Presenters & Contributors
Remarkable Rascals, Despicable Dudes, & Hidden Heroes of the Pikes Peak Region
Can't attend this year’s Symposium? You can still watch via live stream at facebook.com/PikesPeakLibraryDistrict
Reserve your seats for this free event!
Reserve your seats for this free event!
Presenter & Contributor Biographies
(in order of appearance)
Michael L. Olsen has a B. A. in History from St. Olaf College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He is professor emeritus at New Mexico Highlands University, where he taught for 30 years. His primary research interest is in the social and cultural history of the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail. The National Park Service recently published his book-length study That Broad and Beckoning Highway: The Santa Fe Trail and the Rush for Gold in California and Colorado.
Maria Sanchez-Tucker is manager of The Special Collections and Museum Services Department of the Pueblo City-County Library District which includes the InfoZone News Museum. Tucker is a native of Pueblo and has an M.A. in Museum Science from Texas Tech University and a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a Certified Archivist, by the Academy of Certified Archivists and is co-author of Images of America: Pueblo, Arcadia Publishing. Sanchez-Tucker has worked with a variety of cultural institutions and collections in the West.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant is Professor of History at Pikes Peak Community College, and has led U.S. history teaching there for 3 decades. Kathy works frequently with Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, and Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. She has published books and articles, and has won awards for teaching excellence. She started with the Regional History Series books and symposia in 2004 when they began by commemorating the Cripple Creek Strike of 1904. Her family history connects her to that strike and to the work of Emma Langdon. Kathy espouses contributing to the history of Colorado women, one woman at a time.
Susan Fletcher is a Colorado Springs native and manages the History and Archives Department for The Navigators. Fletcher received her M.A. in Public History from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the coauthor of Dawson Trotman In His Own Words and is currently writing Exploring the History of Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures for The American Association of State and Local History. In addition to her day job, Fletcher is the founding director of History Joy, a company specializing in personal archives and oral history interviews. When not wearing her historian’s hat, Susan covers the arts beat for Springs Magazine and enjoys painting and drawing.
David Rasmussen is a senior library associate at the Old Colorado City Branch of the Pikes Peak Library District. A native of Colorado Springs’ Westside neighborhood, Rasmussen conducts summer walking tours of Historic Old Colorado City. He portrayed Charles Mulford Robinson in the 2012 release event for Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections re-publication of A City Beautiful Dream. He previously presented in the 2011 History Symposium on the Fountain Train Explosion of 1888.
Deborah Harrison fell in love with Manitou Springs and the Pikes Peak region over 30 years ago, and immediately moved to the area. Since then she has been involved in researching the history of the area and working to preserve that history. She was a founding member of the Manitou Springs Heritage Center, worked with others to restore the town clock, and has been
involved with preserving Manitou’s historic springs. She also works with her husband, Beau Schriever, on research and preservation of their historic home in Manitou Springs.
Bernard (Beau) Schriever grew up exploring the Pikes Peak region and its historic towns and resources. Since 2010, he has conducted fieldwork and research to help identify and evaluate historic resources in the Pikes Peak Region as a professional archaeologist. He also collaborates on research related to local historic resources and is part of a research group creating an online encyclopedia of Maker’s Marks found on bottles in the United States.
Erinn Barnes currently serves as a library associate in Special Collections at the Carnegie Library in downtown Colorado Springs. She studied and received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and is currently working on a Masters of Library and Information Science with an emphasis on archival studies. Her primary research interest centers on Native Americans in the twentieth century. Having grandparents on the tribal rolls of the Colville Confederated Tribes, she hopes to continue the family heritage through historical scholarship.
Leah Davis Witherow is the curator of history and archivist for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, where she has worked for the past 20 years. She is a frequent lecturer throughout the state on a variety of Colorado history topics, and is especially interested in women’s history, the Progressive Era, industrialization of the West and material culture studies.
Mariah Hudson is a fourth-generation Colorado native. She and her husband Mark and ten-year-old son live in Colorado Springs. After seeing a familial name as a signer of the U.S. Constitution, Mariah began an early entry into what would become an addiction to genealogy. After high school, Mariah worked as both a civilian and sworn officer in law enforcement while earning an AAS in Criminal Justice and a BS in Sociology. After several years working toward a MS in Forensic Science, Mariah decided to switch careers and began work at the Pikes Peak Library District in Special Collections. Among her current assignments at PPLD, she coordinates the nearly 1,700 digital entries of Dwight Haverkorn’s Homicides of the Colorado Springs Area in the Pikes Peak Newsfinder and continues to research each entry for accuracy and thoroughness of the project.
