Mile High Denver

Last Friday I arrived back in California after going out to Iowa for the holidays. Mom and Curt are doing well. I spent the three weeks pretty much hanging out with them--watching TV, baking bread, talking. The number of bowl games has reached an all time ridiculous high. There were 35 college bowl games this year. Due to Curt and Mom's interest in the sport, I watched ALOT of football.

I also listened to a lot of political campaign ads since the caucuses were due to take place January 3. The Des Moines Register published a handy summary of all the Republican presidential candidates giving their age, education, background, and stand on several important issues. The paper itself has stated that it supports Mitt Romney.

While in Iowa, I printed off part of Stephen G. Bloom's article, "Observations from 20 Years of Iowa Life" for Curt and mom to read if they wanted to. It was brought to my attention right before I left for Iowa. I'm probably one of two or three people in all of Iowa that actually liked the article in the Atlantic. Based on the online comments, most Iowans seemed to feel Bloom was excessively harsh and even inaccurate in his description of the state and its residents.
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On the trip back to California, I visited the most interesting museum during my layover in Denver. It was called the Byers-Evans House Museum. The house was so named because it was owned by William N. Byers, the publisher of Denver's first newspaper, and then by William G. Evans, the oldest son of Colorado's 2nd territorial governor John Evans.

I really enjoyed the whirlwind tour the volunteer gave me. This house was built in 1883. It was two stories tall and quite expansive. I had explained to the young woman who opened up the museum house that my bus was leaving in an hour and I wouldn't be able attend the scheduled tour. She conferred with the volunteer who arrived about fifteen minutes later and they decided they would give me my own private tour and cover as much as they could in the time allowed. It was fantastic. The slight, middle-aged woman went into third gear and zipped through every room of that house speaking rapidly but quite coherently.



I think what drew me to the house/museum was the fact that a newspaperman, William N. Byers, owned it. Not just an ordinary newspaperman but a prominent newspaper publisher who had such a significant effect on the area. He drew people to the area by publishing stories about it. Interestingly, I found out later from an Internet search that William Byers lived in Iowa for a few years and in fact married the granddaughter of Governor Robert Lucas, Iowa's first territorial governor. After living in Iowa for about five years, he moved to California, then returned to live in territorial Nebraska and worked as a land surveyor. After that, he moved to Colorado.

Similarly, before finding his way out to Denver, the second owner, Mr. William G. Evans, also had connections to the Midwest. His father, John Evans, was one of the original founders of Northwestern University located in Evanston, Illinois. The city of Evanston was named after his dad. The son, however, was most famous for being instrumental in helping to establish a transportation tunnel, the Moffatt Tunnel, to facilitate train travel between Denver and Salt Lake City.

The stimulating tour in the cozy Byers-Evans House Museum was just what I needed after being on the bus for twelve hours. I returned to the Greyhound station invigorated.