15

PAONIA

After most of the Utes had been placed on reservations, white settlers quickly moved onto their Western Slope lands. They laid out new towns and began building homes of cottonwood logs with floors of packed dirt. The cracks between the logs were filled with adobe mud, and the walls were covered with old newspapers. The tallow candles and coal oil lamps that were used for light could be easily upset and caused many fires.

Enos Hotchkiss had made several trips over the mountains from Lake City to explore the Valley of the North Fork of the Gunnison River, but he’d been chased out by the Utes. Now in the fall of 1881, the Indians were gone, and Hotchkiss claimed land for his homestead near the site of the future town that would bear his name. Samuel Wade and William Clark, who accompanied Hotchkiss, explored farther up the North Fork Valley, claimed land and founded Paonia. They platted the new townsite, laying out the streets, business and residential lots, and even set aside land for a park.

Wade had brought root stock of his favorite flower, the peony, from Ohio. He planted the flowers on his claim and in the new park. Today, more than one hundred years later, bright peonies that are the descendants of that original root stock bloom in Paonia’s Town Park. Wade wanted to name the budding town for the peony and submitted the scientific name Paeonia in the request for a post office. However, the government official misspelled the name, and the town officially became “Paonia.”

In 1882, Sam Wade ordered hundreds of fruit trees from an eastern nursery, and the young trees were shipped on the railroad to the depot at Gunnison. Wade met the train and loaded the trees carefully into his wagon, covered them with blankets, and set out for Paonia across Black Mesa. Even though it was late spring, the snow was still very deep, and Wade had to shovel a wide path through drifts before his team and wagon could make its way through. At night, he kept the trees warm by building large bonfires around the wagon. It took him three weeks to reach the North Fork Valley with the fruit trees, which were the beginnings of the orchards that thrive today around Paonia, Crawford, and Hotchkiss.

As the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad laid its tracks west from Gunnison, new towns sprang up along the rail line. A depot was built at Delta so farmers could ship their fruit, vegetables, cattle, and sheep to Denver and the eastern markets. At the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition, the fruit from Sam Wade’s and W.S. Coburn’s orchards won the first gold medals. This was quite an accomplishment for growers in an isolated Western Slope community.

Everyone packed fruit from Paonia’s orchards to be shipped east on the railroad. Courtesy of Denver Public Library–Western History Collection.

By 1902, the narrow-gauge tracks of the Denver & Rio Grande running into the North Fork Valley were completed, and numerous carloads of fruit and vegetables were being shipped by rail. The valley became well known for its bountiful crops of apples, cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, grapes, and plums.

Sam Wade dug the first irrigation ditch to carry water to his orchards. By 1900, there were at least eighteen ditches under construction from the North Fork of the Gunnison River to the orchards. The completion of the Uncompahgre Project in the early 1900s provided a dependable source of water for Montrose and Delta and encouraged agriculture and growth.

Blasting the Gunnison Tunnel through miles of dense rock to bring water from the Gunnison River in the Black Canyon took four years to complete. The project included the construction of the Taylor Park Dam and Reservoir, seven diversion dams, 128 miles of main canals, 438 miles of laterals, and 216 miles of drains. The Paonia Water Project was finished in 1939 to augment the valley’s water supply.

A rich seam of anthracite coal was found in the upper valley in 1883, and the town of Somerset developed around the new coal mines. By 1903, the D&RG had reached Somerset, bringing in all supplies and hauling out carloads of coal for the Denver market.

The North Valley fruit industry boomed until 1910, when prices dropped and there were spring freezes for the first time in many years. Then the cherry orchards were attacked by deadly insects, forcing farmers to pull up their trees, plow up their orchards, and use their land for farming and pasture. The years passed, and as the North Fork Valley slowly recovered from the infestation, young cherry trees were planted once again.

Today, Paonia is a quiet agricultural community at the foot of the west Elk Mountains, where the large crops of cherries are celebrated with the annual Cherry Days festivities in July. Fall brings the Mountain Harvest Festival and the hilarious Grape Stomp. Anglers have good luck fishing in the waters of the North Fork of the Gunnison River and in the Paonia Reservoir at Paonia State Park. The town is the headquarters of the High Country News, a publication whose serious journalists produce hard-hitting articles about environmental and economic issues affecting the West. A bit off the beaten path, Paonia has attracted artists and writers who savor its quiet country lifestyle.

BROSS HOTEL

In 1905, deputy sheriff William Taylor Bross, known as “WT,” was always quick to seize an opportunity. Paonia needed a hotel, so WT saved his money and bought several lots on Onarga Avenue and built a three-story fireproof brick hotel. It had electricity, hot and cold running water in all the rooms, indoor plumbing, and a coal-fired furnace that kept it cozy and warm in the winter. The large bay windows allowed bright sunshine in, and guests could relax on the front porch or the second-floor veranda. The new Bross Hotel was Paonia’s only “first class hotel,” and it was often called “The Brown Palace of Delta County.”

