The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Spritzers, Kochevars embrace history and CB life from six generations
By Katherine Nettles
Earlier this summer a large, handwritten sign rested up against a grove of aspen trees for about a week at the entrance to a large campsite about half a mile up Walrod Road in the Cement Creek drainage. The sign read “Welcome to the 99th annual Sprajcar family and friends reunion,” indicating one of the longest-standing traditions in Crested Butte’s history for two of the area’s original immigrant families. And these roots run deep.
The Spritzer family reunion is a celebration for about a week each summer that brings together friends, family and multiple generations of offspring. It all started with the Kochevar and Spritzer families, who immigrated separately to the United States in the early 20th century from Croatia, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. A couple generations later, those two families united through marriage and a few generations later yet, they still get together around the Fourth of July each summer to enjoy fishing, relaxing and socializing in the area, keeping memories alive and making new ones.
This year, at least 75 family members and friends attended the reunion in the woods. Jake Spritzer, who was born in 1940, and his wife Bunny of 60 years, were there with their five grown children, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Their children and nephews and nieces have dispersed to places like Colorado Springs, Kansas, New York, Texas, North Carolina and Montana over the generations, although Jake and Bunny still reside in Gunnison as they have for most of their lives.
“Every year we have four generations,” comments Missy, one of their nieces.
Jake was born at the hospital in Gunnison and grew up in Crested Butte as the son of a coal miner. He too became a coal miner, but relocated to Pueblo when the Big Mine closed down, and worked at a steel mill for a while. He was also in the army and was a firefighter for 30-plus years, travelling to California to fight wildfire in Yosemite with the US Forest Service.
Joyce Nielsen, Bunny and Jake’s sister-in-law who was married to Jake’s brother Marty, has alongside Bunny been a historian of the bunch since about 1967. She and Bunny have created a family tree that traces both the Spritzers and Kochevars back to those who came from Eastern Europe and eventually made the Gunnison Valley their home.
Family history
First was Martin Frank Spritzer, born in 1874 in Yugoslavia or Austria, from what his and his wife, Apolonia Mary Dorsil’s, descendants can tell.
“They came over from the old country, settled in Montana first and then came down to Crested Butte,” explains Bunny. Bunny married Jake Spritzer, the grandson of Martin and Apolonia.
Bunny notes that Jake’s mother was Ann Josephine Kochevar, whose parents Jacob Stephen Kochevar and Caroline Agnes Orazen were also born in the valley.
“The Spritzers were miners, and the Kochevars were carpenters,” says Bunny. Bunny has traced the Kochevar family back to Jacob John Kochevar, born in 1850, who brought his 16-year-old son Jacob Stephen Kochevar and later his wife, Marija Andoljsek, from what was formerly part of Yugoslavia and landed in Crested Butte as well.
They built the town hall, Kochevar’s bar, the Kochevar’s house, Jacob’s house on Second Street and Sopris and more,” says Bunny. “All of them are also buried at the Crested Butte cemetery.”
Jake’s dad, John Michael Spritzer, was nicknamed Junah, and Bunny says she knew she had been accepted as part of the family when her father-in-law began referring to her as “Bunnah.”
Jake grew up in his grandmother’s house on Sopris, and Bunny recalls sleeping there in the winter of 1964. “I had to be buried under tons of blankets to keep warm,” she says. She had met Jake in Denver and says, “I knew that Gunnison was as far north into the valley as I wanted to live.” Although it was cold in Gunnison too, she says she heard and saw enough about the snow removal in CB that she wanted no part of it.
She and Jake have lived in Gunnison since 1978. They did venture up north again this summer, however—as they have every year for the annual Spritzer reunion.
Missy Spritzer, Joyce’s daughter and the great granddaughter of the original Spritzers in CB, explains that their name Spritzer was adopted when her ancestors arrived in Ellis Island and were asked to simplify the spelling from Sprajcar (pronounced Sprashka) to something easier for non-Eastern Europeans to pronounce. However, the family has taken to using the original spelling as of late, including on their reunion sign and on a bright family flag that waves proudly at the campground each year.
The first reunions originated in 1925 “as near as we can tell, and maybe even before that,” says Joyce, when there was a miner’s cabin that belonged to the Spritzer family and two other cabins that belonged to their family friends, all complete with outhouses and potbelly stoves. And although those cabins were eventually torn down by the Forest Service, the campground remains.
“We used to have the reunion at Uncle Botsie’s cabin,” says Joyce. Botsie was one of Martin’s sons, who had come over from the old world and was known as a character around town. “He could play the accordion like you’ve never heard anybody,” she says of the well-known Botsie; he and his brothers have been credited with starting the polka music scene in CB, and their musical talents have been passed down several generations now.
Jake and Bunny’s grandson Zach explains that the older generations all play instruments and music is a big part of the reunion week. “There are always people playing accordions and guitars. There’s a lot of polka,” he says.
Other activities include fishing, corn hole and horseshoe tournaments. Often, the groups don’t even go into town. Missy says she hasn’t been into Crested Butte since she was about 15 years old, which was several decades ago. “I prefer to remember it the way it was in my youth,” she admits. Meanwhile, the reunion campsite transforms to a village of its own for the week, with encampments and games, music and cooking, and multiple generations all coming together to share stories and make new memories throughout the weekend and into the following week. As the gathering disperses, people return home to other towns in Colorado and across the country. But July Fourth weekend next summer, they plan to return for the 100th celebration of family tradition.
“We usually have a core group who stays on even after the holiday weekend. It’s better than Christmas—and I love Christmas!” exclaims Karen, Joyce and Marty’s daughter and one of the many Spritzer cousins.
The family says this has been a way to keep track of each other through the years, and each member has their own story of how they are connected to the group. On a warm summer day as they gathered for a spaghetti dinner, only about 25 people remained at the camp after the busy holiday reunion weekend. And a week later, everyone was back home with plans already underway for the centennial event of 2025.
“We’ve already decided we’re going to bring all the old albums and we’re going to try to put together a slideshow movie that just plays all day,” says Joyce. “And we want to bring back the original pachinka,” she says, which is a Slovenian tradition of roasting a whole goat and/or a pig over an open fire.
Dobra!
