THE 1960'S IN CHAFFEE COUNTY
| 1960 | Last resident of St. Elmo, Annabelle (Stark) Ward died in
Salida hospital. |
| 1962 | On August 16, 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed the Public Law that authorized the $170 million Frying Pan-Arkansas Project. Next day he came to Pueblo, Colorado to laud the project in an address before 17,000 persons at the Pueblo Public School Stadium. The project was to be undertaken by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Reclamation. Salida High School, built in 1910, was destroyed in a fire that started late night Friday, April 13 or early Saturday morning April 14. Bill Andreas was Superintendent. of Schools and L. E. King was high school principal. |
| 1963 | The present-day Salida High School was completed at the same
location to replace the old school that burned. |
| 1966 | Two years after groundbreaking for Ruedi Dam near Aspen, the
Fryingpan-Arkansas Project Construction Office was relocated from Pueblo to a more central location in Salida and established headquarters in a building on U.S. Hwy 50. Forty families of government personnel were "mass transferred" to Salida. Some 260 employees worked in the office under the project chief engineer until 1984 when the office closed. The principle features of the project included construction of the North and south Side Collection System, Charles H. Boustead Tunnel, Sugar Loaf Dam and Turquoise Lake (increased to 70,000 acre-feet capacity), Mt. Elbert Pumped-Storage Powerplant, Pueblo Dam and Reservoir and the Fountain Valley Conduit near Colorado Springs. |
| 1967 |
Mountain Mail, Oct. 10, 1967 An autopsy of the three-year-old Appaloosa was conducted Sunday before the owner of the horse, Mrs. Berle Lewis of Alamosa, and 20 other persons. The pathologist refused to be identified. The doctor sawed into the brain cavity and found "abolutely nothing" and discovered only "a little powdery residue" in the stomach of the animal, Mrs. Lewis said. "He was extremely puzzled and had no solution to offer for the death," she said. "He took samples of the remains and hopes to come up with some answers in the laboratory." The growing theory in this mountainous territory in Southern Colorado is that Snippy was the victim of a flying saucer. The animal was found dead Sept. 9, 20 miles northeast of Alamosa, the same time that reports of flying saucers were received in the area. The flesh from the head and neck of the animal was "stripped clear to the bone," and a check by a geiger counter showed high radiation readings up to two weeks later, Mrs. Lewis said. Only minor actitivy was discovered in a radiation reading over the week end, however. A nearby bush had been flattened and there also were reports of 15 black circular marks about 100 yards from the body of the horse. "I hope the death will turn out to be man-made," Mrs. Lewis said. "You can live with that a lot better." |
| 1968 | Andreas Field House was built. |