100 years ago: “The McKinney Clothing Company, a well-known exclusive men’s clothing and gent’s furnishing establishment of this city, purchased the entire stock and fixtures of the Golden Rule store. D.R. McKinney informed us that he had purchased the immense high-class stock of goods at an extraordinarily low figure and promised that when the store reopened the prices that he will make public will look like sifted peas.”
75 years ago: The following appeared in the section titled Sunnyside News: “The owners of combines are busy signing contracts for custom harvesting, as the planted wheat is nearly ready for care.”
50 years ago: “Witching does work. This word came from Cal Putnam, director of transportation for Durango 9-R School district. Putnam said he witched a well at the site of the new school bus garage a mile east of Durango on the Florida Road. ‘We did go down about 40 feet,’ Putnam said in confirming an earlier report of depth, ‘but we had to wash out the well and remove the loosening sand. We hit water at about 33 feet, and drilled onto 61 feet. We now have 35 feet of water – a 1,200 gallon per hour well.”
25 years ago: “Road wiser and bottom wearier, a candidate for La Plata County commissioner last weekend fulfilled a campaign promise to ride his bicycle over every paved mile of county road before the Aug. 9 primary. Jeff Bryson, Republican candidate from District 2, pedaled the 250 miles in 16 rides during the last three months. ... ‘The roads are not in nearly as bad a condition as I thought they would be,’ Bryson said, judging that most roads fall in the generic C to B-minus category.”
Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not have been verified.
