LaConte: Freaks and slaughter
In Eagle County, we don’t need tales of ghosts and ghouls to get spooky on Halloween, because the true events that happen this time of year can be just as freakish and macabre.
In looking at October for the Vail Daily’s Time Machine section over the last two weeks, I’ve been truly horrified by the scary stories that have happened during this period in years past.
Coming up in this week’s Time Machine (publishing in print on Monday) we have death by helicopter propeller, an alleged assassination attempt gone wrong, two men being shot within two days of each other, and a man meeting death after two nights out in the cold. All happening in Eagle County, all reported in local papers of yesteryears between the dates of Oct. 21-27.
And in last week’s Time Machine, we had an equally frightening headline: “The greatest slaughter that has ever taken place within the state,” reported on Oct. 19, 1934.
The entry is in reference to hunting season, but what Time Machine’s synopsis of the story doesn’t tell you is the logic behind the paper’s bold prediction that the 1934 hunting season would result in “the greatest slaughter” in the state’s history.
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The paper likely made the statement based on the preconceived notion that the harvesting of animals would be massive in 1934 because it was the first year in recent history when the deer hunting season was a full seven days in length. In years prior, the deer hunting season started Oct. 12 and ran through Oct. 15, but in 1934, the dates had been set for Oct. 12-18.
This also coincided with what had been perceived to be lean hunting years and a buildup of big game in nearby habitats. The Great Depression had been cited as contributing to decreased hunting numbers in area forests in recent years, and here in Eagle County, the conclusion that the National Forest system itself was partially responsible had been presented by the Eagle Valley Enterprise, which interviewed Chief Forester F. A. Silcox in May of 1934.
The National Forest system, with its mission to devote land to its most productive use, had been focusing on wildlife development, and while “its application has resulted in large increase(s) in big game animals on the national forests during the past ten year period, the forest service realizes there is a need for more intensive game management,” the Enterprise reported.
This was all building toward a massive hunting season in 1934, and within days of its close, the Enterprise was willing to call it the state’s largest ever.
Hard numbers from the Eagle County area are hard to come by, but in nearby Moffat and Rio Blanco counties, the Steamboat Pilot reported that a record 557 deer had been recorded with one day remaining in the season. The Eagle Valley Enterprise estimated that deer and elk had been killed locally “by the thousands.”
Cook Sporting Goods’ largest elk head award came from an Eagle County hunter, Andrew Simon of McCoy. He was hunting on Gypsum Creek on the first day of the season when he encountered a 1,200-pound elk, bringing it down with two shots from 100 yards. As further evidence of a massive slaughter, a pair of Minturn residents also recorded a standard deviation in the state’s 1934 hunting sample. It was described in especially spooky terms as “a freak very rarely seen.”
“It was a doe deer with a fine head of horns,” the paper reported.
In the years to come, the region would be known for other “freak” animals. During the 1940s, it might have been possible to spot albino animals from two different species — a deer and a bird — in the Eagle area.
An albino robin is estimated to have been born in the spring of 1942, hanging around for a few seasons. Then, in 1946, an albino deer was reported as being spotted near the Lewis Brothers’ ranch north of Eagle, and it continued to pop up in the years to come.
In 1948, the Eagle Valley Enterprise did a story about the deer after a member of the Colorado Game and Fish Department reported seeing the animal three-quarters of a mile west of Wolcott.
The story ran in April, but the terms used are perfect for a Halloween piece.
“This freak of nature seemed to elude the surest shot during hunting season,” the Enterprise reported, “and became a ‘ghost’ deer in actuality as well as in appearance, showing himself but for a fleeting glimpse, then disappearing.”
John LaConte is a reporter at the Vail Daily who authors the weekly Time Machine feature that runs on Mondays. Email him at jlaconte@vaildaily.com
