Our Prayers are with you Gabby

 Our prayers are with you Gabrielle. Our hearts have been broken, and we wish you a full and timely recovery.

Memories of George Monthan at Rancho del Lago

Voices of Vail and the Cienega Corridor

Interviewed by J.J. Lamb
 
Vail Preservation Society


“…My fathers name, grandfathers name was Tatters field. It was very well know within the milling business in the midlands of England, but they had 5 boys. The oldest was Harold, then Erik, Guy, Karl, and Oscar. I’ll get to them later. They were all, they all had the same middle name-Monthan. My dad for example was Guy Monthan Tattersfield. Well the family came on hard times because of the industrial revolution, they didn’t keep up with modern machinery and so forth. I don’t know what happened but you could say the family went broke more or less and they decided to immigrate to the United…Canada. And so the 3 oldest boys went over first and scouted out and bought a ranch outside of Calgary, and then the family, the rest of the family, the youngest boy Oscar, being 10 or 11 years old at that time, they came later. Well they settled in Canada for several years and my dad (Guy) at that time was 19 or 20. I guess he spent a little stint in the royal Canadian mounted police. Well ranching was ok except they couldn’t stand the winters, their completely out of business
for 6 monthes you know, so they decided they had to move to a warmer climate. Mexico, Argentina… And Argentina appealed to them. So they sold the family ranch. Loaded all their possessions on two or 3 wagons. They had a string of about 15 horses to pull the wagons and to ride and they took off from Calgary to go to Mexico or Argentina without knowing anything about what lay ahead of them…”

Memories of Ramon Morales in the Empire Mountains

Voices of Vail and the Cienega Corridor

Interviewed by “Hondo” Bill Thayer


Vail Preservation Society 

“…The Total Wreck was still going when Perry homesteaded the PH. Because from a story that Mister Hilton told me. He said, once, that his dad was a drinker, but not a heavy drinker. He would order, by mail, five gallons of whisky, and that would last him a year. That was before prohibition. He used to order it by mail. That's why I think the Total Wreck was running pretty stong. The teamsters would bring the mail from Pantano, and Mister Hilton (Perry) would pick it up at Total Wreck. On the way up those teamsters got caught by a great big kind of blizzard. Lots of mist, and freezing cold! Mister Hilton said the snow was almost two feet high! On the way they almost froze, so they had to drink Mr. Hilton's whisky! They found out it was whisky, and they drank it. All of it! He didn't say how mad Perry got, but he had to order another keg. And that's why I think the Total Wreck was still going strong.
Perry Hilton took to prospecting, and found a little pocket of silver. Mister Hilton told me that they were so poor that they couldn't afford to hire another man to help, so his mother would handle one side of the windlass, and Ed would handle the other side, and the one in the bottom (of the mine) would fill the ore bucket. Then they would crank on the windlass to raise the bucket. It was very hard work, especially for a small woman and a twelve or thirteen year old boy. I think they shipped the ore to Pantano. They hauled it by wagon.
He (Perry Hilton) had that problem with the Vail Company (The Vail Land and Cattle Company). There were enough wild horses and burros, so they didn't want the goats. They got very angry with him! Perry didn't have any fences. His whole place was open range. Those Vail Company Cowboys sure didn't like those goats! I never heard if there was a shoot-out. They probably just used words…”