The Denver Broncos hit the fifth day of a six straight day stretch of training camp today. All eyes remain on the quarterbacks and specifically, Bo Nix. There was near universal praise for his play on Thursday outside of one contrarian from the local media. He certainly seems to be coming along quickly and his first preseason game should tell us all where he’s at in the scheme of things as a rookie.
Head Coach Sean Payton noted yesterday that the quarterback position is certainly not decided by any stretch, although the rotation has not been consistent. It seems as though it is quickly coming down to a battle between Bo Nix and Jarrett Stidham.
“It’s not etched in stone,” Payton said. “We talked about it in the beginning of the week. It’s hard to rotate three [quarterbacks] through the first group. All three of them I thought had a good day today. We’ll see how Saturday goes. Saturday we’re going to have a little bit more of a different type of practice. It’s not going to be a scrimmage, but there are going to be like three phases, special teams mixed in, move the ball if you will. We haven’t met on that relative to the reps and the rotation. Sunday then, we’ll map out the plan for the week leading up to Indianapolis, so that’s kind of where we’re at.”
Saturday seems like it could be a pretty eventful day for training camp news, so keep note of that heading into the weekend. We’re less than 10 days away from the first preseason game too. Time is flying!
Advertisement
Broncos training camp Day 9 live updates
The Broncos have announced the signing of tight end Hunter Kampmoyer. They waived defensive tackle Brandon Matterson in a corresponding roster move.
Field flips again and Wilson is in for Nix. Finds Krull out-breaking on first play. Then it’s Javonte in the flat on the next rep. Hurries to the line and looks for Dorsett on a stop route. Dorsett has to dive for the worm-burner that bounces off the turf in front of him
On Nix’s third rep he keeps a read option but the defense suffocates the ikat immediately. Fourth rep is an RPO of sorts. Nix unloads the pass SUPERRRR quick to Bandy in stride. That definitely translates from the Oregon tape
WELD COUNTY, Colo. – It was one of Colorado’s darkest days, yet when asked, most Coloradans will say they never heard of it.
It was an act of terror in the skies just a few miles north of Denver that killed dozens of people and quickly faded from the headlines, but forever burned into the Weld County community.
It was just after 7 p.m. on November 1, 1955.
United Airlines Flight 629 – a 4-engine DC 6 passenger aircraft – loaded with crew, passengers, cargo and fuel for the hop from Denver to Portland, Oregon, quickly departed Stapleton Airport to the northwest.
Advertisement
A few minutes later, Stapleton tower controllers noticed a bright flash in the sky and witnesses near Longmont heard and saw the huge explosion in the night sky.There was little anyone could do as the wreckage rained down onto the Weld County beet fields.
Keith Cunningham, the Longmont police chief rushed every available officer and firefighter to the fields along with ambulances.
Just a few minutes later, a patrolman radioed: “No ambulances are necessary,” the Rocky Mountain News reported,
Conrad Hopp was just a teenager. He was sitting down for a meal in his home on a farm just east of Longmont.”And then we hear this loud explosion that shook all the windows in the house,” Hopp said. “We looked outside, and we could hear the roar of the engines — that’s how you knew it was a plane — and the ball of the fire coming through the air.”
Advertisement
He jumped up from the supper table into history.
“By the time we got to my car we lost sight of the plane behind the barn,” he said.
Nearby, Martha Hopp, Conrad’s girlfriend and also just a teen, was also sitting down for supper.
“I ran outside and I remember all the roads were white with lights,” Martha remembered. “Everybody was already out on the roads doing the same thing.”
Advertisement
It wasn’t just unformed first responders rushing to the scene, but everyday ordinary citizens who took to the roads to do anything they could to save victims.
“18-year-olds encountering bodies, baseball teams dropping what they were doing. The American Legion was running coffee, and then there was Johnson’s Corner, all this activity going on,” said Marian Poeppelmeyer, who lost her dad on Flight 629. “I understand there were more than 200 people on the field, from eyewitnesses I’ve been able to meet.”
Martha remembers by the time she reached the road and saw all the headlights there was debris everywhere.
“So we drove the truck around each body so that it could be found easily,” said Martha.
Advertisement
Conrad was doing the same.
“So we could drive around and then signal so someone could stay by the body and then we’d look for another one, ” he said. “I don’t think I probably went to bed for two days. We were busy even the next day looking for bodies, we didn’t find them all that night.”
Conrad, just barely 18-year-old, would carry that trauma well into his adult life.
“Finding a body was fairly simple but later on to try and pick that body up and put it in a body bag, that was the tough part.”
Advertisement
While the Weld County community was responding and processing the mayhem, aviation investigators, the FBI and local law enforcement were trying to piece together how a state-of-the-art, widely used passenger plane could suddenly explode into pieces.It wouldn’t take the FBI long to piece it all together.
