By Christine Bradley
Editor's note: Recently, Merinel Williams, Georgetown
Town Clerk, came across a 1970 letter in the Town files. James Grafton
Rogers, then president of the Colorado Historical Society, had written
to Robert Bolander, first president of the Georgetown Society (now Historic
Georgetown, Inc.), congratulating the Society and the Town for passing
a landmark Historic Preservation ordinance. (For an account of the passage
of that ordinance, see Ron Neely's recollections
in the Winter, 2006, issue of this newsletter.) The following is based
on comments made on behalf of HGI by Chris Bradley in March 2007 upon
accepting the letter from the Board of Selectmen.
I never knew James Grafton Rogers - he passed away in 1971 - but when I think of him as someone who wrote the songs "Old Delores" and "Santa Fe Trail," I smile. And when I think of a man who fought to have I-70 moved from the proposed route along Argentine Street to the hillside above town, while sacrificing his beloved home "Aspen Grove" to the highway bulldozers, I am overwhelmed by the man's dedication and commitment to Georgetown and the surrounding area.
The back-page cover of Rogers' book, My Rocky Mountain Valley, refers to it as "the bountiful harvest of many years of observation and contemplation of nature and wild life recorded in tranquility by a man of national and world affairs whose heart, however far his responsibilities took him, brought him always back to the Rocky Mountains…"
I-70 survivor: History buffs can spot James Grafton Rogers' house at its present location on the first switchback up Guanella Pass Road.Photo by Cynthia Skeen |
And his responsibilities ranged far and wide. From our very local perspective, it was the things he did here that created quite a legacy. For example, he served two terms as mayor of Georgetown. In 1954 he worked with the Colonial Dames to help them acquire the Hotel de Paris. In 1959, as part of the centennial celebration of the Colorado Gold Rush, he started the concept of the Georgetown Loop Mining Park and arranged for the state to acquire 100 acres of mining property in the valley between the towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume.
Just stop to think what the placement of I-70 up on the hillside did for the future of the town. I believe he was responsible for the town's first sign code and for the initial local zoning and regulations regarding the playing of loud music in the streets. We were very fortunate to have his presence in our community.