And the West is History: Durango High baseball team – ca. 1905

Pictured on the steps of the old Central (1892 Durango High) School are players from the 1904 or 1905 varsity team. The only identified player is 1905 graduate Lawrence Buckley, second from right, front row. Buckley was not related to the Buckley brothers, for whom Buckley Park derives its name. Lawrence’s father owned a sawmill near present-day Vallecito Reservoir and a lumberyard in Durango. The mill burned in 1906, and the family eventually moved to Oregon to continue in the lumber business. Severely injured from a sawmill accident in April 1913, Lawrence lingered on the edge of death for a month. He fully recovered, and in July 1914, he and his wife welcomed a new baby girl into the Buckley family. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum (Catalog Number: 07.16.4 from the La Plata County Historical Society Photo Collections)