Their suspect quickly came into focus. An announcer – in a vintage Denver7 news clip – painted the picture.
“John Gilbert Graham, you remember him? He planted a bomb in a suitcase carried by his mother on the United Airliner.”
It had never happened before in the United States.
As part of the investigation, every piece of baggage carried on board by a United Flight 629 passenger was scrutinized,
Advertisement
The FBI focused on the destroyed luggage of Daisie E. King, a 54-year-old Denver woman.
King, according to the FBI, was carrying several items with her on the plane that were recovered.Those items included personal letters, a checkbook, an address list, two keys for safe deposit boxes and newspaper clippings about her family, including her 23-year-old son, John “Jack” Gilbert Graham.
Graham had been charged with forgery several years earlier and was placed on a “most wanted” list by the Denver County District Attorney, that newspaper clipping showed.
The investigation focused on King and the fraught relationship with her son.
Advertisement
Graham, the FBI learned, was to receive an inheritance but the mother and son had argued for years. He had lived with other family members through the years and left home at 16.
While Graham returned to Denver to help run his mother’s drive-in restaurant, they still “fought like cats and dogs,” according to the FBI.
On the day of Flight 629’s demise, Jack Graham was planning to give his mother an early Christmas present, believed to be a set of small tools. He had apparently searched all day for the special gift, a neighbor later told investigators.
Graham, his wife recalled to the FBI, brought the package into the house and carried it to the basement, where his mother had been packing her luggage.
Advertisement
King finished packing, and the family loaded into Graham’s 1951 Plymouth and headed across town to the airport.
He later admitted to the explosion of Flight 629. He said he built a time bomb, with 25 sticks of dynamite and placed it into his mother’s luggage.
Justice was swift. Just 14 months after the terror and a quick trial, Graham was executed.
The dark headlines began to fade into history.
Marian Poeppelmeyer, who never got to know her father, adds that during tragedies, too much focus lands on the perpetrator and not the victims.
Advertisement
Through the power of faith she found healing to write a book about her traumatic journey. Over the last 2 years, Marian has bonded with the Hopps’ and other Weld County citizens who tried to save anyone they could.
The explosion of United Airlines Flight 629 was one of the first attacks on a commercial airliner in the United States. Murdered were 44 people – a five-person crew and 39 passengers including a 13-month-old boy.
But nearly 69 years later, driving through Longmont or the roads surrounding those Weld County beet fields there’s no sign or monument marking the deadliest act of mass murder in Colorado history.
“It’s important to me because nothing has ever been done for the passengers who lost their lives and nothing has been done for the families whose lives were totally shattered by what happened on November 1, 1955,” Marian said through tears.
Advertisement
Visiting those beet fields where her dad died has been a healing step but she dreams of the day when there’s a place to also honor not only the victims but the heroic citizens and first responders.
“’I’ve encountered people here who have never known the history. And why? Because it got shoved underneath and became quiet. It was too traumatic for this area. How do you even speak of it?” she added.
Marian, who lives out of state, first traveled to Weld County a couple of years ago to visit the scene and met Becky Tesore, a local resident. The two quickly bonded over shared faith and Tesore felt called to serve and help in any way for the future of a Flight 629 memorial.
“I was at a publishers conference and this lady came up to me and said, Becky, you live in Weld County, I need a place to stay – and it was Marian Poeppelmeyer,” said Tesore. “And she had her book at the conference, ‘Finding My Father’ – which is a great book on healing – I just love it. And so we got to know each other.”
Advertisement
The two grew a greater movement in the community attracting fellow citizens who felt called to serve and right a wrong. “I would say 99.5% of the people do not know about Flight 629,” Tesore said. “It kind of shocks them and it pulls them in, and they’re like, I’m so glad I now know and then I give them our website, which is like flight629memorial.org.’
Together, Marian and Becky drove hundreds of miles around the area going to appointments, speaking to local groups and inspiring others to believe in a tribute to the victims, families and heroes of United Flight 629.
A group of local citizens formed the Flight 629 Memorial and Unsung Heroes Across America Committee of which Tesore serves as Vice President. The memorial board’s president, Greg Raymer, has worked hard on a weekend concert event at Rialto Theater in Loveland to help raise money.
The first fundraising event is a concert at the theater on Saturday, August 3, 2024 runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and features Christine Alice and the Canyon Echos. The group hopes to raise money from the event and further share the story of Flight 629.
Advertisement
“Tickets are $25 until the day of and then we’ll be back at $30,” said Becky. Tickets can be purchased at this link and they say every dollar helps so that the history of Flight 629 can finally be properly honored – for today and future generations.
“They weren’t taught they weren’t talking about it. One of our members Conrad Hopps said he didn’t tell his kids till years later, so he is so thankful that he’s getting healed of it.” added Becky. “And we don’t want this generation to pass away without seeing the results of what they did that night by going out. Many were traumatized by the events that they saw.”
