Living in High Country
The High Country Fire Protection District, staffed by approximately 50 volunteer firefighters and one paid fire chief, is no more, having been absorbed into the Timberline Fire Protection District a few years back. When extant, it covered most of Gilpin County and a portion of Boulder County, large in area but small as far as population - the typical number of ballots cast for board members in any given election was less than 350, and in the 1980s, rarely made it above 100.
Estes Park town trustee Robert Holcomb's resume includes serving for a time as president of the board of directors of the High Country Fire Protection District. This would require residence in this district, and indeed, Boulder County grantor-grantee books and the Weekly Register-Call, a Gilpin County newspaper, confirm that, beginning in 1975, Robert Holcomb owned property in Boulder County.
Gambling became legal in Black Hawk/Central City in November 1990, so Trustee Holcomb's board service there predated the influx of casinos, casino workers, and the support staff required to build and improve housing, schools, public utilities, and roads. Gilpin County was a quiet, essentially dying, tourist stop in the 1980s, living off a past reputation as the center of the Colorado 1860s gold-rush (Central City once processed as much mail each year as Philadelphia), but certainly not dealing with the myriad issues it would face a decade later.
Searching the path of someone's life, and their family's life, in 1980s as reported in Gilpin County newspapers (and, where available, telephone books and school yearbooks) is a relatively easy task, actually somewhat pleasant - Central City and Black Hawk's combined population during this time was less than 1000, so the paper definitely has a small-town feel, promoting the idea that everybody knew each another, that no one, even those new to the area, was a stranger. But such a situation isn't without its pitfalls.
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| December 2014 Weekly Call-Register "30 years ago" retrospective |
Searching the path of someone's life, and their family's life, in 1980s as reported in Gilpin County newspapers (and, where available, telephone books and school yearbooks) is a relatively easy task, actually somewhat pleasant - Central City and Black Hawk's combined population during this time was less than 1000, so the paper definitely has a small-town feel, promoting the idea that everybody knew each another, that no one, even those new to the area, was a stranger. But such a situation isn't without its pitfalls.
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