Historic buildings, vehicles, thousands of items to be auctioned in Ellicott
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The descendants of the original Chisman family, who moved to the town of Ellicott in the mid-1920s, are preparing to auction off remnants of several family businesses -- offering a unique opportunity to acquire pieces of local history.
The family owned five buildings including two houses, a blacksmith shop, and a structure that served as a garage, gas station and grocery store.
"This is just a rare piece of history," said Todd Natale, of Double Diamond Auctions, as he surveyed the blacksmith shop. "There's more modern ways to do it -- it's all electric, you really don't find this -- so if you have an interest in getting into blacksmithing or the history of it, this is an amazing piece here. Someone could purchase this and actually put it right back to work."
All of the buildings are located at the intersection of Highway 94 and Ellicott Highway, and had been used in recent years to store tools, machinery, parts and equipment; more than 30 vehicles are part of the auction.
The blacksmith shop opened a few miles west of its current location, at the intersection of Highway 94 and Peyton Highway; the family attached a house to the store in 1930 and all of their businesses had closed by 1998.
The following year, the family opened the current Fuel B's gas station and convenience store, and sold the business to new owners in 2016.
While the family hopes that the March 17 auction will draw interest from locals who want to preserve some of the town's history, interested parties from several surrounding states also plan to attend.
Garrett Balsick is Natale's partner and also an antiques dealer.
"You've heard of Flying Horse East wanting to take over the Ververs' family ranch," he said. "(The trend) it's moving east. There's not many people from east who are still here -- the original families who can tell the history -- and I want that history not to be lost."
For more information, visit: http://double diamond auctions.com.
