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History of the Website

From a Building to a Website

At a Society board meeting in 2008, we were discussing the subject of the Museum. The Robinson Cabin was a small structure across from the Red Feather Lakes Library, which contained a number of historical artifacts, and together we called this our museum. From early in the organization’s history it had been a goal to construct a second building to house artifacts which were being stored in a shed on some Historical Society property nearby, but not adjacent to the property where the cabin was located. Because there were a number of logistical problems with building a new structure to complement the cabin and house these other artifacts, including raising adequate money and finding an adequate site with enough land, getting needed approvals from the county, and how would we staff it, etc. we decided the goal of building a new museum was impractical, and it should be dropped.

Because of these logistical issues, several members had been discussing the option of creating a website which could be a “virtual museum” instead of an actual building. So at the same meeting we made a second decision to create a website.

We took the museum decision to the membership at the Annual Meeting that year where it was approved by the membership. We also announced our plan to create a website.

I (Judd) volunteered to create the website. Click Robinson Cabin to see our virtual museum.

In 2005 I had begun writing a book about the history of this community. So as I began building the website I decided to incorporate the book drafts into the web. Below is the Preface to the book I was writing. It expresses my reasons for learning about the history of our community. The Society hopes someday to produce a book as well as this website. Wherever in my Preface I write Book, substitute Website. I edited the Preface slightly.

Preface – How This Book Came To Be

This is the book that I wish was available when my wife and I retired (August 2003) and moved to our current location, the historic Batterson barn and ranch at the foot of Batterson Hill, in the Glacier View Meadows subdivision in the foothills of the northern Colorado Rocky Mountains. Wherever our previous moves have taken us we have been interested in the history and geology of the area. For years we have been fans of the Roadside Geology series, (published by Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula Montana), having purchased books to help us understand where we live, and the areas we have visited, namely Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska. This move was no exception; in fact it was accentuated because we found our selves living in a historic location, the old Batterson ranch. The barn, a local landmark, built in 1890 is included in This Old Barn (p.134). When we moved here all we had to say to most people was we live at the Batterson barn and they knew were we lived.

It didn’t take long for my wife, an undergraduate history major, to begin collecting books for us to read about our local history, including two books by the Livermore Woman’s Club, Ranch Histories of Livermore and Vicinity, 1884 – 1956, and Among These Hills: A History of Livermore Colorado, and a book by the Red Feather Lakes Historical Society, Red Feather Lakes, the first hundred years, 1871 – 1971, and dozens of other books, to be mentioned later. To immerse herself further she joined the Livermore Woman’s Club and the Red Feather Lakes Historical Society (I joined the later group) and began doing her own research on the Battersons. This led her to give tours and history discussions to the above mentioned groups and to classes from the nearby schools in Livermore and Red Feather Lakes. All groups enjoyed learning about the barn, the Batterson family (emigrants from Iowa on their way to California), the nearby gravesite of young Azuba Batterson, and the nature of ranch life. Linda grew up on a cattle ranch in the panhandle of Idaho, and tended cattle as a youngster, so this was heaven to her. Eventually she discovered a gold mine, a website “Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection ... a joint endeavor of the Colorado State Library, Colorado Historical Society and the Collaborative Digitization Program” (www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org. When she typed “S. Batterson” she got close to 300 “hits”. Her information about the Battersons’ grew to the point where she has five very large 3-ring binders of information. You will be able to enjoy some of this information later in this book.

Along with Linda’s research, we had been participating in the Red Feather Lakes Historical Society tours of local ranches, cemeteries, etc. including a tour to the areas along the Colorado-Wyoming border that are described in James Galvin’s novels The Meadow and Fencing the Sky. The books were fascinating, and seeing the actual locations created an added dimension. I had been videotaping these tours for personal use, when one day Pat Clemens, President of the Historical Society, suggested I might want to do this officially for the Society. I agreed. The idea for this book hadn’t quite yet germinated, but the seeds were planted.

Then we discovered Roadside History of Colorado (Johnson Publishing, Boulder, CO) and Roadside History of Wyoming (Mountain Press), which we read avidly. I then began rereading books we owned about Wyoming and the westward migration, including Centennial, by James Michener, which I hadn’t read when Linda bought it decades ago. We had watched the TV series in the 70’s when we lived in Connecticut, but didn’t appreciate its significance then. Now it hit me, Michener had described the environment nearby where I presently lived. (Centennial is a mythical town nearby the real town of Greeley, which is a very important town for the history of this area since it was a way station for many of the immigrants to this area, including the Battersons. There is an actual Centennial south of Denver.) My fascination with rivers and watersheds was deepening. They were the key to understanding westward migration.

Another aspect to my interest stems from the fact that we are equestrians, we participate in a competitive trail riding sport, 2 days 55-60 miles, which gives us some appreciation for the difficulties (and joys) of transportation by horseback. (My current 26 year old horse I have ridden more than 13,000 miles, 4,600 in competition - updated to 2011). So I had both a historical and technical interest in how 400,000 people traversed the plains and mountains over a twenty-year period. How and why they did that comes later. In the early 80’s we had the rare opportunity to take a 100 mile horseback trip on the Oregon Trail from Independence Rock to South Pass conducted by a 3^rd generation Wyoming couple. The summer of 2009 we retraced the trip as close as we could via motorhome. It was astonishing. We took a lot of pictures, still and video. By this time the idea of writing a book was beginning to take shape.

The ideas guiding this book are as follows.

To understand my environment and history I had to read a lot of books, and some of them ended 30 – 50 years ago. So I wanted to bring the best information and features into one book, and update the recent developments in the area, which includes the research done by my wife and unpublished notes by Don Weixelman, the person responsible more than any other for developing the housing subdivisions in this area, which used to be the 17,000 acre Currie Ranch. His is a story to be told. The book also includes information, and pictures, from the oral history project and the Historical Society tours.
The Roadside geology and history books are my basic model. We found they greatly expanding our enjoyment of driving throughout Colorado on our trail rides, and visits to other states. So many times as we drove to and back from Fort. Collins I looked at the roadside with many questions on my mind. This book answers these questions. As you look out the car window, you will have a deeper understanding of what you see now and the history behind it.
I wanted a book that covers (integrates) both the Livermore area and Red Feather Lakes, and also information on the rest of the watershed which generally is not reported anywhere.
There is some degree of conflict in the data, so I wanted to reconcile it.
I wanted lots of visuals because “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
I also wanted to provide a bit of background such as Michener did for Centennial.

As is the case for many writers, including David McCullough one of my favorites, my prime reason for writing this book, or at least in doing the research for it, was to answer questions and create an understanding in areas of personal interest. It was a great deal of fun, although not without frustration at times. I succeed in my task of answering my questions. I hope the result is entertaining and enlightening for you. The motivation to turn the research into a book came from the responses of neighbors and friends who showed interest in my “discoveries”. Thirdly, I think this book should be interesting to my family and friends, and your family and friends, who live in other parts of the country, that they should develop a better connection to the area and live we live.

Written March, 2009.