Noel: Now see here's a. . . here's a old can. . .
BH: Ah huh.
Noel: Where'd I pick that up? Cottonwood. It's over in by the. . . the Hopper. The Hopper tin can—this is a can opener called the Hopper.
BH: Um hum. How did that work?
Noel: He was a. . . patented in 1896. All right.
BH: Now how did you get something like that open? Did you hit it with a knife?
Noel: Okay now what happened. . . remember. . . can you remember when teachers in the old days used to make perfect circles on the blackboard?
BH: No.
Noel: Oh, gosh, this is going to be hard. Well, what. . . you remember it was like a giant compass.
BH: Okay, yes. I do remember. I know what you're talking about.
Noel: Okay. You know where the chalk. . . or where the middle thing was?
BH: Um hum.
Noel: Okay, that was made by this hole.
BH: Ah huh.
Noel: And then, where the chalk was was the blade. And you jammed it in like this, and you pushed it around like this.
BH: And that's the way the can opened.
Noel: And that was one of the first can openers. Okay. Now—if you don't do the can opener—if you don't have a Hoppener, you do this.
BH: Stab it with a knife and pull it up.
Noel: Right. Now, these cans used to look like this can. See this can was found in the old McEntire cabin in Ouray, underneath. See, it's got a label, and so on. . . here. See, he opened it up with a knife, too.
BH: Ah huh. But they did a neater job on it.
Noel: Yeah. And this is all the stuff that they canned.
BH: Wow!
Noel: This ah. . . this information on cans I've added in the article on Lanark. On that.
BH: Now is that one of the articles that went to the San Luis Valley Historian?
Noel: Yes. Ah huh. Okay, now, if you'll take that. Now, what happens here. . . you know one of the strange things about these people. . . You know these people were all sort of crazy?
BH: Why is that?
Noel: Because they ate a lot of lead.
BH: Ahhh! From the cans!
Noel: Cause see. . . see this is all lead.
BH: Ah huh.
Noel: This. . . this cap right here. What happened when they. . . when they cooked it. . . when they put food in it? The cannery would cook the food—I'm not sure, but I think it was in the can. And when they thought it was cooked, they (?) in this hole here, and then. . . after they. . . they left this one little hole right here, so the steam would. . . come out, so it wouldn't. . .
BH: Ah huh.
Noel: They wouldn't seal it when it was hot. And then they would put lead. . . lead sort of around here, and a little dollop of lead right there. Also, the seam over here is lead. Sometimes you can find the cans that have been setting out in the sun—cause the lead is sort of congealed. So they were. . . not only did they paint their houses with lead based paint, they ate out of cans that were soldered with lead.
BH: Wow!
Noel: So you. . . you wonder about these guys, right?
BH: Pretty fascinating, yeah.