"Colorado's big game season has been postponed a week, and ... will open Oct. 24 on the Western Slope and run thru Nov. 9. Postponement was at the request of federal and state land use agencies, who state the fire hazard is more acute this year than last year, and at an extremely high point." -- Eagle Valley Enterprise Oct. 8, 1953 p.1
The line of hunters trying to get elk licenses validated stretched for quite a way in front of the Eagle County Courthouse on Oct. 22, 1953. "Before the flurry was over, residents and hunters alike, were fuming over a State Game and Fish commission's directive that made it necessary for 200 men to bed down in the courthouse square for 15 hours, in order to try his luck at getting the precious mark of approval on his license. ... Extreme feeling was expressed at every turn over the Game Department's first-come, first-serve method of validations. Almost to a man, the general opinion was that a drawing for validations would have prevented the confusion, disappointments and unnecessary camping in line to get a chance at a cow elk." -- Eagle Valley Enterprise Oct. 22, 1953 p.1
