Retracing a Few Family Footsteps in Colorado

 

Writing my historical novel Never Done familiarized me with my father’s side of the family. It also piqued my curiosity about the many places in Colorado my great-grandmother lived. In 2018, I decided to visit some of those towns. My sisters wanted to go with me, so the three of us met in Durango, rented a car, and drove all the way to Naturita, making stops in Silverton, Telluride and Ophir.

I  made reservations for us to stay at the historic Strater Hotel in Durango. Built in 1887, it is the same hotel Clara admires in Never Done when she and Vincent are living there. In chapter 52, Clara is a guest there for a couple of nights. Staying in the hotel was, for me and my sisters, like staying in a museum. All of the walls were wallpapered in old-fashioned prints. Most of the trim was real wood and hand carved. Beautiful antique furniture decorated the lobby as well as the guest rooms.

Inside the hotel is the famous or infamous Diamond Belle Saloon. In my story, Vincent spent some time there. My sisters and I had a dish of ice cream and took pictures of one another outside.

Day two we drove to Silverton. This is a hair-raising drive most people make this trip by train, but the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad had been shut down due to a wild fire. We stayed at Alma House, built in 1898 and converted into a boarding house for miners in 1902. With its carefully restored interior, antique furniture, and quaint touches like coffee and pastries outside our door first thing in the morning, staying there gave the impression of stepping back in time. Betty and Albert also served us an amazing miner’s breakfast that was delicious.

                                                          one of the sinks in Alma House

Our grandmother, Anna Colmer Grimes, was born and raised in Silverton. We visited the court house to see if we could find where she lived. We looked through many records, found several with her parent’s names on them, but no home address. In Never Done, Anna is the character Emma, married to Charley.

We also visited the San Juan County Historical Society’s Mining Heritage Center. The exhibits, realistic underground tunnel, and mining equipment gave us a good look at what it took to extract silver ore.

We spent two nights in Telluride. Once just another mining town, this one is now an upscale tourist mecca. Staying there didn’t give us the same historic feel we experienced in Durango and Silverton, but we had fun shopping and riding the gondola.

While we were in Telluride, we drove to what was once the small mining community of Ophir Loop. Not much remains of this grubby little place where, in Never Done, Clara manages a hotel.

Near the abandoned site once called Ophir Loop, we saw the scars that remain on Silver Mountain, deforestation created when the Silver Bell Mine dumped tons of crushed rock and other tailings down its sides. Mining was eventually halted because of it.

  

Finally, we reached Naturita where our father was born. We hadn’t been to the small town since we were too young to remember We were hoping to find the house our father was born in, but didn’t have enough information. However, with the help of the local librarian, we did find the hotel our father’s parents (Charley and Emma in Never Done) managed.

Here is a picture taken in 1918 of the hotel as it looked then.

This was how the renovated hotel looked when we saw it. The false front’s arched cutouts hide the original rectangular window frames. Though we brought a picture of the original hotel with us, we never would have connected it to this one if we hadn't had help.

Naturita has a small museum. The entire collection is housed in one room, and it was in that room we found something even more exciting than the hotel. There, in a glass case, was displayed a letter written in 1895 by our great-great grandfather, Jonathan Wainwright Tripler (Albert in Never Done). J.W. Tripler was in the cattle business in Naturita. This amazing find gave me goosebumps, made me wish I had done more as a history major than just write about it.

Christmas at the Ophir Loop Hotel

Since I am currently readying my home for Christmas, I decided to post an excerpt from my novel Never Done, one that briefly describes an old-fashioned Christmas at the Ophir Loop (Colorado) hotel. I have changed some of the wording to add enough clarification to make it a stand alone piece. If you enjoy it, you might want to read the rest of the story that takes place from 1895 to 1919.

Toward the middle of December, Clara began preparing for Christmas. The aroma of gingerbread and other sweet-smelling treats floated through the hotel every day as she and Hannah filled the cellar with baked goods. Soon pine boughs appeared in the hotel entry as well as over the dining room windows.

Clara had seen a box of ornaments in the cellar, and imagining a Christmas tree in a corner of the dining room, she asked Yoshiro to hitch up the sleigh and bring back a small conifer. Yoshiro had learned about Christmas trees the previous December when the hotel’s owner helped him find a tree of the proper size and shape. True to a tradition he hadn’t grown up with in Japan, he returned with a healthy six-foot spruce.

Mr. Beale was eating supper when the hotel’s eager young handy-man dragged the tree into the dining room. He finished his coffee, and then helped Yoshiro build a simple wood stand for the tree. After making sure the tree stood perfectly straight, Mr. Beale returned to his table and finished his meal.

Sophie, her moon face beaming, walked into the dining room carrying the box of Christmas ornaments. She set it on the floor, and then reached into the box and pulled out a green glass ornament which she attached to a branch with a piece of red ribbon. 

Mr. Beale pulled out his pocket watch. “I don’t have to go to work for a few minutes" he said to Sophie. "May I help you hang those ornaments?”

Sophie shrugged her shoulders and gave him a puzzled look. “No know.”

Thinking Sophie might not have enough grasp of English to understand what he wanted, he walked into the kitchen and asked Clara who was sitting on a stool, peeling potatoes.

“I’d be pleased if you’d let me help decorate the tree, Mrs. Reese. I don’t have to leave for half an hour.” His dark brown eyes, droopy at the corners, sparkled with the glee of a young boy.

Clara felt her face redden. Not only had she been nosing around this man’s reading material when she cleaned his room, he had been sneaking into her dreams of late, dreams she pooh-poohed as some strange manifestation of Rocky Mountain altitude sickness.

“That would be kind of you, Mr. Beale.” She went back to peeling the potato she had been working on.

“Will you tell the maid and the Japanese boy I am allowed?”

Clara put down the potato and wiped her hands on a towel. With Yoshiro and Sophie watching, she took one of the ornaments out of the box and handed it to the night watchman, nodding and smiling while he hung it on a branch.

Yoshiro grinned broadly. Pointing at the ceiling, he said, “Up now, Missus,” and then he hurried outside to shovel snow off the roof. 

With quiet resolve, Sophie squatted next to the box of ornaments and picked out several of the prettiest ones before Mr. Beale could get his hands on them.