Ad
Columnists View from the Center Bear Smart The Travel Troubleshooter Dear Abby Student Aide Of Sound Mind Others Say Powerful solutions You are What You Eat Out Standing in the Fields What's up in Durango Skies Watch Yore Topknot Local First RE-4 Education Update MECC Cares for kids

Ag stories are hot potatoes these days

Nothing like a picture of cute kids or a strange potato. And here is both in one shot. This photo, taken by the legendary Sally Morrissey, appeared in the Herald in 1970, a half-century-plus ago, but the Herald is not averse to running photos like this in 2024, or even 2025. (Courtesy Potato Head/Durango Herald)

Dear Action Line: This Durango Herald photo and story is from 1970 when this town still cared about agriculture news. Yes, finding a very cool potato was more important than the three-way stop at Malfunction Junction and the angst about cars parking for church on Third Avenue on Sundays. Why is there no interest in agriculture in the Herald anymore? We could use a few more stories about cows, goats, the local hay crop and how farmers and ranchers did this year – even about taters. – Potato Head

Dear Potato Head: That is a really cute picture. So cute that Action Line firmly believes even the 2025 Durango Herald would find a way to run it if the opportunity arose.

From a big-picture perspective, it’s not surprising to find less ag news. Or business news. Or sports. Or anything. Newspapers, and their staffs, are smaller now.

Joe Proudman, a media specialist with the University of California-Davis’ CLEAR Center, which focuses on animal science, told a national animal ag group recently that agriculture reporters at papers are very hard to come by these days. The New York Times, for example, has nobody assigned to ag specifically, nor does USA Today. The Wall Street Journal has five who focus mostly on market issues, less about on-the-farm happenings. Proudman’s talk was covered by www.wattagnet.com.

The Herald, meanwhile, does not ignore the ag industry, but might not focus quite as much on it as in 1970. (Demographic changes make a difference, too. The percentage of farmers and ranchers in La Plata County was significantly higher then.)

Shane Benjamin, the Herald’s deputy editor, pointed out that the Herald won a 2024 Colorado Press Association award for a story about how the Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch is using its water allocation to prepare for a dry future. The story, “Seeding a sustainable future” (https://bit.ly/4fv7d4Y), written by Reuben Schafir, won first for best ag story against 11 other publications statewide.

Benjamin said:

“We write several stories every year on the Farmers Market, La Plata County Fair and Durango Cowboy Gathering. In August we wrote a big story (https://bit.ly/3DuhfG1) about the decline of agriculture nationwide, but not in La Plata County where things are trending upward. And we wrote a profile about a Bayfield High School student being named an FFA state officer. We wrote about how technology is bringing more people into the ag marketplace (https://bit.ly/49SDTnO). The list goes on and on. ...”

Benjamin said that if readers have fun or interesting ag-related story ideas they can email the staff at herald@durangoherald.com or use the news tip webpage: www.durangoherald.com/input/new-news-tip.

Interstate 40 runs north-south, according to this map at Junction Creek, the southern terminus of the 486-mile Colorado Trail. (Action Line)

Dear Action Line: I was hiking the Colorado Trail recently at Junction Creek and took a good look at the map at the trailhead, which caused some confusion. The map correctly has I-70 going east to west, but has I-40 (where I-25 should be) going north to south. Not only does I-40 not go north to south, it doesn’t even exist in Colorado! Was I in Colorado facing north, or in New Mexico facing west? That sign has been there a long time. It seems the Forest Service would have noticed it by now, and corrected its wayward ways. – Wondering Wanderer

Dear Wondering: At least they spelled Walsenburg right. And the other highways seem to be in the right places. The CT’s West Collegiate route is missing, but that’s no shock because it wasn’t completed until 2012.

For some reason, Action Line was unable to get a serious answer on this.

The U.S. Forest Service barely has money to keep the lights on, so this likely isn’t a top priority. And Action Line surmises that the Colorado Trail Foundation originally placed this map, maybe in the 1990s?

Bill Manning, former Trails 2000 (Durango Trails) and Colorado Trail Foundation director, and now a CTF board member, had this to say:

“Likely this goes back to 1940 when the I-25 concept was born. (Because) ’40 was such an important year in the history of this great north-south thoroughfare, the map maker chose to pay homage to it.”

See what Action Line faces sometimes?

Hate to contradict our good but facetious friend Bill, but the true history is that in the 1920s this was part of the Colorado to Gulf Highway route, which ran from Denver to Corpus Christi, Texas. At that point it was Route 26.

President Eisenhower, seeing from his war and business experience how valuable these road routes were, had a lot to do with constructing the modern interstate system. In 1956 he signed the Federal-Aid Highway System Act, paving the way for U.S. interstate construction. Work began on Interstate 25 in Colorado in 1958, using parts of the old Route 26 (called U.S. Highway 85/87 through most of Colorado by that time).

So, there’s some valuable history, if not an answer to your question. When and if this sign is ever replaced, Action Line is confident that the new mapmaker will get the interstates right. But will get something else wrong. Action Line would spell it Walsonberg, just for fun, but maybe that’s too mean?

Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Ike’s military road trip across the country in 1919 is fascinating. There are several books about it, but try Pete Davies’ “American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age.”



Share Your Feedback

    0 / 250 words