The New American Digest

Heading up west of Ouray, Colorado is the road to Camp Bird Mine, the townsite of Sneffels (1875 – 10,600 ft – once home to 2,000 people), the Revenue Mill, the Virginius, Ruby Trust and other mines on the upper slopes of Mt Sneffels.

Unlike the road coming down from Engineer Pass, this road has a pretty much, mostly, usually not too bad surface. Just left of center, you can make out traffic on the Sneffels road.

Unlike the Engineer Pass road, the Sneffels road is even passable in winter

Sneffels: A town of 2000 people in the late 1880s, the Revenue Mill was the big employer, 600 men to process the vast quantities of silver ore coming from the mines around: “workers at the Revenue mill enjoyed favorable living conditions for the day. The three Revenue boarding houses had electric lights, indoor plumbing, steam heat, and the men were well-fed, reportedly off of china plates.“

But no one lives up there anymore …

There’s not much left of Corral, Idaho – not that there was much in its heyday either.

Settled in 1886 near Corral Creek – named after a location of corrals used during cattle round-ups of the 1870s – Corral served the needs of local ranchers. The first school was built in1891, replaced by two others in 1908. School was held between December and February up to 8th grade – considered a full education in those days (with a curriculum much more difficult than faced by 8th graders today).

It was a 12 hour ride to get to a doctor until the telephone lines came through in 1900.

The town continued to grow …

A creamery was established in town but didn’t last long; the buildings were moved to another location – the creamery didn’t do well in its new location either.

By 1905, the town had a store and post office. A feed barn and saloon were opened; a hotel and second saloon were soon added. Another general store and farm implements store were opened.

The railroad came through in 1911 but missed the town of Corral by about a mile. Grain elevators were opened but the town itself struggled, kept alive mostly because of the post office and a pool hall. The railroad shut down the line in the 1960s.

The Corral store remained and was bought in 1968 – signs along the highway proclaiming “It’s Coffee Time!“. The population was 38. It was the only business in what remained of the town.

Most of Corral is gone now – so is the railroad but the grain elevators still stand as does one of the school buildings. The general store still sits along the highway, but the coffee … and store … ran out in 2001.

They signed some pretty papers 250 years ago, give or take a day or two.

Wonderful prose, wonderful thoughts

But it was all whistling-in-the-dark until 1781 at Yorktown or 1783 at Paris when “the united States of America” truly came into existence.

Until then, the “American Revolution” was a treasonous insurrection, now subject to 18USC Ch 115, §2383: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.” – then subject to hanging (see “Nathan Hale”)

Happy Independence Day!

Just heard that apparently someone donated $100k for a fireworks show this year in a nearby small town.
Supposed to be sunny, warm, and clear this evening.

The second death blow to the Confederacy landed the day after the Gettysburg debacle when Grant took Vicksburg, opening the Mississippi River to the Yankees.

“Summer In The City” was released by the Lovin Spoonful

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die this date in 1826

The French cursed us with the Statue of Liberty in 1886

She was the runt of the litter but the best hunter. Last born in March, #4 of 4. She preferred to stay outdoors, coming in – sometimes – to eat or, if the weather was really bad, sleep in a bed just inside the door. She’d disappear for a day or two at a time at all times of the year, but would return to the back porch on a regular basis; they were born in a closet but raised by their mother under the back porch step and I suppose that was where she was most comfortable.

She loved fried eggs. I’d set out a plate with the yolk remains after I ate the eggs and she’d have this weird little twisting motion before she settled down to scarf up every trace of yellow. It was hard to tell the plate was dirty when she was done.

It was this time of year when we realized she had been gone longer than normal.
“Have you seen Little Calico around lately?“
“No, I haven’t. It’s been a while“

We never saw her again. It was her second summer; I figure she got focused on the prey in front of her not realizing she was the prey from above.
Or she wandered too far into coyote country … just the other side of the road behind us.

I always miss my cats when they’re gone. She was one of my favorites.

Her mama and three now-7yo siblings are still around. So is their friend who showed up – also a kitten at the time – before their 1st birthday. Mama is 9 or 10, doesn’t have her teeth anymore, and pretty much has decided to be an indoor cat. The others … act like cats. They want to go through the door. Doesn’t matter which direction. Summer nights, they want out. Unless they want to be fed.

I’d miss everyone of them if they disappeared.