Telluride Oral Histories
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Sylvia Blackburn's Oral History Recording
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An oral history interview, that took place on November 9, 1990 between Davine Pera and Sylvia Blackburn. The interview is about one hour, 13 minutes long. Here is the transcription:
OH53
OHCabinet
60 Minutes
2
Marantz
No
Address: 208 Halto Via Circle, Durango CO 81301
November 9, 1990
Durango Colorado
Davine Pera
728-3632
Track1
Intro
Track2
Early history of father. Birth date and place.
Track3
Served 7 years in Germany in Army in World War I. Parents were married in 1919.
Track4
Plans were made to go to America. Arrived in Telluride Dec 1920.
Track5
After 1 month in Telluride, they moved to mining camp at Matterhorn, Colo.
Track6
Describes the many mines he worked in at Ophir and surrounding area during the 20's and early 30's.
Track7
Lost money during the depression on stock he had invested in a Company. Rode horse 6 miles to work.
Track8
Worked for San Miguel County Road crew and on the Ames plant flume for West. Colo. Power Co. in 1937.
Track9
Worked at Prospect Mine and later at Alta mine loading concentrates from railroad car to tramway at the depot. Joe Oberto.
Track10
Father moved family to Telluride in 1945 and started working at the Telluride mine. Worked as carpenter from 1950 to 1955, when he retired due to failing health. He died in 1959.
Track11
Memories of father's hard work. Mentions a young miner that visited with them and later died at their house. The wives were also very courageous.
Track12
Early history of mother, Speranza. Birth date and place.
Track13
History of their parents decision to come to U.S Describes journey here and mother's hard work the first years here.
Track14
Arrived 20Dec. 1920. Speaks of first home.
Track15
Speaks of mother learning English language from reading comics and learning to write the English language when her oldest daughter started school.
Track16
History of 3 daughters birth dates.
Track17
History of mother’s activities in various groups.
Track18
Speaks of mothers early childhood years in Italy and how hard she worked.
Track19
Mother has lived in this area for 78 years.
Track20
Speaks of mothers love for Telluride.
Track21
She tells the story of mother cleaning the house in Ophir, originally a horse and chicken barn, to make it livable.
Track22
Describes original cabin parents lived in at Matterhorn. Mother was very shy, but very happy and a hard worker.
Track23
Sylvia describes homes that parents lived in as children in Italy. Houses are same now as when they lived there. Grandfather was a shoemaker.
Track24
Describes family life in Italy.
Track 25
Continues describing Italy and relatives there.
Track 26
Describes her mother and her mother’s strict sisters.
Track 27
After they moved to Ophir, mother did washing by hand for miners.
Track28
Mother was beautiful seamstress and made all their clothes.
Track29
Sylvia's birth in Telluride. Lived in Ophir and attended school there.
Track 30
Describes childhood school in Ophir. Used skis or snowshoes to walk over a mile to school.
Track 31
Talks about how deep the snows fell.
Track32
Describes clothes they wore. Describes school. Merina Patterson.
Track 33
Eighth grade graduation, there were three. A. Penasa, M. Bishop, and herself. W. Pele gave a test to see if they were ready for H.S.
Track34
Husband, Keith Blackburn's background. His parents lived at Tonioli place and had butcher shop at Ames.
Track 35
Talks about Fred, their oldest son.
Track36
Grandmother was a Skien, and they had a dairy ranch at Alta.
Track37
Continues story of school life. Mentions when her sisters were born. Tells how parents learned the English language. Discusses the Italian dialect they spoke.
Track38
Childhood memories.
Track39
Holidays celebrated by family.
Track40
Memories of hardships during the depression.
Track41
Sylvia developed a love of nature.
Track42
Rode the train to Lizard Head to pick mushrooms.
Track43
Talks of visiting Telluride, and felt like it was going to the city.
Track44
Attended high school in Telluride and boarded in town; rode the Galloping Goose home on weekends.
Track45
Memories of the trains.
Track46
Describes working at boarding house at the Alta Mine after graduation, and talks about the delicious food there, and cockroach races.
Track47
Attended business school in Denver.
Track48
History of employment years and married years.
Track49
Memories of businesses, post office and etc. in Ophir. Names different people that lived there. L. Bishop, E. Waterman, G. Brewer
Track50
Community dances and picnics at Ophir.
Track51
Her father had a fear of cars.
Track52
Speaks of the many bachelors from Tyrol that boarded with their family.
Track53
Describes the summer picnics held in Ophir. Memories of growing up in Ophir. The Priest Brothers.
Track54
Talks about the bachelors. She enjoyed being in nature.
Track55
Names and describes the many Italian dishes mother cooked.
Track56
Dairy products were a part of their life.
Track57
Christmas dinner and customs.
Track58
Parents made their own wine. Describes process.
Track59
Santo Luchia and other Christmas memories.
Track60
High school memories and names students in her graduation class of 1940.
Track61
Sports at school.
Track62
Social life as a young couple after her marriage.
Track63
Mother taught the girls religion at home, but they were baptized in St. Patrick's Church in Telluride.
Track64
Many memories of childhood and school days.
Track65
Describes the Sweeney dance band.
Track66
There were two theaters in town.
Track67
Talks of her years boarding in town during high school
Track68
In Telluride and later in Denver while she attended business school.
Track69
End
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Telluride in the 1980's/1990's in Craig Muhonen's words
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The image was provided by Craig Muhonen, via email, on 11/4/22. The title is "Last Dollar Texaco Saloon 1948." Here is an interesting email from Craig, about what Telluride was like in the 1980's/1990's:
"The airport runway was built in 1985 and it was the rage ,
( I have not found any news articles about the little girl that died in the hanger, 86’, 87’ ?)….yet..
but the “Gold Hill runway” had already seen thousands of Recreational Hang Glider take off’s and landings by the most accomplished pilots in the world. I mean Chuck Yeager flew here!😍
Telluride airspace became the most dangerous and crowded place to fly when powered flight came, sometimes 20 flights a day after day, all year round.
The “construction/destruction” boom of mountain village, had already created a
“Brown Cloud”
(all the ‘foreign’ workers, but that’s a different story I could tell about fellow Journeymen not speaking English)
between Montrose and Tride, and with all the new airplane traffic,
the “Cloud”….well it is still there in more ways than one.
Another “Cloud” that appeared, was the noise of beautiful aircraft flying overhead every day,
But sometimes, the sound of ugly crashing airplanes, and then the sounds of sirens of the rescue crews.
Then there is the ‘politicks’ “Cloud”, that came with “construction.
We went from liberal minded respectful conversations
to “billionaire talk”, and caught up to Boulder as a “very left” town.😆😆😆
I always thought Colorado was two states, East and West. Would have been better.
The only “Cloud” we had in the early daze,
was the coal smoke which totally blocked your view of Telluride especially on “inversion” days. 😮
We did replace all the wood/coal fireplaces (to the old timers dismay) and propane burners over the years (with a natural gas pipeline that froze up Nov 15th 2000, another story) and that cleared the air, but CO is still there, unseen and un-smelled.
Not to mention the, “Cloud” of all the ‘sex drugs and alcohol” we consumed.😂😁😁
(while we skied, and built, and skied and skied some more).❤ .. ha.."
--Taken 11/4/22 from Craig Muhonen's email.
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The Champlin Family's History
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The Champlin Family's history, a document written by Lela Marie Champlin Keith. The date of this document is unknown.
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