Huerfano County, Colorado
Oral Interviews

NOTICE All data and photos on this website are Copyrighted by Karen Mitchell. Duplication of this data or photos is strictly forbidden without legal written permission by the Copyright holder.
Bryan Leslie Denton

Colorado Fish and Game Officer


Scanned by Dick Chenault
Edited by Betty Anderson
Interviewed by Roselyn McCain
Date of Interview - 9-28-1979

Bryan Leslie Denton
Date of birth - 7-26-1900
Parents - George Martin Denton and Laura Denton
Maternal grandparents -Andrew and Mary Denton (adopted)
Ethnic group - Dad was Canadian
Family origin - Arkansas
Date of family arrival in county - 1862 by covered wagon
Location of first family settlement - Echo Canyon by La Veta
Kinship ties - son, Lester Denton

Rosalyn: Well, I'll just ask you a few questions and we'll see where we start heading.

Mr. Denton: OK.

Rosalyn: When did your family first come to Huerfano County?

Mr. Denton: Well, my...I'll tell you, my mother died when I was nine days old. We lived in Aspen. My aunt and uncle raised me. So I came here in ... Well, it was about, I guess, about the third day of, first or second of August, I came from Aspen on the narrow railroad.

Rosalyn: What year was that?

Mr. Denton: That was in 1900. And I've been here ever since.

Rosalyn: Did they buy a place, or did they homestead?

Mr. Denton: Oh, they homesteaded. My aunt and uncle that raised me, they homesteaded here.

Rosalyn: And where was that?

Mr. Denton: Echo Canyon. Yeah, we homesteaded in Echo. Lived on the farm all my life until I went to work for the State Game and Fish.

Rosalyn: And when did you go to work for them?

Mr. Denton: in '37

Rosalyn: What changes have you seen in terms of the wild life between then and now?

Mr. Denton: Well, I've seen wildlife here back years ago, when there was very few. Then it increased here during the time that I worked. It increased a lot. Now the wildlife's going back to what it was about 1905, 1906.

Rosalyn: And what is the reason for that? Why did it increase?

Mr. Denton: Well, the reason for that was good protection. We had good protection. We had trappers, of course, and the game wardens and everything and we had better protection and we was taking care of the mountain lions. Now they've increased in Colorado very much. And they're killing lots of our deer now. That's one thing that's going for our deer is the mountain lions more than anything else and the coyotes. Coyotes is killing lots of fawn and I think the bears are killing them.

Rosalyn: Do you think there are more bears than there used to be?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yeah, lot more bear than there used to be.

Rosalyn: And what is the reason for that?

Mr. Denton: Well, just increase. They don't allow hunting only certain times...People don't...but the deer, there's lots of poaching going on different areas, and that cuts down the deer population.

Rosalyn: Was there a lot of poaching when you were working?

Mr. Denton: Oh yeah, there's always poaching in Colorado. You can't stop it all but there's poaching, but in some places they work on the game harder than others.

Rosalyn: So were there more fish and game people working at that time?

Mr. Denton: At that time yes, through the years there till they changed over and then cut down the forest on the trappers they had an area, and they...I don't know...it just seemed like it, lots...too many people, too many people in the hills and building back here in the hills is what's running our game down. They're doing too much building in the mountains now, summer homes and people living there the year round, motorcycles is a big cause of our game moving out of the hills, too many motorcycles running round through the hills.

Rosalyn: That's really true. There are so many...

Mr. Denton: Lots of people. And the game don't have any pleasure at all up there, they've got to move some place and they get down on private land then, where they are protected a little bit.

Rosalyn: Now, you mentioned the trappers. Were there more trappers.

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, we had beaver trappers all over the state. I had about 9 beaver trappers under me.

Rosalyn: Is that right? And they were employed by the state?

Mr. Denton: Employed by the state, yes ma'am.

Rosalyn: So what has happened with the beaver?

Mr. Denton: Course, they worked on game warden work the same time they was trapping beaver. That's...

Rosalyn: So were the beaver a bigger problem in those days?

Mr. Denton: Well, we took over the beaver trapping, see. They used to let permits out on them, and of course, that didn't work out too good, so we took over the beaver trapping and transplanted a lot of beaver to where they should be. Took care of that and after that, after our trapping was over, we worked on game warden work.

