Looks like we will have a cool and wet Halloween. This week I’ll take a look at a few things that took place in 1961.
Feb. 21 – Jede Ellis returned home from Fort Jackson, S.C., where he had completed his training with the Army Reserve. After his home visit he is expected to go to Salt Lake City to work for the Bureau of Reclamation.
Feb. 24 – Elizabeth Emma Carroll celebrated her 90th birthday. She had been a widow since 1905. (At the age of 102 she passed away on Nov. 21, 1973.)
April 3 – The annual Easter egg hunt had to compete with a snowstorm.
April 13 – Mancos Colorado Days is shaping up for July. Those on the parade committee are Van Willis, Westley Potts, Norman Deal and Vern Eshelman.
April 15 – Mr. and Mrs. James B. Cook and Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Cook opened their C&C Sales and Service store.
April 27 – Mrs. James L. (Smitty) Smith slipped off the curb in Cortez and broke her left kneecap necessitating immediate surgery.
May 19 – The Mancos Bluejay Band presented its final spring concert. The program honored four graduating band seniors – Patricia Bradford, Sylvia Chappell, Gwyne Robb and Geraldine Stevenson.
June 1 – The Mancos Times-Tribune was put out without the assistance of the editor, Dick Sprenger, who was ill. Thanked for helping out were Ada Dean and Fern Ellis.
June 11 – Claude Gawthrop suffered severe injuries when he was struck by a falling limb while cutting poles at his ranch home above Transfer. (He died on July 29, 1969 while walking ahead of a bulldozer on his ranch. The dozer caught a dead tree and knocked it into his head.
June 22 – Postmaster Gertrude Noland announced that air mail postage to South America would rise from 10 to 13 cents.
July 6 – Mrs. Frances E. Howard was chosen as attendant to reign with Queen Maria Decker at the Mancos Colorado Day celebration to be held on July 29.
Sept. 4 – A crowd of 500 people enjoyed the Legion barbecue of beef, beans and salad. The event had to be moved to the school grounds because the pit at Boyle Park filled with water.
Sept. 25 – John Bauer was hospitalized after being bitten by a black widow spider.
Nov. 12 - A boiler room fire at the Match Factory caused extensive damage and halted operation of the plant for two weeks.
Nov. 22 - Ada Fluharty Plumlee passed away at the age of 87. She was the youngest of 10 children and came to Mancos in 1907.
Dec. 21 – The water pipes froze in the Assembly of God Church and flooded it and there were no services for the next two Sundays.
Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at dnrls@q.com.