In the video player below, Watch Marian Poeppelmeyer share her journey of healing through trauma
The bombing of United Airlines 629 and a journey to forgiveness
Advertisement
As fundraising efforts ramp up, including the launch of a Flight 629 GoFundMe page, Becky and the committee are working toward an important date.
“The mission is to try and have a memorial or ribbon cutting by November 1, 2025 as that will be the 70th year. We are really going to try and get the memorial up,” Becky said. “And we have seen God do amazing things in the process of this journey, so we’re still believing for it.”
She says the committee needs $26,000 to order material for the memorial.
Marian is returning to Colorado over several days in August to speak at local community centers about her father’s tragedy and her healing journey. She’ll share her story on Monday, August 12 between 2 and 4 p.m. at the Carbon Valley Parks and Recreation Center in Firestone.
Advertisement
The night a Denver man blew up his mother’s flight
She’ll also be at the Carbon Valley Public Library on Wednesday, August 14 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.She has appearances scheduled in Greeley and Longmont, all of which are detailed on her Facebook page.
“It took great courage to do what 18-year-olds did, what teenagers did and what fathers and mothers did on the field that night,” said Marian.
Advertisement
And while the future site and logistics of the memorial are still a work in progress, all are on the same path to create a space where those who through the years suffered trauma, like so many first responders and citizen heroes do, have a place to remember what happened in those beet fields, honor the lives cut short and find the gift of healing.
“It’s not just about me, my dad is about 43 other families that were involved,” Marian reflected. “And it’s about the history and legacy of Weld County.”
Watch the full video special report in the video player below:
A mission to build a memorial honoring the bombing of Flight 629 in Colorado
Advertisement
Coloradans making a difference | Denver7 featured videos
At Denver7, we’re committed to making a difference in our community. We’re standing up for what’s right by listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the featured videos in the playlist above.
Two former Denver Broncos players found news homes on Thursday.
Former Broncos defensive lineman Mike Purcell signed with the New England Patriots, and ex-Denver wide receiver Marquez Callaway signed with the New Orleans Saints.
Purcell, 33, played for the Broncos from 2019-2023, totaling 166 tackles, 14 quarterback hits and 2.5 sacks in 65 games (37 starts). He played 462 snaps on defense last season. Denver signed defensive lineman Malcolm Roach during free agency and acquired John Franklin-Myers in a trade with the New York Jets this spring, beefing up their defensive line.
Callaway, 26, went to training camp with the Broncos last summer after spending the first three years of his career with the Saints. He spent time with the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans after being cut by Denver last year. Callaway was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this week and has now returned to the Saints for the third time in his career.
Advertisement
There are now four ex-Broncos players who remain unsigned free agents: safety Justin Simmons, cornerback K’Waun Williams, offensive tackle Cam Fleming and running back Dwayne Washington.
Broncos unsigned free agents
DB Justin Simmons (30)
CB K’Waun Williams (32)
OT Cam Fleming (31)
RB Dwayne Washington (30)
The most notable unsigned former Denver player is Simmons, a four-time All-Pro and two-time Pro Bowler. We’ll see if Simmons lands with a new team before the regular season begins in September.
A wildfire on the edge of metro Denver crept within a quarter-mile of evacuated homes, but authorities said Thursday morning they were hopeful to save hundreds of threatened residences as they grapple with sweltering temperatures and firefighters suffering heat exhaustion.
The fire was among several threatening heavily populated areas of the Colorado foothills, including one in which a person was killed earlier this week.
Almost 100 large fires are burning across the western U.S. The largest—Northern California’s Park Fire—has burned more than 400 houses and other structures, officials reported Thursday.
Advertisement
New large fires were reported in Idaho, southeast Montana and north Texas.
The Quarry Fire southwest of the Denver suburb of Littleton encroached on several large subdivisions. Neighborhoods with nearly 600 homes were ordered to evacuate after the fire of unknown origin spread quickly overnight Tuesday.
The fire had been held to less than a half-square mile (1.4 square kilometers) with no houses yet destroyed, authorities said. But officials said it remained a major danger with hot temperatures expected Thursday.
Five firefighters were injured Wednesday, including four who had heat exhaustion, said Mark Techmeyer with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Just to the north near the city of Lyons, Colorado, officials reported making progress on the Stone Canyon Fire that has killed one person and destroyed five houses. The cause is under investigation.
Advertisement
California’s Park Fire continued to grow, covering about 610 square miles (1,590 square kilometers) as of Thursday morning. That’s more than 25 times the size of New York’s Manhattan Island.
Losses also increased. The latest updates tallied 437 structures destroyed and 42 damaged, according to Cal Fire. The fire was 18% contained.
Citation:
Wildfires encroach on homes near Denver as heat hinders fight (2024, August 1)
retrieved 1 August 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-08-wildfires-encroach-homes-denver-hinders.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.