Presentation on Navajo code talkers at OCC History Center
 For the Old Colorado City Historical Society's Haunted Histories event in Fairview Cemetery in October, Sandy Hanzlian played Mary Nye/Monahan/ Gillespie, a Colorado City resident, one of whose sons (Carl Gillespie) became an artist in the early 1900s. During her portrayal, Hanzlian displayed photos of the family that she had found in her research. Westside Pioneer photo
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The speaker will be Ken Valles, an area resident who has traveled the American southwest and worked among the Navajo people.
“This is the remarkable story of how the language of the Navajo people played a major role in the victory over the Japanese in the Pacific Theater,” a press release states.
Owned and operated by the volunteer Old Colorado City Historical Society (OCCHS), the History Center is at 1 S. 24th St.
Admission to the program is free to OCCHS members, $5 for nonmembers.
Other than programs, admission to the History Center and its museum and bookstore is free. For more information, call 636-1225.
In other OCCHS news…
After being postponed from September by rain, the society's third annual Haunted Histories of Old Colorado City went off without a drop Oct. 7 in Fairview Cemetery. With most of the people who bought tickets agreeing to the date change, the event was one of the biggest OCCHS fundraisers of the year, earning about $1,700, according to Suzanne Schorsch, OCCHS treasurer.
She added that the OCCHS earned $3,500 in space rental fees from the crafters who set up again this year outside the History Center during Farmers Market Saturdays. “It pays our insurance,” she said...
The society will not offer a Holiday Tour event this year. Since 2014, the once-annual opportunity to visit several historical buildings during Christmas season has been offered only in even-numbered years. The tour is likely to return in 2018, according to Schorsch.
The History Center will go to winter hours after Dec. 1 (Tuesdays to Saturdays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.).
Westside Pioneer article