Montrose - Daily Press

MONTROSE — The countdown is on — in little more than a month, Montrose, Olathe and Delta will celebrate 100 years of an engineering marvel called the Gunnison Tunnel.

Celebration organizers are encouraging community involvement right now by inviting the public to the Gunnison Tunnel Museum at Main and Townsend.

The temporary museum is in renovated space that formerly housed Sagebrush Books. It will feature displays, historic newspaper articles, photographs and artifacts from the tunnel's opening day, Sept. 23, 1909, when President William Howard Taft came to town.

The opening of the Gunnison Tunnel and the a picture of then-president William Howard Taft are seen in old press clippings at the Gunnison Tunnel Museum on Main Street Thursday afternoon. (William Woody / Daily Press) Advertisement

The museum also functions as headquarters for the centennial celebration, which is being organized through the collaborative efforts of the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association, individuals, staffers, ditch riders, historians and committee members. The chamber and visitors bureau, the Montrose County Historical Museum, plus many local businesses and governmental entities are also pitching in for the centennial event Sept. 26, which is funded through donations.

"It's all combined together," said Marc Catlin, director of the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users Association. "It's a place to see the history, to see what's going to happen at the event and to see the memorabilia."

The museum and headquarters are offered as a central location for the community and to showcase the tunnel's heritage. Items on loan for the display tentatively include the gold watch Taft presented to Bertha Hall; the cane used by Meade Hammond, who carried the legislation that created the tunnel, and possibly a piece of the bed custom-made for Taft's visit.

Organizers want the community to contribute, as well as learn.

"We're hoping people will come in with information or artifacts they have. One of the goals is to collect the stories we don't know about," public relations director Kerri Catlin said.

Though historical information committee member Dona Freeman was up to her elbows in her carefully preserved newspaper articles pertaining to the tunnel, celebration organizers know there are many more stories yet to be collected — new ones are coming in at a rate of about two per day, event coordinator Tami Blair said.

Blair and the other women relayed the story of a young shutterbug whose attempts to photograph Taft led to the Secret Service yanking him from the grandstand area 100 years ago. He was forcing his way through the crowd; Secret Service feared he was an assassin.

As to whether a young boy had actually climbed under the platform and pulled on Taft's trouser leg? The women hadn't confirmed that Thursday.

Kerri Catlin said attempts will be made to record stories for oral history purposes. There will also be laptops available for people who want to do their own research.

"I'm excited to do this and to give it back to the people," Freeman said.

The museum is seeking donated display cases and easels, as well as volunteers. Businesses are also invited to drop off business cards and brochures.

Organizers will also be selling commemorative T-shirts and bells, whose ringing will echo the peals that ushered in the tunnel a century ago.

"This is a community celebrating the community," Kerri Catlin said. "The water users aren't funding it. It's because of the water users that we can have it."

To loan historical items to the Gunnison Tunnel Museum, or to share your story, stop by or call 252-1239.

The museum will move its displays to Friendship Hall on Sept. 26, but will remain open through part of October.

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Comments

james p. lauzon wrote on Sep 2, 2009 7:41 PM:

" f.c. lauzon was pushing the tunnel to be built sometime in the late 1800s. as i recall what my father told me was that there was not enough money or enough interest at the time so the idea was delayd for a few years. i would be interested in any history of the lauzon family in the area. "




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4th generation wrote on Aug 14, 2009 1:34 PM:

" It's an irrigation ditch. The tunnel moves water from the gunnison river to the Uncompahgre valley. It was a marvel of engineering a hundred years ago....... "




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FaceOnMars wrote on Aug 14, 2009 10:03 AM:

" What is the Gunnison Tunnel and where is it? "




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