Spring break in Colorado

While Cara and Wesley were off last week, I took a couple of days off and we all went on a quick Sanford trip. It was great to be with family there and we enjoyed it a lot. We spent most of the time with Lois and Kim who are always great hosts and enjoyed their beautiful home. You can see a panorama of their home above.

Part of your Haynie history you may not be aware of has become more real to me. When the original Haynie family (Emily and her 9 children soon after her husband Robert died from wounds suffered as a Confederate soldier) joined the church in Georgia in 1878, they were driven out by their neighbors. John Morgan, their missionary, arranged for they and a few others to migrate to the San Luis valley in Colorado. After a long wagon and train trip they spent a hard cold winter in Pueblo Colorado then walked carrying their belongings the 50 miles to the southern end of the valley. In the cold, dry climate-so different from their Georgia home- they were without home, shelter or food. A local Mexican family, the Salazars, took pity on them and gave them a milk cow as well as grain to help them survive. (As an aside, the former senator from Colorado and current Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, is a descendant of that family who saved our family from starvation). They moved 25 miles downriver to the confluence of the Conejos and Rio Grande where they dugout a rough shelter on the river banks. Weakened by starvation and exposure, Emily died within a couple of months at the age of 50. The children took her body back to the newly founded town of Manassa to bury her. The oldest boy, Patrick Calhoun Haynie, who was my great, great grandfather built the first house in Manassa for the family to live in.

The attached picture of where the Conejos and Rio Grande rivers meet, is close to that unknown site where Emily Haynie died. Seeing that place and the Salazar ranch gave me a greater appreciation for the faith and toughness of our ancestors. Who would have thought that Peggy's girlhood home was the original home of the Haynies.

Lyn and Dixie have moved into an old ranch house owned by Lynn's employer in the far Northeast corner of the valley close to Fort Garland. As part of the cleanup and refurbishing, they threw out a lot of junk, including the old jeep in the photo above. I told Lynn I would tow it home and fix it up- we'll see if I really do.