Reflections from the Saratoga sun

25 Years Ago

January 21, 1998

Land exchange open to comment

The Bureau of Land management and Great Divide Resource Area offices are asking the public to comment on the second phase of a land exchange with the Nature Conservancy which was proposed in the fall of 1996.

Under the first phase of the land exchange, the BLM has issued a decision to exchange about 8,300 acres of public land on the Mark Ledder ranch south of Medicine Bow for 705 acres of a 1,030 acre parcel of TNC-owned land adjacent to the Whiskey Mountain Bighorn Sheep Winter range near Dubois. However, at the time of the first phase of the exchange, the BLM had not identified enough public lands to obtain all of the TNC offered private lands near Whiskey Mountain due to the difference in fair market value of the lands. The additional public lands are located in the checkerboard southeast of Rawlins and north and northwest of Saratoga, and total about 3,850 acres.

They surround the Eaton ranch and the Bolton ranch, now owned by Overland Trail Cattle Co. One exception is a section carved out near the North Platte River which Great Divide Resource Area Manager Karla Swanson said the BLM will retain.

50 Years Ago

January 18, 1973

George Berger sells Realty to Dan Simmons

Sale of the Berger Realty was announced this week by George A. Berger. In a prepared statement issued to The Saratoga Sun, Mr. Berger said, “Due to my recent illness, I have decided to curtail my business activities. Effective Jan 2, 1973, Dan Simmons became the owner of the real estate and the business which he will operate under the name of D.M. Simmons Realty. “I will be associated with him in the capacity of associate broker and will maintain limited office hours at the same location.” Simmons is not a newcomer to the real estate business, having qualified for a salesman’s license in 1958 and as a broker in 1972. In the 1950’s Mr. Simmons spent two years with Berger before becoming manager of the Storer Ranch, a position he held for 23 years. In 1970 he again became associated with Berger Realty. Involved in the transaction was the land and building at the corner of First and Elm and the business accounts. Mr. Simmons said he will continue to handle real estate dealing in residences, ranches and all other types of property.

75 Years Ago

January 15, 1948

Rawlins Votes To Hold Second Buffalo Hunt

This Year Refusing to bow to widespread criticism of last year’s hunt, directors of the Rawlins Chamber of Commerce voted this week to a second bow  and arrow buffalo hunt sometime next month.  They adopted an innovation in deciding to earmark one of the three buffalo for riflemen.  The other two will be for the archers.  

 Members of the Chamber of Commerce defended their hunt by reminding the public that it was not nearly as brutal as the method in which animals are killed in slaughter houses.  

 Pointing out that much of the criticism a year ago apparently stemmed from the face that the bulls were shot immediately on release from the trucks, the directors this week favored losing the animals at least a day before the hunt and sending the hunters out to find them.  The decision to allot one bull to rifleman was a compromise reached with rifle enthusiasts who were resentful.  Jim Underwood, Carbon county game warden, approved a petition of the hunt and the use of bow and arrow. 

 In a letter written to the Mayor of Rawlins, Day P. Espy, Miss Betty M. Seth, secretary of a Colorado archers association , declared the committee should “hog - tie” all reporters’, in referring to unfavorable publicity carried by a press association last year.  

 She said the archers had only three suggestions for the 1948 shoot:

(1) Keep the public away.

(2) Hog-tie all the reporters.

(3) Hold it on Saturday and don’t invite Roy. (Roy Hoff is editor of The Archery Magazine. He opposed the hunt last year and is opposing it again this year.). 

 No date has been set for the hunt but Isadore Bolten , Rawlins rancher who will again donate the bulls, asked that it be held before march1.  

 The directors also voted to charge a $10 entrance fee and to leave details of how participants in the actual hunt were to be chosen to a committee to be appointed by Day P. Espy, president of the Chamber of commerce.

100 Years Ago

January 8, 1923

Air Mail Skipper Falls 10’000 Feet

Pilot Boonstra Experiences Another Narrow Escape - Pilot Collision

Loses Propeller - Lands Safely.

Airplane drivers on the transcontinental airmail route are having many hair-breadth experiences these days, and Pilot H. G. Boonstra is coming in for his share of them lately.

Recently his plane was wrecked in a blizzard near Coalville, Utah, and he was compelled to fight his way through deep snow for 36 hours before reaching a ranch house. Last Thursday he encountered very severe weather conditions near the Utah line while en-route west. He finally lost control of the machine and plunged to the earth from an altitude of 10’000 feet. The machine was totally wrecked, but the driver, after some three hours of unconsciousness, revived and extricated himself from the wreckage and started to “hoof it” to some human habitation. He was picked up a short distance from the wrecked plane and taken to Salt Lake.  He is said to be little the worse for the accident, a few facial and body bruises and cuts being the extent of his injuries. Boonstra seems to bear a charmed life, even though it be somewhat strenuous.

 Pilot Hal Collison, who once landed near Saratoga to make repairs and became acquainted with many local residents, experienced another unexpected thrill a few days ago near Elk Mountain, when his ship lost it’ propeller at an altitude of 1,200 feet.  The pilot immediately realized that something had gone wrong with the machine and began to circle, looking for a likely landing place not until he had landed and inspected the plane did he realize that his propeller was missing. Collison landed about 15 miles out of Hanna.