Living Our Dream

Taos Part II: Spanish and Anglo Influences

In our previous post, we talked about how we learned about the mix of cultures on our tour of Taos and how we explored the Taos Pueblo.

Another stop on the tour was Taos Plaza. When the Spanish came to the area for the second time in the 1700s, they built plazas primarily as a means of defense. Homes were built in large quadrangles surrounded by high walls. At the center of the plaza there was usually a church. The plazas also were places for markets and shops.

The original Taos Plaza dates from the late 1700s. Over the years, there have been numerous fires and many buildings have been lost and rebuilt. The current character of the plaza, which today is primarily made up of shops and restaurants, dates largely from the 1930s. The photo below shows a couple of locals relaxing on a bench with some of the plaza shops in the background.

 

Another place on our tour where we saw the concept of the plaza was at San Francisco de Asis (Saint Francis of Assisi) Mission Church at Ranchos de Taos Plaza. This mission, which is located a little to the south of Taos, was built in the late 1700s from the same type of adobe as the pueblo. The church has thick walls and massive buttresses at the corners and at the front to support the high walls necessary for the high ceilings inside and to support weight of the bell towers at the front.

Along one side of the church, there remain several of the old structures that used to surround the church. The photo below shows a shop beside the church that today sells religious items and several buildings to the right in disrepair. In the space between, remains of the protective wall can be seen behind the buildings.

As we mentioned in Taos Part I, Anglos started arriving in the area in the early 1800s. One well-known Anglo who came to the southwest during that time was Kit Carson. Christopher "Kit" Carson was born in 1809 the same year as Abe Lincoln and not far from each other in Kentucky. However, they did not meet until Abe was in the White House.

Kit was one of fifteen children in his family and was a cousin to Daniel Boone on his mother's side. When he was still an infant, his family moved to Missouri. His father was killed while felling a tree when Kit was 8 years old. From that time on, Kit's mother had a difficult time handling him, so when he was 14 or 15, she apprenticed him to a saddle maker. Carson hated the work and ran away when he was about 16 to join a group of traders going to Santa Fe. He spent the following winter in Taos.

Kit Carson became a hunter, trapper, and mountain man. In 1842, he was hired by explorer and soldier, John Fremont, to lead three surveying expeditions through the uncharted west. In 1843, Carson married the daughter of a prominent Taos family of Spanish descent and bought a house in Taos. Although Kit loved his family dearly, he spent little time at home (about 9 of the 25 years they lived in the house) because of his work leading expeditions. He later served in the Army during the Mexican-American War, as an Indian agent, and in the Army again during the Civil War.

Although illiterate for much of his life, Kit Carson was fluent in English, French, Spanish, a number of Indian languages including sign language used by mountain men. He was humble, ingenious, resourceful, respectful of all cultures, and loyal to his country - all of which served him well in his many endeavors.

Carson's house in Taos is now a museum. It was not part of the trolley tour, so we stopped in at the Kit Carson Home and Museum one afternoon on our own.

The house had three rooms which was fairly big for the time but not so big when you realize it was home to their large family that included six children and three adopted Navajo children. Most homes in the area were only one or two rooms.

Hollyhocks are one of Margery's favorite garden flowers. She found this large specimen in the courtyard behind the Carson house.

A portrait of Kit Carson is on display in the house.

The photo below shows Margery in the kitchen with a portrait of Carson's third wife, Josefa, over her shoulder.

Carson's first wife was Arapaho and died of complications resulting from childbirth. His second wife was a Cheyenne woman who left him after a short time to follow her tribe's migration.

Carson's house, as well as most of the buildings in the area both old and new, are built in the pueblo style. This style was started by the Indians over 1,000 years ago and was also used by the Spanish.

Today, Pueblo Revival is the predominate architectural style in Taos; and within the town, style is closely regulated. Even trim colors are limited to shades of brown and blue. The Pueblo Indians believe blue wards off evil spirits so their doors or door jams are often painted blue.

Pueblo Revival style can be seen in stores, public buildings, and homes. Of course, the modern buildings are more-durable stucco which has been painted various shades of tan to look like adobe. The photo below is a home we passed numerous times on our way to various locations in town.

And the next photo is a small gallery in town.

Speaking of galleries, Taos has a large art community and over 100 art galleries and museums. There are also numerous craft galleries as well as many smaller studios and shops along back roads, side streets, and operating out of peoples' homes. The art movement was started in 1898 when two young artists from the east named Ernest Blumenshein and Bert Phillips stopped in Taos on their way to Mexico when their wagon broke down north of town. They were captivated by the beauty of the area and decided to stay. Word of Taos spread to other artists; and, the rest, as they say, is history.

Taos is also a magnet for free spirits. It attracted quite a few hippies in the '60s. There are remnants of a couple of communes that can still be seen, and one former commune is now a bed and breakfast. On another, a psychedelic bus called the Road Hog "rusts in peace."

