Gunnison History Tracker
502 Elk Avenue
Joseph and Mary Sporcich were historic owners of this house,
which was probably built in the 1920's. The 1920 US. Census for Crested Butte indicates that Joseph and Mary Sporcich
were living on Sopris Avenue. In1920, Joseph was 28 years old. He had immigrated to the United States in 1909 and filed
his first papers for citizenship. He was horn in Austria and his native language was Slovenian. Mr Sporcich worked as a
driver in a coal mine. He had settled in Crested Butte in 1909. His wife, Mary Snepargar Sporcich, was 23 years old and
had come to the US. in 1913 at the age of 17, from Maklen, Brod Moravice, Croatia. She came to this country to assist an
ailing cousin, Mrs. Mike Fisher. She married Joseph Sporcich in 1914. The couple had three children at the time of the
census, a son, Anton, and two daughters, Antonia and Josephine, who had been born in Colorado. They would later have
three addonal children. The next owners of the house were Reynaldo and Josephine Stajduhar, the daughter and son -in law of the Sporcich's.
Josephine was born in Crested Butte. She left school in 9th grade and went to work cleaning
houses. Her brother was killed in the Big Mine at age 23. Josephine and Reynaldo had three sons. After the Big Mine
closed, the family moved around the state to find mining jobs. Reynaldo Reny died of black lung disease in 1992.
