Time Machine: 120 years ago, effort to create secret society lodge afoot in Eagle
Courtesy image
30 years ago
Sept. 9, 1994
Vail Associates asked the Vail Town Council to pay $23,468 for half the cost of Vail Mountain’s cloud-seeding program, the Vail Trail reported.
Quoting VA governmental affairs manager Joe Macy, the Trail reported that the cloud-seeding process works by burning silver iodide in 12 generators spread throughout Vail Valley, causing the moisture in passing clouds to condense into snow and increasing snowfall by up to 20 percent.
“We can get 66 inches of additional snow if it’s done the entire season,” Macy said.
The practice was used in Colorado in response to the 1976-77 drought, which was followed by a 40 percent drop in ski business, Macy said.
Support Local Journalism
“He said VA and other ski resorts have continued the practice since then,” the Trail reported.
40 years ago
Sept. 14, 1994
A challenge from Vail landowner John Hall to a Vail ordinance prohibiting construction on slopes greater than 40 percent was heard in district court, the Vail Trail reported.
Hall claimed the laws reduced the gross residential floor area on lots he owned by 8,700 square feet, the Trail reported.
“The lawsuit seeks to overturn the slope limitation provision and allow Hall to develop the property ‘to the full extent’ or else be awarded monetary damages,” the Trail reported.
District Judge William L. Jones heard the case, but did not give any indication when a ruling would be made, the Trail reported.
50 years ago
Sept. 13, 1974
After part-time Vail resident Gerald R. Ford became president of the United States, one of the new addresses added to the Vail Trail’s out-of-town delivery rolls was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, publisher George Knox noted.
With the president as a subscriber, Knox took the opportunity to publish an open letter to Ford from Knox’s friend, Sid Bernstein, chairman of the executive committee of “Advertising Age, the National Newspaper of Marketing.”
“Dear President Ford,” Bernstein wrote. “Our basic economic problem is inflation. Right? Our basic moral, or psychological or social problem is the need to rekindle in our people a feeling of pride in our country, faith in our institutions, and a willingness and ability to help solve our problems. Right?”
Bernstein suggested both could be resolved through the use of U.S. savings bonds.
“Specifically, I suggest an all-out drive, with all the drums banging away, the flags flying and ‘Help Yourself and Uncle Sam’ proclaimed in every possible soul-stirring way, on behalf of an Anti-Inflation War Bond sale, aimed at selling billions of dollars of Anti-Inflation bonds redeemable at 5 1/2 or 6% annual interest if held to maturity five years from now,” Bernstein wrote.
70 years ago
Sept. 16, 1954
Eagle was expected to receive television in the near future after a group of men climbed Castle Peak and set up an elaborate antenna system.
“A group of local men, guests of the Lions Club, watched television coming from Cheyenne, on a set, made possible by Eldon Wilson of Wilson Radio and Appliance of Eagle,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “The set was placed at a spot near the CAA beacon at 10,000 feet altitude, with an elaborate antenna system, which has been set up by Mr. Wilson, Leland Hahn and Larry Rauch of Ann Arbar, Mich., who have been working on the set up all summer.”
Wilson and Hahn had been working to bring television to the area for the past two years, testing various locations all over the area, and Rauch, who was a professor of electronics in Ann Arbor, became involved the previous summer.
“The pictures coming over television were clear, and reception fine, the 18 men who witnessed the showing stated,” the Enterprise reported. “Willson stated that channel 4-KOA, Denver, also comes in clear. It is the hope of the men working on the deal, that they will be able to bring television into the valley from Castle within a few weeks.”
90 years ago
Sept. 14, 1934
The state highway through Glenwood Canyon was closed so bridge repairs could be made at Shoshone Dam.
Traffic was being routed over Cottonwood Pass, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported, and “with the heavy truck traffic which is using it, cars want to be driven very carefully over Blue hill and the pass.”
120 years ago
Sept. 9, 1904
“A movement is on foot to organize a Knights of Pythais lodge at Eagle,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.
The Knights of Pythias fraternal organization is a secret society founded in Washington, D.C., in 1864. The group had a lodge in Salida dating back to the 1880s, meeting at the Old Fellows Hall before moving to its own building in the 1890s, according to salidamuseum.org.
“After gaining the full support of Abraham Lincoln it was the first fraternal order chartered by Congress,” according to salidamuseum.org. “It offered insurance to the average working man by 1887. Members also helped each other in need. Rituals involved costumes, headdresses, swords, and other regalia.”
