People

: Leif Erik Hovelsen; Hovelsen was the son of Carl Howelsen, who came to Steamboat Springs in 1913 and established the remote community’s first Winter Carnival in 1914. He taught many local youngsters how to ski jump. Leif (pronounced “Life”) visited Steamboat many times during his adult life to reconnect with the town that continues to honor his father’s memory.

: Leila Nichols; Contributor to "Out of the Blue and Into the Sun," (source: Out of the Blue and Into the Sun: A Gunnison Valley Journal)

: Leland Jacob Buniger; He was born to Jacob Buniger and Catherine Alice (Krigbaum Darnell) Buniger in Grand Junction, Colorado. His father, a Swiss immigrant, was the Fruita town marshall. He also delivered salt to the Ross Brown Ranch at Douglas Pass, where Brown would give the salt to his horses. Leland’s parents married the year before Leland was born and separated a few years later. By 1920, when Colorado records indicate that their divorce was finalized, Leland was living with his father and siblings in Fruita. He spent the school years in Fruita and the summers in Loma on the Osborn farm, or with his uncle Harvy Buniger. He also spent time on the Grand Mesa with his uncle Walter Buniger. He married Lois Marie Long of Loma on July 2, 1935. The 1940 US Census shows them living in Loma, where they farmed potatoes, beans, and hay on rented land. They purchased a house from Frances Crane Idler that had been built for the Federal government’s Dust Bowl resettlement program. The 1950 Census indicates that they lived north of the intersection of Highway 50 and Colorado State Highway 139. They had a paper route for the Daily Sentinel for five years. They had two daughters.

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