Frontier and pioneer life -- Colorado

Scope and Content The manuscript, handwritten by John Angus MacDonald, describes five decades of his life in Colorado and New Mexico from the 1870s to the 1920s. It is not a detailed autobiography and is not in chronological order. There is a brief family history beginning on page 240. MacDonald reminisces about his boyhood in the San Luis Valley in Colorado, describing the customs of the Indians, the different ethnic groups that settled the area and the coming of the railroad. The manuscript contains...

Scope and Content The collection consists of oral history interviews with nineteenth century settlers of New Mexico. It includes 520 reel-to-reel audiotapes and 385 typed transcripts of interviews with ranchers, miners, hunters, sheriffs, naturalists, archeologists and journalists, mostly from the Silver City area. Interviewees recall everyday life and important events from the 1860s to the 1950s. Interviews were conducted by Lou Blachly, a founding member of the Pioneers Foundation. The collection includes...

Scope and Content The collection contains a report dated 5 January, 1936 (probably dictated to M.M. Watson) by Truman Blancett, relating events surrounding the Colorado Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. The report was sent to Ernest Thompson Seton of Santa Fe, NM, covered by a note from M.M. Watson dated 15 August, 1946, and stating that Blancett had died in 1945. There are three additional letters from 1969: one from Seton’s daughter, giving permission for the letter to be used in research, and two from M.M. Watson,...