Volume 10 , Issue 13

Alva's Bullfight

Alva's Bullfight... "I ran the story of Alva's bullfight TWICE in my Sports Spasms column! There was actually only one, and it most likely was illegal, but according to Bert Reed (who furnished this information) Ken Greer did NOT stop the fight. He may have prevented any future operations for the same, but the 1948 show went on!

Interestingly, the town of Gillette in Teller Co., CO claims to have been the site of the only bullfight ever held within the continental United States, as this article that I found on a Colorado "Ghost Towns" website attests:

"The only Bull Fight ever held within the continental United States was held in Gillett in the year 1895. Real bulls and bullfighters were imported from Mexico. So much was done to promote the event, nearly 50,000 persons attended. They came from far and wide. There were celebrities from throughout the United States and Mexico, all expecting to see a rousing bull fight. It was a fiasco. Some say the bulls were tired from the long trip from Mexico. Whatever happened, the 50,000 persons were looking for a fight, not excuses. The bullfight ended in a riot. The story ended on a positive note, however. The bulls were slaughtered, dressed and passed out to the poor. Gillett was a family town. Some good mines in the area made the town a busy one. The city had some of the best residential dwellings and many churches. Gillett started disintegrating during the early 1900s. Now the ruins of an old church, located in the middle of a hay field west of the highway, and the old jail, near a small cluster of houses at a turn in the road, and an isolated hydrant of two are all that is left." - - Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

One of the last "look-ups" I ever got to do with the Alva Review Courier's stacks that used to be kept at the Alva Public Library was in an early July, 1948 paper and it was in searching for material on Alva's bullfight article. A full-page ad made about July 2 or 3, 1948 listed the participants and the order of events for the bullfight. So I'm sure this all actually took place and probably very much as Bert described it. There are still some retired Alva businessmen around town (Bob Reneau, Artie Ware, etc.) who actually worked this thing.

So I offer the article in the vernacular of Bert Reed, who was president of the ABC (American Businessmen Club) club at the time and who originally penned the attached article. Enjoy! (The syntax and verbalisms are all Bert's, except for a few notations by me.) ." -- Jim Barker
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