Uncle Wilber's Fountain: Wilber Fulker--Christmas 1924, Colorado

Wilber Fulker, a 6-year old here during Christmas of 1924, recalls wrapping up in two bear skin robes and numerous other blankets. He writes about the scent of fresh straw in the bottom of the sleigh and that there were warm bricks and irons made hot in the fire placed under the straw for warmth. He recalls for us the sound of the sleigh bells on the horses, the stillness going through timber, the muffled clop of the horses’ hooves and their heavy breath, and the runners of the sleigh gliding quietly because of so much snow. Later as a teenager, he became a ranch hand.

And sometimes… in all the silence and cold… the haunting calls of coyotes nearby. We still have coyotes on the west side of Colorado Springs, near the mountains and mostly on publicly-owned land.

When Wilber Fulker retired, he was a principal at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, here in Colorado Springs.

"Uncle Wilber's Fountain" in Acacia Park at the northeast corner of Tejon and Kiowa Streets downtown, was inspired in part by him and his writings. Mr. Wilber, in real life (as they say) played a tuba, as does the Uncle Wilber statue who appears every hour during the hours that our famous fountain operates.