Emma's lasting legacy

Imagine the big, heavy Concord stagecoach, rumbling along somewhere between a trot and a gallop, six gleaming horses up, two-by-two-by-two abreast, the driver leaning into every turn, nervously spitting tobacco juice, his able assistant ready at a moment's notice to brake the wheels, if coaxed. The pace was brutal, every hillock to be negotiated, each turn to be skillfully navigated, being continually cognizant of the up-and-down, forward-and-back swing of the passenger-carrying coach, an exercise in understanding and utilizing gravity. In those days before rail, blowing and sweating horses needed to be changed about every 10 miles, with stage stops in Woody Creek, Emma, Yellow Dog (now Satank), and then on to Defiance (Glenwood Springs). Emma, a collection of deteriorating brick buildings alongside Highway 82, just west of Basalt, was originally located slightly further west, on what was the Vasten farm. There was strong impetus for a stage stop there, with accommodations, based on the needs of the horses and mules. Wait, the mules? Jerome B. Wheeler, well-known Aspen pioneer, had established coke ovens in Jerome Park, well-above Marion and Sunshine, and prior to the existence of rail, hauled the coke to Aspen for its use in the smelting of silver ore. Large freighters, similar to the one seen in “Dances with Wolves,” could not make the trip to Aspen in one day, and thus a stable was built to house and feed the overnighted mules. The ringing of the resident blacksmith's hammer could be heard over the roar of the still-wild Roaring Fork and naturally, a saloon was built adjacent to the barn...more