Communities are vastly different than they were a hundred years ago. Television, internet, and computers did not exist in the 1920’s. Communities tended to be smaller and tighter knit. It is not hard to imagine that Fremont County residents would enjoy and appreciate two of the events hosted by the newly formed Wray-McKinstry Post 13 in Cañon City.
May 13, 1920 – Legion Carnival Queen will be Elected Thru Popular Vote
Legionnaires from Post 13 held a spring festival during the week of May 17-22, 1920. The “Queen Contest” was part of the festival, and there were many candidates vying for the title. Proceeds from the contest were designated for the “Ex-Service Men’s Club Rooms.” Any service member could use the club rooms. They did not have to be members of the American Legion. The new Queen would receive a cedar chest and an “artistically designed diamond ring.”
July 5, 1927 - Belt and Hamilton Go 10 Cautious Rounds to a Draw; Meade and Smith on a Real Bout of 30-Round American Legion Card.
In 1927 a fight in a small community was real news. Two American Legion men, Bud Bowers and Ray Bottonfield, were the promotors for the first fight in Cañon City at the Armory. Dr. Walter F. O’Brien, chairman of the state’s new boxing commission, received a hand from the audience for his efforts to get ten round bouts legalized in Colorado. Boxers from as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah, and Wichita, Kansas attended the fight. Some of the real stars of the evening were high school kids from Cañon City. “In the first event Roy Pray, Canon high school youth, outslugged Kid Merle of Wichita, Kan. From the first gong and had him so groggy in the fourth that he was unable to continue…”
Author Janet Lennox assisting Post Historian, Larry McDonald