Dwight Haverkorn is a 71-year-old native of Colorado Springs, a retired city of Colorado Springs police officer and city attorney’s investigator who has researched local history since about 1989. He volunteers for Special Collections of the PPLD and for the Colorado Springs Police Department’s History Section and is president and historian for the El Paso County Pioneers’ Association. Dwight has provided research for the Discovery ID Channel’s “Homicide Hunter,” and frequently presents historic talks for PILLAR, the Colorado Springs High School/Palmer Alumni Association, and others. Dwight provides a “Homicide Index” for the Fourth Judicial District to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. His compilation of Homicides of the Colorado Springs Area, 1872 to Present is among the most requested items.
Doris McCraw has a BA in Social Work and Criminology from Illinois Wesleyan University. Ms. McCraw has devoted many years finding and telling the stories of Colorado’s early women doctors. Ms. McCraw has previously presented at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium on a variety of topics including Karol W. Smith, Colorado’s First Film Commissioner, the Cripple Creek Volcano, and Early Women Doctors in Colorado. She also writes fiction under the pen name Angela Raines. She is a member of National Pen Women, Pikes Peak Writers and Women Writing the West.
John Anderson served two terms as El Paso County Sheriff (1995-2003) following his retirement as a sergeant from the Colorado Springs Police Department (1972-1995). After being term-limited as Sheriff, John was hired by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. From his Colorado Springs office, he enjoyed assignments around the world; including into Dubai, Abu Dhabi and three assignments into a combat zone on the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Djibouti). Following his 2012 retirement from Lockheed Martin, John formed a small consulting company, JW Anderson & Associates, Ltd., which offers him freedom to pursue his passion for history, writing and the arts. John’s two books, published by the Old Colorado City Historical Society, are Ute Indian Prayer Trees of the Pikes Peak Region and Rankin Scott Kelly, First Sheriff El Paso County, Colorado Territory (1861-1867), which received a 2017 literary award from the Historical Preservation Alliance of Colorado Springs.
(in order of appearance)
Michael L. Olsen has a B. A. in History from St. Olaf College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He is professor emeritus at New Mexico Highlands University, where he taught for 30 years. His primary research interest is in the social and cultural history of the Santa Fe Trail and the Smoky Hill Trail. The National Park Service recently published his book-length study That Broad and Beckoning Highway: The Santa Fe Trail and the Rush for Gold in California and Colorado.
Maria Sanchez-Tucker is manager of The Special Collections and Museum Services Department of the Pueblo City-County Library District which includes the InfoZone News Museum. Tucker is a native of Pueblo and has an M.A. in Museum Science from Texas Tech University and a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is a Certified Archivist, by the Academy of Certified Archivists and is co-author of Images of America: Pueblo, Arcadia Publishing. Sanchez-Tucker has worked with a variety of cultural institutions and collections in the West.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant is Professor of History at Pikes Peak Community College, and has led U.S. history teaching there for 3 decades. Kathy works frequently with Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, and Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame. She has published books and articles, and has won awards for teaching excellence. She started with the Regional History Series books and symposia in 2004 when they began by commemorating the Cripple Creek Strike of 1904. Her family history connects her to that strike and to the work of Emma Langdon. Kathy espouses contributing to the history of Colorado women, one woman at a time.
Susan Fletcher is a Colorado Springs native and manages the History and Archives Department for The Navigators. Fletcher received her M.A. in Public History from Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the coauthor of Dawson Trotman In His Own Words and is currently writing Exploring the History of Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures for The American Association of State and Local History. In addition to her day job, Fletcher is the founding director of History Joy, a company specializing in personal archives and oral history interviews. When not wearing her historian’s hat, Susan covers the arts beat for Springs Magazine and enjoys painting and drawing.
David Rasmussen is a senior library associate at the Old Colorado City Branch of the Pikes Peak Library District. A native of Colorado Springs’ Westside neighborhood, Rasmussen conducts summer walking tours of Historic Old Colorado City. He portrayed Charles Mulford Robinson in the 2012 release event for Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections re-publication of A City Beautiful Dream. He previously presented in the 2011 History Symposium on the Fountain Train Explosion of 1888.
