Old Telluride: Lone Tree Cemetery's founding; the original Ice House

Original Questions: What year was Lone Tree Cemetery founded and where did Tom McMahon's ice originally come from?
Hi Nicola,
I've had some luck with the research you asked about. As for the Cemetery, I can tell you that Edwin Andrus died, according to the cemetery survey, in 1885, aged 1 year, 7 months and 11 days. Like you said, Edwin was the first body to be entombed following his father's gift of land for the cemetery. I might add, though, that the Undertaker happened to be in here this morning, and he said the cemetery did not become official until sometime in the 1950's or 60's, when the Cemetery Board was created. If you needed more info on that, I'd be happy to look into it.

As for Tom McMahon and the Ice House…In the book Historic Telluride in Rare Photographs, (Buys, Christian J. Western Reflections: Ouray, 1998.) they cite Tom McMahon's ice coming from ice ponds "east of town." There's a great picture of two young men standing on the skids used to move the ice, over the pond, but the pond itself is not frozen. I've tried to find a more detailed description of where the ponds were, but because the river was rerouted, this is hard to do. The best I can estimate is that his ponds were around the current Beaver Pond, on the side closer to the post office. Conversations at 9000 feet (Pera, Davine. Western Reflections: Ouray, 2000) cited similar information, quoting Mary Boyer who said, "We used to ice-skate down at old Tom McMahon's icehouse down there through that swamp part when it got good enough. But mostly it was that lake across the tracks there…" (p221). Since the railroad "tracks" paralleled the river, I think it's then safe to say that this icehouse was on the town side of the river/tracks.

Please let me know if you'd like me to look into any more information for you or if you need more detail or copies of anything in our collection.

Jenine

Water Rights in San Miguel County

Water Rights Questions

If a patron is looking for info pertaining to water rights in San Miguel County (District 60, Division 4) let them know they can contact our

• Water Commissioner, Aaron Todd, at 970. 596.5342 (cell) or
• Division of Water Resources (which Aaron is the District head of) at 970.249.6622

When contacting the Water Commissioner, let the patron know they should either have the name of the ditch in question (if enquiring about an irrigation ditch) or a legal description of the property including section, township, and range.

The Colorado Revised Statutes, Titles 37 and 38 cover all laws and rights pertaining to water and water rights.

-Jenine

Putting Our Heads Together

So, you weren't the one that researched that really cool ASKUS question about nutritional dog food or Telluride's original Icehouse, but you still want to know the answer, and where the answer came from...

drumroll please...

Announcing the new reference blog, "Ask a Reference Librarian," a place where we can post all of our research and sources, as well as respond to comments from patrons and staff.

If you are a staff member looking to post here, please read my email for passwords...etc. If you're just browsing, enjoy! Please comment on any of the info posted, and ASK US for more!

Thanks,
Adult Services Reference Staff