Rosalyn: Where would they take the beaver when they trapped them?

Mr. Denton: We'd take them back in the hills on these small streams and put them in and they'd build up.

Rosalyn: And where did they trap them mostly?

Mr. Denton: Down on the farms and ranches.

Rosalyn: Where they were causing damage?

Mr. Denton: Where they were causing damage, yes.

Rosalyn: Now how does that compare with today? Are there still a lot of places where they can take the beaver when they trap them?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, there's quite a few places. They could also trap the bear and plant beaver now and get them back out to the farming districts. Course there is a lot of farming districts that beavers is doing more good than they are harm, cause they are causing sub-irrigation and doing a lot of good there.

Rosalyn: I live over near Gardner and we have a lot of trouble with beaver, particularly at my place.

Mr. Denton: Well, yes, I used to work all that country and trap beaver and transplanted a lot in those high streams up there, but I think they are all gone now, trapped out.

Rosalyn: Now, how about the mountain lion population?

Mr. Denton: Well, the mountain lion population is building up all the time on account of the closed areas and they won't allow us to trap. The only way you can hunt them is with dogs. They are building up to where they are a nuisance, killing colts. Saw a picture of one the other day ripped a horse's hindquarters wide open. Looked like he took a butcher knife and cut. Over above Beulah. But used to, I used to hunt lion for bounty. State paid $50 and the Denver Post paid $25. And I hunted. That's what the state hired me for, actually, is to hunt mountain lion for them. And I hunted them for a good many years. I killed 97.

Rosalyn: Is that right? That's a lot of mountain lions, isn't it?

Mr. Denton: Quite a few. And they're still increasing. Of course, New Mexico has a closed, season on the, Utah has got a closed season, and Colorado, so they're gonna build up pretty fast. Cause they have at least usually three cubs. And I have heard of a female having as high as five cubs, or kittens I mean. And the bear is increasing all over our part of the country here. I guess it is in other parts of the state, but we have more bear now than we've had in a good many years.

Rosalyn: So is the deer the only thing that is not increasing?

Mr. Denton: The deer is not increasing. Well, your predators and poaching is a problem there that they're just keeping everything down to where they can't increase.

Rosalyn: Do you think people did more hunting in the old days than they are doing now?

Mr. Denton: No, there is more hunting going on now than we've ever had, more hunters in the hills. We've got too many seasons. Now we've got an archery season and a muzzle loader season and then comes the big game season, so your deer can't build up on those kind of terms.

Rosalyn: Has there been much talk about changing the seasons?

Mr. Denton: No.

Rosalyn: They are keeping it the way it is?

Mr. Denton: Seems like it, yes.

Rosalyn: How about fishing?

Mr. Denton: Well, fishing's fair over the state, seems like. Where I've been, I always catch all the fish I wanted. Course, in here we don't have the water, only on private land to fish. Used to be this Cucharas River was a good stream, had natives in it and you could catch your limit of fish in a little while, but it's pretty hard fished. Pueblo and then all these cities come out and they fish it out pretty fast. And our tourists, they work on it, fishing pretty hard.

Rosalyn: So it seems like there's more fishermen than there used to be?

Mr. Denton: Yes, there's a lot more. Used to be you could go out on the stream and you might see one or two fishermen there all day, fish all day and not meet over three or four, all day. Now then if you get any room to fish you're lucky, especially in these lakes around here.

Rosalyn: How about the law enforcement aspect of your work, did you run into a lot of problems?

Mr. Denton: Well, yes, you run into problems on law enforcement. It wasn't so bad when I worked as it is now, see. It gets worse every year.

Rosalyn: Were there people you knew were always poaching and fishing without licenses that you were always after?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes. You had a certain class of people that would try to get out and hunt without licenses or try to hunt on private land without permission. It don't change, it stays that way.

Rosalyn: If somebody goes on private land and doesn't get permission do they call up the Fish and Game to do something about it?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes. They call the warden to give them a summons for fishing without permission. Course, it's up to them to file a complaint. It's up to the landowner to file a complaint.

Rosalyn: How about when you started working for Fish and Game, what were the requirements to get the job? Did they have tests and things?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, they had tests. You were supposed to have a high school education. Now you've got to have a college education, a master's degree.

Rosalyn: So that's changed quite a bit.

