Hey Johnnie: Is the large carved stone map at the Lyons Visitors Center in Sandstone Park wrong? It shows the Little Thompson River as flowing in and out of both Pinewood Reservoir and Carter Lake, implying it is the water source for both. But isn’t the water source for Pinewood and Carter from the Colorado Big Thompson Project, which diverts Western slope water to the Front Range? Doesn’t the map have the Little Thompson off course as it misses both Pinewood and Carter as it flows somewhat south of them? Could you confirm or refute my observation? — Tim
Hey Tim: Thanks to your question, I learned a bit about Lyons’ history and a man who played a key role in it.
The answer to each of your questions is yes, with the last “yes” meaning I can confirm your observation. I observed it for myself, and indeed, the sandblasted map — a representation of the mountainous areas around the town — shows the Little Thompson running through Pinewood and Carter, something that the Little Thompson does not do.
So, I wondered, when was that map created, and who created it?
Monique Sawyer-Lang at the Lyons Redstone Museum helped.
That map was created by Max Hammans, who according to his 1998 obituary moved to Lyons from Iowa in 1942. That would have been when he was about 11 years old. In his decades in the Lyons area, he was a dairy farmer, plumber, owner of the Lyons Recorder newspaper from 1969 to 1979, Boy Scout leader, intermittent rock miner, and a wood carver and sandblaster who made signs of wood and stone around the area.
“He was the only guy in town who sandblasted stuff,” said Max Hammans’ son, Rick Hammans. “He was a woodcarver, and he took to sandblasting. They commissioned to him to sandblast that map.”
Hammans said he was surprised that his dad could have misplaced the Little Thompson River, since Max Hammans and his brother had a quarry off the river near Beech Hill.
“He worked on the Little Thompson River,” Rick Hammans said. “… Maybe he just drew it wrong.”
Hammans couldn’t remember when the piece — a collection of individual panels — was placed at the visitors center, but “I’m sure LaVern had something to do with it.”
That’s LaVern Johnson, perhaps Lyons’ best-known resident and the person who knows Lyons better than any other.
“How it could be wrong, I don’t know,” she said, expressing surprise that Max Hammans could have misplaced the Little Thompson River.
Johnson said she recalled that that map, which covers a wall on the south side of the center’s breezeway, was placed in the early ’90s.
“It was in the beginning of the GOCO Colorado grants, around 1993,” she said. “We got a grant for that project.”
Great Outdoors Colorado, which was created by voters in 1992, “invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces,” according to its website.
Johnson couldn’t recall exactly when the visitors center had been built, but Sawyer-Lang said she found a reference to the town considering building a visitors center in 1987.
“You’d think as all those things are happening that you’d never forget,” Johnson said, “but as the years go by you do forget. … The trouble with the olden days is that no one is around to remember.”
Send questions to johnnie@times-call.com.
The Link LonkOctober 05, 2020 at 07:23AM
https://www.timescall.com/2020/10/04/johnnie-st-vrain-little-thompson-river-is-a-little-off-on-lyons-visitors-center-map/
Johnnie St. Vrain: Little Thompson River is a little off on Lyons Visitors Center map - Longmont Times-Call
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment