Laura Van Dusen - Historic Tales from Park County: Parked in the Past

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Laura Van Dusen

All rights reserved

Front cover, bottom: Already colorful, Como, Colorado, basks in an explosion of golden aspen leaves in early October. Author photo.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

ISBN 978.1.62584.616.7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Van Dusen, Laura.

Historic tales from Park County : parked in the past / Laura Van Dusen.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-161-7

1. Park County (Colo.)--History--Anecdotes. 2. Park County (Colo.)--Biography--Anecdotes. I. Title.

F782.P3V36 2013

978.859--dc23

2013040301

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Dedicated to the Van Dusen future, my grandchildrenConnor, Gianna and Colbinand to all who hold a piece of Park County in their hearts.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge the following for their contributions to this book:

Tom Locke, editor of the Park County Republican and Fairplay Flume, for offering the opportunity to write the stories for the September 2011 Flume Sesquicentennial Special Edition and for proposing a monthly history feature in the paper, which became Parked in the Past. The feature and Toms encouragement led to this book.

Christie Wright, nonfiction historical writer and president of the Park County Local History Archives, for digging up information from the Park County archives and for sharing research sources and bits of hard-to-find facts. When I was looking for a publisher, Christies list of possibilities led to The History Press.

The Park County Local History Archives for its collection of historical documents and photographs from Park Countys past.

Colorado Historic Newspapers and its website, www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org, for its collection of Colorado newspapers dating from the 1860s. It is an invaluable resource in reading Park County history as it happened.

The History Press for taking the chance on a novice author.

I also acknowledge those who shared their knowledge of Park County history: Larry Frank (); and those entities that provided photos from historic collections: Park County Local History Archives, Colorado State Archives, Alaska State Archives.

I acknowledge my family:

My parents, Elmer and Dorothy King, for raising me to believe in myself; my siblingsJim, Janice and Vickifor putting up with me; my sons, Seth and Matt, for growing into the honorable men they have become; and especially my husband, Tom Van Dusen, for his support, patience and understanding that writing inspiration often comes in the hours between 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.

INTRODUCTION

In September 2011, Park County, Colorado, celebrated the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of its 1861 founding as one of the seventeen original counties in the then territory of Colorado. To recognize the date, the Park County Republican and Fairplay Flume newspaper (its shortened name, The Flume)through its editor, Tom Locke, and its owner and publisher, Arkansas Valley Publishingissued a special edition. That edition consisted of four stories I wrote about the 1860s in Park County.

Park County map, 1895. Park County Local History Archives.

The stories of Benjamin Ratcliff, Marie Guiraud, the Reynolds Gang and Civil War veterans became the basis of a monthly history feature in The Flume called Parked in the Past.

Each of the Parked in the Past stories, beginning with the October 28, 2011 Flume, focus on a different aspect of the people, places and events of Park Countys gold and silver mining, ranching, railroading and early settlement history.

In this book are twenty Park County history stories that first appeared in The Flumes Parked in the Past or in the Sesquicentennial Special Edition.

References in this book citing The Flume refer to historical issues of the Fairplay Flume, dating from 1879, and its rival, the Park County Republican, dating from 1912. In 1918, the two newspapers merged into the Park County Republican and Fairplay Flume.

1860s

Chapter 1

MARIE GUIRAUD

1860s Pioneer, Mother of Ten, Widowed at Forty-five, Amassed One of the Largest Estates in Park County Up to 1909

Marie Chabreat Guiraud (pronounced garo) was one of Park Countys most prosperous ranchers when she died in June 1909.

Up until October 1875, history recorded little of Guiraud. It was then that husband Adolphe (or Adolph) died, and she was left a widow at the age of forty-five to take care of their modest homestead as best she could and to finish raising the seven surviving progeny of the marriage, ranging in age from twenty-five-year-old Louis to two-year-old Ernest.

As best she could turned out to be quite adequate. In her care, the ranch grew from 640 acres in 1875 with a value of $9,559 (around $200,000 in 2013 dollars) to over 5,000 acres in 1909 valued at $200,000 (around $5,100,000 in 2013 dollars). A rumor circulating after her death told of another $80,000 in gold reportedly found in the basement of her home, stored with the canned goods.

The price of an ounce of gold in 1909 was $18.96; to have $80,000 in gold in 1909, one would have 4,220 ounces. By mid-2013, the value per ounce of gold was $1,388.80, making the 2013 worth for 4,220 ounces nearly $6 million.

Guirauds estate was said to be very nearly as great, if not the equal, of the largest estate ever built up in Park County in her obituary published in the June 11, 1909 Flume.

The ranch property was owned by the family until the early 1940s. At the publication of this book, it was owned by the City of Aurora, Colorado, and known as the Buffalo Peaks Ranch, located near the former town site of Garo between Fairplay and Hartsel on Colorado Highway 9.

Marie Guiraud. Photo courtesy of Jacquelyn Guiraud Miller and Fred Guiraud.

EARLY YEARS

Marie Chabreat, nineteen, and Louis Adolphe Guiraud, twenty-six, were married in France in March 1848. U.S. census records indicate that their first child, son Louis, was born in France in 1850. Marie faithfully followed Adolphe in his many business endeavors on two continents and in nine locations throughout their twenty-seven years together.

Shortly after the birth of Louis, the Guirauds sailed across the Atlantic to New Orleans, Louisiana. The family didnt stay in New Orleans long; after thirty days, they moved on to Cincinnati, Ohio, where sons Henry, in 1853, and Joseph, in 1857, were born. In the Cincinnati area, Adolphe Guiraud was first a wine importer, later a farmer and then operated a bakery.