100 years ago: Classified wanted advertisements included “a good dining room girl at Trimble Springs Hotel” and “two competent men for firemen and must be willing to do police duty.”
75 years ago: Vegetation began to reappear on the northern slope of Smelter Mountain “after more than 30 years of bareness due to smoke conditions from the American Smelting and Refining Co. which destroyed shrubs and plants throughout the years.”
50 years ago: Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman expressed serious concern about “the declining farm prices and particularly the drop that has taken place in the last five or six months while the cost of production has been going up.”
25 years ago: Miller Middle School sixth-grader Spencer Rice single-handedly wrote, submitted and received a grant to plant four aspen, three crab apple and three pear trees on school grounds. He was honored at a tree-dedication ceremony and praised by peers, teachers and the community.
Most items in this column are taken from The Durango Herald archives, Center of Southwest Studies and Animas Museum. Their accuracy may not be verified.
