On the main line from Cheyenne to Denver, where the cow-country meets the mountains, lies the brisk Colorado city of Greeley. Into Greeley with a flivver-pulled trailer in the fall of 1930 steamed one Elzy Alumbaugh ("Buzz") Hoover, 28, husky, square-cut, leather-lunged, with a diploma from Fred Reppart's School of Auctioneering, a wife, two children and $10. He found a place to park in Greeley's junky fringe, pushed his gallon hat back off his forehead, and got down to business.
Last week this same Buzz Hoover was packing to pull out of Greeley on a streamliner for a vacation, after the busiest...