antelope

Old maps in the Denver R.O. show this location as being the town site of San Juan. They also show the present site of the Officer, Wright, and Wetherill holdings as "Antelope Park".

Hay Franklin, an Englishman, came to Antelope Park in 1870 and established a cow camp on the site of the present Officer Ranch. The old earth roofed log buildings are still standing and are now used as cattle sheds. There were no roads in the county then and the country was not surveyed. Franklin ran large herds of cattle and wintered them on the open range. Some time between 1870 and 1876, Franklin made a trip back to England and left the cattle with the cow boys. A heavy snow winter came and he lost 2,500 head in that one winter. They didn't put up hay in those days. The cattle went up the canyons and got snowed in. In those days cattle sold for $8.00 each and $15.00 per pair.

Franklin gave up any rights he may have had on the Officer place to a fellow by the name of Galloway. This man Galloway proved up on the Officer place in 1876. Galloway had a buckskin team of which he was very proud. They were stolen one night. Galloway got appointed as a Deputy Sheriff and took out after the thief. He caught up with him on Horsethief Trail up by Continental Reservoir on the Continental Divide and killed him. He buried him right there.

Galloway sold out the Officer place to a fellow by the name of Brent. His wife came from Kansas and died in childbirth in the old log barn on Officer's. A niece of his also lived there with him and she died during one of the winters. Both of these women are buried on a little aspen shelf south of Ingalls Gulch. The headstones are of wood. The names are painted on there and the two graves are enclosed by a small log fence. Brent sold to Officer and, before he left, he fixed these two graves up as they are today and has never been back since.

The old Workman Ranch down below Wright's was a kind of hotel in those days for the miners going to Silverton. A girl worked there by the name of Dolly Brooks, as cook, chambermaid, etc. She had a baby there one winter and it died. They buried it on the knoll on the Officer Ranch. This little hill lies off to your left as you approach the bridge over the Rio Grande to the Rio Grande Summer Home Group.

In the early 80s, a road used to go from Creede to Lake City. It turned the corner at Seepage Creek and went up along Santa Maria Lake to Spring Creed Pass (Cebolla). Bandits held up the stage at Fir Creek about 1 1/2 miles above present 7 Mile Bridge. A posse was got up and they caught the bandits at Cebolla (Spring Creek Pass). On this road, where it turned up along Seepage Creek, there used to be a saloon. The fellow who ran it got killed there. He is buried close by and his grave is in good shape. This location was called Banty Flats in the early days. This road used to have and old stage station on it called Bellford Station. It is an old hole in the side of the hill right where the present road ends and Santa Maria pipeline starts up to go over toward the Falls.