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Rooney Ranch
October 1, 1987
By Alice
Dempsey
Historic Rooney Ranch stretches over 260
acres between Morrison and Golden. Recently at the
Colorado State Fair in Pueblo, the ranch was given
both the 1987 Centennial farms citation for
properties of those living in the same place 100
years or more, and the Historic Structures Award.
It was in 1859 that Alexander Rooney
came west from Jones County Iowa. Twelve people
started out on that historic journey, but just six
made it to Colorado. They crossed the country with
wagons; Alexander rode mostly on horseback.
He had been warned that Indians he'd
meet might be fierce, but when one curious Indian
rode up alongside him, they got along just fine.
They continued on together, and by the time they
arrived in Denver, they could communicate.
The next day Alexander rode his horse up
to the confluence of Bear Creek and Mount Vernon
Canyon. The Indian pointed out other pioneers who
had set up camp below the river. "See paleface," he
said. "Stupid. Sleep below watermark. Can't hear
anything coming. Never learned a lesson. Indians
never sleep below watermark of a river.
Alexander traveled to Gilpin County,
trying to find somebody to grubstake him. No one was
interested, because he was a farmer. He decided that
if he didn't make it in gold, he would set up a
cheese factory, as a cheese-maker for the miners.
He remained in the high country through
the winter, finding pure drinking water in every
stream, no pollution, no taxes, and the women doing
all the work. It was Ute country, and that was
expected of the squaws.
When Alexander came back down from
Gilpin County to the hogback near Golden, he looked
out over the plains and thought it a wonderful place
to build. He found a flowing stream among the trees
and discovered a deposit of rock, flat and square.
These he gathered up to start building his future
cattle and horse ranch.
First he built a spring house for milk
and butter, and later the main house, all out of
stone. He also constructed pipeline out of rock,
since that was all he had to work with.
Later that year Alexander went back to
Jones County for his bride. When they returned, they
built a kiln and burned lime, sand and horsehair to
make mud to built their house, with 19-inch-thick
walls.
While they were working, three Indians
came up and asked, "You going to take our medicine
spring?" Alexander replied, "What's medicine about
it?" The Indians said they came there because of the
blue clay, which they put all over their bodies. "We
healthful, no wrinkles." After more friendly talk,
an Indian told Alex he could "come use it any time
you want." Holding out his hand, he said, "Shake.
That mean you keep your word and I keep mine." That
word spread through all the tribes.
Alexander found the only trouble with
the Indians was when those he had working for him
brought all of their Indian friends to dinner. They
were far too many, and he had to limit meals to his
workers.
The Homestead Act was passed on May 20,
1862, and Alexander Rooney formally acquired 160
acres. By 1866 other pioneers were arriving, filing
for their own land. Through homesteading and
purchases, Rooney eventually owned 4,480 acres of
land for his ranching.
After the railroads came in, Alexander
was able to get Galloway cattle from Scotland, which
looked like bison, black with big powerful necks and
heads, and Morgan horses. The horses he sold to the
British Army and the American cavalry, which helped
him make a success of his ranch.
Alexander and his wife, Emaline, had
three boys and three girls. His wife was known as a
kind of seeress, who could foretell many things. She
had been a schoolteacher back in Iowa.
Emaline had a gun and a six-shooter and
didn't hesitate to use them. One day she grabbed her
gun, got on her horse and chased a burglar across
the plains, after she found him trying to rob her
house.
Another time the whole family except for
Alice the oldest daughter, and Nora the baby, were
out trying to herd cattle when Indians came by. The
squaw heard the infant inside crying, and came in
with a papoose on her back. When she saw baby Nora's
red hair, she asked Alice if she would "trade my
quiet papoose for your squalling baby. Alice agreed.
When the family returned home to find
their baby gone, and the papoose on the floor,
Emaline hurried pell-mell in the direction the
Indians had gone, to where Camp George West is now.
Here she found the squaw with her baby Nora, and
promptly traded her back.
Otis Albert, the oldest of Alexander's
six children, remained on the ranch all of his life.
