Homeward we go!

Friday, September 25, 2009
cloudy

We left the Stonewall area to begin our journey home. At Wakeeney KOA in Kansas we saw these fun signs.

The landscape changed from high desert to prairie. We began to see more green, corn fields, farm land, and old buildings here and there.

There were also many oil wells...

...and wind farms.

In Kansas City, we stopped at a rest stop right next to Arrowhead stadium where the Kansas City Chiefs play. The Kauffman stadium, where the Kansas City Royals play, is next to Arrowhead.

On Tuesday, we stopped at St. Charles, MO to visit our new friends, Mary and Tom Ballard, the couple we met at Salt Lake. They have a lovely home (hope they never see ours!). We went out for pizza and then overstayed our welcome at their house. On September 27, they will celebrate their 50th anniversary with an open house. Sure wish we could be there, Tom & Mary!

Mary had a lovely quilt rack that Fred was interested in. We hope to see Tom and Mary this winter, perhaps in Florida.

Two more overnights and then made it to Lake George, NY on Friday, happy to see your children, sons in law, and grandchild, but sad that our wonderful, wonderful trip had ended. The sights were beautiful, the people extraordinary and the weather the best!

But before I close I must share with you all a picture of our other new friends, Laura and Doreen, who we also met in Salt Lake and who we hope will come east next summer to continue their genealogy research and our new friendship. Doreen also sent us a picture of us at the fair.

A big hand for the mo-ho driver, over 6500 miles on Dazy-D and over 3500 miles on Rosebud! At the beginning of the trip he said there would only be one trip, now he's talking about maybe another one! Yippee!!!!

Hope you enjoyed the blog. Now to see if I can download all this for an album.

Stonewall Valley

Saturday, September 19, 2009

On August 8, I mentioned reading Fred the story of my cousin, George Adam Storz, who came to America from Tuttlingen, Germany to the Stonewall Valley in Colorado.

A little background on my second cousin, twice removed, from his obituary.
George A. Storz was born in Tuttlingen, Württemberg, Germany, September 24, 1841, and emigrated to the Unisted States at the tender age of 18 years, coming direct to Las Vegas, NM, and vicinity where he resided for a number of years, during which time he had charge of his uncles (John and Andreas Dolds) flour mill and extensive grain business. Afterward he became wagon master for the above firm freighting from Westport, KS (now Kansas City) to Las Vegas and Sante Fe, NM. Later he managed his own freighting outfit. Having many thrilling and nerve-testing experiences with Indians and outlaws held up by Jesse James band of guerrillas, he recognized their leader (BulL Reed) as an old friend, who gave him the password; and he was never more molested, although wagon trains before and behind him were on different trips held up and robbed. He counted among his personal friends such noted pioneers as Kit Carson, General French, Uncle Dick Wootton, Jim Bridges, Stephen H. Elkins, the Ootero brothers and others equally noted. Immediately upon his arrival in the county he built a flour mill, gathering here and there a piece of machinery and chiseling the stones with his own hands from the original granite. He afterward thoroughly remodeled the mill and it is now a modern roller mill, the only flour mill in the county. Ever energetic, he held the distinction for many years of owning the highest bearing orchard in Colorado (elevation 7,600 feet). Also the first and only fish hatchery in Southern Colorado. During the past fouty years he was continuously and at different intervals engaged in the store, milling, cattle, horse, sheep, angora goat, ranching, bee, fish hatchery, mining and orchard businesses. He was ever energetic. A very conscientious man, a firm christian to whom no one in need applied in vain. Yet his left hand knew not what his right hand did. Ever a builder, ever progressive, his friends many, his enemies none.

Today we made the trip south from Walsenburg, CO south to Trinidad...

...and then west along the State Highway 12, the Scenic Highway of Legends to Stonewall. Along the way we saw many old prioneer homes...

...and some much newer ones.

We stopped for sandwiches at Ringo's market. It was so quaint inside I just had to sneak some pics.

And then there it was, the Storch ranch!

This is the original store that George built.

The remaining foundation of the grist mill still exists. We were later able to get a picture of the remains of the old mill before it was burned.

The two-story house directly across the road from George's store was where George's son Adolph Storz and his wife Theodosia lived for many years.

Adolph's son, O.T. Storz and his wife Anna, lived in the white house to the left of the old store.

O. T. built tourist cabins that he operated from 1932-1984. These were across the street and to the left of his father Adolph's home.

We also visited the Stonewall cemetery, farther down the road and up the mountain to the right.

There was a sign-in book at the cemetery. We checked for other visitors to the Storz graves and saw a few. I'm going to try to contact those people and see if they are relatives.

Fred tried to take pictures of all the graves in the cemetery but a big black cloud that was making very threatening sounds precluded him completing his task. We rushed back down the mountain to our car whose sun roof was open. We didn't get too wet though.

I left a stone on each of Storz grave to signify my visit. The following is the Storz plot plus the individual grave stones. The last picture is a mill stone that Adolph himself brought to the cemetery to be used as his grave stone.


Stonewall is named for the sandstone wall that runs through the valley and contains one of the very few gaps in the wall, the Stonewall Gap. These are pics of the left and right sides of the road where the gap occurs.

On our return from Stonewall Valley, we travelled through coal country, some scenes along the road.

We travelled through Cokedale to see an old mining town. With respect to current residents, I did not take pictures of the homes. But we saw a local resident we couldn't pass up taking a picture of.

At Trinidad we visited the Carnegie Library and obtained obituaries and various other facts about the Storz families. A successful day. There was a cute bronze statue outside the library.

Today yielded two distinct cars of the day. Do you know what the white thing on the red VW is?


Our last visit of the day was the site of the Ludlow Massacre. 1200 striking coal miners in 1914 were put out of their homes by the coal companies. The United Mine Workers union supplied tents for the striking miners to live in during the strike. The state sent in the militia with machine guns and 30 people were killed, most of whom were children.

A beautiful cloud coloration seen on the way home.