Victor Heritage Society
Working Together to Preserve 
Historic Victor, Colorado
City of Gold Mines
  • Home
    • La Jean Greeson"s Presentations at Gold Coin Club in Victor, Colorado
    • Round Table Discussion in Pinnacle Park by Victor Historians
    • 2024 Historic Building Tour, Victor, Colorado
    • Ceremony Remembering the Teller County Gold Star Servicemen of WWII in Wallace Park
    • Victor Heritage Society Picnic at Bison Reservoir
  • Preservation Successes
  • Activities
  • Landmarks
  • Guidelines & Galleries
    • Guide to Preserving Our Architectural Heritage
    • Photo Gallery of Victor Residential Gems
    • Photo Gallery of Victor Businesses Operating in Historic Buildings
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Victor Homes & Buildings--Then & Now
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Victor Artwork by Fred Shane, Circa 1942
    • Photo Gallery of Historic Gold Mines >
      • Stratton's Independence Mine
      • Restoring the Historic Headframe of Stratton's Independence Mine
      • Gold Coin Mine--Part of the Woods Empire
      • Vindicator Mine
    • Photos From 1903-04 Labor Strike in Cripple Creek & Victor Mining District.
    • Step Back in Time with Glimpses of Historical Photos Featuring Victor, Colorado & the Surrounding Mining District
  • Oral History
    • Theodore Roosevelt's Chaotic & Triumphant Visits to Victor
    • “The Only Swedish Grocery Store in Victor”: The J.A. “Joseph” Beckman Family in the Cripple Creek Mining District of Colorado, 1896-1915 by Richard "Dick" Markley.
    • Goold Family Historic Ties to Victor, Colorado & Famous Former Residents of the City by Nellie Goold Young.
    • Memories of H. L. Turner (1882-1967) and His Experiences in the Early Days of the Cripple Creek Mining District.
    • H. L. Turner Story--Part 2: Unique Perspectives About the History of Victor, Colorado & the Cripple Creek Mining District.
    • Tragedies When I Was Growing Up In Victor by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of James Garth Payne & How He Came to Letter Names on the Original WWII Roll of Honor in Victor and Cripple Creek, Colorado.
    • Winters in Victor, Colorado during the 1940's & 50's by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack)
    • Biking & Hockey in Victor, Colorado -- The Passions of Brian Hayes
    • Sports in Victor, Colorado & Memories of the 1949 Pikes Peak Junior High Basketball Tournament
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: The House & Antiques Shop -- by Debbie Abbott.
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: Digging At the Dump -- by Steve Abbott.
    • Abbott Family Memories Made in Victor, Colorado: Mom & Her Victor Friends -- by Dave Abbott.
    • A History of VICTOR, COLORADO--THE CITY OF MINES, compiled and published in 1933 by S. E. Poet, Superintendent of Public Schools at Victor.
    • Carl Roy's Oral History Videos -- Life in Victor, Colorado
    • The Miner’s Photograph: A Pathway to the Past by Steven Wade Veatch.
    • Recollections of My Life in Victor, Colorado during the Depression, WWII, & After By Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack)
    • Memories of Washington Elementary--My First School in Victor, Colorado by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Adventures at the Beaver Valley Ranch While Growing up in Victor, Colorado by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of the Ina & Henry Cleveland Hack Family by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • The Lighter Side of a Visit to Hack's Victor Barber Shop by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of Margaret & Henry C. "June" Hack, Jr. by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memorabilia from Cripple Creek & Victor High School Bands Directed by Ernest T. Sly from 1939 to 1950.
    • A Day in the Cresson Mine by Charles Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Firewood For Victor, Colorado by Charles Norman Spray (AKA Jeep Hack).
    • Memories of My Grandfather, John Reed Gardner (1864-1951)--Gardner Mercantile Owner, Bank President, Insurance Company Executive. By John Reed Gardner, II (grandson).
    • Tarie Huber Oral History Videos -- Life in Victor, Colorado
    • 1896 Shooting Affray at Union Theater in Victor, Colorado.
    • Memories of Mrs. Katy Bemore, resident of Independence when the deport was blown up in 1904.
    • Working Underground in the Cripple Creek & Victor Mining District, 1972 to 1979: How I Got the Shaft, the Gas, and the Broken Steel by Randall Stewart.
    • INSTALLMENT #1. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • INSTALLMENT #2. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • INSTALLMENT #3. Seven Generations In Victor, Colorado and The Mining District—The Way It Was as Recalled by Eleanor Musser Baker.
    • Memories of Edward Franklin Page: Watchman at the Stratton Mines and Subsequently a Mine Manager, Farmer, Retail Businessman, & Banker.
    • Tom Schryver's Memories of Growing Up in Victor, Colorado and His Parents--Mayme & Charles "Bumps" Chapman.
    • McCormick Family Connections to Victor, Colorado (1893-2014) by Mary Ann McCormick Hamm.
    • Paying the Piper by Gertrude Moore McGowan.
    • Gold Camp Celebration--Fourth of July in Victor, Early 1900's by Gertrude Moore McGowan.
    • Memories of Lulu Ella Manson & Harry Gordon Moore by Gertrude Moore McGowan
    • Memories of Fannie & Alfred Osborn by Marge Breth
    • Memories of Cripple Creek & Victor, 1945-62, by Mary Alice Orazen
    • The Story of Axel Olson & His Golden Girl, Betzi Johnson, by Shirley Beach.
    • Memories of Mr. and Mrs. Axel Olson by KC Garver
    • Victor Recollections--Mountain Doctor, Small Town Cop, Gus's Sporting Goods, & Little Toy Pocket Knife by Floyd Frank
    • Memories of Lowell Thomas--Victor"s Most Famous Former Resident
    • Memories of the Gold Rush Era in Victor by Edgar McGowan
    • A Day In the Life of a Miner by Chuck Clark
    • Underground Mining Experiences at the Cresson and Ajax by Myron House
    • Hynes Brothers "Clean Ice" for Victor, Colorado--Memories of Mary Ellen Hynes Chetelat.
    • Marguerite Clark--One of Victor's Angels by Chuck Clark
    • Charlie Clark & the Quality Cash Market by Chuck Clark
    • Pop Sly -- Ernest T. Sly, The Band Man by Chuck Clark
    • Mr. Mortenson--The Victor Shoemaker by Chuck Clark
    • Heninger Family Memories of Victor, Portland Junction, & Independence: 1909-1916, by Virginia & Edgar Heninger
    • Reflections on Goldfield by Carol Roberts
    • Growing Up In Victor in the 1930's by Bob Penman
  • Visit
Picture525 S 3rd St. -- Preserved by current owners, Marilyn & Richard Fay.
GROWING UP IN VICTOR IN THE 1930's
By Bob Penman, Former Resident at 525 South 3rd St.

