Action Line: Today’s quiz: Where on Earth is the Oppie Reames Nature Trail and who was Oppie Reames? – Leaving a Trail
Dear Leaving: Good question. Really good question.
Tallahassee? Tipperary? Timbuktu?
Action Line scoured the world, only to find that it is in Durango.
Officially, it’s the dirt trail that parallels the Animas River Trail between the Memorial Park parking area (29th Street and East Third Avenue) and the swingset/park between Rio Vista Drive and the Demon Bridge, said Scott McClain, Durango’s assistant parks director.
Research revealed that at one time the trail apparently went all the way to near Island Cove Trailer Park. So it might have included that unmaintained dirt trail that parallels the east side of the Animas River south of the Demon Bridge. That trail is on city land until you head up toward Riverview Drive; then you’re technically trespassing.
As you may have suspected, Oppie was a naturalist at heart. She could tell your rock wrens from your water ouzels, and a whole lot more. To Durangoans of the mid-20th century, she was also an influential school teacher.
Oppie was born in Oklahoma Territory in 1907, months before it became the 46th state. She had a younger sister, Opal, and younger brother, Odell. (Oppie, Opal and Odell from Oklahoma. Oh my!) By 1930, Oppie was a teacher in Blanchard, Oklahoma. When their parents moved to a ranch east of Ignacio in the mid-1930s, Oppie and Odell came, too. Them was Dust Bowl/Grapes of Wrath days, a good time to vamoose from Okie land.
Oppie started work at Animas City Elementary School, now home to the Animas Museum, in 1943-44, teaching third and fourth grades. Over the next 24 years, she taught there and served as principal. She retired in 1967.
In that period she inspired a generation of Durango’s youths and adults with her love of nature. As her nephew Chuck Reames said in a 1997 Durango Herald story, she wrote the proverbial book on bird-watching around here. As a local Audubon Society leader, she took groups on bird-sighting excursions and began a local Christmas bird count in 1946. Chuck still lives in Durango.
Many Durangoans will recognize the name Kip Stransky, a noted bird-watcher and longtime game warden with the Durango office of the state Division of Wildlife (now Colorado Parks and Wildlife). He retired in 2004.
“Oppie was a major, if not the reason, I got so involved with birds and birding,” Stransky said when tracked down by Action Line in Arizona. “She was a fantastic educator for many hundreds of people.”
Stransky and Robert McDaniel, former director of the Animas Museum, were classmates and third grade students under Oppie.
Said McDaniel, “The bird memory that sticks in my mind is her educating us about evening grosbeaks, which always appeared in the fall to eat the seeds of the box elder trees that populated the school grounds.”
Stransky said Oppie was an excellent gardener who had an eye for design and art. He helped in her garden. They became in-laws when Stransky’s aunt married Odell.
When he was old enough to drive, Stransky acquired an open-top 1953 Jeep that was perfect for birding. The back seat was elevated above the windshield for the optimal birding perch, and Oppie loved to ride there – no matter what the weather, Stransky recalled.
Although small in stature, she had a commanding presence, Stransky said. “Her school teacher ‘eye’ was enough to melt anyone into being well-behaved.”
Although much of his third grade education escapes him, Stransky does remember her one day pointing out a European starling, perhaps the first local sighting. “She was excited seeing the bird. … She was the birding expert and authority for Southwest Colorado. She reported to several national sites.”
Oppie never married. She was dedicated to her birds and students. One of McDaniel’s memories is of Oppie, as principal, calling in the students from recess with an old hand-held school bell.
“In the warmer months when she wore something short-sleeved, her triceps looked like quivering turkey flesh with the up-and-down motion of her arm as she rang the bell,” McDaniel said. “I do remember her being a good teacher, as most of my teachers were at the Animas School.”
Oppie was given the bell when she retired. Decades later, McDaniel tried to acquire that bell for the museum, but the family wouldn’t part with it.
Oppie, at age 65, died in 1972. A Fort Lewis College professor, Maynard Fox, requested that the City Council dedicate that trail section to Oppie Reames, and so it came to pass on Sept. 21, 1976.
It’s been 45 years since the trail dedication, but it’s heartwarming to see that Oppie’s spirit remains.
“Thank you,” Stransky said, “for keeping her memory alive.”
As everyone must know by now, Action Line is nothing if not a romantic.
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Does Oppie deserve a new sign?
