Remembering Stephanie Kalafsky
1951 – 2010
Stephanie Kalafsky was born in Chicago in 1951, grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and came to Colorado in a VW bus in the early 1970s.
She was introduced to Central City in 1975 when she rode in on the back of Sandy Hoffman’s Harley. He says he kidnapped her to take her to a party somewhere around Central – the site is long forgotten.
After four or five days, Sandy noticed that she was still there partying with him and asked, “Wait a minute, don’t you have a job down there in Denver?”
“I called and quit.”
And she stayed.
So began one of Central’s great love stories.
They moved into Fat Tommy’s mining shack near the National Mine. Sandy says that when water started running into the shack, Tommy simply chopped a hole in the wall so that the water could run on out. “It was that kind of shack,” Sandy says.
The next spring, when Stephanie’s birthday came (April 4th), Sandy had no money to buy her a present. “So I got her a job for her birthday.” It was as a waitress at the Gilded Garter.
Over the years, she had many jobs in the food and beverage business in Central and Black Hawk, including stints at the Gold Coin, the Copper Broiler, the Glory Hole, the Mermaid, Crook’s Palace, the Teller House, the Golden Canary, and Otto’s.
Along the way, Sandy and Stephanie settled into their cabin in Missouri Flats (kind of a suburb of Russell Gulch) off the grid. Electricity came from solar panels to power a few light bulbs and a TV-and-dish setup. With the help of an inverter, they had enough 120-volt electricity to power a blender so that Stephanie could make smoothies for Sandy.
Water was scarce and Stephanie had a glorious head of hair, so she mastered the art of washing her hair using very little water.
When Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino (now the Fortune Valley Casino) opened, some friends got a hotel room on opening night to have a party. Naturally, Sandy and Stephanie attended. And, not surprisingly, Stephanie disappeared into the bathroom to enjoy the luxury of hair washing with unlimited hot water.
One of their many motorcycle trips around the country took them to a chilly campsite in Yosemite. In the morning, they went to a rest stop to freshen up. Once again, Stephanie went to the rest room and didn’t reappear for a very long time. When she finally came out, she said to a lady who worked there, “You know, there’s hot water in your toilets.”
The lady explained that there were a lot of hot springs around there and hot water is plentiful. Hearing this, Stephanie turned to Sandy and said, “You go on. I’m going to stay here.”
The couple tried to secretly get married at the Gilpin County Courthouse in October of 1979, but they were discovered by friends signing the papers at the desk of the Clerk & Recorder.
Sandy said, “It was really a shame. Ruined our image. Living in sin is so much more fun.”
Stephanie was an outstanding cook on their wood-fired cook stove, as well as being a great seamstress who made all of her own Lou Bunch Days costumes, and was also an extraordinary gardener. Her columbines were legendary – so much so, that she was a high altitude test gardener for a Boulder flower-and-seed company.
Nearly two years ago, Stephanie was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
On March 21, she died at Lutheran Hospital’s hospice. She had spent 35 of her 58 years in Gilpin County.
She is survived by Sandy, two cats, and a large circle of friends and admirers.
A community party to celebrate Stephanie’s life will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, at the Central City Elks Lodge – all are welcome.