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, that's changed a lot.

Rosalyn: The test that you took, was that a written test or did you have to do physical things?

Mr. Denton: No, I've taken the written test in Alamosa State College and took the oral test in Denver, but it's changed quite a bit from when I went to work. I couldn't even carry water for them now.

Rosalyn: Has it become more a matter of law enforcement, do you think?

Mr. Denton: No, less law enforcement. That's where they're loosing ground, is less law enforcement.

Rosalyn: So they kept it stricter before?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, we kept it pretty strict before. And we had good JP's. They were pretty good judges. Today, they'll turn them loose.

Rosalyn: The judges are more lenient. You know about quite a bit of this stuff, don't you Lester?

Lester Denton: Oh, yes. I thought you wanted the history of the country.

Rosalyn: We are talking about the history of the county. We are talking about individual family histories, and then when people had suggested Bryan Denton they said well, you can find out about how the fish and game situation used to be in the old days and how that changed. So that is one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about. You know a lot of people will say, “Oh, it seems like there used to be more game,” and someone else says, “Oh, there used to be less game,” you know and he's the guy who knows whether there was or wasn't.

Mr. Denton: Well, it was both ways. There was and there wasn't. I can remember when you never found a deer unless you went way high around the timberline. Now then you find deer plumb down here below town.

Rosalyn: Is that the same with the bear, too, have they moved further down?

Mr. Denton: Well, the bear always used to come down. My folks lived below La Veta, here, in a place, and the bear used to come down there and get into the hog pen.

Rosalyn: We're the people that bought Young's honey farm and we had bees down at Drury's and then this last year we had them over at Roricks. We finally had to move them out.

Mr. Denton: Yeah, I've caught lots of bears bothering bees, oh, all the time I worked. They like that honey.

Rosalyn: We couldn't believe it when we saw a couple of hives they had gotten into. Do you remember people telling stories about the Indians when you were…

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes. My folks used to run from the Indians. My aunt and uncle. They had Indians in here at that time.

Rosalyn: And what Indians were those?

Mr. Denton: Oh, Navajo, I think. Maybe it was Utes. I remember Mom and Dad talking about it.

Lester Denton: They have a history of the Department if you'd like to get it. They have a “Look Book.” It gives the entire history, from the time the Commission was first formed, the first commission, the first director and so on. That was written about in the mid—sixties. It's a well-written book.

Rosalyn: So you'd write to the department in Denver?

Lester Denton: Yes, 6060 Broadway. It gives the amount of licenses sold, all that kind of information.

Rosalyn: And when was the Department started, do you know?

Lester Denton: Oh, the closest I can make it...It's in that book “Look Book.” It can give you a lot of information. Of course, it is state-wide.

Rosalyn: Can you remember any of the stories you heard about the Indians, some of the encounters people had?

Mr. Denton: No, not too much, because that was before I was born. That was before I came here. I can't remember much about that. They didn't talk much about the Indians.

Rosalyn: Did you have the general impressions that they got along?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, they got along pretty good with them, here, yes ma'am.

Rosalyn: It seems like most people I've talked to don't remember stories of real trouble with the Indians. A lot of them talk about the Indians coming around for bread when they baked it.

Mr. Denton: Oh, yeah. And biscuits, biscuits.

Rosalyn: It seem they were always real fascinated when someone had their bread rising. And where did you go to school?

Mr. Denton: In La Veta.

Rosalyn: Did you come into La Veta, or did you go to one of the country schools?

Mr. Denton: I went to summer school on the Huajatolla. But I went to the La Veta School here.

Rosalyn: Did you come into town and stay?

Mr. Denton: Yes, stay in town.

Rosalyn: Did you have relatives here?

Mr. Denton: No, mother stayed here with me, we had a little home down on the corner here, and we stayed there, and then weekends we'd go back to the ranch.

Rosalyn: So you had school through the summer also?

Mr. Denton: Yes, I usually would go to the summer school up at the Huajatolla every summer.

Rosalyn: What was it like growing up as a kid here in those days?

Mr. Denton: Oh, a lot of differences. You didn't have school buses. You walked to school. I walked 4 miles to school.

Rosalyn: It would be hard to find kids that walk 4 miles to school these days.

