Just outside Walsenburg on Hwy 160. (Click to enlarge photo)
Hit US160 west through Alamosa, catching US285 in Monte Vista. This turned into US24 and I rode into Leadville around noon.
Visited the local Heritage museum, curious about the town and Mary Hallock Foote. The museum had very little on that subject but did have some nice antiques from the period, and a lot of history on the town and its rich silver kings. Interesting visit. They had a hand carved grandfather clock that dated back to about 1860 and I would love to take that thing into the next Antiques Roadshow with my name on it. (They made me remove the little tag with my name on it. I didn't think I was seen sticking it on the back of the clock.)
Mary Hallock Foote is one of my favorite characters of the "Old West." Educated, talented, cultured, alert and observant, brave, she was well educated and studied art in New York City before becoming a well-known artist-illustrator there. She married Arthur De Wint Foote, a mining engineer, in 1876, and moved with him to San Jose, California, later going with him to mining and water projects in Leadville (CO), Deadwood (SD), Boise (ID), and Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, before settling finally in Grass Valley, CA.
To me, Mary Foote is the archetypal female representative of the schizophrenia that was the settlement of the west. She fully represented the cultured and literate Yang juxtaposition to the coarse and violent Yin of the miners, gamblers, and gunfighters which peopled this wild and woolly place and time. Her sojourn in Leadville covered the years 1879-81, missing the self-encapsulated Yin and Yang that was Doc Holliday by three years. Holliday was there during the summer of 1884, shooting ex-Leadville policeman, Billy Allen, in Manny Hyman's saloon, on the 19th of August of that year. Holliday was himself, the archetypal male representative of the schizophrenic period. He was not just a dentist, he was educated far above most of the period, and a concert-level pianist who delighted many in the Dodge City days with his great talent. Further, according to the research of author Mary Doria Russel, the key friendship with the Earp clan was through Morgan, not Wyatt. I totally recommend her two books on this complex and hounded man. Written as novels her research is by far the most in-depth study of Holliday ever undertaken.
(Note: See Spitting lead in Leadville for the story of Holliday in Leadville.)
On the advice of the lady who ran the museum, I went to the Past Time bar. The more famous one in Leadville is the Silver Dollar Saloon. It's supposedly made to look just as it did "back when." The Past Time, according to my source, offered the best buffalo burger in town and, based on my observations, looked much like it must have looked "back when." Certainly, no one has spent a lot of money trying to modernize the place in the interim. It had a great old time bar where, according to the owner, Doc Holiday, Buffalo Bill Cody, and "Texas Jack" Omohundro once sipped the suds. Isn't hard to figure out why they gave Omohundro a nickname is it?
After leaving Leadville I lead-footed it (couldn't resist) it back to Hwy82, and the "Top of the Rockies." This a truly wonderful ride over the Independence Pass (12,040 feet) to Aspen.
Hwy 82 between Leadville and Independence Summit.
When they say 10 mph curve, they mean "TEN MPH CURVE, DUMMY!"
But the view from the top was worth it!
That white stuff is still cold on July 15th.
Took Hwy82 down the canyon (great little ride) to Glenwood Springs, CO. Rumor has it Doc Holiday is buried here. I'm going to check it out. Wonder if he still looks like Val Kilmer?
Speaking of which; I'm a Kevin Costner and Dennis Quaid fan, but boy, you gotta say it: Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer kicked serious butt playing Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. I'm not messing with any guy who says, "I'll be your daisy."
Heading north tomorrow toward Flaming George...oops, had the previous sentence on my mind...meant the reservoir, Flaming Gorge. Don't know where after that, but I'm meeting up with my buddy Bobby J and lovely Miss Z in Rexburg, Idaho Tuesday afternoon. After that we'll be meandering our way over toward Red Lodge, MT to meet up with the Hole in the Head Gang.
No comments:
Post a Comment