2013-09-25_PERMIT FILE - C1996083A ‎(6)‎

• Permit No: C1996083A
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 9/25/2013
• Doc Name: Section 1 and 2
• Section_Exhibit Name: Volume VI Cultural Resources
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

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' recording most of the houses have been removed. All that remains is the mine office, the
mine garage, the Bowie house garage, and the lower residential garage. Much of the
following description is taken from the original recording but written in the past tense.
'
The town was originally to be named Reading (after a siding along the railroad), and
then Juanita (after the Juanita Coal and Coke Company, owner of the King Mine) when they
' applied for establishment of a post office. Both were rejected by the Postal Service because
of conflicts of name duplication. Finally it was called Bowie, after Alexander Bowie, the
' general manager of the King Mine who arrived in 1906.
Bowie was a company town built between 1903 and 1915 to supply housing for mine
t workers at the adjacent King Mine. The town was located on a low hillside, about 1/4 mile
southwest of the mine entrance. Of the town of Bowie, the original site form includes only
the residences, schools, and mine office/garage complex. The workers' residences were
arranged in four rows descending the hill on the north side of the North Fork of the
' Gunnison River. One row was located south of Highway 133 and consisted often L-shaped
frame homes that probably served as bachelor residences. Four larger homes were located
on the west end of this row. Aconcrete-walled garage for six vehicles still stands at the east
' end of the south row of houses. North of Highway 133 were three tiers of houses. The
bottom two rows consisted of five, one-story, square, frame homes with hipped-roofs and
concrete foundations. These square homes were divided in half in the frame portion with
two doors facing the north or uphill side. The lower (concrete) level had one door facing
downhill. Outhouses and wells lay down the hill from the residences. The top tier of four
' frame homes were also L-shaped (with the short extension pointed north), and may have
been the more prestigious company homes. They also were built of frame construction on
basement concrete foundations.
'
On the west side of the community were the school buildings and baseball diamond.
The north-most school was atwo-room frame building with acut-stone foundation. This has
t been moved to Paonia and restored. The second school was built in 1920 to supplement the
overflow of students during the height of mining operations. It served grades 5 through 8
' and had a full, concrete basement. The basement held a small stage, and community
activities were conducted there. This building was moved to the southeast part of the town
lying south of Highway 133.
' To the east and north were three larger buildings: a frame mine office, a concrete
garage/shop building, and athree-story brick home (built for Alexander Bowie in 1911).
' The garage for the Bowie "mansion" was north of the top tier of houses. A water tower was
built on the slope north of the residences. The Alexander Bowie house was systematically
taken down and rebuilt as a residence (1993), which is located about half way between
' Hotchkiss and Paonia on the south side of the river.
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