HESPERUS – La Plata County’s annual driving tour took a turn into different format this year. There was just one destination – the Old Fort in Hesperus – where its 145-year history was the center of focus.
The daylong event was held June 28. About 130 people attended a series of presentations about the Old Fort’s history before guided tours in the afternoon.
The Old Fort served as a military fort for much of the 1800s, a high school for two decades in the early 1900s and was briefly a Colorado A & M two-year college. But its time as an Indian boarding school between 1892 and 1909, and the reconciliation work FLC is pursuing with the Old Fort today, are certainly forefront in the campus’ history, Old Fort director Beth LaShell said.
“Agriculture was used as an assimilation tool during the boarding school time, and now we use it as a reconciliation tool,” she said.
Thirty percent to 40% of participants in FLC’s Old Fort ranching and agriculture programs are Native American, she said. Using reconciliation as a tool is a way to recognize trauma.
The Old Fort’s agriculture programs have greatly expanded over the years. It started with one incubator program for independent businesses and has grown to accommodate people at different levels of experience.
Specialty crop production, farmers in training and field assistant programs are just some of the applications practiced at the Old Fort.
Some attendees went to the Old Fort to learn about its history. Others were there to learn more about the farming operations.
Herb Folsom said he took a tour of the campus to learn about low-impact agriculture efforts there.
He was accompanied by Mary Meuser, who said she’d toured the farm before and she loves farming, but she was drawn to the Old Fort that day for the history component.
The pair had somewhat exchanged interests at the outing.
“Mary’s a real garden buff and I’m a history buff and so this is a good place to be,” Folsom said.
He said he was fascinated by the “neat mix of shared learning” occurring at the Old Fort, noting the integration between groups such as small farmers, Colorado State University Fort Collins, FLC and the Hopi Tribe.
Meuser said she appreciates that FLC is bringing the Old Fort farm into its reconciliation project with certain crops such as blue corn.
“An important part of the reconciliation work that we do at Fort Lewis College is to ensure that we're growing native foods and also giving back to Native communities with those culturally appropriate foods,” said Emily Bell, tour guide and coordinator of the Farmer Training Program.
cburney@durangoherald.com
