Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Reflections on McIntosh Lake

Just about everyone drives by McIntosh Lake, located south of Colo. 66 between Airport Road and North 75th Street, from time to time on their way to Estes Park or Lyons. One hundred and fifty years ago, however, the only travelers passing by were homesteaders, stagecoaches and freighters taking advantage of the wide and relatively [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Shopping at home, circa 1872

This may come as a surprise to the Internet generation, but comparative shopping from the comfort of one’s home is not a new concept. It has been around since 1872, when Aaron Montgomery Ward established the first dry-goods mail order business in his home town of Chicago. Although the first Ward’s catalog was a single [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: The Plague of 1875

As if the rigors of farming along the Front Range weren’t challenging enough, a locust plague hit Boulder County in the summer of 1875.  After laying their eggs in the fall, they reappeared every spring for the next three years. The species, Melanoplus spretus, is thought to have been a long-winged version of today’s common [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Talkin’ turkey

D orothy Dougherty used to say that it was turkeys that bankrolled the Dougherty Museum south of Longmont. “When I say there are turkeys in this building,” she explained, “people say ‘I don’t see any feathers’.  But really, that’s what made it all possible.” In the 1940s, her husband Ray Dougherty and his parents pioneered [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Johnson’s Corner threatened again

A familiar Longmont landmark is threatened with demolition for the second time in seven years.   Despite heroic efforts in 2003 by historic preservationists, and the generosity of a local developer, Johnson’s Corner filling station once again faces the wrecking ball. For nearly 70 years, Joe Johnson’s Art Deco gas station was a popular stop for [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: The shortest distance

As those of you who commute between Longmont and Boulder already know, most of your journey parallels the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks. Although both corridors trace the “shortest distance between two points,” their construction dates span almost a century. In contrast to the few months required to lay track for the Colorado Central Railroad [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: The real farm leagues

In today’s parlance, the term “farm league” refers to minor-league ball teams that provide experience and training for young athletes.  Many Major League baseball players begin their careers by working their way up through the minor-league system. But in the 1920s, farm leagues were quite literally rural youngsters representing their country schools on ball teams [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Longmont boosterism

A decade after the Pikes Peak gold rush and the Homestead Act convinced thousands of settlers to head west, many new communities appeared along the Front Range. In order to prosper, these settlements needed to grow, and that mission was undertaken by local newspapers.  William Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain News, became Colorado’s first [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Matters of life and death

S adly, one of the best ways to learn about a person is to read what is said about them by those they leave behind. For historians and families alike, hometown newspaper obituaries offer a concise history of the deceased, from their vital statistics to their lifetime achievements. Throughout the early 1900s, obituaries printed in [...]

Anne Dyni’s Pastimes: Farmers unite!

Political Action Committees are not new to Colorado.  They’ve been around since the first Colorado Territorial Legislature convened in 1871. The most influential groups at that time represented the mining and agricultural sectors, both of which profoundly influenced the formation of Colorado’s early legislation. While the discovery of gold in Boulder and Clear Creek counties [...]

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