tabor

Rehabilitation of Leadville’s Tabor Opera House

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Article and photo by Kim Grant, Colorado Preservation, Inc. The long-sought rehabilitation of Leadville’s venerable Tabor Opera House is poised to move forward following significant success in fundraising efforts that will enable initial work on the west (front) and south facades next Spring (2020). The property is viewed as a catalyst for the revitalization of …

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Queen, Witch or Saint: Who Was the Real Baby Doe?

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By Craig Wagner

Leadville is home to one of the last legends of the Old West. Not a gunfighter or gambler but a tiny old woman who displayed extraordinary grit in the name of love and pride, and possibly madness. Her story has spawned books, movies and a famous opera.

Baby Doe Tabor’s scandalous affair and subsequent marriage to Horace Tabor has been well told. After Horace’s death, she returned to Leadville in 1901 at the age of 46. The 30 years she lived in a small cabin are more mysterious.

Her solitary life has drawn the attention of authors, researchers and paranormal detectives. But the elderly woman remains an enigma. Who was she? What kind of woman lives alone in a shack on the side of a mountain for thirty years? 

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New Status for the Historic Matchless Mine in Leadville

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tabor, cabin

by Faye Golson

Editor’s note: Salida resident Faye Golson describes her efforts to place the famous Matchless Mine on the National Register of Historic Places.

The letter came in the mail not as a complete surprise. Return address – Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Denver, CO. “We are pleased to announce the listing of the Matchless Mine on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties. The official designation took place on December 28, 2010 …” The Matchless Mine had been a two-year project for me. This included first working as a team member on the Historic Structures Assessment to determine the condition of the buildings and structures and then preparing the National Register Nomination for the property.

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Reintroducing the Tabors: A Series

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by Francisco A. Rios

LETTERS FROM CHIHUAHUA

(Editor’s note: Dr. Rios, a retired professor from the University of Colorado at Denver, spent 805 volunteer hours over a span of one year and seven months cataloging hundreds of letters from the Tabor Collection at the Colorado Historical Society (CHS) onto a computer database. We are reproducing some of these letters as a series with the generous permission of the CHS.)

The letterhead of the Santa Eduwiges mining company, near Jesús María in the state of Chihuahua, lists Horace Tabor as president during 1893-94. Don Juan Hart is one of the directors. Jesús María no longer appears on maps, but Horace mentions Guerrero, a town about 75 miles west of Chihuahua, the state capital. Horace writes to Lizzie on Sept 15 1893 with good news about the mine.

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Reintroducing the Tabors: A Series by Francisco A. Rios

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Part 3 – The Arduous Life of a Senator

Using letterhead stationery of the United States Senate for the envelope and his letter, Horace Tabor wrote to Lizzie McCourt at Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Feb 20 1883 as follows:

My Darling little girl

I do so want to see you it seems an age since I saw you last It will be so charming when you can be with me all the time the little things you toht me to do is being done all right our session yesterday lasted from 11 am to 2 this morning that was 15 hours and I do not like very the office of Senator but the honors are great they are next to President your old friend Senator Sawyer is very pleasant. I have a dinner party of Senators next Saturday night. I want you to love me and help me carry out my wishes. That is to have you all the time. I love you more than all the world and I am so glad that we met What if we had never met this world would have been a blank to me and I think it would have been lonely to you give my love to all and come to me as soon as you agreed to for you must be mine in every sense of the word When I go you go and when I stay you stay love me love me all your warm heart can love love love Kiss

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Reintroducing the Tabors: A Series

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by Francisco A. Rios

(Editor’s note: Dr. Rios, a retired professor from the University of Colorado at Denver, spent 805 volunteer hours over a span of one year and seven months cataloging hundreds of letters from the Tabor Collection at the Colorado Historical Society (CHS) onto a computer database. Over the next several months we will be reproducing some of these letters as a series with the generous permission of the CHS.)

Why would you, the readers of Colorado Central, want a reintroduction to the Tabors? Can’t many of you recite the Tabor tale of rags-to-riches-to rags by memory, citing chapter and verse? Haven’t scores of you been up to Fryer Hill and seen Horace’s Matchless Mine and Baby Doe’s cabin? Is there more to say about the Tabors?

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