From a Colorado Springs Newspaper, October/November, 1950

York believes strongly that the administration that took us off the gold standard did so unwisely. His opinion is based on 31 years as a miner.

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IT'S A DIFFERENT story from most of the remember-whens, for York lived and worked in Breckenridge, Colo., where "there was never a labor strike because there were no big companies and everyone was his own boss."

He went to Breckenridge in 1894 after he had gone broke in Denver with a grocery-meat market. The '93 slump, he explained, broke a lot of men.

Eight-two years old now, he was born in Northamptonshire, England, and came to the United States when he was 18 months old. The trip killed his mother and his father died about eight years later.

York and his wife, Linnie, met in Breckenridge and were married at the Colorado Hotel there which was owned by her family. The hotel is still in operation.

Mrs. York was born "nowhere." She explains it this way: When she was born and until about fifteen years ago, that tract of Colorado had never been surveyed by the government. It later became part of Breckenridge.

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REGARDLESS OF the "No Man's Land" aspect, she is the oldest living native of the town. She is 73, and the couple observed their 54th anniversary Oct. 5.

York was "on his own hook" most of the time in mining. He worked underground--lode mining. On some of his own land he worked almost two years before he struck any gold.

He has a locket made with two glass sides and filled with pure wire gold. It's the best you can get, for it comes out "black as your hat" and only needs to be washed in cold water to be brilliant yellow.

From a grocer to a miner, he worked later as head carpenter for the Ohio Oil Co. in Wyoming. He worked on the Blue River Dredge in Breckenridge for about a year.

For 21 years he was an ore inspector at the Golden Cycle Mill [in Colorado Springs], inspecting for the shippers.

Mildly he refers to his mine accidents. In one cave-in he received "just a fractured skull" and another time got his toe caught in a fly wheel and nearly had his leg torn off.

One doctor said the leg would have to be removed and another disagreed. He took the right one's word, for he still has his leg.

"I came through all the accidents well," he said, "I could run if I had to."

It must be true, for he spent yesterday sawing wood.