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Above: 135 S. Walnut St as it has sat for the last few decades- its fate is to be determined next month by the Hayden Town Board



Have you ever walked by the building and wondered what its story was? What events has it seen? Who has walked through its doors......Every building has a story ....Read on to find out this one's story......


Background

The Hayden area was pre-emptively settled in 1874 as the Bear River Colony, a settlement venture organized by Porter Smart and his two sons Gordon and Albert along with Major Thompson who was a former Indian Agent. They established a post office, trading post as well as the county seat, just north of present Hayden downtown. These early settlers left the area after the Meeker incident with the Utes in September of 1879. It was not until the 1880's that permanent settlers arrived and the town developed.


Above: William Walker ca 1893

One of these early settlers was William R. Walker, a native of North Carolina, who arrived in 1881 along with his son Martin Walker who together purchased preemption land claims from William's brother in law, Samuel Reid. William Walker was an influential leader and developer of Hayden and Routt County and was elected to serve as a Routt County Commissioner from 1883 to 1885.

Along with Samuel Reid, Walker developed one of Routt County's earliest irrigation ditches- water was adjudicated to the Walker Irrigation ditch September 22, 1892 and holds the priority number of two on the Yampa River. This ditch, which winds through the Town of Hayden south to the Breeze Basin area, is one of the oldest constructed irrigation ditches in Routt County and has been in continuous use since its inception enabling agriculture development in the area.

William Walker along with his son Martin Walker, and Samuel Donelson- William's son in law, saw the need to develop plans for a town settlement for the growing area. They drew up plans for the townsite and filed a plat for the Town of Hayden on January 15th, 1894. These Town lots paralleled Walker's Lane a 'meandering cow path' William Walker used for moving his cattle to and from his pasture land located south in the Breeze Basin area and his homestead to the north near the Yampa River. Settlers had been using this path as a road through the area. Commercial lots were established on the west side of the lane which would later be called Walnut St. and business buildings started to emerge including the one at 135 S. Walnut, which would host a number of businesses throughout the years and would be associated with a number of Hayden and Routt County notable individuals including J.L. Norvell and Ferry Carpenter.


James L. Norvell

The lot at 135 S. Walnut was part of the original plat and was first purchased on Oct 1, 1895 by James 'J.L' Norvell. It was either the Walkers or J.L. Norvell that constructed the building at 135 S. Walnut sometime between 1894 when the lot was platted and 1896 when historic photographs show the building on site. J.L Norvell was one of Routt County's prolific entrepreneurs who invested in livestock and mining interests and operated a number of businesses over the years in a number of Routt County Towns aiding to their development including a stage line, saloons, and mercantile stores. Norvell originally hailed from Tennessee arriving in the Hayden area in 1892 working as a ranch hand for Samuel Reid. He built up a herd of livestock while homesteading a ranch between Hayden and Craig and delivering mail during the winter months. Norvell moved to Hayden with his wife Lizzie and purchased property including the lot at 135 S. Walnut St. where his first store was located until he built a larger structure for his growing mercantile business in what is now the HiWay Bar building on Hwy 40.


Saloon Gunfight

Above: Early Hayden ca 1898 the building with the porch on the left was the Central Hotel (torn down in the 1960's) just north (above) is the building with the awning. The school is the log building across the street on the far right. These are the only two original structures left. The school is now located behind Porcupine Design building on Walnut St.


Norvell sold the property at 135 S. Walnut in January 1897 to Joseph Jones who opened a saloon in the building. This would be the site of one of the first gunfights in Hayden between two cowboys, "Texas" John Ogg and William Sawtell. John Ogg was fatally wounded in the gunfight which was over either a game of cards or dice and William Sawtell, who was exonerated in the slaying as Ogg was part Native American, would later became a small-time outlaw. Joe Jones, who would later serve as Routt County Sheriff 1902-1906, sold the saloon to I.A. Underwood in January of 1899. I.A. Underwood ran a saloon in the building until he sold it to Hahn's Peak saloon-man, George Anderson, in October of 1900. George Anderson was running a saloon in the building when the Town of Hayden was incorporated in 1906 and it continued as a saloon until 1908 when the citizens of Hayden voted to go "dry" thereby prohibiting alcohol within Town limits. Anderson changed the business to a Hardware and Implement Store.


