Neighbors: Worldly Kathy Uhland, a fifth generation resident, always returned home to Cañon City

Jul 10, 2023

Kathy Uhland thumbs through a scrapbook full of her family tree. Uhland has an original photo album once possessed by her grandmother which is now over 100 years old -- which many of the photos in the pictured album originate. (Olivia Johnson/Daily Record)

Kathy Uhland, left, is pictured here with her two sisters. Ever since the death of their mother 25 years ago, the three sisters have taken special care to reunite once a year, play golf, and enjoy each other's company. (Special to the Daily Record)

Kathy Uhland proudly displays a pair of moccasins once owned by Chipeta, a Ute Indian advocate and Ute leader. (Olivia Johnson/Daily Record)

Kathy Uhland smiles for a photo with her grandmother's antique candy dish (which held candy corn during her youth). (Olivia Johnson/Daily Record)

Kathy Uhland has gone on several photography trips, including a journey to Africa's safari and Bulgaria. (Olivia Johnson/Daily Record)

Kathy Uhland and her family lived in the Netherlands for three years, during which time she discovered antique coffee grinders, and she now collects them for her hallway and kitchen. (Olivia Johnson/Daily Record)

Though she has visited all 50 states, 27 countries and lived in many places overseas, Kathy Uhland always has found her way back home to Cañon City. Her life has been a remarkable menagerie of travel, family, and honoring her past as she faces the future.

Like her parents before her and her children after, Uhland graduated from Cañon City High School in the class of 1959 and immediately went to Parks Business College in Denver. During that time, she met her first husband, who was in the Air Force, and Uhland’s life took many exciting turns from that point.

In the 20 years she spent as an Air Force spouse, she lived in 11 places around the country and the world and collected an eclectic mix of treasures and memories. She fondly recalls living in the Netherlands for three years, during which time she and her husband had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe and explore the many archaic treasures that abound there.

“I got to go to Moscow and Germany and Switzerland,” she said. “We took a month and camped all over Europe to see different things.”

Her three children, Tim, Dacia, and Toby were born all around the world, including Oklahoma, the Philippines, and Florida, respectively.

Her husband’s first assignment was at the Clark Air Base in the Philippines during the Vietnam War.

“It was a very, very busy place to live because it was only 600 miles from Vietnam. It was a busy base,” she recalled.

Though the family lived in a variety of locations, cultures, and environments, Uhland was always very careful to instill an appreciation in her children. They were tasked to enjoy life no matter where they were.

“I had the attitude that, no matter where we lived, we were going to like it,” she said, smiling. “I didn’t talk negatively about any place we lived, that way, the kids would think it was a good place to live.”

Never one to stay idle, Uhland kept herself busy babysitting other people’s children and sewing in addition to raising her own children. She quickly discovered that Air Force spouses generally moved around a lot and had to find different outlets to help support the family. When she was living in Florida, she made more than 5,000 Barbie doll outfits, which were all sold.

During her 20 years as an Air Force spouse, she and her children moved back to Cañon City four times when her husband was on a remote assignment — each of which served to ground her further into the red dirt of Fremont County.

On her father’s side who were ranchers and homesteaders in the area, Uhland is a fifth generation Cañon City resident and holds a remarkable amount of family history at her home. An avid scrapbooker, Uhland used original photos from her grandmother’s 100-plus-year-old photo album to honor her family tree. She hails from families that moved to Fremont County in the 1800s such as the Curtis, Hall, Chess, and Dilley families, to name a few.

She owns a remarkable number of family heirlooms and antiques that stem from her grandparent’s day and has used that knowledge to move Fremont County forward by honoring the past.

She has been a member of the Fremont County Historical Society for nearly 15 years and works with both the society and the Greenwood Pioneer Cemetary Committee (of which she is also a member) to research and discover the names of unmarked graves. One of her own ancestors, Ephraim Curtis, was discovered at Greenwood.

When she discovers the name of an unmarked grave, she works with the welding class at CCHS to construct white crosses along with a plaque to dedicate the grave to the newly discovered person.

“We like to make sure people remember the founders of Cañon,” she said. “[Like] the businesses in Cañon … my grandfather opened the first auto dealer in Cañon City [at the 700 block of Main Street].”

She and her family returned to Cañon City for the final time in 1979 after which her two sons joined the military, one as a Marine and the other as a part of the 82nd Airborne in the Army, and her daughter became a paralegal. Uhland herself became the office manager for Coldwell Banker Strom and Associates until her retirement in 2006.

“You like to have roots someplace,” she said about returning to Cañon City. “It’s just nice to see places that you remember from when you grew up.”

After marrying Dick Uhland in 2005, the pair spent 14 wonderful years traveling the country and enjoyed numerous road trips. Dick also taught her the art of golf — which she continues to enjoy to this day at 82.

Since retiring, Uhland has kept herself busy with seats on the Territorial Daughters of Colorado and United Daughters of the Confederacy. She has also been on the board of the Senior Mini College at Pueblo Community College for nearly 15 years and has taught genealogy classes and hosted field trips to Greenwood Cemetery in the past.

“I am too busy to let the grass grow under my feet,” she wrote in a brief memorialization of her life.

Her home is populated with an eye-catching collection of family heirlooms, treasures gathered during travels, and her family’s legacy. The hallway houses a collection of antique coffee grinders unique to the Dutch culture, her grandmother’s antique desk and candy dish sit on the western wall, and various hand-carved African wildlife figurines watch the living room with attentive eyes.

It is a home full of memories and treasures, one that Uhland holds especially close to her heart.

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