We're about 4 miles into our northbound run from the Woodmen trailhead. We've reached a mile north of the bridge that crosses over West Monument Creek. From here, the trail has some twisty and hilly sections and soon it will turn east and then in a mile or so the trail joins the rail bed of the Santa Fe Railroad and heads north to Palmer Lake. This is Kinner Country! In this area in 1944-46 time frame John and Emma Kinner lived in a two story late 1800's vintage home with their three children Dixie, Pat and Janet. The Kinner pioneers came to Colorado in 1850 and have homesteaded and ranched the front range from here to Castle Rock. The Kinner sisters still live in Colorado. Dixie lives in Denver and Pat and Janet live here in Colorado Springs. Through their fabulous memories and renewed spirit of exploration into their history, these gals have been a tremendous help to me in my history research and site exploration. As illustrated in the May's Long Run newsletter article, I've been entertained by stories reflecting on life as a child on the Kinner ranch in the 1940s. This article will share a few stories of adventure, danger, humor and sadness and perhaps make this section of the New Santa Fe Regional Trail a special pathway through the lives of John, Emma, Dixie, Pat and Janet Kinner.
In February 1944 John Kinner III purchased a 500-acre ranch with a two-story home on it that was greatly in need of repair. This home was built in the late 1800s by then Edgerton's Justice of the Peace E. G. Moon. The Kinner girls would sometimes refer to it as the "Moon" house. The Kinners lived a short while in West Husted while the "Moon" home was fixed up. John was a teacher and coach in Monument at Big Red, the school building located west of the I- 25/Monument interchange. He was a well respected coach and teacher and often spoke at teacher forums statewide. John and Emma quickly organized quite a ranching operation. They leased an additional 200 acres on what is now the AFA airfield. They ran cattle, raised pigs and chickens and grew corn and beans as crops. John would milk 30 cows in the morning and sell the milk to Meadow Gold Creamery in Colorado Springs. Running a ranch and teaching in Monument made for long days for John Kinner, but he was blessed with a bride and three girls whose work ethic and dedication matched his. Let's learn more about life on the Kinner ranch.
The Rio Grande railroad formed the western boundary of the Kinner ranch and as the coal trains would rumble by, coal would bounce out and land along the tracks. This was a great source of fuel for cooking and heating. The family would head out to the tracks and collect the donations. Once a train derailed in front of the Kinner's home. This not only provided some extra coal, but some of the cars were full of live sheep and others were transporting potatoes. The Kinners helped railroad workers round up the sheep and get them back in the cars. The coal and potatoes remained for the Kinner family use. Along the tracks was the Kinner pig pen. Emma canned apples and on one occasion, mixed the peelings with the rye in the "slop" barrel. The garbage fermented and turned alcoholic. The pigs got a bit tipsy as they fed upon this apple beer elixir. After Dixie fed the pigs that morning and watched the results, she was horrified to think that she had done something awful to the pigs. What a sight to behold . . . drunken pigs!
The chicken coop was north of the house and each spring the Kinners would purchase and raise 500 chicks and grow them for the family meat and for sale. After one particularly heavy rain, they found the chicks, cold and wet, floating on top of the water. This prompted the family to bring all the chicks into the house to be dried and warmed around the kitchen cook stove. The chicks were soon peeping again.
Being the oldest, Dixie was often out with dad doing chores. Janet was a toddler during these times and observed Dixie and Pat doing chores like bringing in the cows in the evening. One evening the cows wandered over near where I-25 is today which was Hwy 87 and the east boundary of the ranch. After rounding up the herd, a Santa Fe train came by and tooted its whistle, thus scattering the cows. Dixie and Pat returned home very upset and cow-less. Dad had to mount Molly, the family horse, and go fetch the Kinner herd.
As introduced earlier, the home had no electricity or plumbing. That was to come to this area after World War II. The home was heated with an iron cook stove in the kitchen and a pot belly stove that stood in the living room. If not enough coal was gathered from along the tracks, they would purchase coal from the Pikeview Coal Mine which was located where the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame is located today. The upstairs was heated by the chimney that went up from the pot belly stove. "Plumbing" consisted of pumping and carrying water from the well. Facilities included an outside one-seater and a chamber pot under the bed. Lights were a kerosene lamp and candles. The Kinners went to bed with the chickens and arose with them, thus lights were not a big deal to them. Washing was done by scrub board in a tub on the kitchen floor. The tub also served as the bathtub and many times a shivering Kinner child stood in front of the kitchen cook stove drying after a cold bath. Pumping water was not only accomplished for household purposes, but also for filling the cold vat where milk cans were kept cool and for watering the garden. The Kinner girls' memories of contact with the outside world were special times sitting with dad in the car listening to the radio, especially sports events, and taking trips to town and the county sale barn. The Kinner girls all agree and emphasize that life at their home was one of adventure, and they were not the least bit deprived. It was the way country life was back then. Every cow, cat, dog, and chicken were named by the children and were family pets. Weather permitting, the girls were in Monument Creek, often times bathing in their "birthday suits", or catching fish with a worm on a safety pin.