Yampa Valley Bank

In March of 1912 Anderson sold the building to The Yampa Valley Bank which had originated in a comer of the J.L. Norvell Store on Jefferson Ave. According to local historian Jan Leslie the reason for the Bank moving to the new location may have developed from the National Recovery Act of 1912 which reorganized banks as separate institutions. The Yampa Valley Bank played an important role in the economic stability and growth of Hayden and was backed by local businesses and individuals. However, by the 1930's the Colorado-Utah Fuel Company, which owned the Mt. Harris Coal Mine, had acquired the largest percentage of stock in the Bank and when banks across the United States went on a two-week moratorium in 1932, the Colorado Utah Company decided to close the bank permanently.




Above: Street scene with the Yampa Valley Bank- note Ferry Carpenter’s shingle ca 1912

Photo courtesy Belle Zars


Later Businesses

On September 1, 1936 the building was purchased by the Novelty Amusement Co of Denver which opened the Crystal Theatre. In order to make it a 'real' theatre they did a number of improvements to the building including sloping the floor, installing theatre seats, and stuccoing the exterior to improve its appearance. After the theatre manager passed away in 1936, his widow sold the building to Joe Cuber and John Greve who leased the building out.

Ernest Wagner, another leader of Hayden who had helped organized the Town’s cemetery, leased the building in 1938 for his saddle and furniture store. After Ernest passed away in 1940, Don Bierig established a pool hall in the building.

By 1945 William Awe opened Billy’s Recreation Center which had a lunch counter, small dance floor and a music player. This restaurant became known as the J & J Café when Jack Allen became part of the business. In 1947 the restaurant was robbed twice within a few weeks. After the second robbery, which was done by the same three men, the following ad ran in the local Routt Co Republican Newspaper:




Above: Ad from the Routt County Republican Newspaper


From the 1950’s through to the 1980's the building saw a number of businesses pass through including Jack’s Sport Shop, a stove shop, the Hayden Re-Store, a 3.2 Beer hall called Poor Richards which later became a teen center, and finally it was shared office space which housed Mark Fischer- Attorney, an Insurance Agency owned by Darrell Camiletti, Doug Monger- Public Accountant, and offices for the Yampa Valley Electric Company and Hayden Cable Company. The last business in the building was Albert Deepe’s Wood Works which operated until 1991. The building has set vacant since, except for one summer in 2007 when it was the Elkhead Quilter’s Shop.


The Annex

Above: Inside the annex on the southside of the building was Ferry Carpenters Office noted as specializing in land and water rights. Ferry sitting at his desk ca 1912


The southern annex was added sometime about 1909 when it housed a bowling alley. This small space saw the rise of one of Hayden and Routt Counties most influential individuals, Farrington "Ferry" Carpenter. Ferry was born August 10, 1886 in Evanston Illinois to Edward Farrington Carpenter a well to do shoe manufacturer and Mary Belle Reed Carpenter. Ferry's mother had brought him out west in the summer of 1902 to New Mexico in order to improve his health as he was prone to asthmatic attacks and she felt the dry southwest would help him. Ferry fell in love with the cowboy life and eventually found himself as a ranch hand for the pioneer cattleman JB Dawson who Ferry looked to as a mentor. JB Dawson was a Texas pioneer who had made his fortune running cattle and establishing a large ranch in the New Mexico frontier. Dawson purchased the Fiske Ranch just east of Hayden and a number of nearby ranches all of which would become known as the Dawson Ranch, and persuaded Ferry to visit the family and pursue ranching and a homestead. Ferry would visit the Dawson Ranch during the summers, and attend University back east in the winter. In 1907 Ferry took up a homestead in the Elk Head area north of Hayden. Ferry graduated from Princeton University in 1908 and in 1909 on his return to Hayden partnered with his best friend Jack White to form the Carpenter and White Cattle Company which raised pureblood Hereford cattle making profits by selling bulls. Ferry worked on his homestead during the summer months attending Harvard Law School in the East during the winter. In 1912 he graduated with his law degree from Harvard and returned to Hayden to set up his law practice advertising land office and water rights as his specialties. In 1912 Ferry established his law office in the annex, which had previously housed a bowling alley, here he would start his rise to become one of Hayden's most prominent and influential citizens contributing to the development of the Hayden community and we􀀟tern ranching. He rented the annex, which had a bedroom in the back where he stayed in the winter when the weather prevented him from traveling to his homestead, for $10 a month which included outhouse privileges out back. This site served as his office for the next eight years.


Ferry served as the Town of Hayden Attorney from 1913-1925 during which time he helped establish two schools, the Elkhead Rock School and the Union High School. He also helped establish the Solandt Hospital, and served on a number of local Boards including director for the First National Bank in Hayden. In 1925, Ferry leased the Dawson Ranch from the Victor American Fuel Company which had purchased the ranch in 1915 from the Dawson's. Ferry would eventually purchase the Ranch which is now part of the Nature Conservancy.


By 1928 Ferry had become a leading cattleman in Northwest Colorado and played a key role in representing livestock interests in regional and national policy. Ferry served on the Board of Directors of the Colorado Cattle and Horse Growers Association and in 1926 was instrumental in negotiating a truce between cattle and sheep factions in Moffat County during the "stock driveway crisis". He served as District Attorney from 1928 to 1932 in Routt County. In 1934 he was appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to set up the administration of the Taylor Grazing Act and serve as the first Director of the Grazing Service (predecessor to the Bureau of Land Management). During Ferry's time in that capacity he worked with local stockmen all over the West and set up the management of western range lands with a decentralized grazing administration with district advisory boards composed by lessees. He also served as Colorado State treasurer 1941-1943 and was elected State Representative serving one term in 1952.



Bibliography

Carpenter, Edward F. "America's First Grazier." Fort Collins: Vestige, 2004.

Carpenter, Farrington R. "Confessions of a Maverick." Denver: State Historical, 1984.

Carpenter, Willis. "Carpenter /Dawson Ranch." Historic Nomination, Routt County, 1993.

Green, Judy. "W.R. Walker Homestead Cabin." Historic Nomination, Routt County, 2003.

History of Hayden and West Routt County 1876-1989. Dallas, Texas: Curtis Media Corporation, 1990.

Leslie, Jan. "Hayden." Charleston: Arcadia, 2010.

Leslie, Jan "Walnut Street Now and Then." Hayden Heritage Center, 2009.

Routt County Property Ownership Books

Watson, Laurel. "Yampa Valley Sin Circuit." Charleston: History Press, 2014.

Wilson, Delphine Dawson. "John Barkley Dawson". 1997.

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Tuesday Tidbits By Shannon Valora- Your tidbit of Hayden and West Routt County history on Tuesday morning.

Commemorating the Wadge Mine Explosion – January 27, 1942

Tomorrow, January 27th marks the 79th anniversary of the 8th worst mining disaster in Colorado history – in terms of fatalities – and it happened right here in West Routt County.

34 miners lost their lives in an explosion at about 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27, 1942 at the Victor American Fuel company’s Wadge Mine.

The Wadge Mine was one of two mines operating at the time near the mining town of Mount Harris, the other being the Mount Harris mine owned by Colorado-Utah Mine. The Wadge mine was originally a “twin mine”, operated by two separate openings in the Wadge seam on opposite sides of the Yampa River. Wadge No. 1 was the south side mine located on the Yampa River while Wadge No.2 (the main tunnel) was northwest of the town of Mt. Harris, one-quarter mile north of the Yampa River on Wolf Creek. The main tunnel, with air shafts parallel to the main tunnel, extended west from the mine. From the main tunnel other work tunnels branched off to the north. It was in the 19th branch tunnel, the one farthest to the west and north, that the explosion took place. The main tunnel dropped off at an angle of about 10 degrees from the surface of the earth at the location. Hoists pulled the cars from the mine on this incline. Thus the explosion actually took place at a distance of a little over a mile north and west of the town of Mt. Harris.

Four men, were working on a piece of broken down equipment near the entry of the mine, when they heard the explosion and fled, escaping alive, and alerted officials of the disaster about 10:30 p.m., approximately 45 minutes after the blast. The explosion had not been heard outside the mine. Telephone lines into the mine were taken out by the explosion.

Bill Fickle, one of the four survivors, stated that the four had “heard a dull thud from way back in the hole. In a second we smelled smoke and ran for the air shaft.” Fickle went on to say that he and his companions came out through the air shaft, a smaller tunnel paralleling the main tunnel and they were “uncomfortable but not sick”. He believed that if they’d been a couple hundred yards farther into the mine they wouldn’t have made it.

