100 years ago: “We must confess we are surprised that the press of our neighboring towns have given so little publicity to the approaching opening of the Durango Exchange, including the rest room. This institution is for the benefit of the citizens from the country adjacent to other towns, as well as those near Durango. ... It is located on the ground floor of the Century Building on Main Avenue.”
75 years ago: “Dr. J.W. Stovall of the University of Oklahoma, who has been excavating for fossil bones in this region, has changed his base near Aztec to a place southeast of Durango. There he expects to find fossils of Eocene mammals which roamed the territory about 60 million years ago at a time when this was a plains region.”
50 years ago: IGNACIO –“Directors of the Ignacio School District have reaffirmed their decision to close the school at Allison. Allison residents have objected to the closing of their school on the basis that development of the Navajo Lake area will bring in more population. The Ignacio board of education three weeks ago ordered the school closed because facilities are inadequate and the school population is low – only 17 students in the first four grades the past year. ... Allison students will be bussed to Ignacio.”
25 years ago: “A California man has been ordered to jail without bond in an unusual drug case that has the federal government protecting one alleged drug dealer from another. George Fee Howell, 50, of Riverside, Calif., has been ordered detained in the La Plata County Jail in connection with a July 13 drug bust in Durango. Howell is accused of extorting and threatening an associate in a drug deal, possessing cocaine with an intent to distribute and conspiring to distribute cocaine. ... Investigators said Howell had flown to Durango from California to pick up $150,000 and 10 kilos (22 pounds) of cocaine from ‘Robert,’ a 44-year-old man who had recently moved from California. ... Law enforcement agents, working with Robert, had set up a sting. They arrested Howell just after he allegedly tested the cocaine by snorting.”
Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Animas Museum and Center of Southwest Studies. Their accuracy may not be verified.
