Robert Newton "Buster" Moorland Jr. - age 19- Died Dec. 12, 1933

by Deb Moorland
(Fruita, CO)

Buster Moorland

A youth still in his teens was caught in the slide, but was still alive when rescue workers reached him. They managed to remove the rocks which pinned him down and rushed him to St. Mary's hospital, where examination revealed his skull was fractured, and his hips crushed. He died about 10 p.m. that night. Robert Moorland son of Mr and Mrs. Robert Moorland lived in the Glade Park and "Picture Gallery" districts. He was not married.

~ from The Untold Story of the Rimrock Drive and The Men History Forgot by Guy Carlucci. With kind permission from Guy's wife Beth.

Guy's book is out of print, but we are hoping if there is enough interest that the Carlucci family will do a reprint.
~
This obituary is personal, because Buster was the uncle I never knew. My father was Ralph H. "Bill" Moorland, and Buster was his oldest brother. Buster's death had a huge impact on my father's life. His father, Bob Moorland, died two years after Buster died, on Sept. 18, 1934, when Dad was 12 years old. Dad's brother Ray, the second oldest, had serious internal injuries from a horse falling on him when he was young, and as hard as he tried, was at times limited in his contribution to the ranch work. So at the age of 12, Dad was suddenly thrown into the role of running the family ranch.

I would also like to note the Daily Sentinel initially used the name Russell Moreland in reference to Buster. That was a complete mistake, he was never called Russell. This error was understandably carried into Guy's book. Although we did get his name corrected in the section with his picture and obituary, Russell is still used in a couple other places in the book.

Here is the page I previously posted about Buster's death:

https://www.glade-park.com/glade-park-memorial-buster.html