This was written by Gabe, one of our summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.
as the car rolled into colorado / some nine-&-a-half hours after we had left saint louis at three in the morning / i was approaching the end of my playlist of union hymns & i don’t want your millions mister by pete seeger started to play & i had only listened to part of talking union & other union songs by the almanac singers & added the album to my playlist because i liked pete seeger & his voice was smooth & real & in my range
i don’t want your millions mister /
i don’t want your diamond ring /
all i want is the right to live mister /
give me back my job again //
& jim garland wrote i don’t want your millions mister / but spotify only has one jim garland song as best as i can tell & jim garland wrote i don’t want your millions mister because of his brief mining stint & his union beliefs & the almanac singers politicized the song with a farm workers party verse & i like music that is political as much as i like music that is made by people & it’s hard to care about things you can’t see & it’s harder to care about abstracts & i do not know when i fell in love with folk music & i do know that i love folk music for the same reason i love people & storytelling is an art & people are the canvas & from what i can tell folk music / proper folk music / the type of folk music made by people together to share art & share their stories & unionize is one of the better ways to find that love of people
& towns with less than one thousand people blend together / not only in appearance but struggle too & between limon & colorado springs there are five towns: matheson ( ninety-four ) / simla ( six hundred twenty-five ) / ramah ( one hundred twenty-seven ) / calhan ( seven-hundred ninety-five ) / & peyton ( two hundred fifty ) & my neighborhood alone is four times larger than those five towns combined & yet those five towns all had distinct histories & had distinct cultures & had distinct lives & driving through these towns / the agricultural history was apparent / as well as their seclusion & in fact / the only chain present in every town was a us post office & i don’t know enough about the total histories of these towns to make a comment about their stories but they were all beautiful & it hurt me to see empty storefronts & blighted auto repair shops alongside old diners & adobe houses
& i picked up the harmonica because i fell in love with folk music & i wanted to make my own & it was easy enough to pick up & it gave enough room for improvisation that i wouldn’t run out of music to play & depending on what type of harmonica you have / you can play just about anything & i had a hohner bluesband diatonic in c that was fifteen years old / perfect for folk music
& the nyt wrote in the year nineteen hundred “limon, col., nov. 16. / chained to a railroad rail set firmly in the ground on the exact spot where his fiendish crime was committed / preston porter jr / this evening paid a terrible penalty for the murder of louise frost / an eleven-year-old schoolgirl / it was 6:28 o’clock when the father of the murdered girl touched the match to the fuel which had been piled around the stake & twenty minutes later a last convulsive shudder told that life was extinct
“what agony the doomed boy / who was only sixteen years old / suffered while the flames shriveled up his flesh could only be guessed from the terrible contortions of his face & the cries he gave from time to time / the executioners / who numbered about three hundred citizens of lincoln county / had not the least semblance to the ordinary mob / their every act was deliberate / & during all the preparation / as well as throughout the sufferings of the negro / hardly an unnecessary word was spoken / grimly they stood in a circle about the fire until the body was entirely consumed / & then quietly they took their way back to limon / from where they departed for their homes shortly afterward”
& when you drive through limon on the twenty-five you pass alongside the railroad tracks that have not moved since at least the year nineteen hundred & the lynching of preston porter jr & for a town as straightforward as limon it seems wrong to find a lynching in the history but it exists whether we want it to or not & limon colorado was not incorporated until the year nineteen nine & that means we cannot quite know how many people were in town on november sixteenth when they lynched preston porter jr but limon does have a census for nineteen ten & in that year limon had a population of five hundred thirty-four of which fifty-six percent partook in the mob that lynched preston porter jr &
“preston porter did not seem to realize the awful punishment that he was destined to undergo / as he had exhibited indifference to the enormity of his crime / so he seemed to lack all understanding of its terrible consequences / for more than an hour / while preparations for his execution were in progress / he stood mute & sullen among the avengers
