{"id":238,"date":"2025-12-14T10:59:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/?page_id=238"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:19:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T20:19:03","slug":"history-of-mhs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/history-of-mhs\/","title":{"rendered":"History of MHS"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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by Oscar D. McCollum<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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In August 1975 the mayor of Marble, Colorado, Lloyd Blue, appointed by proclamation an Historical Committee to work with the State Bicentennial Committee to prepare for the celebrations of 1976.\u00a0 He appointed Laverne Perchbacher the chairman, and added a number of other persons to the committee whom he believed to be interested in the area\u2019s history.\u00a0 This committee planned and carried out appropriate activities in support of the Bicentennial.\u00a0 This included a public picnic and program at the Marble jail.\u00a0 It seems to have been the intent of the Historical Committee to permanently organize and become an historical society.\u00a0 However, after the bicentennial activities were completed nothing appears to have been done to incorporate or continue the committee\u2019s activities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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By the summer of 1977 a group living in Marble decided a regular Marble Historical Society should be organized to collect, preserve and disseminate information on the history of the area.\u00a0 In Early August Oscar McCollum called a meeting of interested persons to organize such a society.\u00a0 About sixty persons attended and it was decided to proceed with the organization.\u00a0 On August 19, 1977 another meeting adopted a Constitution and Bylaws and elected officers.\u00a0 They were: Oscar McCollum, president; Fred Smith, vice-president; Jeanette Lyon, secretary; Lois Ann McCollum, treasurer; these to form the Board of Directors, along with other directors, Marjorie Orlosky, Blue Stroud and Martha Beamis.\u00a0 At this meeting Dr. Duane Vandenbusche, professor of history at Western State College, spoke to the group about Marble\u2019s history and offered suggestions for the society\u2019s consideration.\u00a0 The new board immediately started making plans for the operations of the society.\u00a0 The president consulted with officers of the Colorado Historical Society on organization matters, historical preservation, historic sites and grants. An attorney in Redstone , Williams Jochems, aided in the incorporation.\u00a0 A quarterly newsletter, \u201cMarble Chips,\u201d began publication in August, with McCollum as editor, and plans were made to open a museum the next summer.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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By the end of 1977 the society had 198 Charter Members.\u00a0 The previous year the Small Business Administration had filed application for the historic Mill Site property to be entered on the National Register of Historic Places and this designation was granted the next year.\u00a0 Through efforts of the society public donations of money enabled the Town of Marble to purchase this site from SBA for a nominal sum, to use as a town park.<\/p>\n

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The Marble Historical Museum opened on July 1, 1978 in the old high school building, with the approval of the Town of Marble Board of Trustees, which was leasing the building from the Gunnison School District.\u00a0 Marjorie Orlosky and many other persons donated artifacts, documents and photographs for placing in the museum.\u00a0 During the following years many educational programs were presented to the public describing the area\u2019s history, and in 1980 there were 2387 visitors to the museum.\u00a0 Oscar McCollum built a scale model of the Marble Mill building for the museum.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Marjorie Orlosky donated 60 old historic newspapers published in Marble and Crystal City and this became the nucleus of an extensive file.\u00a0 Later, Bill Deem donated 100 more newspapers he found in his house on Park Street, formerly the home of Ted and Theresa Herman.\u00a0 All these were later microfilmed by the Colorado and Kansas Historical Societys for preservation.\u00a0 Duane Vandenbusche and Rex Myers, authors of the book, \u201cMarble, Colorado: City of Stone,\u201d donated their royalties on the book to the society, and this has amounted to about $400 each year since.\u00a0 As former Marble residents visited the museum they often brought artifacts for the collections.\u00a0 Jack Clemenson allowed Oscar McCollum to make photo prints of Jack\u2019s extensive collection of negatives made by Marble photographer, Henry Johnson, amounting to about 300 photographs.<\/p>\n

