This opinion piece reflects the views of John Hazlehurst only and are not endorsed by the Pikes Peak Bulletin.
Halls of Fames have long been popular, both for celebrating the past and and advertising the present. There are literally hundreds of such halls in our fame-obsessed nation, scattered throughout most of our 50 States. Colorado and Colorado Springs are particularly rich in halls of fame, including the Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame, the Colorado Music Hall of Fame … don’t we have enough already?!
I think we are still one hall of fame short – we ought to have a Colorado Springs Hall of Fame, celebrating those who have shaped, enlivened, amused, led and delighted our citizens since its founding and even before.
We could start by honoring a dozen or so prominent citizens, starting with our founder, Gen. William Jackson Palmer. Absent Palmer, there would be no Colorado Springs, no vast park system and perhaps nothing at all. To the extent that we’ve followed Palmer’s vision, our city has thrived. To the extent that we haven’t, we’ve settled for mediocrity.
There are many more who would join them as initial Colorado Springs Hall of Fame members.
Start with Rose Kingsley, who came to Colorado Springs with her brother Maurice in 1872, hung out with the Palmers and other early citizens, joined them on a business trip to Mexico, wrote daily in her diary, and published her adventures in the immensely readable book “South By West.” Unlike many of her male counterparts, Kingsley gives us a sense of life in her era – she’s interested in daily minutiae, not in making money and running things. She was also a gifted artist, and her book is illustrated by drawings and sketches of Colorado Springs and its environs.
After Kingsley’s lively optimism, read Isabella Bird’s “A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.” In the winter of 1873, she rode her horse Birdie from Denver to the barely started town of Colorado Springs. Bird is tough, skeptical and acerbic – and she could write!
“After fording through a creek I came upon a decayed-looking cluster of houses bearing the arrogant name of Colorado City … and saw the bleak-looking scattered houses of Colorado Springs,” she wrote.
Her amused cynicism spares nothing. “We passed into a valley called, fantastically, Garden of the Gods, in which, were I a divinity, I certainly would not choose to dwell.”
Not exactly a cold spinster, Bird had a passionate relationship with “Mountain Jim,” an educated wanderer who helped her scale Longs Peak. She continued her adventures throughout the world for many years. As historian Daniel Boorstin wrote in 1960, “It is difficult to recall another woman in any age or country who traveled as widely, saw so much, and left so perceptive a record of what she saw.”
Colorado Springs native Laura Gilpin (1891-1979) is today recognized as one of the greatest photographers in American history. She’s certainly my favorite (bias alert!) since she was a close friend of my mother’s, whom she photographed at age 18 in 1917 and again at her marriage in 1926. Gilpin’s ascent into the photographic stratosphere seems inevitable in retrospect, but she often struggled to find ways to pay her bills and create demands for her photographs. There was no family fortune to sustain her, no rich friends to help her out. Yet she persisted, working multiple jobs and finding ways to get paid for her photographs. She published four extraordinary books of photography focused on Mexico and the American Southwest, including “The Rio Grande: River of Destiny,” and rose to the pinnacle of her profession. A retrospective exhibition in 1975 was praised by Ansel Adams, who called her “One of the most important photographers of our time,” but she may have particularly loved one unexpected tribute.
“You’ve done it from the heart and as it is,” wrote Georgia O’Keeffe.
