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This week in history Sept. 30, 1922: Snow falls in High Country, mining companies expand and Loveland Pass cleared

Herr Karamol of Berlin recently invited an amphibious automobile and has given it a successful test. The car has three wheels, the front one acting as a rudder in water and a steering wheel on land. The machine is propelled by motor or foot power.
Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection/Courtesy photo

This week in history as reported by The Summit County Journal the week of Sept. 30, 1922.

Tonopah Co. branching out in Colorado

The Tonopah Mining Co. of Nevada, of which the Tonopah Placers Co. of Breckenridge is a subsidiary, is branching out in mining in Colorado. They have acquired properties near Idaho Springs and also at Cripple Creek. Colorado mining interests are fortunate in securing this strong company to take over these properties, as it will assure the mines to be worked in a systematic manner and developed.

The Tonopah Placers Co. have also engaged a drill crew and have them working in the South Park country. They aim to thoroughly test the ground they have under option. If it proves satisfactory, they will install a large, modern dredge.



Locally, this placer company is now operating only one dredge. At one time they operated three, but both the French Gulch dredge and the one of the upper Swan River have been abandoned. If they operate in South Park, it is believed that they will remove the machinery from one of the abandoned dredges.

Each shower now covers the mountains with snow

During the past 10 days, every local rain shower in town has brought a white covering of snow on the peaks in the nearby ranges. The clouds settle down on the peaks, and when they clear away the result of the storm can clearly be noted by the white blanket cast down over the peaks. One of the showers earlier in the week caused snow to reach down into timberline.



However, the snowcapped peaks are cleared of their white coat as soon as the sun appears. Yet heavy frost has also been evident during the past 10 days. Every morning, the frost can be seen on the grass in shaded places by early risers. These all point to the fast approach of the winter season.

The past summer has been an exceptionally fine one. We have not had the usual amount of rain and the days have almost been perfect from early in the spring until late this fall. The rainy season came late and it did not show its usual vigor. Old-timers state that it has been many a season since so little snow has remained on the mountaintops through the summer, the big drifts on Peak 8 dwindling down so as to be hardly seen from town.

Loveland Pass now used as wagon road

Silver Plume camp has come back and nearly every mill is going with everybody at work. About 50 or more men could come in and get work the first day, and one mill is crushing 500 tons of ore every day.

Ben McGuire, superintendent of the King Solomon Syndicate, got tired of waiting on the state highway commission to open Loveland Pass, so he took a man and cut out the fallen trees so he could drive his team over the same day and got to Silver Plume by 4 p.m.

The next day, he returned with a load of passengers for the Lenawee, and he has crossed several times since. This road will be of great advantage to the citizens of Summit County in many ways.

The National Hotel Men’s Association will meet in Denver early in October. Sam Dutton of the Albany hotel, a booster for Loveland Pass in Denver, is going to bring them up to the top of the pass. The road is in good shape for automobiles to within 3 miles of the top. There, they will take saddle horses to the apex of the pass.

Local news notes from all around Summit County

  • J.E. Hopkins was a Denver visitor this week.
  • J.P. Childers returned from a visit with his son in Wyoming on Monday.
  • R.M. Henderson of Breckenridge was a business visitor in Red Cliff this week.
  • George F. Roth, of the Jessie Mine, arrived from Rochester, New York, last evening to lay plans for the future development of the mine here.
  • Judge D.W. Fall enjoyed a visit this week with his niece, Mrs. J.T. Caldwell and daughter, Miss Jeanie of Bakersfield, California. They arrived on Tuesday just in time to help the judge celebrate his 75th anniversary the following day. The party then left for a short visit with friends and relatives in Denver and Boulder.

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