3rd hour

        CENTENNIAL “THE HUNTERS” WORKSHEET

1. Describe or re-tell the Brumbaugh story. Discuss how his family went to Russia and he got to Centennial. Hans Brumbaugh’s great grandfather resided in the poor German province of Hesse for a long period of time. His crops were failing for six years and war had plagued Hesse for seven years. In 1764, Hans Brumbaugh gets wind of the news that Catherine the Great, the Russian princess of German descent, is offering Germans seeking settlement in Russia virtually costless land, freedom to practice their own religion, no taxation, the freedom to devise their own educational system in German, and the freedom from the military service. Brumbaugh took the inviting offer and settled in Russia, learned Russian, became agriculturally savvy, and prevented their daughters to assimilate into the Russian culture by prohibiting them from marrying Russians. The enticing promise was abjured in the year or 1796 because of the death of Catherine the Great. Hans left for Germany in that same year because he was causing trouble, including attacking a military convoy. When he was twenty-six years old, Hans purchased a farm in Illinois from a man who did not possess it, then, he walked across Missouri and Nebraska to search for gold in the Jefferson territory. En route, he stopped at Zendt’s trading post in Centennial, Colorado.

2. What was his vision of the Great American Desert? How did the irrigation system work?

Brumbaugh envisioned the Great American Desert to be rich, fertile land for harvest. To irrigate the land, Brumbaugh took water from the Platte River and tapped it. He then dug a channel with a pickaxe and shovel, and this channel lead to the arid first bench. To make the land fertile, Brumbaugh directed the small manmade part of the river through the middle of the first bench.

3. How was Jim introduced to the Venneford? What was the role of Skimmerhorn?

Skimmerhord introduced Jim Lloyd to the Venneford ranch. Oliver Seccombe wanted to expand and extend the current boundaries of his land, and Skimmerhorn’s role was to verify that all of the lands marked are were claimed for possible purchasers by establishing line camps. Jim was hired by Seccombe to be one of the hands on the Venneford ranch.

4. Describe the terrain of the ranch and then how Jim saw the Platte.

The newly acquired land seemed empty at first, but piñon trees lined the area of line camp four. One of the most notable areas of the ranch was “a hillside covered with piñon trees marked by wind-eroded pinnacles that looked like gnomes marching from the pages of a German fairytale” (609).  Line camp three was established west of Rattlesnake Buttes and the terrain was rugged. Line camp two was halfway to the Nebraska state line, and line camp one was located at the mouth of a canyon “in an area so bleak and forbidding that only someone like Jim could appreciate it”  (610). The grass on the one hundred-sixty acre plot is very rich.

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5. There is a relationship between the farmer and the rancher. How does Michener tell that conflict with Kränzel, Brumbaugh, and Oliver? Oliver Seccombe had the desire to acquire their land through purchasing. Seccombe was very insistent on acquiring more land and expanding the ranch’s boundaries to the Platte River. The Kränzel family had no intention of relocating; they were very comfortable with their land by the Platte. The Kränzel family refused to discuss with Seccombe and stated clearly that price was not an issue to them. Seccombe left the Kränzels. Neither the Kränzels nor the Brumbaughs were interested in ...

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