125 Years in the Making: Founder’s Day Celebrates Western’s Place in the Gunnison Valley

When you first look back through old black-and-white photographs, it’s hard to place yourself in the world that gave rise to Western Colorado University’s earliest days as the Colorado State Normal School. In many ways, that world seems so far removed from our own reality that we almost can’t help but reduce it to the sepia tones of some distant past.

But to the people living in this valley at the turn of the 20^th century, the sky was just as blue as it is today, the hills were just as green in the springtime, and the future was filled with just as much uncertainty and promise.

Back in 1901, the only way into Gunnison was by rail or wagon road, but automobiles could already be seen on the streets of Denver. The stock market would crash but rebound quickly. And that fall, President McKinley was assassinated, pushing a 42-year-old Theodore Roosevelt into power and marking the beginning of a new era in American life, especially in the West.

Having an institution of higher learning in an ambitious young frontier town meant stability and purpose, and the people of Gunnison were determined to have one. But even as they lobbied their legislators, their neighbors in Montrose, Durango, and Grand Junction were doing the same. For each of them, it was a race to the future.

So when news of the passage of House Bill No. 27, which established The Colorado State Normal School, first arrived at the office of the Gunnison News-Champion 125 years ago this week, “The news soon spread about the city, and everyone was jubilant.” There was dancing in the streets.

The state legislature hadn’t made much more than a promise and a pittance to establish the Colorado State Normal School in Gunnison. And it would be another decade before that future would arrive. But the future was on its way.

Consider Western’s original name, The Colorado State Normal School. The term “Normal” referred to the “norms” or “standards” of teaching. It wasn’t just a college. It was an institution that made a statement about the importance of education as a civic virtue, designed to professionalize teaching and put knowledge in the hands of everyday people so they could go on to help build a prosperous state.

In the decade between first seeing the Colorado State Normal School established in the legislature and the first block laid on the hill northeast of town, the town’s residents donated 41 acres for the campus, and, after seeing promises of funding made and broken, put up $10,000 – or nearly $400,000 today – from their own coffers to ensure the school would open in the fall of 1911.

A lot has changed since House Bill No. 27 was signed 125 years ago, but the fundamental idea that brought the Colorado State Normal School, then Western State College, and finally Western Colorado University to Gunnison has never changed. Education is an investment in the future.

In big ways and small, Western has become an indispensable part of the Gunnison Valley, bringing the students who would start its businesses, serve in its governments, and shape its culture in significant ways. And just as Western has changed the Gunnison Valley, the Gunnison Valley changes those who pass through it. In that way, we’re all Mountaineers.

Happy Founder’s Day!