Henry Johnson was the mine superintendent at the time where the 34 men were trapped about 5,500 feet inside the tunnel of the mine. Immediately upon receipt of the word of the explosion, a call for emergency rescue crew was sent out. The eerie cry of the whistle continued to blow as it’s shrill echo from the hills around an unsuspecting town. A crew from the Colorado-Utah (Mt Harris) mine, under leadership of pit boss Joe Burns, was soon ready to enter the mine. However, black, damp, deadly, carbon dioxide gas, filled the shaft after the blast and impeded the work of rescue crews who fought the suffocating gas with huge blowers, forcing air into the mine and sucking the fumes out. The rescue workers were finally able to reach the victims around 4 o'clock the next morning, over seven hours after the blast. They found broken, charred, and terribly mangled bodies, lying at the stations where they had been employed in the various duties.

Families from Mount Harris, Steamboat, Craig and the surrounding areas rushed to the site, as smoke belched from the mine entrance leaving a mixture of gas and coal fumes to blanket the community. Families were told to go home and wait for word as ambulances and hearses were called from surrounding towns. An improvised morgue was set up at Liberty Hall in the old opera house. After the first rush of excitement following the blast relatives of the doomed miners stood stoically on the cold, bleak hill awaiting further news of their men. The first rescue teams brought back the sad news that there were no survivors. It was only then, a few at a time, the families took the officials’ advice and went home.

It was another six hours before the first bodies were brought out -- six bodies carried on stretchers on a mine car. They were burned so badly that identification could not be made immediately. By 4:00 p.m., thirty-three of the bodies had been placed on rows in the morgue, only one remained to be brought out. Two of the thirty-three were still unidentified. The last body was not found and removed until Friday evening. The miners wore “brass checks”, a thin, brass coin with a number stamped on it. These were clipped to their belts as they received their cap lamp to go into the mine for shift. Many of the bodies were identified only because of their brass check.

As expected school was called off in both Mount Harris and Hayden, along with all sporting events throughout Northwest Colorado for the rest of the week. Life came to a stand-still as bodies were recovered from the mine. Workers in the community's other coal mine, the Colorado-Utah, which employed about 250 men, were told not to report for work.

The shift in which the miners were killed began at 3:30 p.m. and would have ended at 11:00 p.m. that night. Just ninety minutes later and the tragedy could have been doubled as twice as many men would have been in the mine during a shift change..

The four who escaped alive, age and town were JOE GALL, 40, Milner BILL FICKLE, 35, Hayden ELMER EVERSON, 23, Hayden MIKE ATANSOFF, 53, Mount Harris

The 34 men who lost their lives, age and town: ANTONIO ADAME, 42, Mt. Harris. PLUTACO ADAME, 45, Mt. Harris. CHARLES BAKER, 37, Craig. LEO BECK, 43, Steamboat Springs. H. TRUMAN BEEN, 37, Mt. Harris. FRED W. BLOUNT, 50, Mt. Harris. MAX BUSTOS, 65, Mr. Harris. RALPH CABLE, 30, Hayden. ROSS CABLE, 35, Hayden. RAYMOND CABLE, 38, Hayden. S. PETE CRETONNE, 51, Mt. Harris. DON FORD, 25, Craig. JACK GASPERICH, 42, Craig. PHILLIP GONZALEZ, 50, Mt. Harris. JOE A. GOODRICH, 40, Craig. HARVEY HARDIN, 46, Mt. Harris. H. H. HARTMAN, 47, Mt. Harris. ELMER HINDMAN, 40 Hayden. E. KEN HOCKMAN, 32, Mt. Harris. JOE MARTINEK, 55, Mt. Harris. TOM McKNIGHT, 54, Mt. Harris. HARRISON G. MOORE, 29, Mt. Harris. ROBERT NANCE, 46, Mt. Harris. HARRY OLIVER, 55, Mt. Harris. RAYMOND POPE, 21, Craig. GEORGE SEARLES, 40, Mt. Harris. JOE SERTIC, 50, Mt. Harris. FRANK SHEPERD, 33, Craig. TONY SKUFCA, 39, Mt. Harris. TIMOTHY TRUJILLO, 26, Mt. Harris. ARTHUR VAN CLEAVE, 34, Steamboat Springs. ADRIAN VRIEZEMA, 21, Mt. Harris. CHARLES VUKOMAN, 49, Mt. Harris. GEORGE H. WARD, 44, Steamboat Springs.

