Hi List members! After a four day visit in Denver, I am back home. For all of you that have asked about the fires...from where I live, I travel I-25 from Colorado City to Denver. The only place there was smoke was at Castle Rock, between Denver and Colorado Springs, and just a slight haze. So there's not much that you will notice if you are coming through here. The last I heard we have lost 200,000 acres. For those of you that do plan a trip here around July 4th, please be aware that there is a total ban on fireworks in Colorado this year. Do not bring any into the state as you will be ticketed, fined, and possibly jailed. This Thursday night we have a Community meeting to activate plans for evacuation in the event there is a fire here. Here in Colorado City we have finally gone on water restrictions. I don't hear alot of grumbling about it as we all knew it was coming and understand the need for it. Plans are being laid for the National Guard to deliver drinking water to each home, if the need arises. We are all hoping that won't be the case. On Sunday the 9th, I attended the first lecture that our Community is planning on holding every second Sunday of the month. This month's lecture was on Fremont's 4th expedition and was presented by "Moon" Mullins. It was extremely interesting and Mr. Mullins gave a very well presented lecture. As you all probably know, the expedition was to find the best rail road route from the east coast to the west coast and went through Pueblo and Huerfano Counties. Next month the lecture will be by Wilfred Martinez, who will be speaking on the battle of Querno Verde. Querno Verde means Green Horn, which is how our area got it's name. It was right here that Chief Querno Verde fought his final battle. The actual battle site has recently been found so it will be an interesting lecture. As far as I know, the 1880 Huerfano census should be online any day now, Mary Ann and Maggie are working to get it posted. Again, my THANKS to everyone who worked on the project and especially to Taylor for doing the transcription! I will let you all know as soon as I am notified that it is on line. Most of the work I have been doing at the library has been on more obits. And I am still trying to get all the ones we did before into a database so it can be posted. The problem is that I am having to re-format the ones that were in word processors to fit the correct lines in the database, and I'm having to go through and put "Pueblo Chieftain" on the ones that did not have it. Once I have a full obit in the database I then have to go back and put the name in, surname first, so the database will sort properly. So you see why I haven't built any new pages recently. That and trying to keep up with my yard has kept me busy. And I am now teaching Aquasize two nights a week. Before we got started on the 1880 census I had asked for help with more obits. Due to the extent of the census project the obits just kind of went by the wayside. I am again asking for help with the obits. What I want to do is get the ones we have posted, then start sending out more for volunteers to type up. To volunteer for this phase you MUST have Microsoft Word and Excel!!! PLEASE try to help out here if you can. I would sure appreciate it. If I can just get this first part done, then we can move on to other projects that are sitting here waiting to be done. I would like to accomplish this ASAP. Please remember that almost all of the towns are still up for adoption at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cohuerfa/towns.html If you haven't adopted a town please consider doing so. If you HAVE adopted a town and I don't have your name posted please contact me right away, either I lost it in the shuffle or I didn't get your message. Also, will the Town Coordinators for the following towns please check in with me: Cuchara Camps, Shirley Jamison Rattlesnake Buttes, Shirley Jamison Oakview, Shalane Sheley-Cruz Cucharas, Doug Cordova Please let me know what you are doing with your pages and if you need help, or when you plan on posting. My THANKS to all who sent get well cards and warm wishes my way when I fractured my foot. It's almost healed and hopefully I will be back in full motion soon. THANK YOU! As soon as I am able I plan to start filming and doing field work again, and I invite any of you to join me in Huerfano County if you are going to be here. Guess that's it for today, so you all take care, and let me hear from you! Karen Mitchell 2002 has been declared "The Year of "Unity". Pass it on. [email protected] US GenWeb Project County Coordinator Huerfano County Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~cohuerfa/index.htm Huerfano County List Owner [email protected] Taos County Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~nmtaos/index.htm Taos County List Owner [email protected] Pueblo County Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~copueblo/index.html