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~l <br />introduction of cinderblocks as a building material provided a <br />less expensive alternative to the natural mined stone. <br />' Ranching continued to be important in the area and agriculture <br />developed also, with potatoes as the main crop. Dairying became <br />an important industry by the 1890s when there were eight dairies <br />in the county. <br />' The project area is within the Winkler Ranch. It includes the <br />ranch owned historically by George Engl. George Engl and a "man <br />' named Brocker" had been the first settlers in the area in 1860 <br />(Mary 1983:6T). In 1869 several historical events occurred on <br />Engl's Ranch. Because of Indian depredations in the area, four , <br />men left the stockade at the California Ranch to collect Mr. <br />Engl's valuable herd of Shorthorns (Mary 1983:37-38). The four <br />men, Lawrence Welty, George Engl, Caspar Courts, and Conrad <br />Moschel, were attacked by about 30 Indians. Engl and Courts <br />' escaped. Welty's horse fell and he hid in the bush, returning on <br />foot to the stockade the following morning. Moschel was killed <br />by the Indians. His body was found six days later and he was <br />buried where he was found with a memorial carved in the rock <br />cliff above his grave. A granite marker was later placed on the <br />spot that is now on Winkler Ranch, about a mile from the project <br />area. In the same year, George Engl's house was ransacked by the <br />Indians (Harr 1983:61). <br />Jim Reynolds had gained a reputation as a highwayman in the <br />Fairplay and the Denver area in 1863. He escaped from a jail in <br />' Denver and returned to Texas where he and his brother organized a <br />guerilla gang of 23 men to help supply funds to the Confederate <br />army. In July 1863 the Reynolds gang made a robbery of $63,000 <br />' from a stage station near Fairplay. The stage loot was <br />presumably buried in Handcart Gulch. The gang was hunted by <br />several posses and the gang scattered, never to ride again. One <br />of the gang was killed and decapitated with his head publically <br />' displayed in Fairplay. Jim Reynolds and 3 of his men were <br />overtaken in Canon City where they surrendered. They were taken <br />to Denver. As soldiers of the Confederacy they were given a <br />' secret military trial and sentenced to hang for conspiracy <br />against the United States. The military court in Denver, fearing <br />that it exceeded its authority, ordered the prisoners taken to <br />Fort Leavenworth. The Reynolds gang was taken by a troop of the <br />' Third Cavalry under Captain Cree, which traveled on the Territory <br />Road along Cherry Creek. The troopers returned the next day and <br />reported that all five of the prisoners had been killed in an <br />' attempt to escape near Russelville on George Engl's Ranch near <br />the head of Cherry Creek. Several reports came in that the men <br />had been executed, including Uncle Dick Wooten who reported he <br />was five mem manacled to trees and shot to death. With the <br />' wartime hysteria and the Indian depredations in the summer of <br />1869 there was no formal inquiry into the incident (Harr 1983:61- <br />62) . <br />1 <br />l3 <br />1 <br />