Mr. Denton: No, I used to walk. In fact, when I worked on the railroad, I worked on the railroad here and I walked up here, I lived here, down below town where the yards are, why I worked down there and I only had thirty minutes to get up here and get back to work for lunch.

Rosalyn: And how about chores, did kids do a lot of work in those days?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, they used to have to do their chores, they had chores.

Rosalyn: And what sorts of things would that include?

Mr. Denton: Taking care of milking the cows, going to get the cows in the evening, carrying in the wood and things like that. We didn't have gas in those days. We used wood and coal.

Rosalyn: And how about entertainment, what would kids do for fun?

Mr. Denton: Oh, we had lots of square dances.

Rosalyn: And where would they hold them?

Mr. Denton: Oh, around at the school houses, dance halls, some school houses, up at the Cucharas they used to hold them.

Rosalyn: Were there more dances then, than there are now?

Mr. Denton: I think so, yes. More old—time dances. Course, they got these other dances. I don't hardly go to one anymore because I don't dance that kind of dance.

Rosalyn: Right. We had one square dance over in Gardner. It was so fun, and everybody had such a great time. People came from Tennessee and called, and it was great. But there is nobody that does it regularly. It would be real fun if there was a square dance group that met regularly. And how about the churches, would they have a lot of social functions? And what sorts of things would they sponsor?

Mr. Denton: Well, mostly dinners, box socials. They had quite a few box socials in those days.

Rosalyn: And how about food? Do you think there's a change in the food that people eat now?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes quite a bit of change.

Rosalyn: And what sorts of thing changed there?

Mr. Denton: Well, people used to grow their own stuff for eating in those days. Today they get most of it at vegetable stands and places like that. The ranchers used to grow their own milk. Nowadays they don't even make butter.

Rosalyn: How about medicine? Did people have a lot of home cures that they used?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, old timers, they had home cures. They used roots and stuff like that. How good it was, I don't know.

Rosalyn: So they'd wait till they were pretty sick before they'd actually go in to the doctor?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, there's a lot of them wouldn't go to doctors. They'd just try to take care of themselves.

Rosalyn: How about transportation? How has that changed?

Mr. Denton: Well, foot and horseback, team and wagon, that's the way we went all the time, for years. I used to bring my family to town at night, maybe snowing but I'd drive the spring wagon and come in, after the show, go back out.

Rosalyn: You'd come in for the picture shows?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, come in for the picture show, then go back after the show was over. It was cold but you didn't mind it. You'd know it was cold. I think we had worse winters then we do now, lot worse.

Rosalyn: So it was colder?

Mr. Denton: Colder and had lots more snow.

Rosalyn: So that meant more water in the summer time?

Mr. Denton: Yeah. The Cucharas used to run pretty well all summer. Now then, this is the first year I've seen it run in a good many years, like it had this year.

Rosalyn: That might start a weather cycle, and it should be nice.

Mr. Denton: I imagine we'll get into that.

Rosalyn: It has been so dry. There has been more moisture this year. It has been such a pretty summer, hasn't it?

Mr. Denton: It's been a beautiful fall, I think. I hope it stays this way awhile.

Rosalyn: Oh, I do too, I have some work to do outside and I'd like to have a a litt1e more time before winter really comes. I guess that's true every year, but, did people used to ski like they do now?

Mr. Denton: No, it wasn't skiing, it was skating. We used to ice skate quite a bit. We used to have what we called the Mill Lake right over west of town here. We'd build fires on it. It wasn't very deep, but I've seen ice maybe 22” thick on it. We used to have a really nice time skating at night. Build up a big bonfire.

Rosalyn: That really shows how much colder it was then, than now.

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, it was a lot colder at that time.

Rosalyn: Now people heated with wood. Did they go through quite a bit of wood in a winter? like that?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, they had to gather a lot of wood in the fall of the year, before it snowed up. And course, our coal mines, we could buy a ton of coal for three dollars, at that time, and we'd burn wood and coal both.

Mr. Denton: And most of the houses wasn't insulated at all. Today the houses is insulated better and they hold the heat.

Rosalyn: We've often commented on how much wood they must have used in our house in the old days.

Mr. Denton: Yeah, it used a lot. If it hadn't been insulated it takes a lot of it.

