Why is the alley between Main Avenue and West Second Avenue blocked off between 28th and 29th streets? It’s been that way for as long as I can remember, but I never knew why. Thanks, Allie Walker
That section of alley, from the back of Walgreens to Dairy Queen, has indeed been closed for decades.
Action Line asked our good friend Greg Hoch, the city’s director of planning and community development, about this peculiarity.
He went into the dusty archives and discovered that the alley was an abandonment dating back to June 25, 1946.
That’s about when Animas City and Durango were coming together. So it probably had something to do with municipal merging, which occurred in 1948.
“The records show the guy who owned the adjacent lot was named Lowell H. Carter,” said Greg. “We don’t know the circumstances of the abandonment, but it looks like a political decision.”
In other words, ol’ Lowell probably knew someone on City Council and was granted a favor.
That’s how things were done back then.
Kind of like now, except there was no City Span 10 because of the fact that TV had not been invented.
When you think about it, closing a section of alley set a precedent.
In 1946, the city established the Alley to Nowhere. More than 50 years later, we have a bridge to match that alley.
Top it off with The Lake That No None Can Get To.
So now you have the trifecta of inaccessibility in a town obsessed with multimodal transportation. Perfect.
Did you see that reader board on a North Main motel that said “Best Rats in Town?” That’s good to know. Personally, I would not want to stay at a place with the “Worst Rats in Town.” – Curious
Sadly, the sign was gone by the time Action Line investigated the situation.
But it brings up an interesting query: Are there rats in Durango?
Action Line, being a journalist, is intimately familiar with vermin.
And though we say we can “smell a rat,” it doesn’t confirm their presence.
So we asked the experts about rats in Durango. “It’s a yes and no answer,” said Kryn Howell, with Care Pest Control Specialists, a local extermination service that’s been in business for 20 years.
“When you think of rat, you probably mean Norway rats or ‘sewer rats’ that you see in big cities. But we don’t have these here,” Kryn confirmed.
“What we do have is the bushy tailed woodrat, with is another name for packrat.”
Packrats “are kind of cute, looking like a squirrel with a bushy tail,” she said.
But the critters are destructive and make messy, smelly nests, primarily in rural homes, parked RVs and outbuildings.
So it’s false advertising when local motels to claim to have the “Best Rats in Town.”
Durango is just not a rat kind of place, except for river rats, which aren’t “rats” despite their unkempt appearances and odoriferous tendencies.
Regardless, if you think you have rats, better spend some money with Care Pest Control.
Either that, or you can buy a vowel.
An “E” might come in handy for a motel with the “Best Rats in Town.”
Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if the 10-speed bike gathering dust in the garage has ‘rat-trap’ pedals.
