Denver Research Trip

I had a chance to try out my research logs on Thursday when I went to the Colorado State Archives and the Denver Library. I stopped by the State Archives first. I have a magazine article that lists the court case and docket number of Elijah Gibbs’ trial in Denver and noted that it could be found at the State Archives. I confidently walked in with my research log, quoting the pertinent information, and was very disappointed when the case couldn’t be found. But they are going to continue trying to locate it.

I had better luck at the Denver Public Library, once I found a parking place and figured out how to run a microfilm reader again. I started going down the list of newspaper articles on the Lake County War, popping dimes into the printer. I printed articles from the Central City and Canon City newspapers that aren’t yet on the Colorado Historical Newspaper site.

Later, I sat at Applebee’s reading through the articles and eating my Oriental Chicken Wrap. I was amazed to find even more stories about the fight between Elijah Gibbs and George Harrington and how Harrington was killed. It is quite interesting when each newspaper has their own version of the events. It also makes it hard to determine the truth in the matter.

I also found a reference to Wilburn Christison that I hadn’t seen before. It was written by a supporter of the Committee of Safety and it disparaged Wilburn for being the legal advisor to the “Gibbs’ gang.”