Welcome to Stoneham Colorado, population eight!
Published on November 29th, 2006
STONEHAM, CO. - For Stoneham native Eddie Uhrig, his path with the town vanished decades ago when his stint in the Air Force, and later service in Korean War, carried him far away from his birthplace.
Or so at least the Stoneham High School Class of 1953 graduate believed.
For the past three-years or so, the retired educator has ventured away from his Lusk, Wyoming home with his wife for a road trip to Nebraska and later, to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Snaking along the backroads on the at-times bi-annual trek, a sign for a small town would often catch his eye, and send his mind racing back to his one-time home, where he frequently caught the 5-cent trolley to Coolidge Corner or to catch a Boston Braves game.
But with nothing but a large flat expanse of wheat fields in the distant horizon, Uhrig more than often continued along his way, until his curiosity just couldn't be contained recently on the return drive to Wyoming.
"We just saw the sign for the first two or three years. And we always wanted to see Stoneham, but we saw nothing but wheat fields," the one-time Hanks Bakery lover explained. "And then one time, I just said, 'My gosh, we got a couple of hours of daylight left.' And sure enough, after two-or-three miles, we found this quaint little town."
And so it was that Uhrig caught his first glimpse of Stoneham, Colorado, population: Eight. But even though the tiny community shared very little in common with his former East Coast hometown, the retired 30-year educator has a strong suspicion about how the town got its name.
"It does have a post office and a little bar and a church. But it's nice and flat, so it doesn't have a Unicorn Golf Course or a Lindenwood Cemetery Road to slide down. I was probably the first car down the road that day," the Korean War veteran said.
"I met with this one [resident], who's been there quite a while, and I asked him how the town started. He said the train used to go there and it was the last stop on that line. So a camp town developed."
"Basically, these were people coming out from back east hoping to strike it rich. And my hunch is that maybe we just had someone [from Stoneham] who made his way through there," Uhrig explained.
According to the Wyoming resident, his passion for researching the founding of the Colorado community is very much tied to his fond memories of Stoneham.
Once he entered the Air Force shortly after high school, the Stoneham native had hoped that his entry into the Korean War would earn him, as reportedly promised, the right to be stationed at an East Coast location.
But in the end, his desired trek home was not to be.
"When I went to Korea, they made me a promise that they'd give me three choices back east. And then they did me the favor of stationing me in Spokane, Washington. I almost froze to death out there," Uhrig recalls with a laugh. "So I never did make it back."
Having no regrets about not returning home permanently, in fact the Stoneham High graduate is very content with the more laid-back West Coast mentality at his home town of 1410 people, Uhrig learned quickly to never try to bring home to a new place.
But that doesn't mean that the Wyoming resident doesn't have certain New England cravings from time to time.
"The thing I really miss is the fried clams. I used to fly into Logan and I'd tell my father, ' Don't come to get me unless you have that greasy, white, little box.' And of course by the time we'd hit the parking lot, that little white box would be empty, so we'd have to stop at Lynn Beach," the Stoneham native recalls.
"I've moved so much over my career that you learn to accept the place where you are and the good things it has. You don't try to bring back the things from home. But Stoneham has a lot of memories for me and they'll never go away. You can't erase those. It was a good little town."
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