The Way it Was: A podpast

As the sale of his final slice of Timnath farmland neared, Swetsville Zoo founder Bill Swets traced its 80-year history in his family and the tragedy from which his wacky sculpture park bloomed.

In the early morning hours of June 30, 1951, a four-engine luxury airliner flew off course and slammed into Crystal Mountain, killing all 50 people on board. To this day, more than 70 years later, it remains the deadliest commercial airline disaster in Colorado history. On rocky mountain slope west of Fort Collins, signs of its devastation still linger.

In the summer of 1862, U.S. soldiers trekked along the Cache la Poudre River to find a home for a new military outpost called Camp Collins. But they were not the first people to live in Northern Colorado - not even close. In this episode, host Erin Udell dives back thousands of years to learn about the Native American history of the area.

A hat box of Mattie Lyle's old photographs sat in a garage for years. It wasn't until 2020 that they got their day in the sun - showcasing the little-told stories of Black life in early Fort Collins.

From its earliest streams of colorful electric lights to the thousands of LED-lit strings that now adorn Old Town Fort Collins' streets each winter, learn about the evolution of Fort Collins' sweet holiday lights tradition.

On Aug. 24, 1996, the bodies of two unidentified newborn girls were pulled from a river and reservoir about 180 miles apart in Colorado. While not related by blood, their homicide cases remained oddly in step with each other, all the way to the end when genetic genealogy helped close their homicide cases within just months, 23 years later. This is the story of Hope and Faith.

In the span of three months in fall 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross became a widow, single mother and the first woman elected governor in the United States. But her journey to the Wyoming governor's office and, later, Washington D.C. started well before the 1920s.

He was a father, a farmer, a family man and natural handyman. When he wasn't trimming trees or slinging cement bags in faded overalls, he was decked in a suit and tie - off to another committee meeting or voter registration drive. You've heard his name. You've probably even been to his beloved Fort Collins park. But do you know about the legacy of Lee Martinez?

In the fall of 1918, a mysterious and deadly flu arrived in Fort Collins. The small college town battled the virus with makeshift hospitals, school and business closures and social distancing. But the flu still targeted its young students and soldiers. More than a century later, here's what Colorado learn from the Spanish flu.

For more than 40 years - until 1999 - Poudre Canyon mountain woman Polly Brinkhoff lived without running water, electricity or plumbing. She had a pet mountain lion, kept her food in a cave and once nearly sliced her bunion off with a chainsaw. More than 20 years after her death, Polly's grandson recalls what exactly made her the last of a dying breed and larger than the no-frills life she so proudly clung to.

In this special, three-part podcast, Way it Was host Erin Udell digs into Ted Bundy's notorious 1970s killing spree. An estimated 30 women and girls were abducted and murdered by Bundy across four years and six states. But could it have stopped cold in Colorado? Find "Hunted" on Apple Podcasts or Soundcloud.

In December 1955, the menacing red phone on Air Force Col. Harry Shoup's desk rang. But it wasn't the Pentagon – no four-star general either. It was a tiny voice asking for Santa Claus. What happened next would kick off one of Colorado's most-beloved Christmas traditions.

On a moonlit night in late September 1945, Nazi prisoner of war Georg Gaertner slipped out of his New Mexico prison camp and into American life. As the years ticked by, he would become the last fugitive German POW hunted by U.S. authorities. Or, as he'd put it in his memoir more four decades later, "Hitler's last soldier in America."

In October 1998, the hate crime murder of a gay Wyoming student shook the world. After 20 years, we revisit the life and tragic death of Matthew Shepard.

When you hear Sonny Lubick's name, you think Colorado State University football. So more than ten years after the longtime coach's tenure ended, Coloradoan reporter Jacob Laxen sits down with Lubick for a behind-the-scenes chat on football, life and becoming a local legend.

On August 15, 1933, a 22-year-old graduate student went for a hike in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. He was never seen again. More than eight decades later, the disappearance nags at Joe's nephew, who's still trying to figure out if Joe's remains rest somewhere in Rocky or if the family rumors are true...

As the nations demands for sugar beets grew, so did the need for more labor in Northern Colorado's vast beet fields. But what did that mean for the children of the poor, hardworking, migrant families willing to take on the backbreaking work? Life was far from sweet.

As drive-in movie theaters shuttered across the country, one held fast in a desolate field on the edge of Fort Collins, Colorado. And it's all thanks to a plane and a movie about them.

Coloradoan reporter Jake Laxen sits down with Odell Brewing founders Doug, Wynne and Corkie Odell for this special guest episode about the history of one of Fort Collins' first breweries.

Almost eight months after sisters Rosemary and Julia Mata are killed on a remote Colorado road, an arrest is made in the case. Years later, there's a conviction. So why do some still see the case as unresolved?

On April 29, 1978, hunters driving along a rural Colorado canyon road came across the bodies of two young women. Forty years later, we revisit the case, known its twists, turns and - to this day - questions.

In 1934, a group of railroad workers found a pregnant border collie mix shivering outside a blacksmith shop. More than 80 years later, her legacy remains as an entire town's adopted pet.

Hearts are strewn from its light poles, businesses build their brands around its "sweet" nickname and, every February, valentines pour into the city from all around the world. So what, or who, made Loveland, Colorado the nation's "Sweetheart City"?

Gary Hinman wasn't a celebrity. He wasn't a young Hollywood type. He was a boy from Fort Collins. And, in the summer of 1969, he became the Manson family's first victim.

On December 14, 1961, a passenger train collided with a school bus, killing 20 children just outside Greeley, Colorado. Their lives ended that cold morning. Their stories, however, did not.

Before the big box stores of Harmony Road, a tiny farming community spanned the desolate stretches of what was once Northern Colorado's no man's land.

For almost three decades, Doris and Allen Sorenson were Windsor, Colorado's jewelers. In the 33 years since early November 1984, they've been its biggest mystery. In this episode, we dig into the Sorenson murders, Windsor's oldest cold case homicides.

On July 4, 1899, the townspeople of tiny Windsor, Colorado watched as their beloved flour mill burned. More than a century later, this past August, they had to again. Only this time, they were faced with a new question. Who set it on fire?

Almost 40 years after 9-year-old Chris Vigil went missing on a hike in the Colorado wilderness, his family recalls the early days of the search, remembers Chris and discusses what's next.

A little boy with a big imagination came to California, by way of Colorado. Years later, he was an artist and trusted friend of Walt Disney. So when Disney came to him with the idea of creating the perfect slice of small town America, he drew on his own idyllic childhood along the Fort Collins foothills. Now, it's one of the most beloved attractions at Disneyland.

Twenty years later, a flood of memories linger for those who lived the 1997 Spring Creek Flood.

The Birney Car 21 trolley started chugging along Fort Collins streets almost a century ago. So, in the 1980s, as it looked toward a new life with a volunteer-led restoration effort, why did people protest the beloved little streetcar?

On April 30, 1978, 9-year-old Chris Vigil went missing on a hike in Colorado's Roosevelt National Forest. For the next four decades, with no trace of him ever found, searchers and residents of his small town were left with nothing but questions. What happened to Chris? And how does it tie into the unknown number of people who have vanished from our public lands?

Dive into Fort Collins history, and beneath the waters of Horsetooth Reservoir, where remnants of a Colorado quarry ghost town still exist.