My father was born December 1904 in a ghost silver mining town called Silver Cliff. Silver Cliff is in the Wet Mountain Valley between the Wet Mountains on the east and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (part of the Rockies) on the west.
Wet Mountain Valley looking toward the Sangre de Cristos
The town was originally built in the 1870s in order to accommodate the mine workers during the silver boom. Silver Cliff was incorporated in 1879 and by 1880 had around 5,000 residents. At that time it was Colorado’s third largest city, behind Denver and Leadville. The railroad was built to the Wet Mountain Valley but it deliberately didn't go to Silver Cliff. The depot was a mile west of Silver Cliff in Westcliffe. Westcliffe was incorporated in 1887. Government purchases of silver were nearly doubled by the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The repeal of the act in 1893 resulted in a collapse of silver prices, bringing about an end to the boom and many mining camps like Silver Cliff became ghost towns.
Our father was the middle child. He had an older brother and older sister, a younger brother (Harry) and a much younger sister.
Photo taken about 1911 - In the back my dad's older brother Ernest. The baby on the stool is Harry. In the middle his older sister Margaret and on the right my Dad. His younger sister Mary hadn't been born yet.
He went to a one room schoolhouse and helped in his father's general store,
General store
but otherwise, he was a free-range child who hung out with the friends of his older brother. He would tell us stories about his boyhood.
Figge store display with Harry and Margaret
I don't know if we did the trip back to Silver Cliff before or after the funeral of his mother.
To get to Silver Cliff my parents always talked about going over the Hardscrabble. I never knew what that meant - even though I looked up the word Hardscrabble, I never realized (until now) that the Hardscrabble referred to is a mountain pass through the Wet Mountains.
We drove into town and stopped to take pictures.
My father with his movie camera and my sister
Wet Mountain Valley
My father wanted to take movies panning along the mountains. In order that he get the panning speed right, we were to run along parallel to the mountains.
My sister pointing at the Sangre de Cristo
When we were staying in the valley, we did not camp - we stayed in a tourist cabin. The cabin didn't have indoor plumbing so to use the bathroom, we had to go across the street to the gas station.
My sister, me and my mother in the Main Street and the gas station where we used the bathroom
Town street
We visited the house that had been my grandparent's house.
Grandparents old house
It is a small house - one bedroom, the front parlor and the kitchen.
On the kitchen door frame were notched the heights of the children and the year. My father said that the boys slept over the store.
Flowers on prairie near Figge's
My dad took photos of a couple and their daughter - at one time I knew their names, but I can't remember now who they were.
Old couple and their daughter
We also went to Westcliffe
Westcliffe
and visited the church where my father's family attended.
Lutheran Church in Westcliffe
Westcliffe Lutheran Church window
Westcliffe Lutheran Church window
He was baptised there
My father's baptismal certificate
Close-up
and so was I thirty two years later.
Wet Mountain Valley looking toward the Sangre de Cristos
The town was originally built in the 1870s in order to accommodate the mine workers during the silver boom. Silver Cliff was incorporated in 1879 and by 1880 had around 5,000 residents. At that time it was Colorado’s third largest city, behind Denver and Leadville. The railroad was built to the Wet Mountain Valley but it deliberately didn't go to Silver Cliff. The depot was a mile west of Silver Cliff in Westcliffe. Westcliffe was incorporated in 1887. Government purchases of silver were nearly doubled by the 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The repeal of the act in 1893 resulted in a collapse of silver prices, bringing about an end to the boom and many mining camps like Silver Cliff became ghost towns.
Our father was the middle child. He had an older brother and older sister, a younger brother (Harry) and a much younger sister.
Photo taken about 1911 - In the back my dad's older brother Ernest. The baby on the stool is Harry. In the middle his older sister Margaret and on the right my Dad. His younger sister Mary hadn't been born yet.
He went to a one room schoolhouse and helped in his father's general store,
General store
but otherwise, he was a free-range child who hung out with the friends of his older brother. He would tell us stories about his boyhood.
Figge store display with Harry and Margaret
I don't know if we did the trip back to Silver Cliff before or after the funeral of his mother.
To get to Silver Cliff my parents always talked about going over the Hardscrabble. I never knew what that meant - even though I looked up the word Hardscrabble, I never realized (until now) that the Hardscrabble referred to is a mountain pass through the Wet Mountains.
We drove into town and stopped to take pictures.
My father with his movie camera and my sister
Wet Mountain Valley
My father wanted to take movies panning along the mountains. In order that he get the panning speed right, we were to run along parallel to the mountains.
My sister pointing at the Sangre de Cristo
When we were staying in the valley, we did not camp - we stayed in a tourist cabin. The cabin didn't have indoor plumbing so to use the bathroom, we had to go across the street to the gas station.
My sister, me and my mother in the Main Street and the gas station where we used the bathroom
Town street
We visited the house that had been my grandparent's house.
Grandparents old house
It is a small house - one bedroom, the front parlor and the kitchen.
On the kitchen door frame were notched the heights of the children and the year. My father said that the boys slept over the store.
Flowers on prairie near Figge's
My dad took photos of a couple and their daughter - at one time I knew their names, but I can't remember now who they were.
Old couple and their daughter
We also went to Westcliffe
Westcliffe
and visited the church where my father's family attended.
Lutheran Church in Westcliffe
Westcliffe Lutheran Church window
Westcliffe Lutheran Church window
He was baptised there
My father's baptismal certificate
Close-up
and so was I thirty two years later.
- Next entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': Exploring the Wet Mountain Valley -1948 Eighth Post
- Previous entry in the series 'Exploring the USA by Car': Colorado Springs, Colorado - 1948. Sixth post
