If you’ve lived in Durango for five – or 50 – years, there’s something cool about hearing stories from the town’s early days.
On Thursday, the Turners, a six-generation Durango pioneer family, will be telling stories from days of old at the Henry Strater Theatre.
“Durango Native Stories’” will feature storytelling and historic images from the Turner family, including Rod Turner, fourth-generation Durangoan, and his son, Jack Turner.
“Our family’s been here for many years; Dad’s famous around town for his stories, going back to things his great-grandfather told him,” says Jack Turner. “It was actually his great-grandfather (John C. Turner) who first came here in 1860 as a member of the Baker Expedition, and they spent the winter here. They were looking for minerals. And then they went back (east) because the Civil War had started and everybody split and went their separate ways.”
John C. Turner returned back here in 1868 when the territory was opened up for homesteading, and settled on 160 acres in the east side of the Animas Valley.
And the family’s been here ever since.
Thursday night’s program is broken into two parts. On a stage set up like a living room, Rod Turner will tell stories from the family’s past. Then Jack Turner will take the stage and talk about his mother’s father, Ansel F. Hall, the first chief naturalist for the National Park Service.
In fact, all proceeds from “Durango Native Stories” will go to The Lost Files Project, a program that will go through boxes left behind by Hall.
“When Ansel left the Park Service in 1938 (he worked for the Park Service from 1917-1938) and bought the Mesa Verde concession, he gave my uncle about 25 boxes full of records that he’d been sitting on,” Jack Turner says. “My uncle held onto them for 50 years. ... (and) I finally got them from him.”
The boxes are currently at Fort Lewis College, and the family ultimately plans to give them to Center for Southwest Studies.
It’s not just the family that is interested in what the boxes contain: The Lost Files Project is supported by groups including Center for Southwest Studies, Colorado Humanities and Colorado Public Television.
The organizations “have recognized that this is a worthwhile project to go through these files, to catalogue them and transcribe them, and figure out what’s in there because there’s a lot of valuable Park Service history that no one has ever known about,” Jack Turner says. “Obviously from a personal point of view, I love the idea of getting my grandfather his due place in history.”
And at the heart of “Durango Native Stories” is an evening of sharing family – both past and present.
“I think it’s important because it’s living history – when you have true family experiences that aren’t necessarily written down anywhere,” Jack Turner says. “It’s just really a treasure.”
katie@durangoherald.com
If you go
What: Durango Native Stories
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday (Doors open at 7 p.m.).
Where: Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave.
Tickets: $10 advance/$15 at the door, available at the Strater box office, 699 Main Ave., by phone at 375-7160, online at www.henrystratertheatre.com and at Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.
More information: All proceeds will benefit The Lost Files Project.
