Carrie Shaffer wins historical writing award

Carrie Shaffer of Thermopolis and Foxfield, Colo. was recently informed by the Jefferson County Historical Commission of Coloradro that she has won the Writer’s Award Center for 2016. She wrote about the Shaffer family of Shaffer’s Crossing, a village 30 miles southwest of Denver established in the 1900s and named for her ancestor, pioneer Samuel A. Shaffer.

The award will be presented to her Oct. 20, and published in the 2016 edition of “Historically Jeffco.” Her article submission was made possible by a Shaffer’s Crossing historian and resident whom Carrie’s husband, Dean, met while preparing his remarks for the Shaffer Reunion. Carrie noted the historian wanted to know if anyone had written any history, and Dean pointed out she had. The article was liked so much, they submitted it and it won the Writer’s Award.

The article itself is a quick history of the Shaffer’s as they moved across the country from Pennsylvania to Ohio, Illinois, Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming. Her ancestor, Samuel, was asked to be a manager of a fairly large ranch in Wyoming; he would go on to become fairly well off and bought quite a bit of land in the area that would become Shaffer’s Crossing.

Carrie said the number of buildings began to grow, eventually crossing a creek and a road, and so became Shaffer’s Crossing; it remains so today, marked on the road and on maps of Colorado. Carrie said they know more about Samuel than they do the people before him.

The reunions happen about four or five times every five years, Carrie said, and it was held for the first time at Shaffer’s Crossing July 22-24, 2016. More than 125 Shaffers from Wyoming attended, as well as relative from Colorado, Indiana, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. The well-attended event was covered by the local press, and there was lots of food, fellowship, history lectures given by Dean and tours of the remaining Shaffer’s Crossing structures, including a large barn and former schoolhouse and dance pavilion.

The reunion at Shaffer’s Crossing was significant not only because of the location name, but because it was the first time such a large number of them were together. As many are getting up in age, they decided it was time for them to get together.

As to winning the award, Carrie said she was very surprised. The fact that it’s going to be published in a magazine, she said, is nice, and it is the first time she will be published, though she pointed out writing is something she’s always enjoyed and she used to write for her school newspaper.