{"id":2452692,"date":"2019-12-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318383"},"modified":"2019-12-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-29T07:00:00","slug":"willoughby-the-approach-to-1920-resembled-our-countdown-100-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/willoughby-the-approach-to-1920-resembled-our-countdown-100-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Willoughby: The approach to 1920 resembled our countdown 100 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The turnover to a new decade at the end of 1919 foretold the same transition during our own time. The issues outshone those of other decadal demarcations.<\/p>\n

Long-term residents had arrived in Aspen during the 1880s. They had survived multiple decade changes, and aged as Aspen\u2019s seniors. They felt the full meaning of a rise in the price of silver, which had climbed back to $1.30 an ounce ($16.45 in today\u2019s dollars) from $.22 ($2.80) in 1914. The new level equaled the high price of the 1890s.<\/p>\n

Charles Dailey, editor of the Aspen Democrat Times, wrote \u201cThe bright outlook for silver makes it fashionable \u2014 and permissible \u2014 to speak hopefully of mining, the ladder by which Western states climbed from the \u2018great American desert\u2019 to the promising fields for profitable investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

One year previous to the price increase, some of the largest mines such as the Smuggler had shut down major operations. An increase in the price of electricity had raised the cost of pumping water out of the mines. An operation could not profit from mining low depths of the mines, where water accumulated. Close to the same time, Aspen had suffered the influenza pandemic, which killed a third of the city\u2019s young men.<\/p>\n

As life began to improve in town, national concerns captured locals\u2019 attention. World War I had ended. As with today\u2019s continuing concern about bringing troops home from Afghanistan, Aspenites of 1919 welcomed home veterans and helped them to find jobs. In a statewide effort, a job seeker or an employer would register with the county clerk. In the absence of a local match, names would circulate throughout the counties. By New Years Day, more than 1,000 returning veterans statewide had found jobs. Dailey headlined that there were \u201cno idle men in Aspen.\u201d<\/p>\n

For weeks in advance of the change in decades, newspapers recounted President Wilson\u2019s efforts to win Congressional approval of an end to the war. A year after the warring parties signed the Armistice, negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles stalled. Germans, or \u201cthe Huns\u201d as Aspenites referred to them, threatened to return to war. This angered Aspen\u2019s residents. Congress complicated Wilson\u2019s negotiations, and a major stroke had befallen him in October. Barely functioning, he concealed his condition into 1920.<\/p>\n

A pressing issue for Aspen, which Wilson supposedly negotiated, holds high relevance to today. The United Mine Workers had gone on strike in the coal mines, and created a national shortage of coal. Aspen\u2019s residents were instructed to \u201chandle (coal) like you would eggs.\u201d Three railroad cars of the precious material may have had to suffice well into 1920. The Smuggler used coal to power its bare-bones operation and stored a two-month supply. But the supply of coal for heating homes dwindled. To weather the strike, locals burned wood.<\/p>\n

At the time, the nation produced 700 million tons of coal annually. The strike spirited a debate that echoes today: Should we switch to alternative fuels? Coal naysayers advocated \u201cwhite coal,\u201d also known as hydroelectric power. Aspen already used hydroelectric power and boosted Charles Daily\u2019s headline, \u201cThe power of water \u2014 hundreds of tons of coal are floating past Aspen every day of the year \u2014 streams should turn water wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as the decade flipped, the pursuit of a coal alternative focused on oil. The liquid required less space to store.<\/p>\n

The U.S. border with Mexico fills news today. And at the turn of this decade during the 1900s, Aspen\u2019s newspaper featured headlines about Mexican \u201cbandits.\u201d These men, Villistas, followed Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. In mid-December they attacked a border town and killed more than 600 Mexican government troops. Villa had crisscrossed the border, a safe zone, for years. U.S. General Pershing received orders to track Villa down and invade Mexico in the process. Villa evaded Pershing and the operation was withdrawn during the outset of World War II.<\/p>\n

At the change from 1919 to 1920, reports said \u201cMexicans tired of revolution \u2014 farmers want to go to work \u2014 people want to settle down.\u201d In 1920 the Mexican government forged an agreement with Villa that ended the rebellion. Here\u2019s hoping we forge an agreeable 2020.<\/p>\n

Tim Willoughby\u2019s family story parallels Aspen\u2019s. He began sharing folklore while teaching Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The turnover to a new decade at the end of 1919 foretold the same transition during our own time. The issues outshone those of other decadal demarcations. Long-term residents had arrived in Aspen during the 1880s. They had survived multiple decade changes, and aged as Aspen\u2019s seniors. They felt the full meaning of a rise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 23:49:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}