Carbondale’s first pioneers settled before Utes driven out EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first installment of “Ranches, Mines and Railroads By Darrell Munsell Special to The Sopris Sun
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William Dinkel William M. Dinkel was another of the early settlers of the Carbondale area who ventured into Ute territory before it was opened for settlement. His story is a fascinating one of ingenuity and endurance. Dinkel left his home in Virginia in pursuit of gold in Colorado. After a short stint in a mine in Leadville, he and Robert (Bob) Zimmerman in the spring of 1881 packed 800 pounds of flour on sleighs pulled by mules and horses from Buena Vista over Cottonwood and Taylor passes to Aspen. One can imagine the hardships they endured, but the profit made from a flour-starved Aspen populous justified their ordeal. For them, however, staying in Aspen was out of the question. Greatly disappointed in the town, Dinkel and Zimmerman headed for Montana. They were barely on the way when they were stopped by a party of four or five Ute Indians and ordered to get off the PIONEER ADVENTURES page 16 William Dinkel left his home in Virginia in the 1880s to chase dreams of gold in Colorado. Instead of gold, however, he made his first big profit by hauling flour from Leadville to Aspen. Photo courtesy the Mount Sopris Historical Society
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In her 1947 study entitled “Carbondale Pioneers,” Edna Sweet noted that all roads led to Leadville, Colorado, after the discovery of gold in Bonanza Gulch in 1876. A few months after the town’s founding, Sweet wrote, “a tract of dense pioneers all seemed to head for Leadville, but not everyone found gold, and the town was so overcrowded that many started for another Utopia and so pushed on thru the wilderness to the Ute Reservation which had been opened to settlers in 1881.” Their first destination was usually Aspen, where, as in Leadville earlier, most of them prospected, worked in mines, or freighted (hauled goods). Sweet stated that many, if not most, of the homesteaders of this region were participants in this migration from Leadville over the divide to Aspen and then to the Roaring Fork and Crystal valleys after the expulsion of the Ute Indians. A few of the early settlers, however, arrived in the valleys near present day Carbondale before the land was cleared of Indians. This was true of Myron P. Thompson and his son Alexander (Alex) J. Thompson. Considered the “first white settler in the Crystal River Valley,” Myron, a widower, arrived in 1879, and Alex a short time later. Both homesteaded near the confluence of Thompson Creek (named after them) and the Crystal River. In 1882, Myron’s three other sons and two of his four daughters — Hattie and Clara — joined him and Alex. Hattie’s marriage to Oscar Holland and Clara’s marriage to Charles Sewell began the Holland and Sewell ranching dynasties in the Crystal River Valley. The descendants of Alex’s brother Lyman established the Thompson Ranch, which would include a large portion of the Holland Pleasant View Ranch, including the Holland-Thompson House, after Hattie’s death in 1944.
George Thomas and his son John explored the lower Roaring Fork and Crystal River valleys as early as 1878 and in 1881 filed on land along Thomas Creek in the Crystal River Valley. Eugene Prince settled on Prince Creek, named after him. In early 1881, Samuel Bowles settled on 160 acres along the Crystal River at what is now the River Valley Ranch development south of Carbondale. Previously, he was in the freighting business that operated between Fort Leavenworth and Denver and later in Leadville after he arrived there in 1879. He built a small cabin on his homestead and planted vegetables and potatoes. His potato crop was the first harvested in the area.
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November 8 – 17 Tickets at the Wheeler Box Office or AspenShow.Tix.com AspenCommunithyTheatre.com Town of Carbondale
SPECIAL EVENT TASK FORCE VOLUNTEER CITIZENS NEEDED The Parks & Recreation Commission is seeking citizens to serve on a Task Force to recommend future policies and procedures on Special Events within Sopris Park and Downtown 4th Street Plaza Park. Task Force will present recommendations to Town Trustees in January. Contact Rec. Director, Jeff Jackel at (970) 510-1214 or jjackel@carbondaleco.net to serve. The Sopris Sun, Carbondale’s community supported newspaper • October 31, 2013 • 15