Pinkerton man repeatedly visited Mesa County on bandits’ trail - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
Pinkerton man repeatedly visited Mesa County on bandits’ trail - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel |
- Pinkerton man repeatedly visited Mesa County on bandits’ trail - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
- River Park at Las Colonias a hit with crowds - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
- Gogo Business Aviation Showing Strong Recovery, Hits 3000 Daily Flights - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel
| Pinkerton man repeatedly visited Mesa County on bandits’ trail - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Posted: 28 Jun 2020 11:15 PM PDT BY BOB SILBERNAGEL When Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo began his four-year odyssey to track down the men who robbed a train in Tipton, Wyoming, he started in Grand Junction. By the time he closed his investigation in 1904, he had "traveled more than 25,000 miles by rail, vehicles, afoot and on horseback." Siringo made no arrests during the lengthy inquiry, but he still considered it a success. "During these four years of strenuous life … I secured much valuable information for the Dickenson agency," he wrote. That's no misprint. "Dickenson" meant "Pinkerton" in Siringo's book: "A Cowboy Detective, A True Story of Twenty-two Years with a World Famous Detective Agency." Siringo retired from the Pinkertons in 1907 and began writing about his detective career. But William Pinkerton wasn't happy with Siringo's book. After a legal battle, Siringo was forced to use fictitious names in many instances. The Pinkerton agency became the Dickenson agency. Siringo's Denver boss and mentor, James McParland, became "James McCartney." Notorious killer and one-time Pinkerton agent Tom Horn became "Tim Corn." Siringo used the correct — but often misspelled — names for outlaws such as Butch Cassidy; Harry Longabaugh, known as the Sundance Kid; and Harvey Logan, aka Kid Curry. Charles Angelo Siringo was born on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1855 and grew up when wild cattle grazed over much of Texas. While still in his teens, Siringo became a cowboy, first in southern Texas, then in the West Texas badlands. He eventually joined cattle drives from Texas to the new railroad shipping centers in Kansas. In 1885, he published his first book, "A Texas Cowboy, or Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony." It's considered the first cowboy autobiography, and it appeared just as Americans were becoming enthralled with cowboy life. His book didn't make him rich, but it provided some money for the budding author. He moved to Chicago with his wife and young daughter in 1886, planning to become a writer. However, within months of his move, the Haymarket Square Riot occurred in Chicago when a bomb went off during a labor demonstration. In its aftermath, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, headquartered in Chicago, actively recruited new agents. Siringo joined and was assigned to Pinkerton's Denver office. His family moved with him. Working undercover, Siringo helped solve a political dispute in southern Colorado. Next, he partnered with Gunnison County Sheriff Cyrus "Doc" Shores to track down a trio of train robbers. By the time of the Tipton train robbery on Aug. 29, 1900, Siringo had successfully solved a mine theft in Nevada, helped foil political insurrection in New Mexico and had barely escaped alive while investigating a mine strike in Idaho. He arrived in Denver in early September 1900 and was immediately sent to Grand Junction. "Our agency had just received a 'tip' through an ex-convict in Grand Junction," that two of the Tipton bandits were camped on a mesa 20 miles from Junction, Siringo wrote. "Therefore, I was hustled right out to get on the trail of these two men." Posses had chased the Tipton robbers in Wyoming after the theft. However, The Daily Sentinel reported on Sept. 5, 1900, that the official search had been abandoned because the trail was cold. The thieves "gained so much time on the officers that capture seems out of the question," it said. But Pinkerton agents weren't so easily deterred. Siringo acquired two horses and supplies, then set out through Unaweep Canyon, after learning that the thieves had visited notorious cattle rustler Lafe Young in Paradox. He was about two weeks behind Harvey Logan and another man, believed to be Bill Cruzan. The third robber, Ben Kilpatrick, had apparently doubled back northward. In the Blue Mountains west of Monticello, Utah, Siringo fell in with local outlaws, including a one-time sheriff he identified as Bill G. and another man he referred to as "Peg-leg." The latter had visited the Tipton robbers in their camp and told Siringo they were still heading south. Peg-leg and Siringo surreptitiously visited Monticello, where they met other outlaws who told them a Pinkerton agent was rumored to be tracking the train bandits. They didn't suspect Siringo. Initially, Siringo believed Kid Curry was the leader of the Wild Bunch. But, in the midst of his chase for Curry and Cruzan, Siringo's supervisor ordered him to search near Butch Cassidy's hometown of Circleville, Utah. Siringo soon realized Cassidy was the true leader. Cassidy, he wrote, "turned out to be the shrewdest and most daring outlaw of the present age, though