GET REAL
DURANGO
Immerse yourself in the Old West
By BONNIE MCCUNE
Durango seems hidden away,
much like the enchanted
town of Brigadoon, for it's
easy to miss. First, you have
to want to get there. You don't stumble
on it accidentally when trying to drive to
Salt Lake City or Albuquerque.
Then the town center is beyond the
curve in the road where Highway 160
from the west and Highway 550 from
the south meet and merge for a few
miles. Unless you deliberately head for
original old Durango, you just might
overlook it.
Don't. There's too much real charm,
too much real Old West to drift on past,
even if you're ultimately bound for the
ski area, the national forest or Mesa
Verde National Park, all of which are
nearby and deserve exploration.
Will Rogers said, "Durango is out of
the way and glad of it." It's still out of the
way, but not that far. Paved highways and
magnificent scenery take you there from
Denver in six hours in good weather.
Once you're roaming the main part of
Durango, leisurely sample an array of
attractions that belie the town's yearround
population of some 16,000. First
is the Durango & Silverton Railroad, the
impetus for the creation of the town
itself. Then there's historic Main Street,
where boutiques, restaurants, one-of-akinds
and art galleries abound. Add a
couple of local museums and you're
pretty much living history.
Downtown has almost as many
restaurants per capita as San Francisco,
the restaurant capital of the western
United States. Local resident Shelley
Walchak mentions her favorite, Chez
Grand-Mere, on Depot Place. Although
not inexpensive, it's the best French
restaurant she's visited in this country.
Then, in addition to many outstanding
New Mexican and Mexican establishments,
there's the Ore House, on East
College a block from the depot,
patronized by the late activist author
Edward Abbey.
VARIETY FROM
THE BEGINNING
Humans visited the region long
before the settlement of Durango. Paleo-Indian hunters (12000 to 8000 B.C.) followed
buffalo herds and left traces of
their existence. In the mid-19th century,
a treaty removed the Ute tribes, and
prospectors searching for gold and silver
trekked here. Service industries such as
retail operations, agriculture and ranching
supported mining operations.
Durango was established in 1880 as
the railhead for the Denver & Rio Grande
Railroad line, to move goods and mine
products economically. The boom was on
until the price of silver crashed in 1893,
and easily accessible gold played out.
At that point Durango could have
become a ghost town, but it never
died. In the 1890s the Mesa Verde cliff
dwellings were discovered nearby, giving
an impetus to tourism. Helping to
diversify the local economy was the
establishment in 1905 of the San Juan
National Forest.
The addition of Purgatory Ski Resort
as well as the expansion of Fort Lewis
College, originally for Native Americans,
into a four-year liberal arts institution
continued to stabilize the area.
A thriving cultural community draws
people from around the entire region,
who cross the Four Corners and state
borders whenever an interesting activity
beckons. Visual and performing arts, folk
crafts, Native American displays and
demonstrations — something's happening
every week. You don't have to travel
far, and frequently you can walk to visit
activities like these:
• The Durango Arts Center —
includes a gallery, museum shop, performances
and educational exhibits.
• Fort Lewis College Community
Concert Hall — a state-of-the-art facility
with an array of musical productions,
individual performers, opera, musical
groups and musicals.
• Durango Fish Hatchery and
Wildlife Visitor Center — an excellent
place to learn about the habits and
needs of fish. Fun to visit during a feeding
at the show ponds.
• Animas Museum — housed in an
historic 1904 school building, the only
history museum in Durango, fun for kids
as well as grown-ups.
• Durango Children’s Museum —
upstairs in the Art Center, its 1,000
square feet are full of hands-on fun and
learning.
• Durango Nature Center — off the
main highway and nestled along a river,
a wonderful opportunity to learn about
and experience more of outdoor
Colorado.
Of course, the pride of the town is
the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge
Railroad, just off Main Street. In continuous
operation for more than 125
years, the locomotive now hauls only
human visitors back and forth to the
neighboring enclave. The coal-fired,
steam-powered locomotives are 1923-25 vintage, maintained in original condition.
The train's coaches and open
gondola cars offer passengers
Colorado's finest scenery.
The trip takes about two and a half
hours. From 1940 on, Hollywood has
used the train as a set for numerous
movies, including Around the World in
80 Days and Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid.
Special events coming up this fall
include the Oktoberfest downtown, a three-day Cowboy Gathering in early
October (music, poetry, storytelling) and
Singing with Santa and Tree Lighting in
late November. At other times of the
year, check for Music in the Mountains,
the Durango Film Festival and the Iron
Horse bike race to Silverton.
