Colorado’s governors: Teller Ammons

Our series on Colorado’s governors continues with Teller Ammons, Colorado’s 28^th governor. Governor Ammons served one term from 1937-1939. As part of the State Publications Library’s effort to digitize governors’ addresses, Governor Ammons’ 1937 inaugural address to the Colorado General Assembly is available in our digital collection.

Early life

Teller Ammons was born in 1895 to Elizabeth Ammons and Governor Elias M. Ammons, who served from 1912-1914. Clearly, politics was in his blood! Teller Ammons spent his early childhood in rural Douglas County before moving to Denver to attend North High School. He served two years in the U.S. Army during World War I, then returned to Colorado to try his hand at homesteading in Grand County. He moved to Denver in 1923 worked various jobs while he earned his law degree by taking evening classes at Westminster Law School.

Ammons married Esther Davis in 1933, with whom he adopted a son named Davis Ammons.

Political career

Ammons’ political career began when he was elected to represent Denver as a state senator. He was reelected in 1934, but left the Colorado legislature in 1935 to serve as Denver’s City Attorney. He became the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in 1936 and was inaugurated into the governor’s office in 1937.

In his inauguration speech, Ammons focused on two topics that would come to define his term: water management and state tax revenues. He highlighted the importance of water supply for Colorado’s growing population and industries, encouraging the General Assembly to establish the Colorado Water Conservation Board, which they did in 1937. The Board and other regional organizations worked together to initiate the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, a massive water diversion project that redirected Colorado River headwaters to the northern Plains. Original plans from the project are available to read in our digital collection.

Ammons also asked that the executive office and the legislature work together to create an “economical and efficient government.” Part of this vision was to make sure that tax funds earmarked for education were used only for education and not to make up for shortfalls in other areas of the budget, as they had in previous administrations. Instead, he pushed for an additional tax to fund the state’s operating expenses, a move that received plenty of public opposition.  

Ammons was also the subject of a bugging incident that the press named the “microphone scandal.” Shortly before Ammons began his term, a private detective and a reporter hid two microphones in ventilator shafts in Ammons’ future office. These microphones were hooked up to a telephone line that led to the detective’s office a few blocks away from the capitol building. The microphones were apparently hidden at the request of Earl Ellis, an attorney who claimed that he was trying to uncover illegal activity from elected officials. The microphones were eventually found, leading to a highly publicized grand jury investigation and the convictions all three men on eavesdropping charges. The recordings never revealed wrongdoing by Ammons or his team – he later said that the worst part was his mother finding out the type of language he used in private.

Life after politics

After being defeated in the 1938 election, Ammons continued his military service as an officer in Guam during World War II. After the war, he practiced law in Denver until he retired to travel around the world with his wife, Esther. The second Governor Ammons died on January 16, 1972 and is buried in Fairmount Cemetery.