Summitville presentation planned

DEL NORTE—“The Historic Summitville – Then and Now” reception will be hosted by the Rio Grande County Museum non-profit board on Saturday, April 22nd from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  The wine and cheese reception will start at 2 p.m. with the “round table” discussions and stories by individuals who have lived and worked in Summitville in the active mining years.  

Photos, old newspaper articles, paintings from 1876 and 1926 and artifacts from Summitville will be part of the exhibit. The Bill Ellithorpe and his family will also have artifacts from their history in the mining of Summitville.

The opening of the exhibit will be April 1 and will run through the end of June. Research done by the museum staff gives the story of the Little Annie tramway being built in 1876 by a group of nine Swedish men for owner, P.J. Peterson who then commissioned an oil painting of the tramway, mine and mill in 1876 which has recently been donated to the Museum by the Arthur and Shirley Peterson family.

The other story to be in the exhibit will feature the Jack Pickens strike in 1926 that led to what was thought to be in the great strike in Summitville. The story has a heart breaking end for Pickens.

For more information, please call the Rio Grande County Museum at (719) 657-2847 or email at [email protected].  Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10-4 and Saturday 10-3 except on event days.