Hayden

Jan Leslie

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780738580210
• eBook ISBN: 9781439624968
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

The Hayden areas first settlers, who arrived around 1875, were certain that their hamlet would become the hub of Northwest Colorado. The first regional trading post, Routt County Courthouse, and U.S. post office were established here on the banks of the Yampa River. Nestled in the Yampas wide, verdant, high-country valley at 6, 300 vertical feet, the energetic little towns future was peopled by an assortment of penniless yet hopeful dreamers as well as enterprising ranchers and other businessmen. Ezekiel Shelton brought his family and a myriad of skills. Jim Norvell drifted in on foot and with a few dollars established a mercantile and saloon and later, after finding religion, a church. While the towns of Craig to the west and Steamboat Springs to the east grew, Hayden retained its familial descendantsstayersenamored of their corner of the beautiful Rocky Mountains and sheltered from most severe weather in the Yampa Valley.

Three

GATHERING STEAM THE “TEEN” YEARS

The square building on the east side (right) of Walnut Street was a mission hall built by William Walker in 1903. In 1910, it became a pool hall run by Roy Buzick. One evening, Buzick and two friends, desiring something stronger than soda pop, consumed a great quantity of hair tonic that contained lead and other toxic ingredients. Forty-eight hours later, the three men were dead. (Courtesy of Judy Poteet.)

A. O. Fisher and George Honnold bought Roy Buzick’s pool hall in the spring of 1911, after Buzick’s death from consuming hair tonic. They remodeled it into a two-story structure extending to the street. A pool hall (left), which sold cigars and soft drinks, was on the first floor and sleeping rooms were upstairs. The pool hall closed around 1964, and since then, numerous business ventures have occupied the building.

David Flitner and J. E. Miles started the Hayden Concrete Company (left foreground) in May 1909. Because the cement block business did not do well, the plant began producing electric power for the town in 1910. Peter Hofstetter purchased an adjoining lot and used the cement blocks in the construction of the Hayden Rooming House, seen behind the power plant in this photograph.

Gus Rosenberg, a carpenter, and Tom Prevo, a stonemason, did most of the construction of the Hayden Rooming House seen in this photograph. Catherine Hofstetter and her daughter, Zella, managed the boarding house until 1915, when it was sold to John Kitchens. By that time, it had become known as the Hayden Inn. The Hayden Inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. (Courtesy of Bain and Christine White.)

A 50-horsepower boiler for the recently incorporated Hayden Concrete, Gas, and Electric Company arrived in 1910. Peter and Melvin Hofstetter bought the electric plant in 1916 and began milling Flavo Flour two years later. Colorado Utilities bought the property in 1928, and began supplying electric power to the valley. The flour mill burned to the ground on June 20, 1929.

Jess Stringham and Thomas Dunstan opened a new livery barn across the street from the Hayden Congregational Church in March 1909. A year later, the partnership was dissolved, and Dunstan bought Stringham’s interest. The building was torn down in 1932, when Elmer Birkett built a tourist court on the site. This photograph of Lee Barnes (left) and Harry Gorham was taken in 1912, shortly after Dunstan sold the livery business.

Young Harley Gill was not a minister when he gave a speech on prohibition at Parks Hall in November 1910, but shortly thereafter, he began filling the pulpit at the Hayden Congregational Church. In 1911, after receiving a license to preach for one year, he was called to serve the church as pastor. Harley married Pearl Jones in January 1912. He resigned the pulpit in 1913 to attend college. (Courtesy of Hayden Congregational Church.)

Dressed in their finest, a group of Hayden friends enjoys a church picnic near Clark, Colorado, in 1910. Harley Gill, seated at right, took the photograph—using a string to trip the camera’s shutter. Seated directly behind him are Melvin Hofstetter and Gladys Blake, who married in 1912. The man in the overcoat, at the rear, is Billy Pritchard, who carved the wooden weathervane for the original spire on the Congregational church.

William “Billy” Pritchard was born in Wales and came to the United States when he was 26. He settled in Morgan Bottom, north of Hayden, around 1883, and became a successful cattle rancher. He was a charter member of th...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - THE FIRST PEOPLE IN
• Two - BEGINNING STRIDES 1900–1910
• Three - GATHERING STEAM THE “TEEN” YEARS
• Four - SETTLING DOWN THE 1920s
• Five - HANGING IN THERE THE 1930S
• Six - SMALL TOWN THE 1940S
• Seven - MOUNT HARRIS
• Eight - PEOPLE
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ABOUT THE HAYDEN HERITAGE CENTER