If you stay in town, Walchak suggests
you get your exercise on the Animas
River Trail, five miles of hard surface
along the beautiful Animas River. The
north end of this popular route is the intersection of 32nd Avenue and East
2nd Avenue (across the river from City
Market North). It travels south through
several city parks and across five bridges
to the south end. You can walk, jog or
bike as briefly or as long as you like.
Walchak recommends two well known
hotels for a pleasant as well as
historic night's sleep. Both are on Main
Street and have reasonable rates. Try
the Strater Hotel, 699 Main Ave., (800)
247-4431, www.strater.com, where
Western author Louis L'Amour had a
room, or the General Palmer Hotel, 567
Main Ave., (800) 523-3358, www.generalpalmerhotel.com.
THE ENVIRONS
A trip to Durango is only the beginning.
If you're in the southwestern part
of the state, go ahead and extend your
stay. Durango is situated along the most
scenic road in America — the San Juan
Skyway. Day trips along the highway
reach the old mining town of Silverton
and western neighbor Cortez. The drive
alone is worthwhile. Fall brings brilliantly
colored aspens and snow-capped
peaks. Walchak says, "Everywhere you
look, there's a view, peacefulness."
Silverton, a tiny community, lies 45
miles and thousands of vertical feet
away. It appears never to have left its
beginnings in 1874. With many of its
original buildings intact and very little
recent development, the entire town has
been designated a National Historic
Landmark. It’s a favorite destination for
train fans and history buffs, not to mention
shoppers.
All the surroundings near the train
depot are devoted to stores housed in
original cabins and buildings. Several historic
hotels have reasonable rates for
lodging. Add the San Juan County
Museum, the Old Hundred Gold Mine
Tour and the Mayflower Mill, showing
how metals are processed from rock, and
you can while away an afternoon or several
days.
Because of its location near forests,
rivers and mountains, Durango is popular
with sports and nature enthusiasts.
Lots of bicyclists, kayakers, skiers and
runners, amateur and professional, live
here or visit regularly. Durango has been
rated one of Outside Magazine's top 15
sports towns as well as Best Mountain
Biking Town of 2006.
The nearby ski and resort area, once
called Purgatory, now known as
Durango Mountain Resort, lies 25 miles
north of Durango. In summer and fall, try the Alpine slide, miniature golf, free
naturalist tours and horseback rides. Or
go for the unusual: Hike with a llama
who carries wine, cheese and lunch. In
winter's ski season, slated for Dec. 1 to
March 30, select from snowshoeing, ski
biking, cross country, snowcat and tubing,
in addition to downhill skiing on
85 trails. Snowboarders can fly at the
Paradise Freestyle Arena or the
Pitchfork Terrain Garden.
Prefer a more natural approach to
nature? San Juan National Forest and
several wilderness areas are also nearby.
Nature's unending benevolence
permits these wonderlands to be
reborn year after year, even in the face
of devastating forest fires, such as the
one in 2002. These areas contain
campgrounds, hiking trails, horseback
riding and other delights.
The best is last — Mesa Verde
National Monument. If you can, scurry
on in before Oct. 14, when the Visitor
Center and a number of cliff dwellings
close for the season. (Everything reopens
in late May through summer.) The
No. 1 showpiece in the state, Mesa
Verde's unique ancient Pueblo Indian
buildings and ruins take your breath
away. Best known for the towering and
elaborate stone villages in canyons
known as "cliff dwellings," representing
only the last 100 years or so of its occupation,
the Park also includes other
architectural relics of structures used
over 700 years (600–1300 A.D.)
Mesa Verde was declared a World
Heritage Site in 1978. Do not try to
make it a quick side trip, for the drive
from Durango on decent but winding
roads takes about 1.5 hours. You can
camp or make reservations at the Far
View Lodge.
FINAL HINTS:
• Find a calendar of events at www.creativelinks.com/index.html.
• Other general information at www.durango.com and www.durango.org.
• Information, lodging and reservations:
1-800-463.8726, Durango Tourism
Office.
• San Juan National Forest information
at www.fs.fed.us/r2/sanjuan/.
• Immerse yourself in the myths of
the Old West with several classic
Westerns from Louis L'Amour, who
wrote at the Strater Hotel. For sale anywhere
in town.
• Mesa Verde National Park information
at www.nps.gov/meve/.
