Speaker 1: 0:00

My guest today is Sam. Sam is with the Grand County Historical Association and has been on this podcast many times. Today we talk about the program she is giving at Cousin Ranch on March the 15th, called Notable Women of Grand County. We talk about some of the women that she's going to talk about, not in quite the detail that she'll give during the program, so sit back and enjoy my interview with Sam. Good afternoon, sam. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I was so excited when I was reading the events that we have going on in the county that Cousins Ranch is hosting notable women of Grand County and I thought I've got to call Sam and get her on the podcast and find out who these notable women were in the county. So I'm so glad to have you here today.

Speaker 3: 1:06

Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited about both being on the podcast again of course I love it but also getting to do this presentation is going to be so much fun.

Speaker 1: 1:15

Tell me how did you come up with the idea and how did you find out about some of these women so actually it's an idea I've been floating around since last year.

Speaker 3: 1:26

So last year in March I did a series on our social media page where I posted historic photos of women from Grand County and gave a little bit of history on each woman and it went over really well on social media and so I kind of rolled with the idea and turned it into a full presentation. And March, of course, is Women's History Month, so it lines up really well and I figure, you know, some people aren't on social media and some people like that in-person storytelling, so I figure this just takes it a little step further.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Okay, so tell us about some of these women.

Speaker 3: 2:05

Yeah, absolutely so. Of course, you know I'm going to cover some of those really recognizable names in Grand County history, like Doc Susie, mary Cousins and the Cousins Daughters, and then I'm going to go into a few women that we don't always hear their names and they're names that I didn't really recognize either until I was doing the photo series last year and I was just looking through our card catalog and our photo archive to see what I could find, and some of my favorites are so Sophie Linkey. So while we recognize the Linkey name, this is a much earlier relative from the mid to late 1800s, and she actually fed the railroad workers when they were building the Rollins Pass Railroad, as well as helping around her own homestead and taking care of her family. So she played an integral part in making sure that those men were fed. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 3: 3:04

Yes, it's very cool. You know, we a lot of times when we think of Women's History Month, we pull like these really big characters in history of females that we recognize the names of. You know things like Susan B Anthony, you know things like that, and that's great. But we also, I think, need to take time to recognize the local women. You know they didn't make a nationwide impact, but they certainly made an impact on their own communities.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Yeah, absolutely, so tell us another story.

Speaker 3: 3:36

Yeah, absolutely so. Another one I enjoy talking about is Laura Throckmorton. The Throckmorton name is sort of well known in Grand County history if you've read through some of the early history journals. But I actually got a lot of her story from her granddaughter who last year sent us some photos in the history of her grandma's life, and I learned a lot that I did not know. So, laura Throckmorton, she was the daughter of a county commissioner. She was born at the Coulter Stage Stop, which is really interesting. We always love our stage stop history. So Coulter Stage Stop is at the bottom of Red Dirt Hill.

Speaker 1: 4:12

Okay, yeah, I don't think I've ever heard of that before.

Speaker 3: 4:16

Yeah, it actually still stands. It's been adjusted and modified and it's a private residence today.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Okay, all right. Okay, so she was born there.

Speaker 3: 4:28

Yes, and she was well known for her cooking skills. And she was a musician. She loved to play the piano for her friends to dance to, and there's a story that they actually put her piano up on a trailer and hauled it to Grand Lake to play music at one of the dance halls. Now, I like to think that she played music while they were traveling, but probably not. That's just some good old imagination.

Speaker 3: 4:53

Some of these women have a tie into other names that we recognize. So Laura Throckmorton was actually the mother of Barney McLean, who went on to be an Olympic skier and assisted with the Winter Park ski area as well. So that's sort of probably the famous tie in there. But I think you know, being a woman in Grand County and being known for your cooking or your music skills, and Laura was also a skier she skied in Tabernash and so I think we have to remember those details as well. We're more than just who we're related to.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Right Okay, I like learning about Laura too. Right Okay, I like learning about Laura. Yes, what would you say? Out of all of your research has been the most fascinating story.

Speaker 3: 5:36

You know it's kind of hard to pick sort of the most fascinating I think. I think it's more an overall impact that these women had. I mean, I'll talk about more than just what I've shared here, but a lot of times when we talk about Western towns and settling in the areas like Grand County, we talk about how the men were cowboys and they homesteaded and they went out on cattle runs. But the women are who stayed behind. They are the ones who created the communities that we now call home.