Deborah Harrison fell in love with Manitou Springs and the Pikes Peak region over 30 years ago, and immediately moved to the area. Since then she has been involved in researching the history of the area and working to preserve that history. She was a founding member of the Manitou Springs Heritage Center, worked with others to restore the town clock, and has been
involved with preserving Manitou’s historic springs. She also works with her husband, Beau Schriever, on research and preservation of their historic home in Manitou Springs.
Bernard (Beau) Schriever grew up exploring the Pikes Peak region and its historic towns and resources. Since 2010, he has conducted fieldwork and research to help identify and evaluate historic resources in the Pikes Peak Region as a professional archaeologist. He also collaborates on research related to local historic resources and is part of a research group creating an online encyclopedia of Maker’s Marks found on bottles in the United States.
Erinn Barnes currently serves as a library associate in Special Collections at the Carnegie Library in downtown Colorado Springs. She studied and received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in history at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, and is currently working on a Masters of Library and Information Science with an emphasis on archival studies. Her primary research interest centers on Native Americans in the twentieth century. Having grandparents on the tribal rolls of the Colville Confederated Tribes, she hopes to continue the family heritage through historical scholarship.
Leah Davis Witherow is the curator of history and archivist for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, where she has worked for the past 20 years. She is a frequent lecturer throughout the state on a variety of Colorado history topics, and is especially interested in women’s history, the Progressive Era, industrialization of the West and material culture studies.
Mariah Hudson is a fourth-generation Colorado native. She and her husband Mark and ten-year-old son live in Colorado Springs. After seeing a familial name as a signer of the U.S. Constitution, Mariah began an early entry into what would become an addiction to genealogy. After high school, Mariah worked as both a civilian and sworn officer in law enforcement while earning an AAS in Criminal Justice and a BS in Sociology. After several years working toward a MS in Forensic Science, Mariah decided to switch careers and began work at the Pikes Peak Library District in Special Collections. Among her current assignments at PPLD, she coordinates the nearly 1,700 digital entries of Dwight Haverkorn’s Homicides of the Colorado Springs Area in the Pikes Peak Newsfinder and continues to research each entry for accuracy and thoroughness of the project.
Dwight Haverkorn is a 71-year-old native of Colorado Springs, a retired city of Colorado Springs police officer and city attorney’s investigator who has researched local history since about 1989. He volunteers for Special Collections of the PPLD and for the Colorado Springs Police Department’s History Section and is president and historian for the El Paso County Pioneers’ Association. Dwight has provided research for the Discovery ID Channel’s “Homicide Hunter,” and frequently presents historic talks for PILLAR, the Colorado Springs High School/Palmer Alumni Association, and others. Dwight provides a “Homicide Index” for the Fourth Judicial District to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. His compilation of Homicides of the Colorado Springs Area, 1872 to Present is among the most requested items.
Doris McCraw has a BA in Social Work and Criminology from Illinois Wesleyan University. Ms. McCraw has devoted many years finding and telling the stories of Colorado’s early women doctors. Ms. McCraw has previously presented at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium on a variety of topics including Karol W. Smith, Colorado’s First Film Commissioner, the Cripple Creek Volcano, and Early Women Doctors in Colorado. She also writes fiction under the pen name Angela Raines. She is a member of National Pen Women, Pikes Peak Writers and Women Writing the West.
John Anderson served two terms as El Paso County Sheriff (1995-2003) following his retirement as a sergeant from the Colorado Springs Police Department (1972-1995). After being term-limited as Sheriff, John was hired by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. From his Colorado Springs office, he enjoyed assignments around the world; including into Dubai, Abu Dhabi and three assignments into a combat zone on the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Djibouti). Following his 2012 retirement from Lockheed Martin, John formed a small consulting company, JW Anderson & Associates, Ltd., which offers him freedom to pursue his passion for history, writing and the arts. John’s two books, published by the Old Colorado City Historical Society, are Ute Indian Prayer Trees of the Pikes Peak Region and Rankin Scott Kelly, First Sheriff El Paso County, Colorado Territory (1861-1867), which received a 2017 literary award from the Historical Preservation Alliance of Colorado Springs.
