Photo: Electra Lake big fish

This picture shows Judge William Norton Searcy sitting on the shore of Electra Lake. Based on two notes accompanying this picture, the year was either 1910 and the fish weighed 14 pounds, or the year was 1914 or 1915 and the fish weighed 22 pounds. Either way, what is not in dispute is that the fish was caught by Searcy at Electra, and it was a very large fish by any standard. Searcy owned one of the first cabins on Electra. He was elected judge of the 6th Judicial District in 1913 and served until 1932, the year he died. His wife, Helen M. Boston Searcy, was from an early Durango pioneer family. She was a historian who contributed many items about Durango’s early history to various publications. She died in 1947.<br><br>Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum.org