100 years ago: “Casey Gibbs hopped off the Eastern when it pulled into Jim Brown’s depot and remarked that the Denver Elks’ jubilee was some work but nothing like one can find on Main Avenue in Durango shortly after 1 o’clock any night except Sunday.”
75 years ago: “A Durango man who was recently given a 60 day jail sentence for stealing a girl’s bicycle, has been put on a strict diet at the La Plata County Jail. The man had refused to do any work when ordered and he had been put on a diet of bread and water to stir up his latent working ambitions.”
50 years ago: “Mr. and Mrs. Mark Thomas flagged down the Silverton train when heavy rains brought boulders and mud down the mountainside July 11 and blocked the tracks just before the returning train came along the canyon above the Thomases’ Animas Valley home. The Thomas family were guests on the D&RGW in the General William Jackson Palmer private car.”
25 years ago: “The U.S. Forest Service has set up a slurry bomber station at the Durango-La Plata County Airport for an indefinite time to help fight fires in the area. ... The big tankers normally fly out of Grand Junction or Albuquerque if they’re needed in this corner of the state. But extremely dry conditions necessitated the satellite station.”
Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not be verified.
