100 years ago: Fort Lewis – “On Thursday the institute members had an air of getting ready to go home. Mrs. Cozine closed her class in paper cutting and folding to make way for Miss Shoe’s class in arithmetic ... The various instructors and county superintendent at Fort Lewis made their farewell talks ... after which the normal institute for the district was at an end.”
75 years ago: “Although his body was not found until 6:30 p.m. Monday a Bayfield farmer is believed to have been instantly killed when struck by a bolt of lightning about 4:30 p.m. The farmer, who farms on Beaver Creek 2½ miles east of Bayfield, was irrigating a field when hit by the lightning.”
50 years ago: “At the core of the work stoppage which has shut down construction on the La Plata County Jail addition and dormitory and science wing at Fort Lewis College is a new contract for common laborers. One of the area’s major contractors said the union, Local 813, was asking a 45-cent per hour increase over a three-year period. Under the previous contract, which expired several weeks ago, laborers were getting $2.35 per hour.”
25 years ago: “For almost 23 years, Harold Young and his employees at Hood Mortuary made lonesome trips over Red Mountain Pass to Montrose. Their only companions on the journeys were dead bodies on the way to cremation at Valley Funeral Home. The employees of Durango’s only mortuary had to make the 220-mile trip because there is no local crematorium. Young hopes his traveling days are over and a crematorium will operate in Durango by fall.”
Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not have been verified.
