Curiosity about haunted places dates back to the early his-tory of Berthoud and the

Little Thompson Valley. In fact, the fi rst house of the community that was

identifi ed as a haunted house came to light in December 1884 when the town of Ber-thoud was just settling into its new site after being moved from the Little Thompson river bottom.

The story of the house began to unfold on February 14, 1878, when

Dr. Enos G. Chase staked unoffi cial claim on a 160-acre homestead three miles east and one mile north of pres-ent-day Berthoud. Nearly three years later in January 1881 Chase fi nally made things offi cial when he forked over the $10 fi ling fee that made him the legal claimant to the quarter sec-

tion of land located at the northwest corner of modern Weld County roads 5 and 46. The exact site Dr. Chase chose on the homestead for his house is not known.

On June 8, 1882, The Fort Collins Courier reported the death of the doctor-turned-homesteader when it noted, “Dr. Chase, of Berthoud, was found dead in the fi eld where he was planting corn. Dr. Chase was a native of New York, graduating from a medi-cal college of high repute. He served during the rebellion as a division surgeon, and after the mutual un-pleasantness settled in New York, re-suming his profession, but his health failing, he came to Colorado for his health. He had apparently regained it and was unusually robust at the time of his death. Heart disease is sup-posed to be the cause. Mr. Bemis, city clerk of Boulder, is a son-in-law of the dead physician. He left three children, two of whom have reached maturity. We are indebted to J.W. McIntyre of this city, a warm personal friend to the doctor’s for the particulars above given.”

Capt. J.W. McIntyre who informed the Fort Collins newspaper of Chase’s

death lived on the homestead directly west of Dr. Chase.

Even though Dr. Chase died in June of 1882, his survivors proved up on his claim in May 1883. In 1884 the farm was sold to Jake Welty whose family was presumably living there in December of 1884 when the Fort Collins Courier noted, “Berthoud, the metropolis of the Little Thompson valley, is reveling in the ecstasies of a genuine sen-sation in which the sheeted dead and troubled spirits, phantoms of a former exis-tence, fi gure as star actors. It is the talk of the whole surrounding country. Men, with blanched cheeks and palpitating hearts, speak of it with bated breath in the stores and shops, on the street corners, at their fi re-sides, at church and wher-ever two or three gentle-men are gathered together, and wonder what the world is coming to. The women too, drop their knitting and with busy nervous tongues gather up the stitches of this marvelous story, and with minds fi lled with doubts and fears, weave them into all manner of fantasies until the very air about them seems fi lled with myriads of ghastly grinning phantoms, uneasy spirits of departed mortals. Even lovers, forgetting the old story told so many millions of times with such pleasing effect, sit with sealed lips and listening ears the whole livelong night though trembling in each other’s embrace for fear some gibbering ghost may suddenly appear and break the spell. The chil-dren go tip-toeing to their trundle-beds at night and refuse to woo the drowsy god in the absence of burning oil. The morning at church is given up by the preacher to dwelling on things supernatu-ral, while the blushing schoolmarm

lectures her classes day by day on the shameful conduct of spirits that pay her midnight visits en dishabille, even to unbanged hair.

“The cause of this singular condi-tion of affairs is there is a haunted house in the neighborhood. This house is situated three miles out of

the village and was once occupied by a doctor. The house is now occupied by a plain, unpretending; though intelligent people. Since the doctor removed, the house has been the

scene, and its occupants the unwilling witnesses, of strange, and at times mysterious proceedings. Strange noises occur at unseasonable hours, arousing the sleeping family from hitherto peaceful slumbers and car-rying consternation and an unknown dread to their hearts. At times the ear

is pierced with screeching of some soul in the deepest anguish which fi nally die away with feeble moans. These are followed with wailings akin to those supposed to be uttered by the damned consigned to eternal torment, and again by peculiar and unintelligible raps in dif-ferent parts of the house. Articles of furniture are displaced, beds are moved, tables upset, chairs turned down and bolted doors are swung wide open, while anon strange lights and unearthly forms suddenly make their appearance and instantly disappear, until at last life has be-come a burden to the fl esh and blood occupants of this goblin possessed domicile. No satisfactory cause has yet been assigned for these curious nocturnal visits, except that the house is actually haunted by the disembodied spirits of some of the doctor’s un-fortunate patients. These noises have been listened to and these scenes wit-nessed by many people in that community, and as we have said at the outset, Berthoud and vicinity is fairly reveling in the ecsta-sies of a genuine, double breasted sensation.”

Whatever became of the haunted house is not known because the Fort Collins Courier never

reported on the supernatural activi-ties at that location again and the town’s fi rst newspaper, The Berthoud Beacon, did not come into existence until 1886.

Berthoud Weekly Surveyor October 31, 2013 Page 5

A LOOK AT BERTHOUD

The historical society and Mark French are interested in obtaining and copying old photos from Berthoud’s past. Please contact Mark at 532-2147 if you have any photos you would like to share.

Surveyor Columnist

Mark French

Berthoud’s first haunted house reported in 1884 belonged to Dr. Enos Chase

Praise & Worship

Photo courtesy of the Berthoud Historical Society1910 Halloween postcard.

We appreciate the support we received before, during and a er our annexation petition.

We all need to make a stand, even when sometimes we stand alone.

People gain con� dence from others bravery to speak up.

