All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1960 • Volume 61, Issue No. 2 • February 2022
‘A Very Local Action’
Black Business Spotlight
Park Hill Donor Ponies Up Thousands For Newspaper Ad Blitz For BIPOC-Owned Businesses; Urges Others To Join By Cara DeGette Editor, GPHN
It may be one man’s answer to that ageold query, Where’s the beef? Or it may just be part care for the community, part support for a newspaper — plus a hefty dose of support for minorityowned mom-and-pop businesses. A longtime Park Hill resident is ponying up thousands of dollars to subsidize six months worth of advertising in the Greater Park Hill News for two local BIPOC-owned businesses. The donor, who has asked to remain anonymous, says he hopes others follow suit. “It’s a very local action,” he said. “I don’t know that Black-owned businesses have really taken advantage of advertising. I care about the community, and I care about the newspaper, and I just thought that this is an opportunity to have some advertising.” In a way, the donor said, the action could be viewed as a type of reparation, a creative way to support minority-owned businesses. “It’s a little extension between those who have been fortunate and those who have less,” he said. Several months ago the donor approached newspaper Manager Melissa Davis with the concept. Details for the new BIPOC ad grant program were finalized
after some discussion. The donor will pay a total of $2,520 for display advertisements in the newspaper for two minority-owned businesses in northeast Denver. The 1/8thof-a-page ads will appear monthly for six months. The first recipients of the ad grant will be announced in next month’s issue. The owners will work directly with Davis and the newspaper’s design team to create display advertisements for their businesses. With a distribution of 13,000 copies, the GPHN reaches an estimated 40,000 readers every month. The ads from the grant are designed to reach potential customers who may not otherwise know about the businesses, as well as existing customers who may want updates and reminders about the businesses. Maya Wheeler, executive director of the African Chamber of Commerce of Colorado, was heartened to hear about the BIPOC ad grant program. “A lot of mom-and-pop businesses are so focused on day-to-day activities to keep afloat that they don’t focus on or think about advertising,” Wheeler said. “Often they don’t have the time or the money.” Park Hill and surrounding neighborhoods are home to dozens of BIPOC and minority-owned businesses (see a partial list on page 8). Wheeler likened the concept continued on page 8
Black history month
One Scoop At A Time
Le’Day Grant opened MyKings Ice Cream at 2851 Colorado Blvd. in March, 2020, in part to create a legacy and generational wealth for her four children. She is pictured here with her oldest boy, MyKing, the namesake of the shop. See story on page 8. Photo by Cara DeGette
Inside This Issue PAGE 4
SOS Denver Booted From Park Hill Golf Course Visioning Group
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City Rolls Out Cash For Trash Plan To Boost Recycling
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books—and their statements range from vague to conflicting. Many, like a National Park Service brochure, give him credit for making “an incredible discovery that changed the world of North American archeology forever.” A recent story in Science for the People claims, “McJunkin made a pivotal discovery that resulted in an archeological paradigm shift worthy of celebration as a ‘scientific revolution.’” An Arkansas Archeological Survey story suggests McJunkin found humanmade artifacts at the Folsom site. Others give McJunkin credit for discovering the Folsom site while glossing over the question of whether he knew it contained evidence of ancient humans. To paraphrase the famous question from the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, it is instructive to establish what McJunkin knew and when he knew it. Only then can we fully appreciate him. Only then can we do his scientific legacy full justice.
Pro Bullriding Not For The Faint Of Heart
Cowboy, rancher, naturalist
How George McJunkin’s Momentous Bison Bone Discovery Came To Revolutionize Science By Stephen E. Nash Special to the GPHN
Jan. 22 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of George McJunkin, an African American cowboy in northeastern New Mexico during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Why is the anniversary of McJunkin’s passing worth celebrating? Because he discovered what became known as the Folsom site, an ancient bison bone bed where sci-
entists came to accept the idea that Native Americans lived in North America during the last ice age—thousands of years earlier than most scientists then believed. McJunkin is also important because he is one of many Black historical figures finally gaining credit for their myriad contributions to science, politics, and other disciplines over the centuries. But what exactly did McJunkin discover? A quick Google search on “George McJunkin” yields dozens of articles and
continued on page 7
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Finding Folsom
Ice Hockey Angels Head Into Playoffs On Top
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George McJunkin, who died 100 years ago, found the famed Folsom site in New Mexico that transformed scientific views about the deep history of Native Americans in North America. Photo courtesy Denver Museum of Nature & Science
George McJunkin was a remarkable man. He was born on Jan. 9, 1851, in eastern Texas. Enslaved until the end of the Civil War, in 1868 he moved to New Mexico to start a new life as a free man and lived there for more than half a century. He was a champion cowboy, an outstanding ranch manager, a self-taught reader and naturalist, and a collector of ancient stone tools, ceramics, animal bones, and other interesting objects he found while working. On Aug. 27, 1908, when McJunkin was manager of the Crowfoot Ranch, an unusually strong summer thunderstorm dropped 13 inches of rain on Johnson Mesa, several miles northwest and upstream of what we now call the Folsom site. A flash flood swept through the region, wreaking havoc and downcutting arroyos. After the storm, McJunkin ventured out to repair broken fence lines. He noticed large bones protruding from the newly
Summer Camp Guide: Staying Cool In ‘22
Upcoming GPHC Meetings Community meetings are conducted virtually on the first Thursday of each month. The next meetings are Feb. 3 and Mar. 3 at 6:30 p.m. Link to attend at greaterparkhill.org/ join-us/community-meetings/