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Brief histories of Marble and Crystal City were researched and written by Oscar, and his son, Duncan McCollum, prepared a walking tour guide for Marble.\u00a0 Oscar made a persons index of the old newspapers and built an extensive file of documentary history.\u00a0 He also wrote historical articles which were published.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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In 1980 negotiations were begun with the school district toward acquiring ownership of the old high school building.\u00a0 Much help from retired attorney, Fred Malo, in presentations to the Gunnison School Board finally resulted in the board\u2019s donation of the building and four lots to the society at no cost.\u00a0 This made it feasible for the society to make major improvements, such a new metal roof, new fire escape, installation of electric wiring and replacement of the front steps.\u00a0 Later improvements included repair of plaster, painting inside and out, repair of broken windows, and placing the bell tower back on the porch roof.<\/p>\n

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A lot east of the town jail became available in 1981 and the society purchased it.\u00a0 Later, this lot was donated to the town to add to the jail lot and form a mini park.\u00a0 Wayne Brown supervised renovation of the jail for the society.<\/p>\n

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For several years the society provided management for the Mill Site Park and did much clearing and preservation, aided by staff and students from Outward Bound.\u00a0 Pictorial signs were built by Wayne Brown and were installed in the park.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The society helped organize the Grand River Museum Alliance in the early 1980s to aid museums in the area improve their services to the public.\u00a0 In 1987 over 110 persons attended the first Old Timers Reunion, which centered in the museum.\u00a0 Much additional historic information was gathered from \u201cold timers,\u201d three of who were over 90 years of age, through recording their recollections. \u00a0The Colorado Masons held their annual meeting in Marble in 1988 and the society provided information on the former Marble Chapter and its Masonic Hall location.<\/p>\n

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With the plans developing to re-open the marble quarry, Oscar McCollum consulted with the president of the Colorado Yule Marble Company on historic and environmental aspects of their endeavor, in order to mitigate any possible negative aspects.<\/p>\n

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In November 1988 McCollum moved to Glenwood Springs and two years later found it necessary to resign as president of the Society and editor of\u00a0Marble Chips.\u00a0<\/em>Wayne Brown agreed to take over care of the Society and publish the newsletter.\u00a0 He continued to publish it regularly and record current events in Marble.\u00a0 His other duties included filing the reports necessary to preserve the Society\u2019s status as a not-for-profit organization.\u00a0 Each year Brown helped organize the Old Timers\u2019 Reunions which were popular with the declining numbers of former Marble residents.\u00a0 In 1998 Brown passed control of the Society activities to Joe Manz and a new board.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Organization of the Marble Charter School in 1995 made it possible to return the old school building to its original purpose.\u00a0 Many persons worked hard to plan for the preservation and upgrading of the building through grants from the State Historic Preservation Fund and donations from many individuals and companies.\u00a0 The school\u2019s use of the building still permits adequate space for the museum, with reorganized exhibits.<\/p>\n

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The Society worked closely with the town to preserve the old Marble City State Bank building and spearheaded efforts to raise funds for its renovation.<\/p>\n

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Record Books
The General Ordinances of the Town of Marble
Ordinance #1, 22 Aug 1899, (Town Seal, etc.)\u00a0 p.1
Ordinance #82, 6 Dec 1943, (Budget), p.155<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Oscar D. McCollum In August 1975 the mayor of Marble, Colorado, Lloyd Blue, appointed by proclamation an Historical Committee to work with the State Bicentennial Committee to prepare for the celebrations of 1976.\u00a0 He appointed Laverne Perchbacher the chairman, and added a number of other persons to the committee whom he believed to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-238","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":null,"rttpg_excerpt":"by Oscar D. McCollum In August 1975 the mayor of Marble, Colorado, Lloyd Blue, appointed by proclamation an Historical Committee to work with the State Bicentennial Committee to prepare for the celebrations of 1976.\u00a0 He appointed Laverne Perchbacher the chairman, and added a number of other persons to the committee whom he believed to be…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/238\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marblehistory.org\/staging\/5176\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}