A Travellerspoint blog

Visiting my Father's Friends and Relatives

Rocky Mountain NP, Denver, Mt. Evans and Colorado Springs

After we left Uncle Leonard's, I am not absolutely sure of the sequence of events.

We went to Rocky Mountain National Park
Chipmunk lured out with a PBandJ

Chipmunk lured out with a PBandJ


and I remember seeing the Rocky Mountain Sheep, but I don't have any photos of them.
Me up on the rocks in Rocky Mountain National Park

Me up on the rocks in Rocky Mountain National Park


Iceberg Lake

Iceberg Lake


I think after that we spent the night at Professor Wallin's cabin. The story behind the Professor's cabin is as follows:

My father went to interview at the University of Colorado Medical School for a job as a teaching assistant. The questions that the professor asked were -Can you clear land? and Can you notch logs? Evidently my father's answers were satisfactory because he was hired. He spent the summer during the week learning how to dissect a human cadaver, and the weekends building a cabin for the professor.
Prof Wallin

Prof Wallin


My dad and my mother spent part of their honeymoon there, and 16 years later, we all spend the night there too.
Wallin's cabin

Wallin's cabin


We went fishing and we brought home trout which we fried up for breakfast. Our father taught us to eat them tails and fins and all.

We went to Denver
Prismatic Electric Fountain in Ferril Lake - Denver, CO City Park

Prismatic Electric Fountain in Ferril Lake - Denver, CO City Park


and my dad took photos of a fountain where the colors were synced to music,
F0555-000002160020-083.JPGF0555-000002160020-084.JPG
and we visited my little first cousin Margaret - the daughter of my father's younger sister Mary.
Margaret

Margaret


My father's sister died in 1944 and her husband had remarried.
Margaret, her father, stepmother and half sister

Margaret, her father, stepmother and half sister


We went up Mt Evans where the University of Denver Cosmic Ray Lab is.
Mount Evans

Mount Evans


My dad had an experiment up there last year, to see whether cosmic rays (from the sun) had any effect on cancer. Some of the mice were up here and some were down in a coal mine in Pennsylvania

Then we went to my father's younger brother Harry. Harry managed the State Game Farm in Colorado Springs. My grandmother was there
Granny, Daddy, Mother, me, my sister Aunt Alice and our cousins

Granny, Daddy, Mother, me, my sister Aunt Alice and our cousins


along with our Aunt Alice and my three cousins.
Aunt Alice and Uncle Harry and our cousins

Aunt Alice and Uncle Harry and our cousins

F0555-000002160020-093.JPGColorado cousins

Colorado cousins

The oldest of Uncle Harry's daughters

The oldest of Uncle Harry's daughters

Uncle Harry with his youngest daughter

Uncle Harry with his youngest daughter


The four of us cousins had a really good time there - our youngest cousin Beth was still in diapers. Uncle Harry raised game birds - pheasants and quail. Every morning we would gather the eggs which were put in an incubator to hatch.
Eggs hatching

Eggs hatching

F0555-000002160020-116.JPGBird just hatched

Bird just hatched


Some of the eggs Aunt Alice would fix for breakfast.
Eagle and its prey - Harry shot it

Eagle and its prey - Harry shot it

Harry holding eagle

Harry holding eagle


Uncle Harry had to keep predators away from his flock - some of the pens were covered with wire and some were not.
My sister and me holding the eagle

My sister and me holding the eagle


We played on the grain sacks in the barn until we were stopped because it was disintegrating the feed in the sacks.

My sister and I wore dresses most of the time. Usually made by my mother. She would make one for my sister and one for me, and then when my sister grew into my dress, she made another one for me in a bigger size. After I grew out of the dresses, she sent them out to the Colorado cousins - the oldest of them was my sister's age.
Five first cousins - me, my sister and the three Colorado cousins

Five first cousins - me, my sister and the three Colorado cousins

My sister and the Colorado cousins

My sister and the Colorado cousins


Uncle Harry's was a chance for our mother to wash our clothing - I was "helping" with the wash - the washing machine had a wringer, and I was feeding the wringer and got careless and fed my whole arm through. Fortunately it was set for blankets and I did not suffer any injury.

