Telluride Oral Histories
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A poem by Rick Masters (Provided by Craig Muhonen)
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The picture is of a hang glider, near Telluride, Colorado, in 1979. Both the picture and the poem were provided by Craig Muhonen. Here is the poem, written by Rick Masters:
"You embrace her and feel her tremble and sigh, responsive to your touch.
You pay attention to the air ocean you are about to enter.
You don’t turn your back to it’s waves, lest they sweep you away.
You don’t make a bunch of ridiculous and distracting choreographic moves at the critical moment of take off.
You stand firm and focus on the sky that beckons you.
You stand firm and focus on the movement of the air coming up the hill towards you.
A gust? A thermal? The devil?
Your hang glider is completely ready to go, trusting you to guide her.
You stand there, confident, in quiet excitement, feeling her fly on your shoulders like an ever wondrous and powerfully fleet, obedient Gryphen about to be released from her cage.
You see the grass ripple.
You watch the birds.
You listen to the words of the wind, sometimes you wait for signs of a thermal teasing the bushes.
You wait for the right moment, when the wind feels perfect, with your fabulous wing already flying inches over your head, responsive to your every command.
You trust her.
Then you take a few steps and fly away to heaven.
You are joyously and instantly and smoothly transformed into an ethereal being.
There is no drama.
Drama is for idiots. R.M. 2018"
--Taken from an email by Craig Muhonen.
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A story of Telluride's runway at the Telluride Airport (by Craig Muhonen)
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Here is the description of this image, as written in an email from Craig Muhonen on 11/4/22:
"24 NTSB reports on this airport since 1985. I have copies of them. well this is a slightly different record of those events, the picture is from 1984, when the hangers were being built, and it shows the first “building” on mountain village, was a 23 story monstrosity,
only to bring in their skiers “right down the runway”, to the Doral hotel and spa…ha..
and one perfect little ski area.
Most of these crashes were “stall/spins” or uncontrolled into terrain , of perfectly good airplanes, but in high density altitudes, with inexperienced mountain pilots,
and no real, “clear air turbulence reports” from the ground, things can get crazy in a heart beat.
The yellow crosses are single plane fatal accidents. The blue crosses are “should have been kilt,” accidents,one where a Mexican jet passenger plane, crashed into a snow plow, during a snow storm, at night, at a “closed airport!!” (8 minutes prior)WOW. They clipped a wing off and managed to slide to a stop and lucky no fire, where the passengers, and the poor snow plow driver, all had “shi* their pants,
(adrenaline is brown)but the two Mexican Pilots were just glad,that they could salvage their “cargo”.
The other blue cross was a Cessna flying into a tree, sheering his right wing off, but walked away with a big TBI, and no memory of the actual crash, of him “flying his airplane ALL the way to a crash landing”.
NTSB said that he was trying to do a “go a round”, but I saw him, his engine was dead and he picked a place to “land” that saved his life, and possibly others on the ground if he had stall/spun into the subdivision. 32 years later a pilot did crash his airplane into the subdivision in Jeff Campbell’s back yard just missing his house.
The white cross is for a little girl, Palomar or Paloma ? !0 years old?, 1985-86, who was allowed to play in the hanger, and died when an “in a hurry” airport attendant got in a Tug, and without checking (because she had crawled under to retrieve her ball) drove off, squashing her to death in a bloody mess.
I happened to be plumbing in the hanger that day, and it was bad, I got out of there quickly.
Still can’t find any record of her death or where she was buried, but I remember that her parents were managers there so….."
--Taken 11/16/22 from Craig Muhonen's email.
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Airplane crashing on Main Street in Telluride, Colorado (as told by Craig Muhonen)
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The image was provided by Craig Muhonen, via email, on 11/4/22. The title is "Small Airplane crash in 1971" and shows where a small plane crashed on Main Street in Telluride, Colorado in 1971. Here is the story, provided by Craig:
"The crash landing was uneventful, the pilot and passenger (some say from Joe Zoline’s company) were put up at the Hotel overnight then the “fixed” airplane was pushed out of town where it flew off.
Of course sheriff Morrow wanted to arrest the pilot."
--Taken 11/4/22 from Craig Muhonen's email.
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Alice Jensen's "This is my Life" Writing
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Probably created at the time of her oral history, in 1990, this is a document that Alice Jensen wrote and provided to the Wilkinson Public Library, about her life.
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Alta Allan & Myrtle Israels' Oral Histories
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An oral history, that is currently on cassette tape at the Wilkinson Public Library: Museum Tape MU38 Side A: Alta (Wood) Allan. Interviewed by Sandra Johnson and Alta Cassietto 4/25/75:
00-12 Introduction of Alta Allan. She lived in Telluride for a number of years and first moved there in 1919. Not married at the time. Worked in the telephone office. Named various girls that worked there. Future husband (Charlie) was in the service and they married after he returned in 1921. Bought cafe from Joe O'berto. The Tremont Cafe. Moved to Montrose in 1929 after the bank closed.