The explosion took four members of one family, RALPH, ROSS and RAYMOND CABLE were brothers, and RALPH was a brother-in-law of ELMER HINDEMAN.

Twenty-four of the thirty-four were married.

Forty-three children lost their father.

The State of Colorado paid for all of the funerals and $4375 to each family, paid at $750 per year for six years. The United Mine Workers of America paid approximately $100 to each family, while the local district UMW organization donated $25 to each family the day after the blast.

Messages and flowers from across the entire country poured into the Mount Harris and surrounding areas. The Steamboat Pilot received requests from across the nation, which they were happy to fill, for copies of the newspapers reporting the accident. The Mount Harris telegraph office received messages from relatives and friends from all of the nation concerning their relatives and friends.

The official cause of the explosion on record, was an explosion of gas caused by arc-electric machinery which was being used to help clear gas. While killing 34 men, the explosion did not do a lot of damage to the actual mine shafts. Just a few short weeks later, crews were busy reestablishing communications and running power back to the pumps and other equipment in preparation to reopen the mine.

The Wadge Mine was developed by the Victor America Coal Company in 1916, just two years after the Colorado-Utah Coal company developed their mine at Mount Harris. In January 1950, The Victor America Coal company applied for reorganization bankruptcy. The Wadge Mine continued to operate but was listed for sale in May 1951. By May 1952, total liquation of all Wadge Mine holdings had begun.

The Mount Harris Coal company mine closed on May 20, 1958. The town of Mount Harris, mostly owned by the coal mine, was dismantled to avoid taxes and liability. Many of the homes and buildings were moved to Hayden and surround areas and still stand today.

A couple more interesting side notes – • Victor-American Fuel Company also operated the Pinnacle Coal mine in Oak Creek. • Mine work at that time was a seasonal job – starting in the middle of August and going until the first or middle of February. • The Wadge Mine had approximately 125 employees while the Mount Harris mine was closer to 250 employees. • Many Wadge mine First Aid Teams had won or placed in International and local safety contests prior to this disaster. • The Wadge mine was considered quite safe. A mine inspection just 2 months prior to the accident said ventilation in the mine appeared to be good and that working conditions were satisfactory. The whole of the Routt County District had always been considered to be an almost entirely gas free field and no explosion had ever been known to occur from gas. There was also an abundance of moisture in the mine which kept the dust well under control and although it was known to contain some gas, it had never occurred in quantities sufficient to cause any trouble. • This was the second explosion for survivor, Mike Antanasoff aka: “Fat Mike”, who one of two men who survived the Moffat Mine explosion in Oak Creek in 1921 that claimed seven lives. • One other miner, Bill Lee escaped being in the mine at the time of the explosion because he had left the mine at 7:00 p.m. to take his wife and daughter to the train depot to catch the train to Denver. After seeing his family off, but before returning to the mine, he stopped by his home for a bite to eat and actually fell asleep at his kitchen table. That decision no doubt saved his life as the explosion had already happened by the time he returned to the mine. • George Searles and Elmer Hindman, both of who were killed in the explosion, did not normally work underground. They were mechanics from the machine shop who had gone into the mine at about 6:00 p.m. to repair an electrical motor. • In the mid-1800s there was no organized reporting of mine fatalities but in 1884 the death of 59 miners at the Crested Butte coal mine in Gunnison County inspired the State of Colorado to pass legislation requiring mining companies to report their accidents, both fatal and nonfatal. Of the 31 major mining incidents resulting in fatalities in Colorado, Victor-American Fuel Company was the owner of 6 of the mines, including the top two. On April 27, 1917, 121 miners were killed in an explosion at Hastings Mine in Las Animas County and on November 8, 1910, 70 miners were killed in an explosion in another Las Animas mine

Stay tuned for our next Tuesday Tidbit. Visit the Hayden Heritage Museum at 300 W. Pearl Street in the Old Depot P.O. Box 543, Hayden Co 81639 (970)276-4380 haydenmuseum@zirkel.us https://www.haydenheritagecenter.org/

We’d love to hear your memories and Feedback on our Tuesday Tidbits! Have an idea for a Tuesday Tidbit… or want to hear more about something… don’t hesitate to let us know by commenting below or emailing us!

