Erie, Colorado reaches its 150 year milestone this April, the search to find members of the community who participated in the 100 year milestone.
With their laughter and charisma, the centennial celebrators look to share their wisdom and life stories with the town of Erie. However, in order to find these celebrators took a little more than just a text. Because the 100 year celebration happened in 1974, many of the participants were not easy to access, having their children reach out and share their stories.
Margie Jordan, was the daughter of a coal miner, says that her dad began working at the Columbia mine (Which sits under Vista Ridge) at the age of 12 with her uncle, and never stopped, “I was born in Erie. I was gone for a year because the mines weren’t working and my dad went to work in Walsenburg for a year and then we came back. I went to Lincoln school. I started there and then I went off to school and graduated.” The Lincoln school, now the Town Hall, sits on the outskirts of historic downtown, just off Briggs Street.
As many may know, Erie Colorado is one of America’s large coal towns, home to hundreds of active and inactive mines; which gave hundreds of people jobs in the west, “almost everybody in Erie worked in the coal mine. The only people that didn’t were like the pharmacist and the store owners.”
The Jordans’ family has been in Erie since it was strictly a mining town, and have built a foundation that upholds Erie’s mining roots by building memorials and remembrances for the miners. Margie and her brother created the idea of remembering the former mining town, deciding they should be the ones to do it, Margie quotes her brother, “you and I are getting any younger and if we’re gone who’s going to do so we started getting ready to do the memorial and he designed this.”
However, it took more than just the two of them to establish this memorial, so they enlisted her husband and other members of the community to help them achieve their goals, “And he and my brother and I did most of it but I did go to some of the miners’ children for help.” says Margie. The memorial showcases the names of hundreds of Miners who formerly lived in Erie, and is placed on the westside of town hall. The only limitation to this incredible project was the money it would have cost to create, but an artist from Utah took the challenge and put their ideas to life.
Moreover, the Jordans are also connected to Erie in yet another way, as their family used to own a place called “Mary’s Tavern” which was where a 24 karat bistro is now located. They owned a “nickelodeon” which is similar to a modern day jukebox, “They would take the Nickelodeon outside because there wasn’t room inside for all of them. And they would dance out on the street. My son or my brother and I were small, and we’d sit on the curb and watch. Him and a lot of the other kids would lie down on the street and sit and watch their parents dance.”
Moving on, another keystone family in Erie’s history is the McCarthy Family. The McCarthy’s came to Erie in the 1800’s to a farm in Canfield, which is around 4 miles west of Erie. The McCarthy’s, Carolyn, Marilyn, and Stacey have lived in Erie their whole lives, with that they carry remnants of the past life Erie held. Carolyn and Marylin both participated in the making of the centennial celebration, owning multiple papers and even one of the centennial coins that were made. The Centennial coins were sold by the town of Erie to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the town’s founding, and were possibly made in both gold and silver, “we think there’s another one that’s gold, we can’t find it.” says Carolyn.
However, these sisters, who’ve lived in Erie for the past 81 years, have big hopes for this year’s sequential celebration, Stacey emphasizes the want for more remembrance towards how Erie used to be, “We want people to know how life used to be in Erie, when it was still a small town.” She follows this with, “It used to be a really nice small town and now it’s just boomed. The cornfields and all the wheat fields, everything that was there when I was a kid, probably when they were a kid, is gone.”
Going back to their pieces of past history, the McCarthy’s own a book, reporting the strange laws Erie had, such as no horse riding on the main street, called Yesterday and Today. Marylin says, “There’s some funny stuff, no driving or riding on the sidewalk and get fined today.” The book also told the life stories of some of the original residents in Erie. The sisters and daughter trio also own many excerpts of newspapers that were published back in the day during the centennial celebration, which includes store ads and more, “the history of various work there as written in as written in 1928.” says Carolyn. The newspaper published was consequently named, “The Centennial” in reference to the centennial celebration.
Although very time entertaining and eventful, finding a centennial celebrator was not as easy as it was thought out to be, as scoping and scavenging through countless facebook comments trying to find the perfect people seemed never ending. However, what we found was precious and timeless, like finding a memory hidden in the back of your brain, or opening a box of untouched history.
As the town reaches the date of the sequential celebration, many longtime residents hope to see parades, coins, and especially the Erie Tiger Networks’ documentary, unveiling the progress our town has made since its conception.
