Pueblo County Insane Asylum

Pueblo County, Colorado
Colorado Insane Asylum

1920 - 1929

Carbonate Chronicle 5-24-1920
Send In Your Magazines – A call for used magazines was received by Mrs. S. E. Burgess, president of the local Woman's club, from the Colorado Federation of Woman's clubs in Denver. Officials in charge of the State Insane asylum at Pueblo, state penitentiary at Canon City, State Reformatory at Buena Vista and the Industrial Schools for Boys and Girls have made a plea for magazines to the federation and the plea is to be answered by the local organizations throughout the state. The magazines will be sent from each city to the institution nearest at hand as the express charges are to be born by the club sending the magazines. Leadville citizens who have magazines to contribute are requested to leave them with Maybelle McMahon at the council chamber, the chambers being open each afternoon.

Longmont Ledger 1-21-1921
A bill that would increase the salary of the superintendent of the state insane asylum was introduced by Representative Morris Penter of Pueblo. The present salary is $3,500, while the bill calls for a maximum salary of $7,500.

Longmont Ledger 6-10-1921
Eye Witness Tells of Horror – Houses Topple Over Filled With Women and Children – Devastation Wrought by Fire and Water at Pueblo Beyond Description (Western Newspaper Union News Service) – Colorado Springs. – The devastation wrought by fire and flood at Pueblo is beyond description, according to C. S. Railsback, formerly of this city, now special agent of the Santa Fe at Pueblo. Mr. Railsback made his way to Colorado Springs by special Santa Fe motor car in an effort to get into communication with La Junta over the Union Pacific wires to order a special relief train to the scene of the disaster. "Hundreds of lives were lost and millions of dollars in property were destroyed," said Railsback. "The main business district of the city (was) gutted by fire and water, and it probably never will be known how many hundreds of people perished. The entire residence districts in several of the lowlands were completely wiped out. I spent the entire night, with hundreds of others, rescuing women and little children from the flood, and my mind is so befuddled that I can hardly talk about the thing. It was horrible beyond description. I saw several frame rooming houses topple over, plunge into the raging torrent, each filled with screaming women and children. The scene was sickening." Mr. Railsback said at one time there was fifteen feet of water running through the Santa Fe yards. In fact, the yards were completely destroyed. To add to the horror of the flood, fires broke out all over the city, not only in the business district, but in many residence sections. The largest business houses of the city, including the big banks, Crews-Beggs, White & Davis, Straub's trunk factory, the King lumber yard and many others were wrecked by water or completely destroyed by fire, according to Railsback. The river broke over its banks near the state insane asylum, and soon there was a raging torrent from the high cliffs to the west of the union depot to Seventh street.

Longmont Ledger 3-2-1922
Pueblo. – Five male inmates of the Colorado State Hospital for the Insane escaped recently, according to (an) announcement of the hospital attaches, and only one has been recaptured. The inmates who escaped are not considered violent or dangerous.

Colorado Transcript 11-23-1922
New Institution Proposed – Plans Are Discussed for State Insane Asylum at Ridge – Establishment of a state insane asylum in Jefferson county at Ridge, between Golden and Arvada is the plan being discussed by Governor Shoup, Superintendent LaMour, of the asylum at Pueblo, members of the state board of corrections, and others. The Pueblo institution is overcrowded with patients and the state will soon be compelled to provide additional accommodations for the care of the insane. At Ridge the state owns a 640-acre tract of fine land, together with a fine group of buildings now being used for the care of mentally defective children. These buildings, with the addition of a few cottages to be erected at a minimum expense, say those favoring the movement for a second state asylum for the insane, would be sufficient to take care of all insane and relieve the congestion at the Pueblo institution. There are several hundred more patients at Pueblo now than should be cared for in the buildings available and the condition, according to reports made to Governor Shoup by Superintendent LaMoure, is steadily growing worse. Land in the vicinity of the asylum is very expensive. An expenditure of not less than $300,000, it is estimated, would be required to purchase land and erect buildings sufficient to handle the inmates now in the institution without crowding. The state home for mental defectives at Ridge, experts declare, would prove the nucleus for an ideal home for the insane. The buildings are modern and it has a lighting plant capable of supplying demands three times as great as those made upon it at present. Large acreage surrounding the institution would permit the raising of all the vegetables consumed by the inmates and could be worked by the more harmless of the inmates.

Haswell Herald 4-19-1923
The final settlement of the crowded condition of the Pueblo insane asylum will call for the purchase of the Woodcroft sanitarium, founded by Dr. Hubert Work, but sold by him to two Colorado Springs men. The price will be $160,000, which will include fifty acres of ground, five brick buildings, completely equipped, $10,000 worth of cattle and farm equipment.

Telluride Daily Journal 8-9-1923
Sanitarium To Be Converted For The Insane - State Pays $200,000 for the Woodcroft Hospital - Denver, Aug. 9. - A warrant for $200,000 has been tendered to Dr. W. C. Thompson by the state of Colorado for the purchase of the Woodcroft sanitarium at Pueblo. It is the purpose of the state just as soon as possession is given to start work at the institution with a view to making it over into an adjunct of the state asylum for the insane at Pueblo.

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