“when everything was ready he walked to the stake with a firm step / pausing as he reached the circle of broken boards to kneel in prayer / he was allowed to take his time / he arose & placed his back to the iron stake / & half a dozen men wound chains & ropes about his body & limbs / kerosene oil was applied to the wood / & after a brief pause richard w frost / the father of the little girl whose cruelly mutilated body was found one week ago on that very spot / applied a match: for a moment but a little flickering flame arose / then the oil blazed up / sparks flew into the air / & the wood began to crackle / almost instantly the negro’s trousers caught fire / even though the flesh must have been scorched / he did not utter a sound”
& i played my harmonica across colorado on the fourth of july weekend & after fifteen hours to get from saint louis to colorado springs & summit pike’s peak & i had to move & i had to do something more than take pictures of struggling towns scattered along highway twenty-five in colorado & i sat on a muted red rock overlooking manitou springs & colorado springs & my lungs were struggling to keep up at fourteen thousand feet / some twenty-four times higher than saint louis & i pushed them to work as if nothing was wrong as flecks of light flickered along the fringes of my vision & if you are fourteen thousand feet in the air drink water because it moves the oxygen to your brain ( & i left my water bottle in the car ) but it didn’t matter because i got the harmonica to my far too dry lips & managed to play battle hymn of the republic as best as i could remember it without pushing myself too far so that i would pass out & tumble down the mountainside & once my dad stopped recording i put the harmonica back into my pocket & took a deep breath &
“the flames crept slowly upward on his clothing / & the sparks flew up in a cloud of pale smoke / porter turned his head / & a frightful expression changed his face / with a sudden convulsive tugging he stretched his head as far from the rapidly increasing flames as possible & uttered a cry of pain ‘oh / my god / let me go / men! i’ve got something more to tell you / please let me go / oh / my god / my god!’
“in terrible screeches these words / the first he had uttered aloud / came from the negro / a terrible tugging at the chains / a succession of awful groans & screams / the negro’s agony was at last breaking down his sullen composure / not an oath escaped him / but he begged & pleaded to be shot”
& i played my harmonica at the royal gorge & it costs twenty-five dollars to walk across the suspension bridge there but if you do it in an hour you get seven dollars back & there was a thirty minute line to walk the bridge & we decided that we would not spend that money for a bridge & so we walked up to a shaded picnic spot & made turkey & ham sandwiches & ate while the family next to us smoked upwind & with the scent still in my nose i sat on a craggy rock & played when the saints go marching in & we were only at seven or eight thousand feet above sea level which my lungs didn’t seem to be bothered much at all &
“suddenly / the rope holding his hands burned through / then arms / head / & shoulders slipped through the chains / for an instant the body stood erect / the arms we raised in supplication while burning pieces of clothing dropped from them / the body then fell away from the fire / the head lower than the feet still fastened to the rail
“the body was then in such a position that only the legs were in the fire / the cries of the wretch were redoubled / & he again begged to be shot / some wanted to throw him over into the fire / others tried to dash oil upon him / boards were carried / & a large pile made over the prostrate body / they soon were ignited / & the terrible heat & lack of air quickly rendered the victim unconscious / bringing death a few moments later”
& did you know that aspen started like snowmass / basalt / carbondale / glenwood springs / gypsum / eagle / edwards / avon / vail & all the other mining towns along the twenty-five & the nine & the ninety-one & was founded as a mining camp during the silver boom in eighteen seventy-nine & in eighteen ninety-one & eighteen ninety-two / it was the most-productive silver-mining district in the us / better than the mines of leadville / & by eighteen ninety-three / aspen had it all / with banks & a hospital & a police department & two theatres & an opera house & electric lights & then president cleveland said the government was buying too much silver & he halved the purchase of the metal / & in the panic of eighteen ninety-three aspen fell apart & mining did in fact resume / but production was down & only seven hundred and five residents lived in nineteen thirty & it was then with empty building that had potential to be refilled & mountainside surrounding that a ski resort was envisioned & then world war ii happened / but in nineteen forty-six the aspen skiing corporation was founded / & the city exploded in a very different way & the population has only risen & so has the property values & in two thousand eleven / aspen was the most expensive market in the country & the cheapest single-family home on the market was a trailer for five hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars & the median price from homes or condos was five million eighty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight dollars in june two thousand fifteen &
