Columnists - The Durango Herald

‘Alzheimer’s can’t keep me from running’: With dementia, get moving and mindful

When my husband, Dr. Alan Schooley, was diagnosed with Young Onset Alzheimer’s at age 51, the Denver medical team recommended the MIND Diet, intense exercise and meditation. I worked the MIN...

DATE: Jul 23, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

La Plata County budget crisis calls for shared responsibility and leadership

To begin, we welcome Elizabeth Philbrick to the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners, replacing Clyde Church who resigned his seat so that he could take care of his family. We thank...

DATE: Jul 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Durango Vineyard Church purchases old Nissan dealership

Dear Action Line, I heard that the Vineyard Church will take over the Nissan building as their new place of worship. Vineyard is a nondenominational Christian group. Like so many ne...

DATE: Jul 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Action Line

ICE, or how to waste billions to sabotage the economy

Someone should sic DOGE on that pork barrel with a fuse, ICE. POTUS’s “big, beautiful bill” wastes billions of taxpayers’ money funding the largest, most expensive police force in the world,...

DATE: Jul 20, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Go ahead be yourself, it looks good on you and you’ll flourish here

I had an epiphany the other day. It was low key as epiphanies go, easily overlooked, but it illuminated an aspect of how life is lived in Durango. I’ll explain. The day began with two of us ...

DATE: Jul 20, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Wife blames mother for infidelity

DEAR ABBY: When my daughter, “Trish,” and her husband separated, I reached out to each of them for occasional check-ins. Trish left him after confessing to infidelity via email. He messaged ...

DATE: Jul 20, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

If history is any guide, this moment signals a new beginning about to commence

Not proud, wanting to be, but just not feeling it. That sums up the mood of young adults in America these days. The numbers don’t lie, the youngest two generations are significantly less lik...

DATE: Jul 18, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Mother-in-law playing for keeps

DEAR ABBY: I am married to a man who is incarcerated. As you can imagine, it’s been hard on our family. I have two kids with him. I was pregnant with our youngest when he was arrested. Accor...

DATE: Jul 18, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Celebrating 35 years of compassionate commerce at the LPCHS Thrift Store

For 35 years, the La Plata County Humane Society Thrift Store has done more than sell gently used treasures – it has funded a mission that has rehomed thousands of shelter pets. As we celebr...

DATE: Jul 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Boulder district attorney visits Durango on campaign trail for Colorado’s top prosecutor job

Candidate urges residents to ‘hold him accountable’ on legislative promises

DATE: Jul 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: Local News

Music in the Mountains goes to the movies

It’s “take your daughter to work day” for Music in the Mountains’ Conductor Richard Kaufman. Kaufman has been a regular on the musical podium at Durango’s annual classical and then some musi...

DATE: Jul 16, 2025 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Cruelty is the point, fear the purpose of Trump’s approach to immigration

Immigration is what built the United States, but it has always been problematic. Almost every group of people who immigrated after the first English/Protestant settlers faced legal and extra...

DATE: Jul 16, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Photos: High County Cattle Auction

High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s