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On April 29, 1874, the Brunot Treaty was signed by the US Government with the Utes, which opened the Northwest corner of the Colorado Territory to settlement. While this Treaty was being signed, a group of investors, spearheaded by veteran explorer and entrepreneur Porter Smart, was busily organizing a venture to colonize these newly opened lands. The central site of this colony, which included what is now west Routt County & Moffat County, was originally referred to as ’Haydenville’ in reference to the explorer F.V. Hayden who surveyed the area in the early 1870’s for his U.S. Geological & Geographical Survey of Colorado published in 1873 . It was later shortened to just Hayden in the 1875 Post Office application.

Porter Smart was a man always on the move. He was born in New York around 1820 and headed west as a young man settling first in Illinois where he took up several land patents and met and married his wife Sarah. Never the one to sit still while opportunity abounded in the newly expanding West, he moved his growing family to Wisconsin before moving to the Colorado territory in the early 1860’s. Porter was a leading citizen of Gilpin County with investments in mining and land speculation, before moving to Middle Park in the late 1860’s. He was politically active and served on the Colorado Territory Commission of Immigration, which was created and funded by the territorial governor to induce settlement of the territory in order to eventually secure statehood. The governor allocated $6000 a year for the Commission to research and print pamphlets noting the terrain, public lands, mining and coal field opportunities of the sparsely settled rugged areas of Colorado which were difficult to get to and close to Indian lands As part of the Commission, Porter explored Middle Park and western Colorado as early as 1862 when much of the land he was exploring was considered Indian Territory. In 1864 he accompanied C. S. Stowell of Georgetown and U.M. Curtis, a government interpreter for the Utes, taking a tour through Middle and Egeria Parks and the Grand River area. In 1865 he traveled with a Major Oakes and a Mr. Whitely, an ex- Indian agent, along with a Prof. Denton of Boston, exploring western Colorado by way of the White River to Salt Lake, travelling through Strawberry and Uintah valley to Green River then to the White River by the Berthoud trail through Middle Park crossing the range into Gilpin County through the Boulder Pass. Porter saw a future opportunity in the region however travel was difficult, as most of the roads were little more than old trails, and the land was not officially open for settlement.

With the signing of the Brunot Treaty, Porter saw his window of opportunity. He secured $250,000 in Eastern money to incorporate two companies: The Bear River Wagon Road, which would provide the needed roads for settlers to get to the newly open lands through the mountains from Hot Sulphur Springs; and The Western Improvement Company, which sought to develop the Bear River Colony by attracting settlers who would pay a $25 fee for Smart to locate a pre-emption claim site for them.

According to Thomas Iles diary, “12 men and 1 woman” were the first of the Bear River Colonists to settle in the Valley in the summer of 1874. This included Porter’s sons Albert & Gordon as well as Albert’s wife Lou along with their children, and settlers Thomas Iles, Joe Morgan, Frank Ganson, brothers Homer and Jim Polip, George Schloser, Frank Man, John Newton, and two other men , one an old trapper by the name of Tow and another man known as ‘Uncle John’. Joe Morgan was the first to set up an Indian trading post on his claim. Abert Smart established the Hayden post office by November of 1875 at his homestead near the Yampa River just north of the present site of Hayden. In 1876, JB Thompson, a former Denver Indian Agent, brought his family to the valley and established a trading post near the Smarts. When Routt County was established in 1877 it encompassed over 7,000 acres extending westward to the Utah border. Hayden was appointed the county seat by the county commissioners Gordon Smart of Hayden, Thomas Iles from Elkhead area (east of what is now Craig, and A.J. Bell from Hahn’s Peak due to its central location. JB Thompson served as the County Clerk. Hayden was to serve as the County seat until a county wide election could be held. Things looked promising for the new settlers, however the events of September 1879 would change their plans and the history of Hayden. As for Porter, although Hayden was the central location of his operations . he never took up permanent residence in the Valley. He returned back east where he passed away suddenly in 1885.

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