According to a July 1, 2022, U.S. Census report, there are about 19,531 Durango residents …
If you’re just counting the living.
But stick around this town long enough, and you’ll hear plenty of stories of a separate – but arguably just as active – population we just can’t always see: The ghosts of people who were here before us and for whatever reason are stuck between the world of the living and what lies beyond.
For the para-curious, there’s a special evening planned for Oct. 21 that is not only a look behind the veil of this mortal coil, but helps raise money for the kiddos and teachers as well.
Durango Education Foundation will hold its “Spirits with the Spectres,” and if participants are lucky, not only will they get to enjoy cocktails, cool history lessons and hear from teachers, but some ghostly hosts may appear as well.
DEF, according to its mission statement, “is a community organization of dedicated volunteers and paid staff, who together cultivate life-changing academic learning opportunities for pre-K through grade 12 students in Durango School District 9-R, and provide resources that positively impact the educational experience of the 9-R community.” While it is a committed partner to 9-R, it is its own independent nonprofit organization.
“We’re really excited about it. I'm so they contacted me with this idea,” said Laine Johnson, owner of Durango’s Horsefly History Tours, who’s helping coordinate the event. “It’s been something I’ve been kind of curious about doing for a while because I would love people to see some of these basements. … It’s going to be really spooky.”
Johnson is known for her Hauntings and History: Durango Ghost Tour and The Quick and Dirty History Tour. She’s taken groups up and down the downtown segment of Main Avenue, telling the stories of people who came before us – and has even brought the curious beneath the town into some of the tunnel segments that were in use in old-time Durango.
The way Spirits with the Spectres will work is that there will be 60 tickets sold, and participants will be split into three groups of 20. The evening will begin at with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the Pullman Ballroom at the Strater Hotel. Then, at 6:30 p.m., guests will begin their rotation through three locations downtown: the basement of the Hermosa Cafe, The Durango Winery/Subterrain, and the underground tunnel beneath El Rancho Tavern. At each stop, participants will be served a signature cocktail and hors d'oeuvres, hear from a Durango School District 9-R teacher who has benefited from a Durango Education Foundation grant, and then learn of the haunted history associated with each stop.
The foundation said there will be a drawing for prizes at each stop as well. And when guests have visited all three stops, they will return to the Strater, where silent auction winners will be announced and dessert will be served.
If you go
WHAT: Durango Education Foundation’s Spirits with the Spectres fundraiser.
WHEN: 5:30-9 p.m. Oct. 21.
WHERE: Evening begins at Strater Hotel, 699 Main Ave.
TICKETS: $150, available online at https://tinyurl.com/2p9duay9.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit https://tinyurl.com/2p9duay9. For more about Horsefly History Tours, visit www.horseflyhistory.com.
NOTE: The evening is open to those 21 and older only.
Johnson said she believes the town has more than its fair share of ghosts and otherworldly entities – and the area’s geology may be partly responsible; in fact, she said, there’s a theory that holds that certain types of rocks and minerals can actually absorb energy from past events.
“I will say I really do believe Durango is unusually haunted. There are so many reports coming out of all of these buildings of activity. I've never done those tours in another town, but it seems like an unusual number of ghosts and I think our geology here is playing into that kind of holding energy,” she said. “There’s something called Stone Tape theory. It’s the notion that certain types of geology can actually absorb energy from traumatic events. It’s quartz, magnetite and limestone, and those are three that we have a lot of around here. I think the fact that some of these buildings still have big boulders and the stone, a lot of its limestone that's in these basements, maybe that has something to do with it. We obviously had a ton of traumatic deaths.”
And for those who can’t make the fundraiser, but are curious about Durango, both mortal and … otherwise, Horsefly History Tours also conducts walks downtown, which for Johnson is important not only because the walks are fun and educational, but what people learn – and maybe even experience – can lead to bigger conversations.
“I like a good mystery, and I like the unknown,” she said. “The best part about it is to see people come on a tour and their eyes light up with all this information. And they can have such interesting conversation afterward. It’s a fun way to bring people together and, of course, having a little bit of the thrills and the goose bumps. It’s just a different way to experience the history here, because the history is still alive – it really is still living in these buildings.”
katie@durangoherald.com
