Lake City & Hinsdale County Firsts

Ever wonder when the first train arrived in Lake City? Who was the first child born in town? When the first 'aero-plane' was sighted? Read on! The following "List of Firsts" contains notable happenings in Lake City history:

FIRST BUILDING - Although Ute Indian tepees were probably the first human habitations in the Lake Fork Valley, the first documented structure is attributed to Enos T. Hotchkiss, the "Father of Lake City". Hotchkiss built a crude log cabin on the present site of Lake City on August 16, 1874. Other early cabins are attributed to John Bartholf, Canute Lee, and Charles Broyles.

FIRST POST OFFICE - Lake City's first U.S. Post Office was opened on Gunnison Avenue on June 18, 1875. The first postmaster was Stephen A. Dole.

FIRST NEWSPAPER - Messrs. Peyton & Woods started the first newspaper on the Western Slope of Colorado, the Lake City SILVER WORLD, on June 19, 1875. A third partner in the venture was famed toll road builder Otto Mears who provided financial backing.

FIRST AMERICAN FLAG - Military expeditions in the 1870s probably brought the first flags into the Lake Fork Valley. The first U.S. Flag unfurled at a public celebration in Lake City took place on July 4, 1875. Unable to locate a genuine flag, the enterprising citizens created one using an old blue flannel shirt, red drawers, and a white handkerchief.

FIRST BIRTH - A "Red Letter Day" occurred July 8, 1875, when Mrs. S.W. Hoyt gave birth to a son, appropriately named Laketon Hoyt. Dr. T.M. Harmon, Lake City's first practicing physician, attended Mrs. Hoyt during the birth. In chronicling the family's move to Ohio Creek, Gunnison County in January, 1877, the SILVER WORLD editor "If the growth of this boy is to be taken as symbolical of that of his foster mother, Lake City must soon prepare to extend her boundaries, as this interesting little boy is one of the finest specimens of 'Young America' the writer has ever beheld.

FIRST STAGECOACH ARRIVAL - The first stage, belonging to Barlow & Sanderson Overland Stage Co., arrived in Lake City on July 11, 1875. It was the first of what was to become a tri-weekly stage service.

FIRST DEATH - The first death of natural causes in Lake City took place January 17, 1876, when W.F. Ryan "passed to the other side." The first deaths of unnatural causes were probably the murders of Israel Swan, George Noon, James Humphrey, Frank Miller, and Shannon Wilson Bell who were killed by Alferd Packer while on a prospecting tour in February, 1874.

FIRST MARRIAGE - Miss Kitty Eastman and Mr. Davie T. Hughes were married in Lake City on May 9, 1876. Judge A. R. Thomson officiated at the ceremony. The groom was compositor for the SILVER WORLD newspaper, prompting the following toast offered by the newspaper editor: "May his stick ever work on solid matter; may her form be well justified and always stand the press; may their proofs ever be correct; and may they never be ashamed of their imprint."

FIRST SECRET ORDER SOCIETY - The Silver Star Lodge, No. 27, International Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) was chartered in Lake City in 1876. It was the first secret order society established on Colorado's Western Slope.

FIRST FIRE - Lake City's first destructive house fire occurred October, 1877, on south Silver Street. The fire started in the Bon Ton Saloon and quickly spread to an adjoining two-story frame building occupied by the Home Restaurant. "Mrs. A.H. Hard, proprietor of the restaurant, lost nearly everything in the house, including four trunks of family clothing, and some members of the family saved scarcely enough clothing to keep them warm..." Lake City's most destructive fires, both in the business district, took place in 1879 and 1915.

FIRST BANK - Hinsdale County Bank was the first banking institution to open its doors on the Western Slope of Colorado. It opened on Silver Street, Lake City, June 17, 1876. It was succeeded by the First National Bank of Lake City and Thatcher Bros.' Miners & Merchants Bank, the latter continuing until 1914 when it ceased business. Lake City's current bank, First National Bank of Lake City & Creede opened in 1983.

FIRST SHOOT-OUT - Daniel Emmit and John Roache settled an argument by resorting to their guns on July 3, 1876. The fight took place in the Star Billiard Hall. Roache was killed and Emmit bound over for trial charged with murder, although he later escaped from jail.

FIRST CHURCH - November 29, 1876, was the dedication ceremony for the Lake City Presbyterian Church, the first church in both Lake City and the Western Slope of Colorado. Rev. George M. Darley, a talented carpenter, built both the church and the adjoining manse (1879), the first home for a minister in Western Colorado.

FIRST SCHOOL - Prof. T. H. Cannon opened Lake City's first private school in Sparling's Hall, Gunnison Avenue, in November, 1875. Curriculum consisted of English, bookkeeping, commercial and mining law. Terms $3, payable in advance. Hinsdale County School District No. 1 was formed in January, 1876, with an enrollment of 28 students.

FIRST PIANO - The first piano brought into Lake City belonged to Mrs. J. W. Brockett and was used in the upstairs of Brockett Hall. It probably burned in the Great Fire of November, 1879. The second piano arrived in April, 1877, and was a Chickering costing $600. It was used by George F. Garner in the San Juan Central Saloon. Gardner's piano still remains in Lake City and is now among the furnishing of Crystal Lake Masonic Lodge.

FIRST LYNCHING - The first and only lynching to take place in Lake City occurred on April 27, 1882, when George Betts and James Browning, the owners of a saloon and brothel on Bluff Street, were hanged after they killed Sheriff E. N. Campbell. The lynching took place on the old Ocean Wave Bridge immediately north of Lake City.

FIRST TRAIN - The first passenger train of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, running on the Lake Fork Branch from Sapinero, arrived in Lake City with great fanfare and celebration on August 15, 1889. Track was completed to Lake City on July 20, 1889. The last passenger train to leave from Lake City left at 2:30 p.m. on May 25, 1933.

FIRST WATER SYSTEM - Lake City's first municipal water system was inaugurated in the fall of 1891, providing water to residents and businesses throughout the town.

FIRST ELECTRICITY - Christmas Eve, 1891, saw the first electric lights go on in Lake City. The Presbyterian Church was one of the first public buildings lit.

FIRST MOTOR BOAT - The first motor boat to be placed in Lake San Cristobal was owned by W.A. Akers, Superintendent of the Golden Fleece Mine. The maiden voyage of the boat, which was described as a 'naphtha launch,' took place the first week of June, 1895. Even after being disabled -- after knocking a propeller blade off on a submerged log -- the boat could manage five knots per hour.

FIRST MOTOR CAR - Pioneer Thomas L. Beam and his son, L .T. Beam, owned the first motor car to be brought into Lake City. It was a 1910 "Peerless" and was acquired in Denver before being shipped to Lake City on a railroad flatbed. The elder Mr. Beam and McClelland Fisher were co-discoverers of the famed Golden Wonder Mine in Dead Man's Gulch south of Lake City. The second Lake City automobile was owned by Mr. Beam's son-in-law, Dr. B.F. Cummings. (See photo on another page)

FIRST AERO PLANE - The first aero plane to be sighted in Lake City came on the morning of March 8, 1927, when a plane was sighted high above town en route from Silverton to Denver. The first airplane to land in the immediate vicinity of Lake City was on April 22, 1934, when a plane carrying mining associates of the Buckeye Claims landed at the Carl Benson Ranch on the lower Lake Fork.

FIRST SEWER SYSTEM - Lake City Area Water & Sanitation District was formed in May, 1966, and during the following summer proceeded with the installation of a complete water and sewage system within Lake City. The sanitation district was later absorbed by the Town of Lake City and formally abolished in 2002.