As a kid, I always heard the story of how my grandmother (on my dad's side) survived the Spanish Flu and cared for others as she worked in the hotel of this tiny town of Maybell Colorado.
Lou and I drove thru here on the way to Steamboat Springs, and chatting with the lady at the store, I found that the population of the town was 72.
She said that there was indeed a hotel down the street. ( I left out the part that my grandmother washed endless sheets at the hotel as all fought the flu epidemic.)
Date of our travel - July 22, 2022
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MUSEUM OF THE NORTHWEST
CRAIG COLORADO
We like to visit museums along our travels, and this one was exceptional.
As I was looking at the display of Maybell, Colorado
I really wondered why in the world my grandmother ended up in this remote part of western Colorado. The displays validated that Maybell was indeed 30 miles past the end of the railroad in Craig, Colorado
(and why was she working in a hotel there??)
We ended up chatting with the director of the museum, and he volunteered to look up information for me, asking for my grandmothers name (Iva Evans) he came up with lots of the newspaper articles, said yes, indeed, there was an Evans Hotel in that time frame. Today it is called the
Victory Hotel (the main street thru the town is called Victory),
and there is the "Victory Highway" to celebrate the end of World War I and was the first transcontinental highway from San Francisco to New York.
Just think - 100 years between the two pictures!
I had read that many came to this area to homestead, and the director came up with this document.
I never knew they were homesteading this land (1925).
This stop in the Craig museum revealed much family history on my fathers side. I never had any idea that they had homesteaded in this area and that the stories I had heard of my grandmother washing sheets in the hotel were validated with the knowledge that they built and owned the hotel during the flu.
The town of Craig has the (dubious) distinction of utilizing one of the last running stagecoaches (1915).
Stagecoaches were in use in this tiny northwest corner of Colorado until 1915.
The journey to Steamboat Springs or Craig would take 2 long days over non-improved and rarely maintained trails. While their skinny wheels supporting sometimes well over 2,000 pounds, stagecoaches were notorious for becoming stuck and were prone to tipping over. Frequently, paying passengers would become free labor.
The railroad ended in Craig and the new "Stage Coach" completed the 30 miles to Maybell.
Other Museum Findings
Lindberg did a tour in the US to promote air travel.
Craig was lucky to receive this message thrown from the plane.
People gathered on a Saturday morning in 1927 with rumors of a Lindberg sighting. After a hard U turn, the plane nearly clipped the rooftops, made a hard bank directly above the crowd, and the observers viewed the most famous person in the world, as he threw the declaration of support out the window.
We always have to include the air history from these museum visits.
They boast:
"The Worlds Largest Watercolor"
Last but not least:
Could this be the "World's largest Dinosaur Footprint"?
The dinosaur footprint was found hanging from the ceiling of a coal mine---
A most intriguing day!
A very pleasant day near Steamboat Springs, Colorado
