6-Opinion
6 Pikes Peak Courier View
May 22, 2013
OPINIONS / YOURS AND OURS
Tobin arrived early, tracked way to history A legend in Colorado’s history on several fronts, Tobin left his own tracks. His father Irish, and his mother a Delaware Indian, Tobin, and his half brother Charles Autobees, arrived in Colorado as early as 1837 with Ceran St. Vrain and worked as trapper and scout for St. Vrain and his partners, the Bent brothers, at Bent’s Fort, as well as Taos, New Mexico. “Tom Tobin was a picturesque figure. He rode a black horse and wore a black hat, shirt, trousers and boots. He kept two loaded revolvers in his gun belt, one on each side. Although illiterate, Tobin actively supported the local school system and eventually became president of the school board,” wrote Ken Jesson in “Colorado Gunsmoke.” Tobin also garnered a reputation for being able to “track a grasshopper through the sagebrush” and was skilled with a rifle, pistol and knife. He counted among his good friends, the likes of Kit Carson, “Uncle Dick” Wooton, Ceran St. Vrain and Charley Bent. It was his tracking ability that got him the job that was to make him famous as a bounty hunter. Jose Filipe Nerio Espinosa and his brother Vivian Espinosa began their murderous rampage in San Luis Valley and
had extended it over Ute Pass and into Dead Man’s Canyon near Fountain. One of the Espinosas was killed but Vivian and a younger cousin carried on. Basically, they declared war on all Anglos and by their own reporting, had killed 22 people in Colorado, mostly miners in the California Gulch area from Fairplay to Red Hill, in South Park. In an interview from Oct. 10, 1946, Kit Carson III, the grandson of Kit Carson and Tom Tobin, and the proprietor of Kit Carson’s Trading Post in Sanford, Colorado, told the following tale of the end of the Espinosa’s reign of terror. “Colonel (Sam) Tappin considered Grandpa Tobin the best tracker in the country, had him brought in and asked to catch
the Espinosas, the reward was not mentioned. Grandpa was told “kill them for humanity’s sake,” nothing said about any reward.” Tobin tracked them to a draw near LaVeta Pass. “The Espinosa’s had been working their way from Colorado Springs going south killing anyone they came in contact with.” By noticing a bunch of crows circling, Tobin identified the murderous villians’ campsite. “He found them busy making a meal,” related Kit Carson, III. “The older Espinosa was squatting in front of the fire, while the younger one was hobbling the horses. Grandpa waited till the younger one came near the campfire, not wanting anyone to get away in the heat of battle. Hiding behind a rock, Grandpa sighted in on the older man and shot him, he fell face first into the fire, grandpa loaded a charge and spit a bare ball into the old Hawkin rifle and killed the younger Espinosa.” Tobin finished off the elder outlaw with his knife and took the Espinosa’s heads in a gunny sack to prove the job was done. “When arriving at Ft. Garland, the Colo-
nel, some of his officers, and their wives had been out riding, an announcement was made that grandpa was there to see the Colonel. He was brought into a large room where the officers and wives were relaxing after their ride. The Colonel asked, `Any Luck, Tom?’ Grandpa said, “So-so,” and he held the gunnysack upside down rolling the heads out onto the floor, ladies were screaming, the officers and Colonel even looked a little green.” Interestingly enough, Tom Tobin’s son, also Thomas Tobin, was the first state correctional officer killed in the line of duty. On June 26, 1899, Officer Thomas Tobin was stationed at Bridge Seven, a few miles below Florence, during the search for escapee Charles Nichols. Nichols was serving a life sentence for the murder of the marshal of Victor. “In the darkness, one of the sheriff’s posse shot Tobin in the center of his chest, thinking the man on the bridge was the escapee. Tobin was brought back to Canon City in a railroad car; he died a few days later on July 4, 1899,” according to information from the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Certain things shouldn’t ever be forgotten May is National Historic Preservation Month and Colorado Archaeology and Historic Preservation Month. As the saying on The History Channel goes, history is made every day but bits and pieces and sometimes entire chunks of it are lost every day, too. This often happens because people don’t see the intrinsic value of items they take for granted until they’re gone. For example, one of my first jobs out of high school was working the concession stand at the 8th Street Drive-in Theater in Colorado Springs. At that time there were drive-in theaters all over the region; besides the 8th Street, there were the Starlight, Vista Vu, Arcadia, Sky Vu and Falcon driveins. Of the 64 drive-ins that used to exist in Colorado, seven are still open, including the Mesa Drive-In in Pueblo. My employers also owned the Chief and Peak theaters in
downtown Colorado Springs. During the two years I worked in the outdoor theaters, the Arcadia was badly damaged by fire and the Chief Theater was torn down. We did, however, get to tour the great old building for a glimpse of its cinema and stage history before demolition. Too bad it’s gone. The drive-ins had a lot of stories to tell.
