Time Machine: 80 years ago, German POWs escape Minturn prison camp

30 years ago

Sept. 18-19, 1994

The 1994 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships took place in Vail.

U.S. National Team rider Lisa Lamoreaux of Aspen was the winner of the first gold medal of the 1994 worlds, defeating her nearest competitor by nearly a minute, the Vail Trail reported.

U.S. women swept eight of the top nine Veteran spots in downhill, led by Durango resident Lisa Muhich.

“Equally impressive was the cross-country performance by the U.S. Veteran women, who claimed seven of the top 10 spots,” the Vail Trail reported.

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Riccardo DeBertolis of Italy won the Veteran men’s cross-country race, with Tom Hayles of Aspen the highest-placing U.S. Veteran rider in eighth.

“The remainder of the local field, Paul Sands, Rob Steinke, and Dawes Wilson settled for top-40 finishes in the 70-man field,” the Trail reported. “Vail’s technical, rocky downhill course took its toll on more than one rider, including U.S. Senior favorites Jimmy Deaton and Brian Lopes, who were knocked out of contention with mechanical failures.”

40 years ago

Sept. 21, 1984

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office has recommended that the Eagle Mine at Gilman be placed on the national priority list for Superfund cleanup money, the Vail Trail reported.

Regional Administrator John Wells said recent testing of the Eagle River near the mine shows metals pollution at hazardous levels and Eagle County environmental health officer Eric Edeen replied by saying the testing was inadequate because the majority of the tests were taken during the spring runoff period, when the pollution problem is diluted.

“I’d like to see them back here in January,” Edeen said.

80 years ago

Sept. 15, 1944

Five German prisoners of war who had escaped a Civilian Conservation Corps camp near Minturn had been picked up by U.S. Army men from Camp Hale after four days of roaming the hills northwest of Minturn, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

“Last Saturday night, an alarm was spread that five men, brought to the camp at Minturn for labor in the ice sheds there from Camp Carson, had made good an escape, and a search was started at that time, ending four days later a few miles from the prison camp,” the Enterprise reported.

The government property at Minturn, formerly used as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, was being used as a prisoner-of-war encampment.

“Men from this camp have been allowed to go out under army guard for labor,” the Trail reported. “Some of them being used in the peach harvest in the lower fruit valley, in hay fields and the Fleming Lumber Company has a considerable number of them, working in the timber in their logging camp on Gore Creek.”

100 years ago

Sept. 19, 1924

Minturn sheepherder Soren H. Thorsen was shot while riding a freight train westbound between Gypsum and Shoshone, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

Soren Thorsen and his brother, Arlo Thorsen, did not have the proper permits to ride the train and decided to hide in a refrigerator car in an attempt to return home to Utah.

“All went well until two men from the top of the car opened the ventilators and while one turned a flash light on them the other covered them with a revolver and ordered them to ‘stick up their mits’ which they promptly did,” the Enterprise reported.

“Then one of the bandits climbed down into the car and grappled with one of the Thorens, who was defended by his brother. A lively tussle then took place and as soon as the holdup was able to free himself he pointed to Soren Thorsen and demanded that his confederate ‘shoot this man,’ which the latter proceeded to do, firing six shots, as the brothers believe, four of which took effect.”

One shot glanced across his forehead, inflicting only a slight wound, two bullets struck his left side, one fracturing his left arm and another traveling downward through his abdominal cavity and puncturing his intestines in nine places, the Enterprise reported.

“After the first shot had been fired Thorsen begged his assailant to desist, saying, ‘Don’t shoot any more; I am wounded already,'” the Enterprise reported. “Notwithstanding this protest on the part of the wounded man, the bandit kept firing, evidently until his gun was empty, and then the gunmen made their get-away, the officers believe by jumping from the train while it was going at a high speed.”

The wounded man was rushed to the Glenwood hospital and given medical attention, “but his wounds are of such a serious character that physicians hold out no hope for his recovery,” the Enterprise reported.

120 years ago

Sept. 8, 1904

A rich strike of gold was opened on the Ground Hog Mine on Battle Mountain by lessee John S Doddridge, the Eagle County Blade reported.

The strike was a considerable depth in the hill in a nearly vertical fissure in the quartzite.

“The character of the ore is sulphide heavily impregnated with free gold and silvanite,” the Blade reported. “Large and glittering specimens of practically pure gold are being taken out. The ore is exposed in width about 20 feet and is from 4 to 10 inches thick. Assays as high as $76,000 per ton have been returned. Apparently the tissue extends into the granite and it is believed the strike will prove the richest and most important ever made in the district.”