100 years Ago: “Jimmy O’Rourke betook himself up to the property of the Sueno De Oro mining company, intending to prosecute work up there all through the coming winter. He recently struck the vein and has men now engaged in drifting on it. Good values have been found to date.”

75 years ago: “G.I. Crawford, of Boulder, representing the state game and fish department as predatory bird trapper, has been in Durango in the interest of his work. He has just finished building traps in spots were the birds are too plentiful, east of Durango, near Bayfield.”

50 years ago: “The fire danger is still extreme – but forest crews, aided by slurry planes and helicopters – have succeeded in bringing under control all of the fires which cropped up after an electrical storm.”

25 years ago: “Durango police harvested more than 1,700 marijuana plants from the same basement they raided eight years ago and arrested a former Durango dentist for the third time. The 62 year old oral surgeon who made headlines in 1980 when a pot-growing operation was discovered in the basement of his office, spent the night in La Plata County Jail. ... By federal standards the haul would be worth as much as $500,000.”

Most items in this column are taken from Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not have been verified.