"Tales, Trails and Tommyknockers" Quiz

Answer: Prunes

Prunes was a very famous burro. He worked in every mine in the Fairplay and Alma area. He was put down at the age of 63. Prunes has a monument set up for him on a street in Fairplay. When Rupe died, he was cremated and buried beside Prunes.

Answer: William Bent

Bent's Old Fort was a major trading spot on the Old Santa Fe Trail. Indians and trappers would stop there to trade goods and exchange news. Charles Bent was murdered in Taos after becoming Governor of New Mexico. After cholera hit the Cheyenne tribes, trade stopped at the fort. Ceran St. Vrain left for Missouri. William Bent had his people take everything valuable out of the fort and he blew it up on his way out.

Answer: The columns

The 36 columns that support the Lincoln Memorial are made from Colorado marble. It was judged to be the purest and hardest of all the marble samples sent from all over the world. The statue of Lincoln is carved from Georgia marble. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is also carved from Colorado marble.

It was the largest single block ever quarried in the world. When it was first cut, it weighed 124 tons.

Answer: False

One of many mining superstitions was that accidents happened in threes. Some other ones were that it was bad luck for a woman to enter a mine, it was bad luck to drop your tools and if a miners' work clothes fell of the hook, it was thought that the miner would fall down the mine.

They were just a little paranoid but there were very good reasons for it. Bad air, cave-ins and falls were just a few of the problems that miners faced.

Answer: The Ross gang

Uncle Dick Wootton built a toll road over Raton Pass in 1865. The stage stop, hotel and toll road were busy places with Indians, trappers, lawmen and Army troops heading for New Mexico. The Ross gang it seems had planned to rob the midnight stage. They were robbing the hotel when Dick woke up, told them he knew who they were and what they were up to, and offered a little "trigger happy hospitality".

Answer: He owned a grocery store

Horace Tabor, husband of "Baby Doe" Tabor, owned a grocery store in Leadville. He "grubstaked", that is provided food and supplies to two poor miners who happened to hit a good vein of silver. Because he had set them up, they gave him a third share of the mine. Unfortunantly, when the U.S. decided to stop backing money with silver, the price of silver dropped.

The Tabors never recovered and Horace died in 1899, flat broke. He told Baby Doe to hold on the one mine, the Matchless. He said that some day it would make her rich again.

It didn't. She held on to it though and died there in 1935, poor as a church mouse.

Answer: False

Silver heels was a dance hall girl who had shoes with silver heels on them. When an epidemic of smallpox hit the area mining camps, she went out to nurse the sick. Many people died but Silver Heels nursed many of them through the winter before she fell ill herself.

She survived but nobody ever saw her again. Sometimes though, people would see a woman in a long veil weeping in the cemetery. People thought it was Silver Heels, in a veil because of the smallpox scars, crying for her dead friends. The surviving townspeople named a mountain for her. Mt. Silver Heels stands above Fairplay, a fitting monument to a strong lady.

Answer: Molly Brown

Many people snubbed Molly Brown because she'd come from meager beginnings. She proved her mettle though, after the Titanic sank. She had the women handle the oars after the men had given up. After they were rescued by the Carpathia, Molly continued to help the sick and the dying.

She even raised money to help the poor women whose men had died. After the story got out, Molly was famous and was invited everywhere. Isabella Bird was an English lady who wrote many books about adventures she had in Colorado and other places. Silver Dollar Tabor was the daughter of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor. Susan Anderson was a doctor in Fraser.

She treated the men on the railroad and at the lumber camps. You can read all about her in a book titled "Doc Susie".

Answer: The Continental Divide

Before and during the construction of the Moffat Tunnel, trains carrying supplies and people to the towns of Fraser, Tabernash and Arrow had to go over the pass. The "Hell Hill Line", as it was called, went over the Divide and was often stopped in winter by snow and avalanches.

The passengers in this tale had to walk out and down to Tolland after their train was stuck and they ran out of water for the steam engines. One guy, deciding he didn't want to walk, jumped on a shovel and rode it on the tracks down. Burnt the seat of his pants right through.

The other eight men arrived safely in Tolland and the stalled train was pulled into the lumber camp at Arrowhead the next day to deliver the supplies.

Answer: John Wesley Powell

Major Powell was a geologist, teacher and explorer, among other things. He'd heard that there were places where the river went underground and that it had falls as high as Niagara. It doesn't but he had to see. So he took a party of nine men and started down the river. Three months later, Powell and six of his men came out. Three men had deserted after they had seen the serious rapids at the end of the Grand Canyon.

They were killed by Indians. The Major found out that sometimes, rivers are formed before mountains and when the land rises, the river cuts through.

He also found the place in Utah where the Green River and the Grand River joined to form the Colorado.