History of the Community Binder Project

by Danna Hamling

Following Penny’s death in 2014, LHS decided that as a tribute to Penny those members who could would volunteer to scan the “cooked books” at the Local History Center in the Philip S. Miller Library.  Four LHS members – Danna Hamling, Glen Leise, Beverly Noe, and Ginny Sanders signed up to work in pairs.  Danna stood at the scanning machine, took out one page, scanned it, handed it to Glen, Glen placed it back in the plastic page holder.  The completed pages were placed in a folder and given to our supervisor, Adam (LNU). The LHS donated books lived in the Library vault and were placed there at the end of our two hour project once a week.

Our contacts in the History Center were Shaun Boyd, Adam LNU and Blake LNU.  When we started our work, we were told that the Library had the state of the art computer system recently installed.  We worked for perhaps six months.  One day, Blake told us he was moving on to the University of Nebraska.  Shortly after, Adam announced he had secured a job with the Denver Water Department.  Were we also told that day that something had happened, something no one understood, to the System?  We were told that they were not certain but our scanning may have been in vain.  We were not to return. Shaun told me that she was realizing a dream and moving on to History Colorado.  

I resigned as the President of LHS and moved on to two other interests.  I periodically checked with President Larry Schlupp about the status of the Local History Center.  He called and suggested I contact Alyssa LNU who was the new director of local history. ( I have also requested various names of this center.)  I think I visited her in person and she cavalierly told me she really was not interested in local history.  How does one reply to that?

I came home and called Larry, telling him that I was committed to finishing this for Penny.  Not too much time passed when Larry called with the name of Julia Watters, a new employee in the department.  My three cohorts had moved on due to health issues.  A new member of LHS showed up at the initial meeting with Julia with a toddler being potty trained, wearing no diaper.  You can probably figure out the end of that story.  

Julia and I set up a schedule.  Julia was in her late twenties and we worked so well together.  Alyssa was a bad employee.  She arrived late to work and when Julia was away, there was no one available to let me into the center!  There was a third employee but I cannot recall her name and she was rarely present.  

One day Julia told me she had resigned and our project was being reassigned to someone outside the center.  I told her there was no longer any point in me being there.  That was the end of my relationship with the local history center or name unknown.

Independently, Penny Burdick and Ida May Noe collected stories around Southern Douglas County.  Ida May was always the Historian of the Larkspur Historical Society.  Once a year, Ida May and Penny would meet at the home of Ida May to verify their collections.  That is to say, not only the same information but exact information.

As I remember, the Society donated a used copy machine for this work.  Ida May was never shy in requesting supplies; copy paper, notebooks, and photograph holders.  As I understood, the Historian would cut dates and publication names off her items!  

Penny, as President of LHS, announced at a meeting that she would be bringing boxes of materials collected by her to the next meeting.  Each of us would take a box and begin organizing the news items into notebooks provided by her.  The worker bees I recall were: Danna Hamling, Ida May, Penny, Betty Prince, and Ann Aviles.  

At this time in LHS history, we met in Larkspur in a historic building just north of the Larkspur Fire Department.  This since razed building had been home to the Plum Creek Winery, a church, and then the Fire Department with Keith Mathena as Fire Chief.  When I moved to Perry Park in 1986, the winery was housed there.  This is as much as I know about this building.

We worked on these books for about three months and then Penny either donated them to the Philip S. Miller Library or took them back to her home in Spring Valley.