This is my third attempt to find a hiding place for this cache. My original spot was too close to another cache. Unfortunately the spot that this cache is in now you can not see Henry’s house. If you go to the front of the library to to the sidewalk on Main Street and look south you will see the large white house that has columns out front. Though there are several different landmarks in this area but I wanted to point this house out specifically because it is one of the oldest buildings in town, surviving the train blast of 1888
Henry Hutchin (engineer for the Santa Fe Railroad) built the house in 1864.
At one time the building was the old stage stop for traffic going south to Pueblo along old Pueblo Highway. The trap door in the front room was probably added as a precaution against Indians. Also in the room, which probably served as eating quarters for travelers, is a large fireplace which has been made smaller.
The first floor made of adobe, the thick walls helped the house survive ‘The Blast’. The second story was added on and built in the late 1800’s. It is made of wood. Also added were the columns out front facing the garden and the sculpture on the house. Pieces from the train blast were found embedded into the adobe roof when the second story was added on.
Henry Hutchin served as a Republican delegate for the county in 1877, and was a grocer in Fountain in 1880. He died on May 30, 1888 as a result of the train explosion in Fountain. This is an account of his condition after the train explosion; ‘From appearances, when picked up H. W. Hutchins was thrown from his position on the engine to the ground, his head striking one of the rails, causing a fracture to the skull at the base, and breaking one leg between the knee and the ankle. He lived thirty eight hours after the accident suffering the keenest pain. Mr. Hutchins was sixty-three years of age and an old resident of Fountain"
I am going to hide several caches in this area with descriptions of not only of the caches themselves but of Fountain Colorado history. This will be my 8th in a series. I hope that you not only enjoy the sport of geocaching but love history as I do. Thank You.