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50 years ago

From the Thursday, July 24, 1958, edition of The Steamboat Pilot:

The biggest sawmill operation in Routt County is smoothly run by a group of men from Arkansas on Routt National Forest land near Sand Mountain, west of Hahn's Peak.

Alvin Rankin, the contractor who heads the operation, said he has a contract to supply Kalbab Lumber Company in Littleton with all the spruce and pine his outfit can turn out.

"There is 25 million broad feet in the present strip bought by the Whiting brothers from Charlie Smith, who put in the original bid on the timber," Rankin said. "It will take six to eight years to cut this strip and there are many millions more feet of timber in the area," he added.

Rankin grew up with a knowledge of the timber business. He ran a successful sawmill operation near Alamosa for eight summers before coming to Routt County to take over the Hahn's Peak mill in the spring of 1957. His son, Don, runs the edger at the mill.

Don described the rapid workings of the sawmill. The spruce and pine are trucked down from the mountains: three trucks carry 3,000 board feet each to the sawmill yard below. There are more than 350,000 board feet stockpiled in the yard.

Wild animal circus coming to town Monday

The circus is coming to town Monday.

The Barnes Trained Wild Animal Circus will give performances at 2:30 and 8 p.m. at the old baseball grounds, with the Softball Association sponsoring the appearance of the entertainment.

Tickets are being sold by members of the Little League and they will receive a percentage of the receipts. There will be no charge other than the admission tickets.

Featured in the circus are Capt. Barnes and his trained bear and lion acts in the large steel arena. Baby Boo is a star elephant actor, and Silver is a trained Hollywood horse who will perform.

The Moyer Duo fire act, a thrilling demonstration, will be featured and Beno will have his troupe of provoking clowns. Diana Allen will perform on the bounding rope and the Wilson Duo will do juggling and balancing on a rolling sphere. Queenie, the pony with a human brain, can add, subtract and pick out colors. Miss Rosetta is a daring trapeze performer.

Tickets are 50 cents for children under 12 and 90 cents for adults.

Funds needed to improve Howelsen ski jumping hill

Ways of obtaining funds to recondition the Steamboat ski area so that it will be ready for international events in 1959 and 1960 are being pondered by many interested in keeping this one of the great places for the winter sport.

Winter Sports Club officials this week appealed to the Lions and Kiwanis clubs for assistance in obtaining the $8,000 necessary to put the jumping hill in shape and realign the lift.

At present the Winter Sports Club has $2,000 available, and the town will grant $2,000 from the recreation fund if the remainder of the amount is available. Marcellus Merrill will give $1,000 to the project. That leaves about $3,000 to be raised or the big meets scheduled for Steamboat will have to be abandoned.

Surveys have shown that the $8,000 will make the hill useable for the big jumping meets and the national Nordic combined meet set for Steamboat.

Present plans call for lowering the present T-bar lift by eight feet and the erection of two towers. This will shorten the length of the cable and prevent the bars from getting tangled in the terminal.

All the old towers from the top of Howelsen Hill to the top of Emerald Mountain will be removed. The treated timber will be used for the construction of the landing on the jumping hill. Where the slides have spoiled the contour the hill will be built to specification with the timber, solidly anchored by cables and concrete, to give the hill the same grades that resulted in the American distance record of 316 feet being established there.

The Winter Sports Club officials say it is imperative that work be started within a short time if Steamboat is to continue as a great ski center in the nation.