While WT was building the hotel, his wife, Laura, ran a boardinghouse next door and raised their six children. She was a good cook, and there were rarely any empty seats at her dinner table. The hotel opened in May 1906, and every evening, WT met the train and loaded his guests and their luggage into his wagon for the ride to the hotel. They received a warm welcome from Laura, who was known by everyone as “Mother Bross.”

The Bross Hotel was advertised as Paonia’s only “First Class Hotel.” Courtesy of Wendy Williams.

The front porch has always been a favorite place where guests relax. Courtesy of Wendy Williams.

The hotel flourished for years, and after WT died in 1921, the youngest son, Otto, helped Mother Bross run the hotel. She died in 1928, and Otto remodeled the hotel and operated it successfully through the 1930s. He converted the basement into a meeting room for the Rotary Club and community events. He was friends with another bachelor, Merrill Henry, who lived at the hotel for many years until his death. In 1944, Otto sold the hotel to a buyer, who agreed that he could live there for the rest of his life. Otto never married and made his home in room 2 until he died there in 1959.

The hotel was renovated in 1997, and in 2001, it was purchased by Linda Lentz. She was very interested in the spirits that shared the hotel and wrote about her experiences in a booklet, Bross Hotel: One Hundred Years 1906–2006, which she gave to her guests. In 2013, the Delta County Board of County Commissioners placed the hotel on the county’s Historic Landmark Register, and in 2015, the Bross Hotel was named to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2017, the hotel was sold to Kevin and Karen Kropp, who’ve operated an organic fruit farm in the North Fork Valley since the 1980s.

GHOSTS

The Bross family lived in their boardinghouse next door to the hotel for years, and after the death of his mother, Otto sold the house. When he took over the management of the hotel and began remodeling, he decided not to make any changes in room 2. He said that he sensed a very strong presence there that wanted the room left in its original state. Through the years, this room and its number remained unchanged; the only concession to progress was the addition of a small bathroom. Many believe Mother Bross lingers in the home she loved, and she especially favors room 2, which was Otto’s room. Linda Lentz often said, “She is happy in room 2.…She probably haunts that room because she’s looking out for her baby, Otto.” Guests staying in this cozy room have felt their blankets being tucked gently around their shoulders. Most people believe that Mother Bross lingers on in this home that she loved.

A guest, who was studying an old photograph of Mother Bross and WT, made an uncomplimentary observation about Mother’s looks—it was immediately punctuated by a loud crash. The antique mirror that hangs over the marble-topped buffet had suddenly fallen to the floor, despite being bolted to the wall. Amazingly, the mirror was not cracked or broken. Fearing the spirit of Mother Bross had been offended by the remark, the innkeeper, who was a believer, rushed upstairs to room 2 where she made a sincere apology for her guest’s comment. The mirror was returned to its place on the wall and has never fallen again.

An image of a woman resembling Mother Bross has been seen in this antique mirror. Courtesy of Wendy Williams.

Occasionally, Mother Bross likes to relax in one of the smaller rooms upstairs, and guests sometimes say they sense a presence in their room. There are indentations on beds as if someone had sat down for a minute to rest. The hotel renovations during the 1990s apparently disturbed Mother Bross and Otto because apparitions of both mother and son were seen by many different people. The basement and upper floors of the hotel experienced the greatest paranormal activity during the construction commotion.

In 1993, a single family rented the entire hotel for a short time, but the woman became very uncomfortable working in the second-floor laundry room. She insisted that someone was watching her there. She saw an apparition of a woman who resembled old photographs of Mother Bross. She was wearing a long-sleeved white blouse with a full black skirt, as was Mother’s custom. The children encountered the apparition of an older man in the basement, and when they told it to go away, it promptly disappeared. Experts think this could have been Otto or the bachelor, Merrill Henry, who puttered around and often helped Otto with the building’s upkeep and repairs. Occasionally, an apparition that resembles Otto has been seen with a wispy-looking Mother Bross standing in the second-floor hall.

Hotchkiss Paranormal investigated the activity at the hotel in the summer of 2014, and Hector, the group’s leader, spent the night in room 2. Sometime during the night, he awoke to feel invisible hands gently tucking the covers around him, even making sure his feet were well covered. Other members of this group caught glimpses of both Mother Bross and WT during the night.

When another team of investigators visited the hotel, their electromagnetic field meter (EMF) recorded high readings in the dining room near the antique mirror. The batteries on their two cameras and also their video camera were immediately drained when they entered room 2. They obtained high readings on their EMF meter, and the spirit box picked up many strange sounds. When they asked several questions, hoping the spirit box would pick up an answer, they didn’t get any replies. When they started their investigation in room 2, they placed their equipment on the bed and then straightened the bedspread when finished before leaving. When they returned to the room a few minutes later, they were surprised to see that the bedspread was rumpled as if someone had been sitting on the bed.