Another of my mother's first cousins (she had 12 of them) was married in the spring. She asked my sister to be a flower girl and this is the dress my mother made for her to be a flower girl in.
My sister in her flower girl dress

My sister in her flower girl dress


Hunters would come across fauns which had been hidden in the woods, and thinking that they were abandoned, they would bring them in to the game farm.
F0555-000002160020-104.JPGFawns at Bird Farm

Fawns at Bird Farm


One of our jobs was feeding them.
F0555-000002160020-102.JPGMy sister and cousin feeing fauns

My sister and cousin feeing fauns


The State Game farm had a really good view of the Garden Of The Gods across the valley.
Front Range of the Rockies

Front Range of the Rockies


Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak


We went and saw Balanced Rock with our cousins.
Balanced Rock - Garden of the Gods

Balanced Rock - Garden of the Gods


Indian at the Garden of the Gods

Indian at the Garden of the Gods

Indian family - posing for tourist photos for tips.  In the movie my father took of them one of the Indians is reaching for a tip from another tourist

Indian family - posing for tourist photos for tips. In the movie my father took of them one of the Indians is reaching for a tip from another tourist

large_eedca9e0-e302-11ea-be96-635bb0435571.jpgGarden of the Gods Trading Post

Garden of the Gods Trading Post


Our grandmother died on July 16th just before her 70th birthday. My mother and father took us and our two older cousins camping to allow Uncle Harry and Aunt Alice to make the funeral arrangements. We camped as before, on a ground cloth, up on a bluff above a stream. My mother wanted to know why we didn't camp next to the stream so it would be easier to get water. But my father wouldn't do it.

The next morning, the water was up much closer to us - there had been a cloudburst upstream which had filled the dry arroyo.

We went to the funeral service in Canon City.
Walking stick cactus near Canyon City

Walking stick cactus near Canyon City


The obituary in the paper said:

Granny

Granny

"Many Honor Mrs. Maria B. Figge

Wedding portrait 1899

Wedding portrait 1899


Westcliffe July 1948

"Many friends from both Fremont and Custer Counties gathered at St. Paul Lutheran church [Canon City] Tuesday to pay respectful tribute to Mrs. Maria B. Figge, well-known resident of both counties.

"Services were held at the church at 10 a.m. with Rev. J. Bundschuh officiating. An abundance of lovely floral tributes were massed around the casket and in the front of the church.

"Mrs. John Ehmke sang " My Faith Looks Up To Thee" and Beautiful Savior" with Mrs. Margaret Bundschuh playing the piano accompaniment

"Casket bearers were Alvin Stroehlke, Herman Hansen, Harry Schulze, Otto Schulze, F. C. Kiesler and Oscar Heerwagen.

"After the services, Mrs. Figge's remains were taken by Holt mortuary to the cemetery in Silver Cliff for interment."

Grave (Bertha was a nickname)

Grave (Bertha was a nickname)


She died July 16, 1948 and was buried July 20, 1948.
Her youngest son Harry purchased a painting of the Good Shepherd for Canon City's St. Paul Church.

Posted by greatgrandmaR 12:11 Archived in USA Tagged colorado chicks denver cousins funeral grandmother mt_evans fawns

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Comments

Great memories! Thanks for sharing, Rosalie~

by Vic_IV

Thank you for reading

by greatgrandmaR

I'm really enjoying this series of posts. I can relate to the comment about dresses as my mother used to do the same - my sister always resented having to wear my cast-offs as by the time she inherited them she had already been wearing that design in her own smaller size, while I got to have a new dress! The sign on the Trading Post, 'See the Indians', is very much of its time I would say!

by ToonSarah

Yes but your sister only had to stand and have the hem done once and you had to do that twice. And your new dress was just the same as the one you had been wearing. Not a different style or anything.

I don't know that my sister has ever said anything about resenting wearing my old dresses. I'll have to ask her.

I also noticed that sign. The previous time we were in Colorado (probably about 1942 or 1943) we have a photo with these same Indians and they have put their feather headdresses on us. They were heavy and my sister (who was about 2) is crying. The Indians were Pueblo Indians and we visited their home later in this trip.

by greatgrandmaR

No, my new dress was always just that - a new pattern and fabric! My sister would sometimes have a duplicate in her size, other times only my cast-off!

by ToonSarah

My mother made three - all alike. So my "new" dress was the same as my old dress. I think she did this partly so that she could send the dresses on to our cousins in Colorado and there were three of them.

by greatgrandmaR

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