Dan Hallinan’s rooted to his Central City home
By Linda Jones
Dan Hallinan
One of the pins on Dan Hallinan’s Irish hat proclaims he is the “world’s tallest leprechaun.” At 6-foot-6, he could be right. He’s certainly Irish, through and through. All the Irish stereotypes are mixed in; he’s from a large family, is a good storyteller, was a wee bit o’ trouble to the nuns at Holy Family and could sell refrigerators to the Eskimos.
Dan has Central City roots as deep as the mines. His dad was born there in 1892 and raised in the mining town. At age 12, he became a fireman on the narrow-gauge Colorado & Southern Railroad and spent the rest of his working years on the rails, eventually becoming an engineer on regulation-width railroads. By 1904, C&S Railroad had bought out the Colorado Central Railroad, the original railroad west from Golden into the gold country. The last C&S train between Black Hawk and Golden ran in 1941; the tracks in Clear Creek Canyon were torn up for scrap during WWII and later became the bed for U.S. Highway 6, which opened in 1951.
The Hallinan family included 10 children, six girls and four boys, with Dan next to youngest. By the time he was born, the family had moved to Denver, but they returned to the home place “up on Eureka Street” now and then, and one of Dan’s deep-rooted memories is when the four brothers were cleaning up around the house in 1951 when he was a senior in high school.
They were “fooling around” setting off old dynamite caps, and Dan’s cap wouldn’t light. A man drove up and informed the boys there were crystallized dynamite sticks in the shed, not 10 feet away from them all. He still catches his breath, remembering how close he came to blowing up all the Hallinan boys.
The family lived in northwest Denver when Dan was growing up and “three or so” of the brothers worked for the railroad, one as yard master.
“Mom cooked around the clock because of the railroad schedules – meat, potatoes, gravy and vegetables. She was a good cook. We only had one bathroom and mom kept visits short. I slept with two brothers in one bed. Mom’s rosebush is still there; she sprayed it with tobacco juice to kill the bugs,” Dan said.
Dan becomes emotional when he remembers his parents and said several times, “Mom was the best.”
“My brother Joe bought the [family] house. When his hernia ruptured and bled, he said there was no way he’d go into the hospital again. But the pain got so bad he shot himself in the back yard in 1992 and left me the house. One of my sisters became a nun, Sisters of St. Joseph, for 64 years. Sister Inez Denise did missionary work in Hawaii, Peru and St. Louis.”
Dan’s mom’s rosebush is where it’s always been – beside the front steps – and from the photos, it’s still thriving, with dozens of blooms. Dan loves flowers and his yard could be in a magazine; he can name every variety of the 45 rose bushes.
Born in 1932, Dan attended Holy Family schools, playing football and basketball all the way through. He served as the school photographer at Holy Family High School and as Master of Ceremonies at his Junior Prom. His dad died his senior year and after graduation, Dan joined the Navy, where he finagled his way into becoming a photographer. When the federal government came in January 1953 to bury our Pacific war dead, it was Dan who photographed the ceremonies, which were “a mixture of Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, sake and bones,” he said. He had the privilege of photographing on Mt. Suribachi.
Dan’s quite gregarious and it’s no surprise that he has made a living for 30 years selling specialty items – hats, calendars, gifts, mugs, etc. – for Brown & Bigelow. Prior to this job he sold liquor for a wholesaler. His route included Black Hawk and Central City, where “everyone was COD and slow to pay. That was before gaming and times up here were tough.”
This cheerful, happy guy has had more than his share of knocks in life. Four years ago he had a “long” cancer surgery on the back of his tongue. He’s divorced from the mother of his six children, and his beloved collie died of cancer. But nothing keeps Dan down for long. Recently, playing the Lodge slots, he had an amazing day – he hit a $2,500 jackpot, then a $500 jackpot, then an $8,812 jackpot – all in one day. He’s a super-nice guy and deserves all that luck.