not of the blood-spilling kind like 'Kid' Curry." From Circleville, Siringo traveled to Alma, New Mexico, a ranching community near the Arizona border, where members of the Wild Bunch were known to hide out. There his frustration grew. A Pinkerton man from Denver, Frank Murray, had been in Alma the previous year, looking for the men who held up a train in Wilcox, Wyoming, in 1899. Murray had revealed his true identity to a local bar owner named Jim Lowe, Siringo said. The problem was, Jim Lowe was really Butch Cassidy, who soon warned his gang. On top of that, Siringo said, some of the outlaws wanted to kill Murray once they learned his identity. But Lowe/Cassidy saved Murray's life, sneaking him out of town at night. Then Cassidy sold his saloon and skipped town as well. If not for Murray's missteps, Siringo believed he could have rounded up much of the wild bunch near Alma, or died trying. From Alma, Siringo returned to Denver and was again sent to Grand Junction. There he met Jim Ferguson, the Wild Bunch affiliate then living in Palisade, as I discussed in my June 1 column. Over the next three years, Siringo spent time in Rawlins, Wyoming, traveled back to Palisade, then down to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to deliver a coded letter from Ferguson, on behalf of Cassidy, to Elzy Lay, Cassidy's good friend who was then in prison in New Mexico. There were several more trips to Palisade, Rawlins, northern Wyoming and Utah. Siringo visited Gunnison and courted the sister of an outlaw to obtain more information on the Wild Bunch, but abandoned that relationship when she proposed marriage. Finally, in the fall of 1904, he returned to Denver and ended his Tipton quest. By then, Siringo wrote, the Wild Bunch had largely ceased to exist. "The only two really 'bad' ones who escaped were "Butch" Casiday (sic) and Harry Longbough (sic)." They had fled to South America. By late 1904, Carver was dead and Kilpatrick was in prison. Kid Curry was thought to have been killed in the aftermath of the June 1904 Parachute train robbery, although Siringo and others believed he survived and escaped to South America. After he quit the Pinkertons, Siringo retired to a ranch near Santa Fe, where he wrote several more books. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s, became friends with people like Will Rogers and artist Charlie Russell. He served as an adviser for several Hollywood Westerns. He died in Los Angeles in 1928. Sources: "A Cowboy Detective," by Charles A. Siringo; "Charlie Siringo's West," by Howard R. Lamar; historic newspapers at newspapers.com. | ||||||||
| River Park at Las Colonias a hit with crowds - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Posted: 28 Jun 2020 11:15 PM PDT Float tubes bobbed on the water like multicolored doughnuts as the high sun blazed at 90 plus. Friday afternoon was made for splashing, for squishing mud between toe and sandal in the cool of the Colorado River. Well, almost in the river. This is River Park at Las Colonias, where water diverted from the Colorado River has become Grand Junction's newest place to play. "This is fun. Look at all these happy faces!" said Mary Beth Prodromides, waving a hand at young and old alike ducking under the water or sitting on chairs, rocks or tubes on the west end of the River Park behind Las Colonias Amphitheater. She was watching her four grandchildren busily moving mud with toys and getting in and out of the water. They have been coming to the River Park anywhere from one to three times a week with life jackets, water shoes and a cooler full of food, she said. "They ask me all the time, 'Are we going to the river beach?' " Prodromides said. So they put on swimming suits and grab towels and go, showing up at different times of the day to see what it's like and who is there. There were days the water covered their "river beach" and the current was swift, Prodromides said. And there were days when the park was very crowded with people cooling off and exploring the area that opened to the public in May. It has been "extremely satisfying" to see how the park has been embraced and highly utilized, said Ken Sherbenou, parks and recreation director for the city of Grand Junction. From the river diversion for float tubes and kayaks to the ponds for stand-up paddle boards and kayaks and with the Colorado Riverfront Trail bringing in people on foot or on bikes, "it has been super busy," he said. "It's different than anything we've had in Grand Junction before." And with the River Park's popularity have come a few rescue calls as some people have gone down side channels between the park and the main channel of the river, he said. Those were a signal to his department "that we need to ramp up our education efforts," he said. To that end, more signs have been put up to remind people where they should or shouldn't be or how to use the area, and River Park hosts are at the park from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, he said. The hosts are stationed near the boat ramp and near the amphitheater, and they also walk the area or roam on a cart distributing information about the park and its rules, such as no glass, no dogs in the water, and no swimming in the ponds. People who use the park must be responsible for their own safety and their equipment. There are no lifeguards. "We strongly recommend life jackets," Sherbenou said. While the