I grew up in Durango walking uphill to school both ways, squishing slugs on the tangled pig iron next to the railroad tracks, and dodging trash strewn beside or sometimes directly in the river. OK, I exaggerate slightly: School was only two flat blocks away. The rest, my friends, is the honest to goodness state of Durango in the ’60s and ’70s; Idyllic, yes, Mayberry–like, yes.
It was also, scruffy and more than a little rough around the edges. It frankly didn’t smell so good either. My friends and I spent our summer days on the river, or on Animas Mountain, or on Hogsback. Fast forward to today, and every one of those places is better thanks to some visionary folks and a trifling half-cent sales tax. The Animas River Trail is a thing of incredible beauty. Riding or walking its slug-free smoothness sans garbage and pig iron allows everyone a quick dose of nature just a few blocks away from 90 percent of our citizens.
It is not unusual to see an osprey, beaver or Swainson’s hawk on your walk. And the trails! Where we once hunted lizards and fossils on crumbling shale, treading carefully around miles of barbed wire, there are now miles of brilliantly designed sinuous single track. You might want to indulge in nostalgia, but let’s be honest: More people have more fun in more ways in Durango’s side country today thanks to a barely perceptible half-a-penny sales tax.
If you love Durango like I love Durango, you’ll vote to reauthorize the half-cent sales tax for recreation and trails. Durango just keeps getting better.
Patrick Owens
Durango
