Moisture in the Forecast for Leadville Today
Stormy skies will increase on this Father’s Day June 17 in Leadville Today. Photo: Jennifer Brown Rogowski.
Some of those Father’s Day grill plans may have to be altered slightly or even brought in doors all together if the weather predictors are correct for the Sunday, June 17 forecast. Lake County residents will see cooler conditions with a high of 58 and “a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 9 a.m. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. “
For the rest of the week, the weather looks unsettled with a possibility of SNOW on the last day of spring this Wednesday, June 20. Of course, most residents don’t seem to mind, as dangerously dry conditions across the state have led to wildfires and advanced levels of fire bans. At present, Lake County is at a Stage One which was announced last week. But rain or shine, it’s Dad’s Day, so make it a good one! Happy Father’s Day top all the Dads out there in Leadville Today.
Father Dyer: Snow-Shoe Preacher, Part One
by Brennan Ruegg, Leadville Today Contributor
Often overshadowed by old west drama, gunpowder, and a fascination with snow shoes, is the tested perseverance of a sober man watching a state being born often through violence. It certainly wan’t easy. In fact, Dyer’s life was punctuated by escalating challenges. At each turn he rested on the foundation of his faith, and pushed through even stronger. Dyer never lost that faith even as he outlived all three of his sons, losing one of which in a bloody conflict known as the Lake County War.
Dyer Swears off Drinking and Mining
John Lewis Dyer was born in 1812 in Franklin County, Ohio, where working on the family flax field he met a figure in his life that helped shape the conviction of sobriety he would hold throughout his life.
Franklin County houses the state capital of Ohio. Ohio is the birthplace of many eminent figures in Colorado history, including Samuel Elbert, namesake of the tallest Rocky Mountain, Mount Elbert.
At four years old he refused to shake the hand of a drunk who frequented his father’s company. Upon the refusal, the man mysteriously remembered as Mr. T. gave an omen that little John Dyer would become an alcoholic, on the basis that he had “never seen a child that hated a drunken man but would surely be a drunkard.”
This haunted Dyer through the early years of his childhood. He battled the “mouth-watering smell of whisky” that passed as pay to hired hands until at age nine, temptation finally won over, and drinking until he could no longer taste it, the young Dyer quelled his curiosity. It was his first and last drunk, and affirmed his practice of temperance throughout his life, though he still would claim he was “born a lover of whisky.”
After fighting in the Black Hawk War, converting to Methodism, and witnessing the ends of two marriages, Dyer swore off mining too. Dyer divorced his second wife after discovering that she was still legally married to another man. Weighed down by guilt and depression, he went underground in the lead mines of Wisconsin. Alone in a mineshaft, he heard the voice of God give answer to his doubts against the circuit preaching he felt so compelled to undertake, but had never acted on. Hearing what he needed to hear, Dyer hoisted himself out of the mine forever and began to proselytize for God.
For a man who had sworn off booze and mining, Colorado would seem an unlikely destination however. But in middle age, Dyer wasn’t slowing down. Leaving Minnesota he set out west to the Rocky Mountains hoping to meet up with his son who had relocated there the previous year. He walked the last third of the journey, 750 miles from Omaha to Buckskin Joe, a mining camp east of the Mosquito Mountains, where he began a new life and the golden age of his profession.
Postal Route
As many migrants to the Rocky Mountains find, Father Dyer had renewed energy and a sense of purpose. In his forties, Dyer preached to mining camps in Alma, Fairplay and South Park, setting up services in gambling halls and defunct schoolhouses. Eventually, he took on a second job that became his most impressive physical feat and the source of his local renown, the 35-mile Postal Route over Mosquito Pass from Buckskin Joe to Leadville.
A view west on Father Dyer’s postal route in the Mosquito Mountains, from the saddle between Mounts Sheridan and Sherman. Photo: Brennan Ruegg.
Dyer delivered the mail and the word of God together on this trek several times a week, in all manners of weather. Dyer came close to death on this route, forged a spiritual base in the miners along it, and innovated his own brand of snow-shoes and skis to traverse the 13,185 foot mountain pass. Dyer carried around 30 pounds of mail per shipment, often shepherding passengers unfit for the journey. He even escorted the man who would play a part in the assassination of his son.
In his autobiography Dyer charts out his routes between Evan’s Gulch, Tarryall and the Arkansas River as if they were on the back of his hand, notes Indian trails and cabins, remembers friendships with moguls like H.A.W. Tabor and vagrants alike. He also relates an anecdote that would be of interest to locals, the naming of the Mosquitos:
“Mosquito got its name from this circumstance: the miners met to organize. Several names were suggested, but they disagreed, and a notion was made to adjourn and meet again, the place for the name to be left blank. When they came together on appointment, the secretary opened the book, and a large mosquito was mashed right in the blank, [she] showed it, and all agreed to call the district Mosquito.”
Readers can continue with this story by clicking the link below for Part Two of Father Dyer: Snow-Shoe Preacher
Writer Brennan Ruegg is also an Ohioan, staking claims in the state of Colorado. He is a regular Contributor to Leadville Today.
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