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Reflections of a childs life in a small mountian town. |
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The Road to Leadville. Chapter one Climax Colorado, was to change forever the summer of 1960. This typical mining town situated high in the Colorado Rockies with rows of houses built into the side of the mountain would cease to exist as a town altogether. The Climax Molybdenum Company needed the land. I turned four that summer. I watched the upheaval of our lives but did not understand the ramification of the company moving of all the homes from Climax to Leadville,twenty seven miles down the steep mountian highway. The apartments were transported first and used during the vast relocation. Uprooted families then had a place to live until they could move back into their homes. It was strange to see these three story buildings taken apart like a jigsaw puzzle. Each high-rise had to be cut up in three sections. Swarms of men with gigantic jacks and wood began to pick them up off the cement foundation placing them on massive metal beams attached to huge trucks. Visitors were astonished when they saw these enormous buildings being inched down the steep narrow highway. The truck drivers had to maneuver the sharp corners to keep each apartment division from tilting and sliding off the metal beams. Traffic was stopped outside of Leadville each time one was scheduled to begin the journey to its new residence. The whole endeavor took many months, and before the snows came in the early fall this huge task of removing the town of Climax and inserting it into Leadville had been completed. My family and I moved into one of these apartment buildings. It was fun to explore and with an abundant supply of kids to play with I was content. I spent countless hours going to their homes and they would come and go to mine. Months passed since we moved out of our home into the old transplanted building. Friends would move away and I wondered where they went. It was not until the day our house was to be transported I began to understand that they were back in their old houses. Slowly the huge truck moved our three-bedroom house down the mountain on the road to Leadville. My oldest sister Karol and I sat in the back seat of my parents olive green Volkswagen bug. Karol seemed depressed as she gazed out the window on her side of the car. I fidgeted and ran my fingers across the beige colored felt that surrounded the windows and roof of the car. Daddy hated when I did this because it made it dirty, but today he did not scold me. I guess he had much bigger things on his mind than dirt around the windows. My family and I were following our house- yes our house! My brother Paul and sister Coleen got to ride behind the house on their bikes. I wanted to do it too but Mother said I was too little. Daddy explained he needed me to watch from the car.I took my appointed vigil at the window behind his seat telling him everything I saw. I don’t think Daddy heard me though: both Mother and he seemed very nervous as they watched the truck take the first turn out of the big gate just off the highway.I giggled as I heard Mother make sucking noises with her mouth. Daddy never took his eyes off the house. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. I guess they were afraid because just a few days before our neighbor’s house had toppled off the truck. It was reduced to huge pile of rubble. My excitement soon turned to boredom, as this ride seemed to take forever. Traveling only 5 to 10 miles per hour is not really what you would say exceeded the speed limit. Paul and Coleen were having much more fun than Karol and me. I wanted to be out with them. Paul would goof off and pretend to pass the truck; Mother would lean out the car window and reprimand him when he did. I think she was worried that he would get hurt. Coleen would stay right where she was told to and would wave to me once in a while. Half way down the 20 mile trek, Coleen got tired and Mother had her get in the car with us. Daddy tied her bike to the bumper. I had more fun with Coleen as we looked out the windows of the car. I even forgot to watch the house for a long time. Paul made it all the way to Leadville’s city limit. My parents prayed that everything would go OK and God honored those prayers. Days later our brown and yellow colored house was settled onto 205 West 17th Street in Leadville. It had many cracks in the walls but none of the windows was broken. It had been a long trek down the mountain but the house had made the journey with flying colors. Mother and Daddy were happy. Coleen and Paul were tired. Karol was very grumpy and I just wanted to get out and investigate this new world. |
| Chapter | 1 | The Road to Leadville | 7.68k |
| Chapter | 2 | The Road to Leadville | 2.90k |
| Chapter | 3 | The Road to Leadville. | 3.37k |
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