Speaker 3: 6:13

We have Daisy Jenny to thank for the historical association. She was scrapbooking everything obituaries, birth announcements, wedding announcements, political articles and those scrapbooks were the first things that were in the Grand Canyon Museum when the Pioneer Society started in the 1920s. She's the reason we have you know our earliest history and that's a huge impact on our community and you know being able to preserve who we are and where we came from. And you know Lois Button her husband was Horace Button who was well known for his ski jumping, but Lois documented what life was like on their ranch through drawings that she wrote on letters and envelopes that she mailed to family and friends. We have those images preserved forever in the museum because she took the time to document those things. You know we have Idelia Baumgarten. She was a teacher. She taught in multiple schools in Grand County and then she went on to be superintendent. It is really the impact that these women had on creating the community that we all call home. That, I think, is the most interesting.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Yeah, really that's cool. Well, tell us another story.

Speaker 3: 7:29

Yeah, absolutely Well, of course. I mean we have Doc Susie and her life here in Grand County. I actually, you know, I recently did a Doc Susie presentation for her birthday at the end of January, and a story that I told during that presentation that a lot of people don't seem to know is that Doc Susie became the county coroner when they were building Moffett Tunnel, just due to the high number of injuries and deaths that were happening during the construction, and Doc Susie hated Moffett Tunnel. She was incredibly frustrated with the county commissioners because she felt like they weren't doing enough to keep the workers safe. And when the first train came through the tunnel, there's actually a photo of Doc Susie with a protest sign standing in the tunnel. So I think that's one of my favorite Doc Susie stories and one that a lot of people don't seem to have heard. Interesting.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Well, there is some really. I mean kind of getting off topic for a second, but Moffat wasn't really great to his workers, right?

Speaker 3: 8:35

No, unfortunately, and it's not even so much a personal thing. I think that's just of the times we didn't take safety all that seriously. Osha certainly was not coming by and investigating the work situations that these men were in.

Speaker 1: 8:52

You and I've done a podcast on just her and her fascinating life up here. Yeah, yeah, so you're right, we always have to talk about Doc Susie.

Speaker 3: 9:05

Absolutely yes. Well, and that's, you know, that's a trend that we see in the lives of Grand County women. They were different from, you know, a more urban woman. You know, maybe down in the front range, women up here tended to have a lot more freedom and independence and control over their lives because they had to. I mean, if your husband was out for weeks, you know, driving the cattle wherever they needed to be, you were responsible for the rest of the livestock that you had. If you happened to grow a few vegetables not that many people did up here and taking care of the kids and making sure that the homestead was safe and checking fence lines and things like that, that fell on the responsibility of women, and I think it's something that we tend to not discuss as much.

Speaker 1: 9:54

No, you're right. A lot of these homesteads would not have survived if it wasn't for the women taking care of so many things. In this presentation that you're going to be doing on March the 15th at Cousins it's at 2 pm, I should say. So how many women are you going to be talking about? Like how many notable women is in your presentation?

Speaker 3: 10:21

Right now I've got about eight to 10. Spend a few minutes on some of them each. Yeah, you know, there's some that are obviously a little more well-known, like Doc Susie and the Cousins women, that we don't have to spend as much time on, and I think I won't get as many questions on. But I am excited to kind of talk about those lesser well-known figures as well, as I am going to talk about Chapita. She was the wife of Chief Yurei, and so I think it's always important to mention her as well. We don't know as much about her, we don't have as much of her history documented, but what we do have, I'm really looking forward to sharing.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Okay, so this is like people have to go to your presentation to learn more about her.

Speaker 3: 11:03

Yes, I can't. I can't share all the good secrets.

Speaker 1: 11:07

No, you cannot. Some of the programs that you guys are putting together for the Historical Association are just amazing. And this is a free program and it just sounds like there's going to be some great information that you're going to be providing. Putting it on my calendar wonderful.

Speaker 3: 11:24

Yeah, I'm really excited about our programming. I mean, that's what I was working on before I came to hang out with you for a bit is just looking at getting our programming put together through the spring and hopefully some of the summer as well. And you know, we've got more free presentations coming up as well, and, of course, our historic crafting is back as usual.

Speaker 1: 11:44

Yeah, and what do you have coming up? And we should just give a few minutes to your crafting. What do you have coming up?

Speaker 3: 11:50

So, my first crafting is also going to be in March. It's March 28th, from two to four at Cousins Ranch. I'm actually going to be doing some candle painting. This one is a new one and it's not quite historic, but I think it will be fun still. That sounds like fun.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Well, I would encourage people to come to this again March the 15th at 2 pm at Cousins Ranch. And it's free, absolutely yes, free, free, free. And Sam, where can people find out more information about Grand County Historical Association?

Speaker 3: 12:23

The easiest place to find out about us is going to be our website, grandcountyhistoryorg. It's got all of our events, information on all four museum locations, how to be a member and all sorts of good stuff.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Perfect. Well, sam, thank you as always for your time today, and I can't wait for March 15th. It's going to be interesting.

Speaker 3: 12:43

Absolutely. I'm always excited to come on and talk with you.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Thank you.