BARBWIRE BOB – 8-25-22 – The villager

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BY BOB SWEENEY

Last week my lifelong companion Gerri and I set out to take a tour of western Colorado, the home of my immigrant ancestor, beginning with my Irish grandfather’s arrival in America in 1865 and my mother’s grandparents who arrived in Leadville from Scotland in 1895.

The trip followed an invitation from the Palisade Historical Society about the Palisade Tribune which we have owned and published for 20 years. I donated historic newspaper bindings to the Society and became a life member of the group. The newspaper was sold to Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, who published the newspaper for only two years, closing it, leaving the town without a local newspaper. Alas, this is happening in far too many cities across the country. Who will keep the citizens as the newspapers of the 4th estate dwindle. But, there are a few diehards like us, who still believe in newspaper printing. Congratulations to our subscribers who accept and continue to subscribe year after year via print or digital.

I remembered the group located in a former fruit shipping warehouse in Palisade, now converted into a winery and restaurant. They invited me to come back for another program at a later date. Palisade is heaven on earth as the fruit capital. The fruit is seasonal and must compete with South America and Florida where crops can be harvested throughout the year. The empty shipping warehouse is reminiscent of the days when fruit was shipped by railroad that runs through town.

It was my plan to own the Palisade Tribune and live in this community in my later years. I could jog to the main street newspaper office and continue my writing and press activities.

Instead of moving to Palisade, we moved to Denver in 1980, where our four children went to college. Two attendees at CU and two at CSU. All four ended up in the publishing business, with eldest daughters now retired and two still active in the business. Susan is heavily involved in day-to-day operations and sales, and Patrick does computer work, operating his father’s computer and the newspaper’s servers and computers.

We left Palisade at 7 p.m. and headed 120 miles north to Craig, passing Rifle and Meeker; traveling down a dark road where my grandfather once drove a freight car down a dusty trail to Rifle. Highway 13 heading north is notorious for being loaded with deer, but not a deer on the highway. Rifle is home to U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert’s Shooter’s Restaurant, which is currently closing for lack of a lease. Her four boys recently made headlines driving their all-terrain vehicles too fervently through the Silt neighborhood, a minor event that made national news. She is now something of a national celebrity vying for re-election.

We rented Craig’s last room at the Hilton Hampton Inn for $250 a night, the last room in a town full of motels. It seems that construction workers rent motel rooms working on condemned power plants, road construction and gas lines.

The trip to Craig coincided with the death of my high school friend, William L. “Bill” Terrill. He became a national member of the “Million Dollar Roundtable”, year after year, representing the New York Life Insurance Co. He was married four times, had a very exciting life and died alone in his sleep suffering from a cardiac disease.

A celebration of his life was held at the Mexican restaurant in Vallarta. The popular site was once owned by his family, named “Signal Hill” during the oil boom era. Bill owned a “Signal Hill” sign which he gave to the new owners and which hangs behind the wall of the restaurant’s bar. His father was also sheriff of Moffat County and was appointed U.S. Marshal of Colorado by President John F. Kennedy; his uncle, John Terrill, received the same presidential nomination in Wyoming. Both were very famous lawyers.

It was the old week at home at the outdoor patio celebration for “Billy.” We saw many Craig friends, especially five Peroulis brothers who grew up in Craig with our family. We were close friends of their parents, John and Kate Perulis. There is a large Greek population in Craig, all linked to the early sheep industry with the largest woolen warehouse in the country located in Craig. The brothers all own a ranch and own the historic line of trucks in Craig.

I was delighted to sit down with an old friend Louis Wyman, the founder and operator of the Wyman Museum, located directly east of Craig. A former rancher, he amassed an extensive collection of Western antiquities, including a steam press for Central City gold ore. He has an early military tank. I have a tank driver’s license from Fort. Knox Army Days. His museum has been featured nationally on Antique Roadshow, a popular television show.

Another Craig native was Dr. Neal McCandless, a licensed veterinarian I knew at CSU. Her father, Ted McCandless, wrote a clever column in The Craig Empire-Mail called “Shot of Scotch”. McCandless was a member of the Colorado A&M Board of Agriculture and a very prominent veterinarian, and a passionate Democrat. His son, Neal, has held many positions in Moffat County, including as County Commissioner. My dad loved reading his dad’s column.

The highlight of the trip was Friday night dinner with one of my last two living relatives, my first cousin, Patricia Sweeney Pierce. Now a widow, she was raised in a log cabin on the original Sweeney Ranch. A registered nurse, she married a local cowboy and state champion wrestler, spending her life in Craig. His mother Edna lived actively until she was 104 years old. My son Patrick is named after his father and my grandfather. My other first cousin Jason Sweeney was also raised in the wild on a cattle and sheep ranch and is like a brother. He worked summers with me in the hay meadows and attended CSU, having a successful career at IBM in Boulder.

At home on Sunday, I caught up on the local news, reading The Denver post. I’m really tired of those New York Times editorials. Although I can write about family history and events, the information is always about Colorado. I really miss some of these greats Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News writers, like Gene Amole, who shared how to make a great turkey stuffing. The villager now has a great sportswriter, Denny Dressman, formerly of Rocky Mountain News.

Colorado Masons gather in Central City this weekend to celebrate the founding of their first lodges during the Gold Rush. Lodges were here before Colorado became a state in 1876.

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