12-40 Names various hotels and cafes that were open during the time she was in Telluride. The Sheridan, The Alpine Rooming House, Mrs. Jackson had rooming house, Victoria Hotel, The Chicago Store, The Golden Rule Store, Perinos Grocery Store, Krakaws, Elscamps. She lived with brother Chap Wood. Brother and mother lived together after he got out of service Brother was superintendent of the Smuggler Mill. Describes the house she lived in.
40-80 Speaks of working at the telephone office when it had the switchboard. Names the people she worked with. Speaks of the avalanche that killed Mrs. Gifford and Mrs. Hicks. Talks about the little boy that was saved. Talks about all the people in town at that time. Very busy. Alta Cassietto talks about how busy Montrose was in 1905, but not as busy as Telluride.
80-111 Sandra introduces Myrtle Israel who came to Telluride in 1911. She was the mother of a five-month-old baby when she came to Telluride. Her husband was looking for work and he had a brother working at the Black Bear. Speaks of the Smuggler or Tomboy being the richest gold mine in area. Her husband and brothers worked in the mill for a long time. Later moved to Town and put in a little cleaning parlor, which he operated for a long time. Speaks of the only time she was at the Tomboy. She watched the gold being processed at the mill.
111-214 Describes the dances held at the Tomboy. Alta Allan's husband Charlie worked for the Transfer and would drive a sleigh and team full of women to the Tomboy. Also had a bowling ally there. She speaks of the night the sleigh tipped over coming down from the dance. Describes how the men brought the bodies down the hill from the Black Bear slide. All the people in town watched them come down. Describes where the mine was. Myrtle speaks of her daughter that still lives in town, Mrs. Dick (Elmer) Summer. She was five months old when they first went to Telluride. Her parents were in Telluride before she (Alta) was born. Speaks of her uncle that was murdered in Telluride. Was the first man buried close to the tree at Lone Tree. That was before Myrtle was born and she was born in 1891. Alta speaks of brother's nickname. Myrtle names the churches in town at that time, Presbyterian, Catholic and Community Church. She attended the
Community Church. Alta talks about living in Aspen.
214-256 Myrtle lived in Telluride from 1938 until 1943. She worked at Alvie Adams dairy. They had the Adams ranch and Mrs. Adams was an invalid. She was second mother to the whole family. Ski area bought ranch from their son Gene. Describes where the dairy was. Milk was
delivered on their milk route in town. She hurt her leg falling off the
porch and was in the Telluride hospital for a month. Dr. Parker took
care of her. Speaks of studying to get her LPN degree after moving
Idaho.
256-349 Speaks of her daughters. Talks of all the people that had left Telluride when she went back in 1938. Many of the houses were
empty. Seemed to be a ghost town. Mines and mills were closed down. Her father's brother had the first pack train in Telluride. Charlie
Seevers. Describes the areas he packed into. They lived in Fall Creek. Speaks of Seevers family and how they were related. Her father
worked on the railroad, as did her mother. Talks of the work her
mother did for the railroad on Old Dallas. Followed the railroad,
working on it, over to Ophir. Father helped build the railroad over
Dallas in late '1800s. Describes riding the train and the Galloping
Goose. Tells of driver describing one of the times when the Goose lost it's brakes and the passengers had to jump off.
349-467 Her daughter had a hotel at Ophir and Myrtle worked there. There were mines and mills there at that time. Describes her
daughter's first husband's death, a mining accident. Speaks of the Miner's Union building and where they lived and the cleaning parlor they owned. Talks about Grandma Spencer who lived next to the
Miner's Union. Talks about Ed Vizina's dairy. Lots of people lived in San Miguel then. Names people that had dairies there. Speaks of different houses there.
KEYWORDS FOR THIS TRANSCRIPT
00-12
Nellie Mines
12-40
Smuggler Mill
40-80
Avalanches, Pandora
80-111
Black Bear, Smuggler, Tomboy
111-214
Black Bear, Smuggler
214-156
Dairy, Hospital
256-349
Old Dallas, Narrow Gage Railroad, Galloping Goose
349-467
Ophir, Miner's Union Building, Dairy, San Miguel
People mentioned in this recording:
00-12
Thompson Girls, Joe O'berto
12-40
Mrs. Jackson, Pete Machone, Wunderlicks, Perino, Elscamp, Johnny McAdams, Mrs. Goldsworthy
40-80
Lena Sand Blixt, Tiny & Lillie Thompson, Ethel Larson, Mrs. Gifford, Mrs. Hicks
80-111
M rytle Israel
111-214
Dick (Elmer) Summer, Sam Seevers
214-256
Alvie Adams, Gene Adams, Dr. Parker
256-349
Charlie Seevers, Crissie Ross
349-467
Grandma Spencer, Ed Vizina, Kelly McKnight, Collins
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