautiful summer cabin homes, this region would be a great tourist as well as local attraction,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “Yoeman (sic) Park, as it is, is one of the loveliest spots in the Colorado mountains and the lake which the dam would form would make it perfect.”
100 years ago
July 17, 1925
Two men who were wanted in Oregon for a bank robbery pleaded guilty to robbing the home of Gypsum resident S.S. Lemon, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
The men, Morris Clifford and J.C. Dickson, received sentences of two to five years in the state penitentiary, while a woman who was accompanying them, Dickson’s wife, was released along with her baby daughter.
“The men had agreed to plead guilty, but when arraigned Monday morning, changed their minds and decided to stand trial,” the Enterprise reported. “But when the woman was put into a cell, with a promise to prosecute the entire bunch and to send the baby to a state home, the men wilted and took their medicine Tuesday morning.”
Information from the authorities in Portland, Oregon, stated that police there were looking for the trio, as they were suspected of a bank robbery there on June 25, 1925.
“This action in Garfield county relieves Eagle county of any further expense in prosecuting this bunch of thieves,” the Enterprise reported.
120 years ago
July 14, 1905
Alfred Packer found a hog-nosed viper in a stagnant pool in Littleton, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
“Packer was dragging the pool more from curiosity than in expectation of discovering anything more dangerous than a frog when he made the find,” the Enterprise reported, citing the Denver News. “These vipers are said to seek swampy places among the reeds and this is the first one that is known to have been found in the West.”
Packer also found six other venomous snakes and a water dog, he claimed. Packer is the so-called “Colorado Cannibal” who had been paroled in 1901 after being found guilty of five counts of voluntary manslaughter in 1886.