I'm starting off with a couple of fairly famous hunters. Steve Elkins was born in 1868. He married Jennie Patterson in December 1894. Jennie's father died four years before she was married, and her only brother died a year after she was married. She died in August 1915 in Glacier National Park, and her body was returned to the Mancos Valley. She was buried in the Cedar Grove Cemetery.

Steve was known for his hunting exploits, especially for hunting mountain lions. On one expedition, he went to a barn to sleep and fell through the floor, breaking his neck. He died from the fall on April 18, 1923, eight years after his wife died.

The oldest child of Steve and Jennie's was Hazel Elkins. Even though she was only 12, she was living in Pagosa Springs, where she had scarlet fever. Her body was brought back to the Mancos Valley for burial in June 1908, two months before her mother passed away.

Scott Teague was born in 1864 and came to Mancos in 1890 as a blacksmith. About that same time, he married Myrtle Wydick. They lost two of their children to the flu epidemic of 1918. A son, Clarence, was born in 1891. He was a rancher for a number of years before operating the pack and saddle concession at Mesa Verde National Park. He married Rose Lee Ogle in 1914. They had one son, Clarence Arthur. Clarence Teague brought in the New Year and passed away on January 1, 1947. His wife died in 1955.

Scott Teague became well known as a lion hunter and was asked to be the guide for a Mexican lion hunt by President Theodore Roosevelt. Scott died on April 30, 1936, of a heart attack. His wife, Myrtle, died in 1929.

There is a special young man I would like to mention. His name was Raymond "Buddy" Starr. He came into this world two months after I was born. We attended school together, and he became the valedictorian, and I was a co-salutatorian. When we were in the eighth grade, he figured out how much velocity it would take for a missile to rise above the Earth's surface, and he said some day he was going to go to moon. To the rest of the class it was an outlandish statement, but had he lived he might have made it to the moon. He was a lieutenant in the Air Force training others to fly when a trainee made a mistake, and Buddy was unable to correct it. The plane crashed, and both men were killed. Buddy died that day, April 24, 1956.

Buddy was the son of Martha and Raymond Starr. Raymond worked as a miner until he became a part owner in the Red Arrow Gold Mine in 1933. Buddy had a brother, Alva, and I have no idea where he is. Raymond died in 1976 and was followed by Buddy's mother, Martha in 1977.

Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].