Do you recall Mary and Marian Young's "heap biscuits" served to the Indians? Well, Emma Kinner had her version of "heap biscuits." She was a homemaker extraordinaire! She baked fresh bread and made homemade butter and chokecherry jam. There were an abundance of chokecherries, gooseberries and wild plums along the creek. At times a person wandering along the tracks would catch a whiff of Emma's freshly baked bread, and perhaps like the Indians with the Young's, would come to the door for a piece to munch on. Items from the garden and meat from butchering were canned since there was no refrigeration. Killing and plucking a chicken for the evening meal was normal. Emma's Singer treadle sewing machine was used to make clothes for the rag dolls she'd make for her girls, and eventually she'd teach them to sew on this machine that is still in the family today. She'd even make the girls' clothing including underwear made from printed flour sacks.
There were plenty of adventures in and around the Kinner house. A trip to the outhouse could mean running into the giant Rhode Island Red Rooster. Named after a well-known fighter of the day, Joe Lewis would get all riled up and stand tall and spread his wings to protect his territory as the girls would seek to make their way to the potty! They would carry a broom or long stick to shoo Joe away as he often tried to circle around back and knock the girls down. Once he even sent Emma (mom) to her knees with an apron full of eggs she had just gathered. Quite a mean fellow Joe the rooster was. One Sunday mother saw fit for him to end up as dinner! Not very tender eating. The old house had honeybees in the walls and John made a hole in the wall to harvest the honey. That was indeed a yummy good deal for the Kinners. However, Pat would disagree. The hole in the wall was in her bedroom and she felt the bees liked chasing her the most! Fetching canned goods from the cellar by an outside dugout type entrance was a daily chore that could mean meeting a rattlesnake on the stairs. With cows all around the ranch, it was not unusual for a cow to peer into a window. Janet's toddler memory of monsters looking into the window was most likely Miss Moo or another of the family cows checking up on her.
As you can see, the life of a Kinner child was tough by today's modern accommodations. But this close-knit family worked hard and enjoyed the wilds of northern Colorado Springs. This article captures but a snapshot of the adventures, the hard work, and joy of being a Kinner. John III and his wife Emma were fabulous parents and showcased love and a work ethic that rubbed off on their girls. In 1946 John III and his dad John II, "Grandpa" to the girls, cut the lumber and started to build a new house east of the "Moon" home very close to where our running trail intersects the Santa Fe railroad bed. Things were looking good for teacher John as he was going to start teaching science and math at North Junior High in Colorado Springs that fall. However, the father-son duo would not get to complete the job together. It seems a bit of the "flu" was going around the Kinners and John could not shake its effects and the tightness in his chest. Dixie remembers clearly as she was 13 years old then and recalls doing the morning chores and peering at the morning star Venus as she closed the barn doors knowing something was very wrong with her dad. Her mom would have her walk north along the tracks to Husted to get her Aunt Alice to come and help get daddy to the hospital. That would be the last time Dixie, Pat and Janet would see their dad. John would succumb to polio 6 weeks later. During his hospitalization, the girls relocated to their grandparent's home in East Husted and remember sadly the night all three were joined in their bed by their mom and learned that their dad would not be coming home.
In the area we now run, and with special AFA Security Forces permission to leave the trail, I have explored the Kinner's ranch area and watched ladies who are getting on in years transform back to being little girls romping around their ranch. Emma owned the ranch until it was purchased in 1955 by the State of Colorado and given to the US Government for the AF Academy. Though wiped away by the construction of the AF Academy in the late 1950s, there are hints and evidence of a home and family that leap forth when a story is told by a Kinner gal. I not only gain insight into the Kinner's time on their ranch, I also gain fabulous insight as far back as the mid-1800s when the Kinner girls' great grandparents came to Colorado.
There is far more I can share, but I must close this Kinner Country essay. I do hope as you enjoy this section of the New Santa Fe Regional trail that you listen closely for the long-ago laughter and joy of Dixie, Pat and Janet as they round up their cows or collect coal along the tracks, and perhaps you may hear an older voice shout out a hearty "you're looking good, runner" as I may be yet again exploring Kinner Country with Dixie, Pat and Janet.. If you smell fresh bread as you charge up a hill, that's Emma baking again. I want to dedicate this article to Dixie, Pat and Janet…my fellow explorers…and also especially to John III and Emma, super dad and super mom. I am sure their daughters would agree with that parental characterization! Next time we'll learn about Husted and maybe even drop in Husted's Kinner Store and Service Station for a cold pop!