“the negro had / since his confession / been devoting every moment of daylight to the perusal of a bible given to him by the denver jailer / even while waiting for his execution he sat by a bonfire reading from the gospel of st. luke / just before he was tied to the stake / upon a request for souvenirs / the boy tore the leaves from the bible & distributed them among his executioners”
& i played my harmonica at independence pass on the continental divide & my lungs decided that twelve thousand feet was nominal enough to breathe & so i sat on a rock overlooking the sharp valley we had ascended & i wasn’t quite sure what to play at the throat of north america & so i didn’t play anything in particular / i just played
& i played my harmonica at the riverside in eagle & i played somewhere over the rainbow & the octave jump from a blown four to a blown seven sounds bluesy & warm / not at all unlike the israel kamakawiwo’ole version & i sat on a log & the river water was rapid
& in 1999 / the city council of aspen passed a resolution to petition the us congress & president clinton to restrict united states immigration & the aspen residents cited concerns about the environmental impacts of increased immigration on their community / including urban & suburban sprawl ( of which aspen does not have a lot of room for ) / pollution from the older automobiles typically driven by immigrants ( even if the oldest car i saw was definitely one of the most expensive ) / & litter accumulating in the mountains attributable to the increasing population & the impetus for the resolution was the increasing number of trailer parks that housed the migrant workers employed in the service sector & ski industry & the parks were perceived to be degrading to the town’s image / property values / & environment & the move was led by terry paulson / an aspen city council member / & supported & guided by national groups such as the carrying capacity network / & the center for immigration studies & the resolution was never taken very far / but the american patrol report website spread the story / contributing to a controversy over whether or not the resolution was racially motivated & councilman terry paulson & some citizens insisted that it was motivated entirely by environmental concerns & had nothing at all to do with racial biases &
“this terrible ceremony / out upon the rolling prairie / concluded the second tragedy upon that spot / the terrible avenging of the first / through the entire affair but little was said / as they had calmly prepared for the avenging / so the people of the eastern part of the state carried out their plan coolly & deliberately / there was not a hitch in the entire proceeding / not a weapon was drawn; there was no angry discussion / after the fire had burned low they bade each other good-night & then went home / they did not stop to discuss the affair”
& i did not stop to discuss the affair either ( admittedly / i did not know / which is not an excuse / but it is an explanation ) & preston porter jr was only one man in only one town in colorado & i do not know if there were more preston porter jrs in the thirty-eight small towns i ended up passing through & as much as i say i do not know / i am nothing less than certain that preston porter jr was not alone & preston porter jr is forever a blip on the history of limon & perhaps that is because of its severity or perhaps it is because we should not forget that these things happened & though the second is far more noble / the former seems far more likely & limon will have porter forever but what about matheson / simla / ramah / calhan / peyton / cripple creek / victor / canon city / cotopaxi / howard / salida / buena vista / granite / twin lakes / snowmass / basalt / carbondale / glenwood springs / gypsum / eagle / edwards / avon / vail / minturn / gilman / red cliff / leadville / poncha springs / villa grove / mineral hot springs / moffat / hooper / blanca / fort garland / walsenburg / pueblo / & fountain & all of the other small towns scattered across colorado & scattered across the united states
& america is not what i want it to be & it is easy to romanticize the small town & i do it too & sweeping things under the rug that we don’t like to acknowledge is easy & sometimes i just want to sit down and play folk music too but listening to union hymns & joining the union are two distinct actions that have two distinct results & perhaps they both have their own unique merits but perhaps they do not
& i cannot decide that for you.
