Sometimes history is a gas

Information is the key to the newspaper business, and it's rewarding to connect the people who want to know something with the people who know it.

Last week, while I was bemoaning the loss of a valuable source of historical information, Linda Hein, I mentioned that one Cliff Like (719) 346-7610, wondered if anyone remembered the coal gas plant in McCook.

Linda responded to an e-mail that the late Ray Search "always talked about the gas plant at the bottom of West Fourth and A."

On a trip to the grocery story, retired McCook physician John Batty confirmed that, yes, there was a gas plant in that area -- and it manufactured carbon monoxide for delivery to homes and businesses around town!

Batty said the coal gas plant was there when he left McCook for medical school, but was gone by the time he had returned to practice medicine.

Early in his medical career, however, he encountered a sick couple, who, after he did some detective work, were poisoned by the carbon monoxide used to heat their home.

He said someone connected with the railroad owned the coal gas plant, as well as the ice house used to cool perishable goods hauled on the railroad.

Now, I knew carbon monoxide was deadly, and was created by incomplete combustion, but I hadn't heard that it could burn. Sure enough, a trip to the OSHA Web site revealed the information that it is, indeed, flammable.

So, some enterprising railroaders hauled in coal, smoldered it in their coal gas plant, and sold it to local customers, delivering it via pipes around town.

By the time Doc Batty returned from his military career, natural gas was being delivered via a pipeline.

You won't find "Carbon monoxide" as one of the options on the Choice Gas information McCook residents received this week, but take time to read it and pick your gas supplier.

Spring is always an inspiration to do some cleaning, sprucing and fixup, and it's no different at our house.

But last weekend was especially satisfying. After a few fits and starts, a couple of years and trying to get someone else to do the work, my wife and I installed a much-needed new window.

I'm sure the neighbors are happy to see the black plastic, which covered the defective unit all winter, out of sight.

But as any homeowner knows, you can't just do "a little" fixup work. A new component makes the rest look that much more shabby, and now we're planning more windows, new paint and trim, and who knows what.

If there's one thing that any McCookite should have learned over the last couple of years, however, it's that if you have any outdoor projects to accomplish, April or May are much nicer than June or July -- unless you prefer working in a sauna.

There hasn't been enough rain to inspire me to take to the woods in pursuit of the elusive morel mushroom, but that doesn't mean I've avoided hunting in the woods.

Friday night, I was out at the flying field on River Road showing off a small, green, electric radio controlled airplane, and just how high it could fly.

If anybody finds it, I'd appreciate a call.