by Meg Dunn | Jan 21, 2018 | Fort Collins, Frontier Faces
In 1880, James and Eva Howe moved to Fort Collins where they eventually built a small one-story bungalow on Walnut street. Eva was a dark eyed beauty with a sweet and forgiving disposition. James was a millwright of great skill, but he had a penchant for drink. Though...
by Meg Dunn | Jan 19, 2018 | Fort Collins, Frontier Faces, Native Residents
A friend recently loaned an old folder full of stories to me. It had been compiled in the 1970s from the scrapbook of the Society of Early Pioneer Women as well as from interviews with daughters of pioneers. Though I’ll write more about the booklet at another...
by Meg Dunn | May 13, 2017 | Agricultural History, Frontier Faces
In 1887, a young Scottish fellow by the name of James Ross got the opportunity to travel to America. He had been asked to care for a shipment of Percheron horses that were being sent to Jessie Harris in the small community of Fort Collins. He was so sick during the...
by Meg Dunn | Nov 23, 2016 | Architecture & Neighborhoods, Fort Collins, Frontier Faces, Then and Now
The oldest remaining house in Fort Collins is Auntie Stone’s cabin. Even by the early 1900s its significance in the history of the city was recognized. It was called the Pioneer Cabin and used as a meeting place by the Association of Pioneer Women (an...
by Meg Dunn | Nov 4, 2016 | Frontier Faces
In 1859 Rock Bush came from Green river, Wyoming, where he had been employed for two years on a ferry, and took up a claim on the north bank of the Cache la Poudre river, about three miles southeast of Laporte, where he still lives. — Ansel Watrous (1911)...
by Meg Dunn | Oct 19, 2016 | Frontier Faces, Mountains, Canyons & Parks
Norman Fry was only 17 when he came over from England to learn ranching from Eustace Dixon and Reginald De Rivas at their ranch in the Poudre canyon. His parents had paid $100 for six months of hands-on training. So when Norman arrived in 1889 after a long trip over...
by Meg Dunn | Sep 15, 2016 | Frontier Faces, Mountains, Canyons & Parks, Poudre Canyon
In 1885, John D. Cooper (also known as Jack), built a cottage for himself — and a bridge over the Poudre river to reach it — at the entrance to Sheep gulch. He named his cozy little house “Bachelor’s Rest,” though it was also called Sheep...
by Meg Dunn | Aug 29, 2016 | Frontier Faces
When researching a story, I often come across little details that I find interesting, but that don’t make it into the final article either because they’re tangential or there’s just not enough room. There were a few things I came across last week as...
