Time Machine: 100 years ago, member of Trump family killed near Minturn

50 years ago

May 6, 1975

Three men who escaped from the Eagle County jail in broad daylight on May 3 were back in custody after being apprehended by Denver police, the Eagle Eye newspaper reported.

Chester Mayer, a 74-year-old Eagle man, spent about six hours with the trio after they allegedly abducted him and commandeered his 1966 Jeep wagon. The men escaped from the Eagle County jail by climbing through a small opening in a jail window and jumping from the second-story ledge to the ground.

Mayer said he was approached by the men shortly after he started work that morning at the Eagle Cemetery around 8 a.m., and the men convinced him to get in his car.

“As he did he was allegedly hit on the back of the head with a crescent wrench,” the Eagle Eye reported.

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They then drove to Wolcott, up Highway 131, through Radium and over Gore Pass, headed toward Denver. When they arrived in Denver, they left Mayer and he drove to a restaurant on Colfax Avenue where he called his wife.

“Mayer reported that he talked considerably with the three men during his ride with them,” the Eagle Eye reported. “There are indications that Mayer’s personal interest in his alleged captors and his ability to reason with them may have prevented more serious consequences.”

60 years ago

May 13, 1965

Test sites in Wolcott and Basalt had been selected as part of an effort by the Department of the Interior Geological Survey to study the earth’s crust and upper mantle.

The method of study involved setting off chemical explosions at locations from the Colorado Rockies to the southeast Coastal Plains, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

“The explosions, to be detonated at various locations in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains of Colorado and Kansas, the Cumberland Plateau, the Appalachian Mountains, and in the Coastal Plains areas of southeastern United States, represent the fifth phase of a comprehensive geophysical field study using methods of explosion seismology 1o determine ‘profiles’ of the thickness and characteristics of the earth’s crust and upper mantle,” the Enterprise reported.

70 years ago

May 19, 1955

Mrs. Eldora Skiles of Burns reported an interesting encounter with a male grouse apparently attempting to guard a nest of eggs.

“Driving the road into the Cabin Creek ditch camp Sunday, Mrs Skiles was stopped by the bird, who defied her right to drive on up the road,” the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported. “He stood his ground and refused to make way for her jeep. Not wanting to run over the bird, Mrs. Skiles stepped out of the jeep and picked up the stubborn grouse, in order that her husband could drive on. After the bird was released, he chased the jeep until he was sure it was well past the nesting grounds — and no longer a threat to the security of his family.”

80 years ago

May 11, 1945

William R. Collett, the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Collett, of Wolcott, was awarded a bronze star for heroic achievement in action against enemy forces on Saipan, Mariana Islands on July 7, 1944, as a member of a Marine infantry battalion, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

“While advancing along a trail through underbrush Pfc. Collett heard the enemy open fire and saw his commanding officer fall,” the Enterprise reported. “He unhesitatingly, with utter disregard for his personal safety, crawled through the intense fire in an endeavor to get the officer to safety. Finding the officer dead, he relieved him of all maps and documents of military value and turned them into the company executive officer.”

100 years ago

May 15, 1925

The Trump family, of Minturn, was in a rollover automobile accident which killed 71-year-old Evelyn Trump, the Eagle Valley Enterprise reported.

The accident occurred on the state highway a few miles west of Minturn.

“The injured were Wm. Trump and Earl Trump, sons of the dead lady, their two wives and their four small children,” the Enterprise reported. “The party were all in one car, out for a pleasure ride, the two men with Earl driving, and Will with two children on his lap, in the front seat, and the three women and two children in the rear seat, when the steering rod broke while the car was proceeding at a moderate rate of speed along the dugway just west of Frank Terrell’s ranch. When control of the car was lost it shot over the edge of the road, turned entirely over and landed twelve feet below in an irrigation ditch top down. Every member of the party was more or less badly bruised and cut, but none were fatally injured with the exception of the aged lady.”