Water Resources People and Issues
And sometime-I'm not sure whether it was right when I got to the top of that
hill or later, I started to see the faint blue line of the mountains in the distance.
Tlhe air was so clear and there was no sign of smog or pollution of any kind.
As I drove on down the road that followed up the course of the South Platte
toward Denver, the mountains to the west loomed up higher and higher on the
horizon and I was in a state of euphoria all the rest of the way.
While I am waxing euphoric about my personal feelings I have to tell you about
something that had another tremendous impact on my life. There was a family
in Denver that came from my home town of Reisterstown, Maryland. Their
name was Ebaugh. Dr. Franklin Ebaugh had grown up on a farm near
Reisterstown and had married a girl from Baltimore County. They lived in
Denver and he was a very well-known psychiatrist and he was at that time head
of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Medical School
in Denver.
And so because I was feeling kind of alone, I called them up shortly after I got
to Denver and Dorothy Ebaugh said, "We'd be delighted to see you. How long
are you going to be here?" and I said, "I'm going to work here. I'm starting
to work at the Bureau of Reclamation next Monday."
She said, "Well, why don't we drive you up in the mountains tomorrow? I'd
love to." I accepted her invitation with alacrity. This was a chance to meet
somebody from home. When you're alone, far from home, you want to know
somebody. I didn't know anybody at the Bureau yet. I hadn't even been to the
office.
So she took me for a drive in the mountains, inviting a friend of hers, Eleanor
Eppich
who just happened to be the secretary of the Colorado
Mountain Club. It was a pleasant drive up through the foothills west of Denver
to Idaho Springs-and this was before the Clear Creek Highway was built. And
then we drove up the Virginia Canyon Road, which was a steep shelf road with
zigzags and switchbacks up to a pass and then dropped down into Central City.
Affter a short visit to the Teller House to see the "Face on the Barroom Floor"
we drove on down through Boulder and back to Denver.
And before I got out of that car, I had to fill out an application blank to join the
Colorado Mountain Club. And this, I'm sure, got me out in those mountains
a lot sooner than I would have, because if anybody else can remember the fall
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