The Ruxton Ave. Railway and the Taggarts In June, 1893 the city of Manitou Springs approved the construction of a new electric railway from Manitou up Ruxton Avenue to the Iron Springs. In February, 1895 the city council renewed the franchise for building the street railway up Ruxton and make improvements to the street at the same time. John C. Beye of Kenosha, Wis., arrived in early March to make a final survey of the proposed railway. Ties and rails have been ordered. The standard-gauge ties would come from near Divide. Forty pound steel was going to be used. Three open cars had been ordered. The building of the line was now assured, but demands for the improvement of Ruxton Avenue remained on the list of demands. The path would become a forty foot wide street, with fewer sharp turns and dips. A large crew of men was expected in a few days. The ties and rails were arriving and the grade would be ready to see these laid within a week. The photographers J.G. Hiestand and R.D. Weir purchased from the Iron Springs company right next to the route of the street railway a three-acre spot that included access to Little Chief spring. A crew had started putting in track from near the Rio Grande depot westward. Another crew worked from the cog station down Ruxton. Work on the line started, and a rumor went out that it would actually be used by the cog road to reach the Rio Grande’s Manitou Station. The charter for the line included exceptions to any use by steam vehicles. William Frizzell was superintendent of the line’s construction and Ben Taggart was in charge of the track laying team. Taggart was, without a doubt, the finest selection for the job. In addition to this line he was experienced in difficult jobs, like the cog.
Twice in the two years I worked at the 8th Street someone lobbed a teargas grenade over the fence and we were also robbed at gun-point a couple of times. There was this one patron who regularly rode his horse in on Saturday nights to watch the movies; I think he hung the speaker from his saddle horn. One time, lightning struck the sound system three hours before show time and the entire staff was called in to repair 500 damaged speakers. We finished just in time for the Disney triple feature and the arrival of about 1,000 kids. At the Sky Vu Drive In, a young man climbed to the top of the screen and threatened to jump. A friend of mine climbed up and talked him out of it but then neither one of them could get down without help from the fire department.
Pikes Peak Courier View 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863
GERARD HEALEY President ROB CARRIGAN Editor and Publisher SCOTT GILBERT Assistant Editor ERIN ADDENBROOKE Classifieds Mgr., National Sales Mgr. AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager He also worked for the Colorado Midland in Ute Pass at Cascade. In May, 1895 the first car went all the way up to Iron Springs, testing the track. Starting the next Sunday the trains started running regularly, every 15 minutes. The work on the Manitou Electric Railway & Casino and the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway included a well-known family, the Taggarts. The family had come from Ohio for work. The family was employed at first by the Colorado Midland, and served on the track maintenance or “section” crew in Ute Pass at Cascade. Ben Taggart worked at Florissant after returning to the Midland. John B. continued to work for the cog road, and in the summer lived at Windy Point. His son Brough J was born there in 1895, and worked his whole life for the company. His son John E. followed along, becoming engineer and shop foreman. The Manitou line up Ruxton used three cars over the years. They were called “Dinkys” since there were smaller than the Colorado Springs cars. It was abandoned and taken up in the spring of 1935, lasting longer than the Colorado Springs line. Mel McFarland, artist, author, retired teacher and railroader, is a Colorado Springs native who has a strong interest in the events of this area’s past.
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We had “ramp guards,” usually Colorado College exchange students from Finland, Sweden and Great Britain, to watch out for people during the movies and a security company that would visit the drive-ins at random times after hours. Each security guard kept a log in which he (they were always men in those days) entered the times and places he visited as he made his rounds. One log stated that the driver had visited the Arcadia at 2 a.m. and “all was quiet.” He failed to mention the massive fire and the three fire engines that were on the scene at 2 a.m. Let’s make it a point to show our kids a part of American history before it disappears by taking them to the drive-in this summer and give some thought to all the other ways we can share our history with our kids.
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