water running through River Park is a little more controlled than the flow in the main channel of the river, it still has currents and the water level goes up or down with the river, he said. It's definitely a place where parents must be responsible, Prodromides said. Her No. 1 worry about the park was that one of her grandchildren would be swept away into the river, she said. That hasn't happened, but she has been right there with them to make sure that it didn't. Overall, "it's a great idea because it's free and easily accessible," Prodromides said. Because there isn't an admission fee for River Park, Sherbenou's department hasn't been counting the number of people who visit the area each day, but he does know the park seems to be most crowded on the weekends. "On the weekends, it's pretty busy," said Elizabeth Fortushniak, owner and manager of Grand Junction Stand Up Paddle (GJ SUP), which has a shop near the boat ramp on the park's east end that offers rentals of paddle boards, duckies and tubes as well as various SUP lessons and clinics. There are some days with time slots when all their tubes are rented out, she said. And the weekend scene "is a melting pot," she said. All kinds of people of all ages are there to enjoy the park. For families with their own float tubes, it's really affordable fun, Fortushniak said. They can bring a picnic and make it a full day, she said. Along with utilizing River Park, there's biking to be had at Dos Rios Bike Park to the west along the Colorado Riverfront Trail and there's skateboarding at Eagle Rim Skate Park to the south. It is nice to finally have a place to hang out with family, friends or out-of-town guests that also is near the river, said TJ Smith, who was doing just that on Friday afternoon for the first time. When he moved to the Grand Valley three years ago, he was kind of surprised that something like the River Park didn't already exist. It makes sense, he said, and it's clever to utilize water from the Colorado River to do it. It has been amazing to see the area's transformation from barren, crusty dirt to fountains, pools and a float area, said one of Smith's friends, Chris Seanor, whose two toddlers were in need of naps after a trip through River Park on tubes. "We were pretty surprised," Seanor said. "This is a lot more than we thought." And work on River Park continues. The next part that will open to the public is the western-most area of the dog park's three sections, Sherbenou said. That section was sodded and hopefully will be ready in July. The other two sections were planted with Dog Tuff Turf Grass that is drought-tolerant, resistant to dog urine and holds up well to heavy traffic, he said. Those sections will open next spring. Another addition to River Park that likely will come soon is food trucks, Sherbenou said. Having food vendors at the park is one of the top suggestions his department has received, he said. So they are looking at day permits and weekend hours for food trucks. "It's such a cool thing to get so many people down by the river," Sherbenou said. | ||||||||
| Posted: 29 Jun 2020 05:00 AM PDT BROOMFIELD, Colo., June 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Gogo Business Aviation (NASDAQ: GOGO), the leading provider of broadband connectivity products and services for business aviation, hit 3,000 daily flights late last week, showing strong signs of recovery from the COVID-19 related single-day low-point of 378 daily flights in mid-April. "I'm encouraged because we're seeing several positive trends taking shape in the market," said Sergio Aguirre, president of Gogo Business Aviation. "We've strived to be a good partner with our customers to get through a very difficult time together, and we're now in the midst of a measurable recovery as flight activity increases." Business aviation hit a low point in mid-April when many aircraft owners chose to park their aircraft and 30 percent of Gogo Business Aviation's accounts chose to reduce their spending through either account suspensions or service-plan downgrades. Since that time, however, nearly 60 percent of Gogo's suspended customers have reactivated their service, with approximately 80 percent reverting to their original service plan. The number of flights flown with active Gogo service onboard has continued to increase, reaching 3,039 flights last Thursday, close to Gogo's pre-COVID average of 3,500 flights per day. Gogo is actively working with customers to reactivate service quickly as flying activity increases, and installations of new AVANCE L5 and L3 are on the rise. "I've been amazed with the level of productivity and engagement our employees have delivered to help our customers, and the company, get through this unique and challenging time," Aguirre added. "And from an innovation standpoint, we have several positive developments that will be released in the coming weeks that will make your Gogo inflight experience even better." About Gogo You can find Gogo's products and services on thousands of aircraft operated by the leading global commercial airlines and thousands of private aircraft, including those of the largest fractional ownership operators. Gogo is headquartered in Chicago, with additional facilities in Broomfield, Colo., and locations across the globe. Connect with us at gogoair.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
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