What’s totally strange about Alamosa is despite having lived there for almost seven years, it never really felt like home. Maybe it’s because I went to college there. And that’s where I was a rookie police officer in the city proper. Maybe, I knew it was simply a stopover in life.
Alamosa, Colorado began as a railroad town. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad came into the Valley, and this is where they set up shop.
This included switches, a roundhouse, and repair facilities for the engines.
Agriculture was the magnet that brought the trains. Because of them, fresh produce, lamb and beef were shipped from the Valley and across America.
If the town could be said to have a true beginning, then that would be 12 March 1878. That’s when when the post office officially opened. Five months later, on 12 Aug 78, the town was officially incorporated.
The rail brought in a lot of money and some fine establishments were built. One such place was the Victoria Hotel or just “The Vic” as we used to call it. A casual walk though was enough to tell you that once upon a time, it was a big deal. Old carpet, carved wood and lighting. But when I knew the Vic, it was old, rundown, and a battlefield. While I was an officer in that town, there was a homicide, several serious assaults, thefts, robberies, you name it. The place was a dump waiting to be taken off to the dump.
But like I said, in it’s day, it was the Queen. There was also the Grand hotel a few blocks away. I stepped foot in it once and that’s when the Jaycee’s opened it as a spook house. Shortly afterwards, it was bulldozed and gone forever.
But the Vic had something that might have caused a few old west legends to stop and that was gambling. Some of the people who might have stopped reads like a who’s who of the old west. They might have included Bob Ford, the man who killed Jesse James. Another might have been Soapy Smith, an old time con man. A third would have been one of the rare female gamblers, Alice (Poker Alice) Tubbs.
In 1921, Adams State College opened. I attended it from 1974 to 1978. It’s come a long way since and College was changed to a university not many years ago. While a student there, I meet a legend in astronomy circles. Read about that below in “The Stars Like Dust – My Coffee with Cecilia.”
Like so many towns in the Valley, there’s a ton of history there.
Most of it, people don’t even know.
Here’s some of it:
The Choices you make – From the case files of Town Marshal Frank Hyatt – Click Here
Death Watch – The shooting of Alamosa Town Marshall Emerson – Click Here.
The Stars Like Dust – My Coffee with Cecilia – Click Here.
Where the Magic Lives – Click Here.
Stories from the street – Daniel the Prophet – Click Here.
Parker’s Law 2 – The Best Laid Plans – Click Here.
William R. Ablan, Police Mysteries 