I decided to go back to the first issue of the Mancos Times - Friday, April 28, 1893.
We are indebted to Mr. W. H. Kelly, the oldest newspaper man in Colorado, for valuable assistance in getting out this first issue of The Mancos Times. (Kelly came over from Ouray and not much later became the publisher of The Mancos Times. A saloon in Ouray was called the Solid Muldoon, and Kelly was know as Muldoon for many years.
A meeting of the Dolores and Mancos stock men will be held in this town on the 5th of May.
We are indebted to Mr. C. Wetherill (Clayton) of the Alamo ranch for an interesting account regarding the Cliff Dwellers in the Rio Mancos Canon. (The account took up an entire column and was largely false when it came to the history and archaeology of the Cliff Dwellers.
Tuesday morning a slight coating of snow was on the ground.
Mr. Hammond (John Howard) has brought in his saw mill from Trout Lake and set it upon Chicken Creek about seven miles from town.
Puett Bros. have a contract to make three miles of ditch in Montezuma valley.
A phonograph, manipulated by an ex-veteran, was one of the attractions in our village last week. The harness gang went for broke against "Ra-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay."
Two Ute squaws were the attraction one day last week and George Wood was in a quandary whether or not to follow them. (George Wood worked on the railroad for some years with my uncle Henry John.
Orr and Owen took up a thousand feet of lumber for sluice boxes on their Horse Creek claim last Saturday.
Dave Hensley is decorating a handsome new home on Fifth avenue and will soon take unto himself a young and lovely red-headed bride.
The hotel accommodations are entirely inadequate for travelers and Dave Lemmon should begin additions to his house immediately. (Lemmon began a much larger hotel that same year and the next year (1894) Harry Ausburn constructed The Mancos Inn.)
The Alamo ranch, owned by Mr. B. K. Wetherill (Benjamin Kite Wetherill came to Mancos in 1879. He was the only Wetherill buried in the Mancos valley.), is one of the most fertile mountain farms in the west, and Mr. Wetherill and his sons are constantly adding to their acreage. This year they will harvest over 200 acres of wheat and 75 acres of oats.
Every afternoon pack animals of every description can be seen in front of George Bauer's immense outfitting house and Soen's butcher shop loading up with supplies for the prospecting camp.
Mancos will soon have a flour mill. As soon as Mr. John White returns from his cattle drive he intends to go immediately east and purchase the very best machinery for a 75 barrel plant. (John didn't make good on his promise and the first flour mill was erected by the Guilletts. John though did become the first county treasurer and also was a director of the Bauer Bank.)
onomical working of great fissure veins will be in demand.
Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at dnrls@q.com.