� e Haworth family, like others, wants to see Berthoud grow and businesses thrive.

� ank you to those who have taken a stand to ensure that Berthoud will continue to be the town that we are so proud to be a part of.

� e Haworth family has been a part of Berthoud since 1901.

WE ARE PROUD of Berthoud, and we will continue to support our hometown!

THANK YOU FROMTHE HAWORTH FAMILY

Karen Haworth Sorenson — Marilyn Haworth Allen —Chuck Haworth — Stan Haworth

PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Venus nears its best for 2013. As soon as it starts getting dark, look high in the southwestern

sky to fi nd the planet Venus. Venus in-creases in magnitude from -4.5 to a bril-

liant -4.8 during November, mak-ing it about as bright as Venus gets. On the evening of Nov. 6, fi nd a slender crescent Moon above Venus.

Jupiter rises in the eastern sky about 10 p.m. as November begins and about 7 p.m. at the end of the month. Jupiter also increases in brightness

throughout November starting at -2.4 and increasing to -2.6. Jupiter is a great planet to view through a telescope. You can see red and white bands on the plan-ets’ surface and it’s four largest moons.

The red planet Mars rises around 2:30 a.m. on the fi rst and about 1 a.m. by the end of the month. Find Mars high in the southern sky just before morning twi-

light begins.Saturn and Mercury join the show

during the last week of November. Looking east on Nov. 24 about an hour before sunrise, fi nd Mercury low above the horizon, just above and to the right of Saturn. The next morning, the two planets are even closer together at this same time. Then on the morning of the 26th, Saturn will be directly above Mercury, a nice celestial exchange of positions.

A magnitude 1 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 2 star. A magnitude 0 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 1 star. The Sun shines at about magnitude -26 and a full moon shines at about magnitude -12. The Hubble Space Telescope can look at objects that are as faint as 31st magni-tude. Magnitude numbers range from -26 through zero, then 1 through the largest number that current instruments can detect, which is 31.

The Little Thompson Observatory is having their monthly open house event on Nov. 15. At 7 p.m., Steve Kendrick, a senior project engineer at Ball Aerospace, will give a talk about “No Longer Lost in the Glare: Detecting Hidden Planets.” Telescope observing follows the talk, weather permitting. The observatory is at the northeast edge of Berthoud High School. More information

can be found at www.starkids.org or by calling 970-613-7793.

The Denver Astronomical Society will be hosting its monthly open house on Nov. 12, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at DUs his-toric Chamberlin Observatory, located near the Denver University campus at 2930 E. Warren Ave. Telescope view-ing through the 20-inch Alvan Clark refracting telescope will be available, along with several smaller telescopes on the lawn of the observatory, weather permitting. Call 303-871-5172 for more information.

Every Friday night of November, on the CU Boulder campus, the newly re-modeled Fiske Planetarium is having a beautiful show. On Friday Nov. 1, the show is “The Dynamic Earth.” On Nov. 8, the show is “Super Volcanoes.” On Nov. 15, Dr. Doug Duncan will give a live as-tronomical talk about a research project at CU. And on Nov. 22, the show is “The Dynamic Earth” again. The planetarium show starts at the 7 p.m. After each show, the Sommers-Bausch Observatory will have their observing deck open to the public starting at 8 p.m., weather permitting. Hosts will guide you while you view celestial objects through their 16-inch and 18-inch telescopes.

For more information, visit the web site http://lyra.colorado.edu/sbo/public/openhouse.html.

Guardian Angels Catholic Church

15179 WCR 7, Mead • 970-535-0721Masses

Sunday, 7:30 am, 9 am, 10:30 amMonday, 5:30 pm

Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 am Friday 8:30 am

Saturday Mass 5:30 pmSaturday Confession 4 - 5:15 pm

www.meadangels.org E-mail: info@meadangels.org

Online Live Stream of Sunday 10:30 a.m. service and Wednesday 7 p.m. service

viewed on: www.berthoudfamilychurch.org

“Faith for Today” TV Program Viewed on Comcast Channel 83,

Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.

Berthoud Family Church“The Church with a View!”

Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m. — Children’s Church 10:30 a.m. — Sunday Prayer 6 p.m. — Wednesday Adults 7 p.m. — Wednesday Children 7 p.m. — Revolution Youth 7 p.m.

is pierced with screeching of some soul in the deepest anguish which fi nally die away with feeble moans. These are followed with wailings akin to those supposed to be uttered by the damned consigned to eternal torment, and again by peculiar and unintelligible raps in dif-ferent parts of the house. Articles of furniture are displaced, beds are moved, tables upset, chairs turned down and bolted doors are swung wide open, while anon strange lights and unearthly forms suddenly make their appearance and instantly disappear, until at last life has be-come a burden to the fl esh and blood occupants of this goblin possessed domicile. No satisfactory cause has yet been assigned for these curious nocturnal visits, except that the house is actually haunted by the disembodied spirits of some of the doctor’s un-fortunate patients. These noises have been listened to and these scenes wit-nessed by many people in that community, and as we have said at the outset, Berthoud and vicinity is fairly reveling in the ecsta-sies of a genuine, double breasted sensation.”

Photo courtesy of the Berthoud Historical Society

Five bright planets return to the November night sky

Eye on the SkySurveyor Columnist

Mike Hotka