Rosalyn: They used to go through it, I'm sure. Our house had two chimneys, but on opposite corners of the house, and there wasn't anything in the center. Those were the worst possible places for a chimney really that they could have chosen.

Mr. Denton: Where do you live now?

Rosalyn: I live over on Pass Creek Road, in the old Sam Lutz house.

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, in Sam Lutz' house. I used to pick apples there. I used to camp there. My son and I, when I first started to work transplanting beaver we had a tent put up, right in that corner where the spring's at and we stayed there and transplanted beaver all up and down that country.

Rosalyn: When we first moved in we had so many beaver. In fact they had the river routed through our meadow and over towards the house for awhile. So we had Ernie Prator come in and trap some of them out.

Mr. Denton: I still trap over in there some.

Rosalyn: Well, if you're over that way, stop in. We remodeled that house some and in fact I had a fellow stop in and say “What did you do, did you tear that old house down?” So it looks quite a bit different.

Mr. Denton: First year I worked, I guess, no, second year I worked, we stayed out there and transplanted beaver, and at that time we didn't have live traps, we trapped them with steel traps, wrapped their jaws with gunny sacks and trapped them with live traps. I'd get up three or four times a night to check my traps.

Rosalyn: That must have been something.

Mr. Denton: Yeah, it was really a lot of work. I enjoyed it, every minute of it, but it sure broke into your sleep at night, back into the pickup, in which I carried my beaver in the bottom, and I had springs and mattresses on top. Next morning I'd haul them out and turn them loose. Used to build little dams for them. Out in those small streams, got them started in there and they took hold pretty good.

Rosalyn: Yes, they are amazing little builders aren't they?

Mr. Denton: They sure are.

Rosalyn: We noticed that when people would try to clean these dams out. They would tear the dams out, and they were back the next day.

Mr. Denton: Sam Lutz was a prospector.

Rosalyn: Was he up on Black Mountain. Was that where he'd prospect, up there?

Mr. Denton: Quite a bit, yeah.

Rosalyn: We went up to see his widow up near Greeley about three years ago.

Mr. Denton: Is she still living?

Rosalyn: She's still living and she's just as spry as can be. I couldn't believe it when she told me her age. She had her own little house and a beautiful yard she keeps. She called me this spring, wanting to know how things were going. She's just going strong. Quite a character.

Mr. Denton: He sure was.

Rosalyn: This year we don't have hardly any apples. When we have apples we always wish he was around, and we could find out what kind of apples are on what trees.

Mr. Denton: Well, he knew his apples, I'll say that for him. He knew what he was doing. Use to prune them trees and sure do a good job of it.

Rosalyn: They've been pretty badly neglected. We tried pruning them gradually you know, not doing too much all at once. I'm trying to think what other questions I have to ask you. What about the forest station, the trees and such? Is it much the same now as it was in the old days?

Mr. Denton: A little heavier now.

Rosalyn: More trees, huh?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, more trees now, it's heavier now.

Rosalyn: And what's the reason do you think?

Mr. Denton: I think just moisture.

Rosalyn: There used to be quite a few sawmills around. Was there more logging going on in those days?

Mr. Denton: Yes, of course they didn't log like they do now a days. Didn't have the equipment. They used to have quite a few old sawmills around here.

Rosalyn: And would they just be small family operations?

Mr. Denton: Yes, maybe one man and his boys run it.

Rosalyn: Would they mostly just cut timber for people to build with as they put houses up?

Mr. Denton: No, they cut lumber and of course, people would buy it just about as fast as they'd cut it. Of course, it's a lot more nowadays. They can't even keep up with it.

Rosalyn: Did they used to cut timbers for the mines, too?

Mr. Denton: Props, yes. Yeah, that used to be quite a deal for people to cut props back in the hills and take it over to the mines and sell them.

Rosalyn: Was your family mostly cattle ranchers?

Mr. Denton: No, just milk cows and chickens and things, no big farmers. No they didn't raise cattle in here like they do now. Very few, maybe two ranchers in the whole county. Most of them was just small ranchers.

Rosalyn: And what kind of crops did you grow?

Mr. Denton: Oh, oats, barley, corn.

Rosalyn: Was that all for feeding the animals or did you grow any of that for people?

Mr. Denton: No, we'd mill it at what used to be our old mill over there. We'd bring our wheat in and have flour made out of it, flour for the winter. They ground it and made flour out of it. We'd store that in a room and keep it cold.

