Time Machine: 90 years ago, ‘The greatest slaughter that has ever taken place within the state’
Vail Trail/Vail Daily archive
30 years ago
Oct. 14, 1994
The Vail Town Council and Vail Associates were working on a contract delineating responsibilities regarding closer monitoring of skier numbers, marketing efforts, employee housing, transportation systems and infrastructure, the Vail Trail reported.
The contract was coming together as a result of Vail Associates’ plans to increase capacity on Vail Mountain from nearly 20,000 skiers per day to roughly 23,000 with its planned expansion into Blue Sky Basin.
Quoting Vail Mayor Peggy Osterfoss, the Trail reported that such an agreement would be unprecedented in Vail.
“She said the talks do not include limiting the number of skiers who can come to Vail, but rather ways to discourage severe peaks and valleys in skier traffic,” the Trail reported.
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40 years ago
Oct. 19, 1984
A series of winter storms hit Colorado, dumping more than a foot of snow on the valley floor in Vail, and more than 2 feet on the top of the mountain.
The Colorado State Patrol in Eagle reported no major increase in accidents, the Vail Trail reported, although snow tires or chains have been required on Vail Pass and the Eisenhower Tunnel approaches since the weekend.
“They’re either driving carefully or not driving at all,” said a dispatcher.
60 years ago
Oct. 15, 1964
A severe electrical storm that hit the Bond area did not cause any casualties, but several people were lucky to have escaped with their lives, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
Lightening struck Vic Luark’s ranch home near Bond, burning the structure to the ground. Luark attempted to save important papers from the home and received severe burns on his hands during the incident.
Nearby, Mrs. Wallace Boebtler was standing at her sink with her hands in the water when she received an electrical shock, leaving her dazed but otherwise uninjured. She believed the lighting came through a telephone line in the house. Members of her family who were also in the home said the lightning strike sounded like a gunshot.
And Odis Sampson, a Denver & Rio Grand railroad agent at Bond, was standing near an oil heater in the train depot when lightning came down the chimney and sent flames shooting out of an opening in the stove. He was unharmed.
90 years ago
Oct. 19, 1934
The close of the hunting season marked “the greatest slaughter that has ever taken place within the state,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
“A great army covered the hills and filled the gulches, and deer and elk were killed by the thousands,” the Enterprise reported. “Probably the easiest gotten deer was the buck killed by Ed Mather. … He had not yet stopped his car to get located when a fine buck walked out of the brush and stood still while Ed shot it from the car.”
In another story from the season, a party of Minturn residents hunting near Crooked Creek had killed “a freak very rarely seen,” the Enterprise reported. “It was a doe deer with a fine head of horns. The antlers had a perfect spread with three prongs each, but were yet in the velvet. This freak was killed by Bud Hammer.”
120 years ago
October 14, 1904
Eagle was set to begin the process of incorporation following a recent meeting in town, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
“The meeting was presided over by H. W. Goodrich and Charles Wood acted as secretary,” the Enterprise reported. “On motion of Louis Schwarz the following persons — all old-time residents of Eagle, as Mr. Schwarz observed — were appointed as a committee and empowered to take the preliminary steps toward incorporation: A. D. McKenzie, H. W. Goodrich, J. W. Love, E. E . Glenn and Abe Lumley.”
The Enterprise commended the effort, saying incorporation would bring “a water system, lights, police protection, clean streets and alleys and a more progressive community.”
The town’s population was about 150 full-time residents at the time, with an additional “transient population of perhaps 75 more,” the Enterprise reported.