I rode my sled down Third Street often from where the pavement left off by the Isis Theater.  The route went down hill to the bottom, across the flat and up the other side, and sometimes I reached the top.  I must have been going 1000 miles an hour (at least it seemed so) at the bottom.  The Polkinghorns lived partway up the grade.  One day, my sled runner broke near Spicer, dug in the snow and tossed me.  I think I slid for a block.  We welded the sled but it didn't hold so next Christmas I got a new sled.  Kesseys lived about where the runner broke.  One of my childhood chums was Edgie Cox, who lived near the ice skating pond below the Baptist Church.
                                                                                                  *****
My sister (who was born at home) and I explored all the mine tunnels in the area.  There was a tunnel northwest of our house but we never went very far inside because the floor was always flooded.  We lived charmed lives since we survived our childhood.  By the way, I was the last child born in the Victor hospital and my uncle Leo Sinclair's twin sister was the nurse on duty at that time.
                                                                                                 *****
The Boy Scout troop was sponsored by the BPOE on Third Street.  I made the exalted rank of Tenderfoot and was working on Second Class when we moved.  I remember one hike we went on.  It felt like a million miles, but I had to pass a five mile hike for Second Class.  We went down Beaver Creek and then rode back in vehicles.  The Scout Troop went on a camp out on Wilson Creek one time too.
                                                                                                 *****
My family bought acreage behind our home where we grazed our cattle.  Up to that time I had to keep watch over the critters as they grazed on the open range, but I liked to read and often lost track of their location.  I usually found them but had to hustle.  Anyway, my sister and I had to bring the cattle home from the pasture and since the hill was steep we grabbed a tail and let the cattle pull us up the hill.
                                                                                                 *****
Just north of our house was another home that disappeared some time when I was growing up.  We acquired the land and between snows and turnip patch, I used to dig holes for my forts (roofed over no less).  All boys would have like to do that in those days.  My cousin, Leo Sinclair, who lived in Cripple Creek at the time, built an elaborate structure at his home.  It even had walls and a good roof.
                                                                                                 *****
The ice on the back hill was a treacherous thing.  I would ride my sled down the last few feet and stop by catching my foot on a protruding rock.  One day I missed and my sister and I slid into the erosion ditch which was full of junk.  I have a scar on my nose and I had two black eyes for two or three weeks.  My sister only landed on her head so nothing showed but she was certainly dazed.  I was, by the way, on good terms with Dr. Denman and wouldn't always wait for my parents to go to his office to be patched up.
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I went to the elementary school grades 1 though 4.  The building is long gone now but Dr. Chaffee had his dental office across the street from the school.  Hated to visit him.  Fifth through twelfth grades were held in the Victor High School.
                                                                                                 *****  
The Isis theater now looks so tiny, but looked so big to a 10 year old boy.  I had to repeat one movie because I hid my eyes the first time during the scary scenes.  My father was a checker there, meaning that he checked for the audience size for the film distributors.  The Isis was owned by the Kesseys.

                                                                                                 *****
The ice house at the north end of Second Street was closed, but we found a hole and got in.  Big ropes hung from the rafters and we would swing the length of the building and land in piles of sawdust.  Lots of fun.
                                                                                                *****
During the war, we had scrap drives organized by the school and we also collected on our own for profit.  I made quite a bit of spending money selling iron and copper.  We used to burn off the insulation before we sold the copper wire.
                                                                                                *****
We are products of the thirties and earlier when times were rough.  My father's father abandoned his family when my father was in the 7th grade.  To survive, my grandmother ran a boarding house and my father went to work to support the family.  We were figuratively kicked out of Victor when the government forced the gold mine to close.  Only metals important in munitions manufacturing, like copper, could be mined.
                                                                                                *****
I went to college, and had jobs as a meteorologist, petroleum engineer and demographer.  My sister worked for AT&T for many years, then the IRS.  I think we two Victor young-uns have done fairly well with what we were given.  At this time, my wife Sylvia and I have three children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.  That's where the riches lie.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Bob Penman once lived at 525 South Third Street in Victor, Colorado.  His memoir was submitted by Marilyn and Richard Fay--current owners of the home.  The memoir was published by Cathleen Norman in the Victor Preservation News, August 1998.


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