Rosalyn: How about food preservation? What kinds of things would people do to keep their food for the winter?

Mr. Denton: Well, they would dig holes in the ground and put their garden stuff underground. Cabbage, they'd plow a furrow and put the heads down there and cover them up. That would keep them crisp in the winter. The other, like beets and turnips and stuff they'd bury them in a pit and cover them up if they didn't have a cellar. Lot of people had a cellar. Lot of old timers, they just had their dirt cellar.

Rosalyn: And did the women do a lot of canning?

Mr. Denton: Lots of canning. The women did a lot of canning in those days.

Rosalyn: And how about meat? How would people preserve their meat?

Mr. Denton: Well, years ago, you can't do it today, but you'd take a hindquarter of a beef and hang it in the shed in December and it'd stay froze till next spring. Didn't have to have a freezer for it. But anymore we have hot days, it'll thaw out and spoil. Yeah, the conditions and weather has changed a lot to what it used to be.

Rosalyn: How about politics? Do you remember any political figures?

Mr. Denton: No, I stayed out of politics.

Rosalyn: Sometimes I think that's the best policy.

Mr. Denton: Yeah, I stayed out of politics. I didn't have time for that. I did too much hunting and trapping.

Rosalyn: Did politics enter into your job at all?

Mr. Denton: No. Not supposed to be any of it in Civil Service.

Rosalyn: When you were working as a fish and game officer, when you caught poachers did you ever have trouble with them?

Mr. Denton: Very little. No. Never give me much bad time at all.

Rosalyn: What was the fine?

Mr. Denton: Oh, it depended on what the judge gave them, or JP. JP in those days mostly. Some of them would hit them pretty hard in fines.

Rosalyn: And what would that be like.

Mr. Denton: Oh, maybe $100 or $50, $25 for a lot of fines.

Rosalyn: And how about fishing? What would the fines be for fishing without a license?

Mr. Denton: $25

Rosalyn: So once people had gotten caught, would they usually get a license, or would they try it again?

Mr. Denton: No, they'd say they wasn't going to buy another license, but you'd catch them out fishing, and they'd have a license.

Rosalyn: So it worked pretty well?

Mr. Denton: Yeah, it worked. $25 in those days was worth $75 now.

Rosalyn: And if they didn't have the money, would they go to jail for a while?

Mr. Denton: Well, it depended on the JP. He might give them time to pay it. Some of them they'd lock them up.

Rosalyn: How about relationships between neighbors. Has that changed much? Were they closer then, or now?

Mr. Denton: Oh, I think way back in the early age people were closer or helped one another more than they do now. I remember back when we had grain all the farmers would go together and they'd go to one another's places and help with the crop. But today, they've got all this machinery and everybody's for theirselves.

Rosalyn: How about the population, has it gotten more or less?

Mr. Denton: The population's way heavier than it used to be in this part of the country, and it's growing all the time.

Rosalyn: But there used to be more services. Didn't there used to be a bank and a couple of doctors here?

Mr. Denton: Oh, yes, we used to have a couple of stores and we had a bank. We've got one store now, no bank.

Rosalyn: Of course, everybody now has cars.

Mr. Denton: And they go to Walsenburg, that's right.

Rosalyn: But that didn't used to be the case, did it? People didn't go to Walsenburg very often?

Mr. Denton: That's right, they didn't go very often. If you did you went in the wagon.

Rosalyn: So it wasn't a 20 minute trip?

Mr. Denton: No, it was an all day trip and into the night to go down there and back. Hard on the poor old horses. I was always glad to see when those tractors come in, because we used to work the horses awful hard at plowing the ground.

Rosalyn: So are there a lot fewer horses than there used to be?

Mr. Denton: Well, they are all quarter horses now, race horses. We used to have the big horses, heavy horses for working but it's all quarter horses now.

Rosalyn: They don't have the big work horses?

Mr. Denton: Very few, very few work horses anymore. In fact, you can't hardly find a set of harness anymore.

Rosalyn: What other things do you think of that have changed over the years?

Mr. Denton: Well, I don't know. I forgot a lot of things that happened.

Back to the Oral Interviews Main Page


Return to the Huerfano County Home Page
© Karen Mitchell