Sentimental Sunday – Snippy the Horse

 

My siblings and I getting a first hand look at Snippy.

Any of us who lived in Colorado in the late 1960s will probably remember Snippy the Horse. I certainly do. I was ten years old in 1967 when the news of Snippy hit the air waves. Snippy was a horse that killed under strange circumstances – still strange to this day according to several articles. My siblings and I were fascinated by all the talk of UFOs surrounding the mysterious mutilation of poor Snippy.

We lived in southeastern Colorado and Snippy was from a farm south of Alamosa, Colorado, so it was close enough we heard a lot about it. Snippy, a three year old horse was found dead with all the flesh stripped from his head and neck. An autopsy revealed unexplainable missing organs. There were unusual signs in the field around him and several people throughout the area reported seeing what seemed to be UFOs during the days surrounding this event.

It seems there were plenty of official investigations but nothing conclusive ever turned up. Snippy’s body was autopsied and studied and eventually his skeleton became a tourist attraction. The pathologist that autopsied him shortly after he was found, said there were no signs of entrance in the body but the abdominal, brain and spinal cavities were empty.[1] This and the fact that high radiation levels were found in the area caused the University of Colorado’s Air Force sponsored UFO study to call in a nuclear physicist, a psychologist and an animal expert to investigate the area,  and talk with area residents about their UFO sightings.[2]

A few years later, a veterinarian who assembled the bones insisted that he found a couple of .22 caliber bullet holes in the hind quarter bones. Snippy spent a few years on the sidewalk in front of the Chamber of Commerce and according to the attached articles, was in a private museum for a while. She also spent years in an abandoned house somewhere before her bones were offered on eBay. The seller wanted $50,000 but an ownership dispute ended the auction.[3]

Poor Snippy – if only she could tell us all what really happened. As young children we were more than ready to believe in UFOs and spacemen.

Do you remember this story? What did you think? Have you heard other such stories? Let me know on the comments below.

Newspaper Links:

https://alamosanews.com/article/after-50-years-snippy-still-a-mystery

https://www.ourstrangeplanet.com/50-year-anniversary-of-the-snippy-case/

http://weekinweird.com/2013/01/08/death-dunes-ufos-start-cattle-mutilation-san-luis-valley/

---

[1] Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, Monday, Oct. 9, 1967, pages 1 and

[2] Ibid. Thursday, Oct 12, 1967, pages 1 and 6A

[3][3] Ibid. Dec 7, 2006, page 20

Those Places Thursday - LaJunta Mennonite School of Nursing

The LaJunta Mennonite School of Nursing was located in LaJunta, Colorado. It began as part of the Mennonite Sanitorium (a TB facility) in Swink, Colorado in 1915 with the first class graduating in 1918. When the new Mennonite Hospital and Sanitorium was built in LaJunta, the training school was moved as well. In 1946 it became an independent institution the had well over 300 graduates. The last class was the class of 1958. More about the school's history can be read on the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) site.

My mother attended the school and graduated with the class of 1955. Her father's sister, Maude Egli Swartzendruber, was for a time, the director at the school and wrote about the school in her book, "The Lamp in the West."  Aunt Maude influenced a lot of young women, including Mom, to go into nursing.

Phyllis Egli & Maude Egli Swartzendruber

Phyllis Egli & her mother, Edna Peterson Egli

Brochure (my aunt Glenna Schrock Egli is on the right)

Mom and Dad met while they were both attending Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas. After Hesston, Mom went to LaJunta for training and Dad went into alternative service (1W) with the selective service. He tried to get assigned to LaJunta; several young Mennonite guys were assigned there, including Mom's brother, Tom Egli, but Dad was assigned to Pueblo, Colorado. The next three years they dated long distance and wrote almost daily letters. Nursing students were not allowed to be married.

I don't know if all the nursing classes were as close as Mom's but I don't think any group could have been closer. They kept in touch through a 'circle letter' that came as a large packet of letters that Mom loved to read. Then she would take out her old letter, write a new one and send it off again. Every few years the group would get together for a reunion. We learned to know many of her classmates and their families over the years.










Swartzendruber, Maude. The Lamp in the West. Newton, Kansas: La Junta Mennonite School of Nursing Alumnae Association, 1975.

Talent Tuesday - Part Two of Dad's Artwork - Leathercraft

I mentioned in a previous post that my dad was very artistic. His ability to draw was not the only talent he had. While he was in 1-W service in the early 50's he worked on a couple of different hobbies. He lived in Pueblo, Colorado, near the hospital where he worked.

I am not sure how he learned to do leatherwork or who taught him but he perfected his skills during the years in Colorado. He made purses, belts and billfolds. This photo was in the Pueblo paper.















We still have a few of the things he made  --  mostly things he made for mom [Phyl] or himself. But I don't think this beautiful purse has ever been used.

It is lined with turquoise suede.

He gave things to his family and his cousins and he sold things to people sometimes too. Often people would request something to be made and personalized. He also made a purse and put it in the hospital gift pool at Christmas one time. He talked about it in his letters to mom. 

Wordless Wednesday -- Summer 1978 -- Manitou Springs -- Pike's Peak Railway