Name: Miss Rena Olds
Name: Clara Surles
Occupation: School Teacher
Occupation: Postmistress
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Hometown: Montrose, Colorado
Hobbies: playing piano, writing
Hobbies: reading, dancing
Favorite Music: Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag
Favorite Book: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
Leads: Literary Society at East Portal, currently
reading Mr. L. Frank Baum’s latest book, The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Leads: the women’s writing club
Dislikes: the isolation and the cold winters
Family: single, parents and sister live in Denver
Likes: sing-a-longs at the school Saturday night
Family: married at East Portal, husband assists at
post office, parents live at East Portal too
Name: Joseph Pearson
Name: Herbert Daniels
Occupation: Outside Superintendent of East Portal
Job: oversee town , shipment of supplies,
carpenters, engineers, upkeep of road
Hometown: Pueblo, Colorado
Hobbies: dancing, political discussions
Hometown: Fitchburg, Massachussets
Occupation: Tunnel Shift Boss
Job: supervise night shift workers, 11pm - 7 am
Member of Literary Society
Reading: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Likes: horseback riding, baseball
Dislikes: any deaths or accidents in East Portal
Family: son born at East Portal
Leads: Debating Society
Favorite Topics: prohibition, women’s sufferage
Hobbies: hunting deer and bear
Likes: having electricity at home and in the tunnel
Family: wives and children live at East Portal
Name: Harry Simpson
Name: Billy Towns
Occupation: Ore Hauler, Mucker
Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska
Hobbies: watching baseball at West Portal
Occupation: Tunnel Worker
Jobs: drillman, powderman
Hometown: Ames, Iowa
Hobbies: hunting, fishing
Likes: working the day shift, getting electricity
Likes: having a warm bunk for eight hours
Dislikes: not having saloons in East Portal
Family: single, family in Nebraska
Family: wife and children back in Iowa
Name: Harold Turney
Name: Ray Alexander
Occupation: Sheriff
Occupation: Timekeeper
Hometown: Grand Junction, Colorado
Hometown: Salida, Colorado
Hobbies: raising pigs
Favorite Books: Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan
Doyle’s novels
Favorite Music: John Philip Sousa
Favorite Book: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Hobbies: playing stick ball
Likes: keeping order at East Portal, having fresh
meat
Dislikes: people sneaking liquor into East Portal
Dislikes: having to cut ice from the river in winter
Family: wife in East Portal, lives in one of cottages
Family: lives at East Portal some of the time
Name: Stewart Jones
Names: Isabel, Alice, David, and Henry
Occupation: students
Hometown: East Portal
Hobbies: play marbles, swim, ice skate
Favorite Books: Huck Finn, A Christmas Carol
Like: Teddy Bears, putting on fundraiser to purchase a dictionary
Family: fathers work in tunnel, mothers in dining
hall and store
Occupation: Engineer
Jobs: prepare site, survey every eight hours
Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah
Hobbies: hunting, supplying fresh meat for town
Likes: debating Spanish-American war
Family: wife and eight children in Utah
Name: Samuel Lyons
Occupation: Construction Worker
Jobs; build East Portal Road, construct dam
Name: Roberta Allen
Occupation: hospital nurse
Hometown: Newton, Kansas
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Hobbies: fishing
Favorite Books: Jane Austen novels
Dislikes: doesn’t like steep road
Likes: Saturday night dances, charity work
Hobbies: birdwatching
Family: single, relatives in Kansas
Dislikes: doesn’t like being only nurse on evening
shift at hospital
Likes: summer birds and flowers
Family: many sisters and brothers in Denver,
parents died when young
Name: Stephen Winters
Occupation: Blacksmith
Job: forge tools and sharpen steel drills
Name: Sarah Books
Occupation: Waitress
Hometown: Gunnison, Colorado
Hometown: Lead, South Dakota
Hobbies: ice skating
Hobbies: nature walks, especially likes watching
bears and bighorn sheep cross the river
Favorite Music: any new jazz piano songs
Favorite Books: Emily Bronte novels
Favorite Author: Oscar Wilde
Likes: sunlight in the canyon in summer, fresh
milk from the dairy at rim
Dislikes: dark, cold winters, getting snowed in
Likes: taking the train to Montrose from West Portal
on his one day off
Family: many relatives in North and South Dakota
Family: many brothers and sisters still at home
with parents in Gunnison
Name: Abraham Lincoln Fellows
Name: Elmer Sparks
Occupation: Electrician
Hometown: Alamosa, Colorado
Jobs: manage powerplant, order coal, charge of
compressors, electic train, lights
Hobbies: fishing
Likes: being one of the first to have electricity
Dislikes: traveling two days to Alamosa to see
family
Family: wife and twin sons in Alamosa
Occupation: Colorado state hydrographer
Jobs: explored canyon, initial design and survey, designed road, ran telephone line
Hometown: Kennebuck, Maine
Hobbies: hiking, reading
Member of Literary Society
Dislikes: swimming in the cold Gunnison River
Dislikes: being apart from family
Likes: writing poetry in the outdoors
Family: in Denver
Name: Daniel Scott
Occupation: Storekeeper
Name: John Waterman
Hometown: Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation: Farmer
Hobbies: hiking the canyon in winter on the frozen
river
Hometown: Olathe, Colorado
Hobbies: playing stick ball with children
Favorite Books: Mark Twain novels
Likes: Homestead Act, allowing him to farm 160
acres in the warm valley with river water for crops
Family: wife and children in 12’ x 14’ house at farm,
hopes to expand house soon for growing family
Leads: 30 members of Library Society
Favorite Music: classical
Favorite Books: Sir Walter Scott novels
Dislikes: being snowed in for days, not receiving
supplies for the store
Likes: writing letters to his family and receiving
letters from his children
Family: all on the front range of Colorado