He built a chuck wagon for Teddy Roosevelt to hunt
elk over at Meeker. Afterwards, Roosevelt gave it
back. He said, "Dad was a staunch Democrat, but he
thought Teddy Roosevelt was the greatest American
who ever lived."
Bill got a job as night captain at the
penitentiary and was killed by an inmate. Charlie
was a miner, and was killed in an Aspen mining
accident. Alice married Will Derby, and Florence wed
M. Johnson, rancher. Nora married L. B. Pike, and
lived on the south part o the ranch. She was shot
and killed by a thief who demanded the keys to her
car.
Otis Albert had two boys and a girl:
Morris, Ruth, and Alex, and a stepdaughter, Edna
Belle. Buffalo once wanted to take Edna to England
with him, but Alex said they wouldn't let her, since
"the family members were teetotalers, and Buffalo
Bill was a hard-drinking man.
Edna Belle was a horse-woman; newspapers
and a large trophy proclaimed she was the "World
Champion Lady Rider, Lake Side, July 28, 1910." She
died in a horse accident when she was only 16,
beautiful, famous and known as Little Girl in Blue.
Alex says Indian Chief Colorow was a
good friend of the family. He was enormous, and
weighed 260 pounds. Alex remembers, "One time Mother
had a five-pound roast for dinner, sliced in half,
when Colorow came to visit. He sat down, took half
the roast, potatoes, a loaf of bread and a gallon of
milk, and consumed it all. Then he said, "Now me go
three days!" No thanks, but his greeting was in his
eyes.
Colorow's trail led from Idaho Springs,
over Lookout Mountain, where Colorow Road was named
for him, and down to the Rooney Ranch. On the
property he had what he called his Inspiration Tree.
Alex later built a decoration around the tree, and
through the years the Lions clubs used the spot to
hold their yearly Indian pageants. Alex wrote a
script, and sometimes singers from the Denver Opera
came to sing in the play, which utilized talent from
all the Lions clubs.
Besides the Rooney White Ash Mine at the
edge of the Colorado School of Mines, the family
also owned the number three coal mine on their ranch
property. Alex worked in the mine from 1918 until
1933, when they lost it by fire. From there he went
to work for many years at the mint in Denver. His
wife, Evelyn, worked at Eakers in Golden for 14
years.
For a time, Alex and his wife lived in a
house on the ranch near the mind. Close by was a
38-room, four-story boarding house for the miners,
and they held dances there on Saturday nights.
Evelyn says they "had a piano and someone played the
fiddle. We really had a good time."
In 1957 Alex and Evelyn moved into a
house they built up on the hill from the original
rock house. They had four boys: Albert, Otis, George
and Johnny. The first was born near Cherry Creek,
where they went for a doctor. The other three were
born in their big bedroom at home. Alex smiled, "We
had Dr. Luce of Morrison, and they cost us $20
apiece."
Of Alex's boys, Otis and George still
operate the ranch. Otis lives in the original rock
house, and keeps cattle and horses. Johnny has moved
to Arizona, while Albert, a building contractor,
lives with his folks. Otis' son, Richard, lives
across the road from his dad, and wants to be a
stonemason.
The 230 acres of the Rooney Ranch are
still intact, but the new C-470 road will take some
of the land. Already it divides their ranch.
When Rooney Ranch was inscribed in the
Historic Register in 1975, 125 people put on
old-fashioned clothes and came to celebrate. That
year the Rooneys sold the hogback to Jefferson
County Open Space. On the sandstone of the hills
were to be found many footprints of ancient
dinosaurs.
Alex says that "during Grandpa's
lifetime people came from the Smithsonian and took
bones they had collected of a
"first-of-a-series-animal." They gave him $250 and
put the bones in their museum marked with Alexander
Rooney's name.
For the past two years, Alex and Evelyn
have considered themselves retired. All their lives
they have been rock hounds, picking up boulders for
building , and gathering hundreds of beautiful
stones in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico, where they
avidly pursue their hobby.
They especially treasure a large
"punch-work" hanging which their son, Otis, made for
them one winter when they were away. It is a scene
of the original rock ranch and springhouses, of Alex
and Evelyn, the hogback, and a yellow rose bush,
like first yellow rose Alexander Rooney brought with
him from Iowa in 1859.
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