Puddle Jumper, Coyotes and The Flood

I am enjoying the recollections of Haigler history. My parents were C Wm. And Alma Zuege. We farmed east of Haigler – about ½ mile until they moved to town in 1938, My dad was the city marshal – also worked at the depot. On Saturday evenings especially, but other nights also, he loaded up eggs, chickens, cream and milk on a little train which consisted of the engine, one storage car and one passenger car. It made its rounds from McCook to Wray, CO and back. Some people called it “the puddle jumper.’ He also hung mail for the zephyr and picked up a bag of mail that they threw off.

I remember the bad flood of 1935. there was a draw or canyon right next to our farm and it was full of raging waters-just so close to our barns and animals. The Health Department of Lincoln came and vaccinated everyone for Typhoid Fever.

Does anyone remember the coyote hunts? I was pretty small – but many men and boys congregated out in the country, rounded up and killed coyotes. There were so many. My mother belonged to U.M.C. Ladies Aid. They took a kerosene stove in the back of a truck and a boiler, filled it with water and cooked and sold Hot Dogs for 5 cents each. The ladies baked a lot of pies and sold them also.

I was able to go through the Haigler Schools, graduated in 1942 – lots of nice memories. Also, remember my oldest brother and wife taking a wagon and 2 horses and on week-ends they gathered old bones in the pastures. I don’t remember where they took them but they got two dollars a load. Money was very scarce in the 1930’s so every penny counted. Rev. Homer Clements was a pastor at Haigler and also filled in as Superintendent. He now lives in Lincoln, NB and shares his newspapers with us.

-- Submitted by Lillian Kruse