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Summit Daily (Colorado): Evicted by war, restored by peace

EXTRACT: On the land, the government produced bombs, mustard gas, nerve gas and chlorine gas. Shell Oil manufactured pesticides there. The arsenal became one of the nation’s most polluted sites.

THE ARTICLE

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 29, 2006

COMMERCE CITY – The home where Lucille Egli McIntyre grew up looks nothing like it did in 1942 – when the federal government seized the farm for the war effort.

The red brick laid by her father is covered with chicken wire and white stucco.

The glassed-in porch where her mother served meals of chicken and mashed potatoes is walled in and shuttered.

And the front deck next to the spot where the family lit firecrackers and played horseshoes is gone, replaced by gray concrete steps.

Now there is an effort to return the Egli home to the way it was before the family and 200 of their neighbors were evicted to make way for the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, where chemical weapons were produced for 40 years.
The Egli home is the only house that remains from the prewar era.

The bungalow is on the state register of historic properties, and officials want to restore it to its original form as a tribute to the families who gave up their land for the war effort.

Officials are seeking grants and private donations for the restoration.

“It’s coming full circle,” said McIntyre, 75, the lone surviving member of her family of eight children.

The house is now part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge.

McIntyre was on hand Oct. 13 for an official land transfer of 7,266 acres between the Army and the Department of Interior, which manages the refuge.

She turned a shovelful of soil with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for the dedication of a garden next to her childhood home that will be named in her family’s honor.

“It’s kind of a closing,” McIntyre said. “It brings the land back to the way it used to be. Things are growing again.”

McIntyre, who now lives in Denver, remembers her father’s farm as big and lonely. The nearest neighbor was two city blocks away.

Her father, Gottlieb Egli, emigrated from Switzerland and built the house in 1912.

She said her family was fully self-sufficient. Food was grown in the garden or on the hoof. Electricity came from a bank of batteries in the cellar.

Hot water for baths was boiled on the stove.

McIntyre was 10 years old when the land was condemned. Her father and brothers split $65,000 for their 1,000 acres. They were told to move just before harvest.

Her mother and father bought two smaller farms in Eastlake and Brighton.

But her father, who died seven years later from cancer, never forgave the Army for bulldozing his corn and alfalfa fields before he could reap his crop, she said.

“That was really, really hard for him,” McIntyre said. “You had no choice.”

On the land, the government produced bombs, mustard gas, nerve gas and chlorine gas. Shell Oil manufactured pesticides there. The arsenal became one of the nation’s most polluted sites.

The Egli home is the only house that remains from the prewar era.

The bungalow is on the state register of historic properties, and officials want to restore it to its original form as a tribute to the families who gave up their land for the war effort.

Officials are seeking grants and private donations for the restoration.

“It’s coming full circle,” said McIntyre, 75, the lone surviving member of her family of eight children.

The house is now part of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge.

McIntyre was on hand Oct. 13 for an official land transfer of 7,266 acres between the Army and the Department of Interior, which manages the refuge.

She turned a shovelful of soil with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for the dedication of a garden next to her childhood home that will be named in her family’s honor.

“It’s kind of a closing,” McIntyre said. “It brings the land back to the way it used to be. Things are growing again.”

McIntyre, who now lives in Denver, remembers her father’s farm as big and lonely. The nearest neighbor was two city blocks away.

Her father, Gottlieb Egli, emigrated from Switzerland and built the house in 1912.

She said her family was fully self-sufficient. Food was grown in the garden or on the hoof. Electricity came from a bank of batteries in the cellar.

Hot water for baths was boiled on the stove.

McIntyre was 10 years old when the land was condemned. Her father and brothers split $65,000 for their 1,000 acres. They were told to move just before harvest.

In 1987, the site landed on the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list of toxic waste sites and one of the nation’s largest cleanups was launched.

Contaminated soil was excavated and buried along with munitions in double-lined landfills. Groundwater was run through treatment plants.

As the land was cleaned, it became part of the wildlife refuge, created by Congress and approved by President George H.W. Bush in 1992. The refuge got its first 4,930 acres when land was transferred to the Interior Department in 2004. Just over a week ago, another 7,266 acres were transferred.

Three thousand acres remain on the Superfund list, and a final transfer is expected by 2011, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The wildlife refuge is now the largest open space in the metro area, with 330 species of animals, including bald eagles, burrowing owls, deer and coyotes. Plans even call for a bison herd.

Last Thursday, McIntyre walked around her childhood home with a friend, Ernie Maurer, whose family also was kicked off the land in 1942.

The Egli house, which was an officer’s living quarters during the war, is now boarded up.

Weeds and natural grasses grow outside. Pine trees have been planted near the front. And next to a windmill stand mobile air monitoring stations checking for signs of contamination.

“Nothing is the same,” McIntyre said.

The family’s garage and machine shop remain, but the silo that held the corn is gone. And the field where her father’s crops grew is barren.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

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