Diametrically opposed to the counter-culture, hippie movement, the nearby town of Angel Fire has the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was built from 1968 to 1971 and was the first major Vietnam memorial in the country.

First Lieutenant David Westphall was among 13 Marines killed in an ambush in Vietnam in 1968. His family, headed by Dr. Victor Westphall, used David's insurance policies to start a foundation to build and maintain the memorial.

As you enter, there is a beautiful garden with flowers and birds flitting about. Paul found the garden in the foreground to the Huey helicopter in the background to be an unusual juxtaposition.

The photo below is the chapel.

There is also a visitor center with photographs and banners from some of the units that served in Vietnam. They also show the HBO movie Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam. The movie gives the history of the war from the soldiers' prospective. We were struck by the fact that war-protest demonstrations translate to those on the field of battle as a demoralizing lack of support. It was a thought-provoking visit, and we came away with a new appreciation for all the sacrifices that have been made.

Since Taos is blessed with abundant sunshine, there is a lot of interest in solar energy. The sculpture at the visitor center in the photo below has solar panels that look somewhat like flowers on a stem.

We saw several houses with solar panels or solar water heaters on the roof. We also saw a couple of houses that were partially underground with large glass panels that were probably some sort of passive solar collector. The domed structure with the glass wall in the photo below was next to the campground.

The house in the next photo was built in the 70s and is made of aluminum cans and cement with bottoms of the cans exposed on the outside walls. The air inside the double row of cans provides insulation. The house is heated by passive solar with a wood stove backup. The electric bill is reportedly only about $50 a month.

During our stay in Taos, we spent time learning about the history of the area. We also enjoyed experiencing a different culture with the heavy Native American and Spanish influences and seeing the distinct style of architecture.

We strolled through a few shops and saw beautiful silver and turquoise jewelry, leather work, pottery, carvings, and art. The shop in the photo below specialized in drums made from hollowed-out sections of logs covered with animal skins. The large, irregularly-shaped object on the floor is one of their bigger drums. Several smaller drums are beside and behind the larger one.

Taos is full of sculptures on street corners, in front of buildings and shops, and at peoples' homes. There are also many murals on the sides of buildings. The town is surrounded by beautiful desert and mountains. No wonder New Mexico is called "The Land of Enchantment."

Fortunately, we had a day at the end of our sightseeing to catch up on laundry, restock a few groceries, and to relax. It was time to prepare for our departure to continue ambling eastward.

Taos Part I: Taos Pueblo

It was a little over a four hour drive from Durango to Taos. The drive took us over the San Juan Mountains at altitudes up to about 10,000 feet. The grades were long, but fairly gradual. We had to go slow on a couple of the climbs, but the motor home made it without too much strain.

We pulled into Monte Bello Rv Park by early afternoon and quickly got set up. The roads and sites are gravel, there are full hookups with 50 amp electric, and free Wi-Fi. There were no trees to interfere with our satellite dish.

There appeared to be three or four long-term residents in the campground. All but one of them, even the one with the older travel trailer painted lime green and turquoise, kept their sites pretty neat. Unfortunately, we were next to the one whose site was VERY cluttered. We just kept the shades drawn on that side of the motor home - that side got the hot, afternoon sun anyway. The distant views of the mountains across the sagebrush-covered desert, however, were gorgeous. Almost every evening, we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

The area around Taos is high desert and is located on the Taos Plateau at an altitude of around 7,000 feet. The La Sal Mountains to the northwest extract what little moisture is in the clouds before it gets to Taos. The altitude is similar to Yellowstone, but Taos is much farther south. With the temperatures in the 80s during the day and the sun beating down on the motor home, we had to run the air; but it cooled off to the 50s at night making for good sleeping.

About 10 miles northwest of Taos on our way in, we crossed the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. The Rio Grande has its headwaters to the north in Colorado, then flows across the middle of New Mexico and on to Texas where it forms the border between Texas and Mexico.

The gorge, which runs through a good bit of northern New Mexico, is a rift valley formed by the movement of plates in the earth's crust. The river didn't form the valley, but the river followed the rift. The morning after we arrived in Taos, we drove about 5 miles from the campground back to the gorge to have a look. The bridge, which is shown in the photo below, was dedicated in 1965 and is 650 feet above the river. It is the third highest bridge in the U. S. behind the Royal Gorge Bridge (1,053 feet) over the Arkansas River in Colorado and the New River Bridge (876 feet) over the New River in West Virginia.

The view in the photo below is looking upstream toward Colorado. The Rio Grande Gorge is a recreational area known for hiking, climbing, and white water rafting.

While Paul was walking around looking for a good angle from which to photograph the bridge, he came across this collared lizard.

There is something we learned about Taos early on that anyone planning to visit needs to be aware of. Downtown Taos has a traffic problem on weekends, at least they did when we were there in the summer. Monday through Thursday, it was not bad; but the delays at traffic lights Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were looooong. Not only that, with an influx of tourists on the weekend, everyone seemed to drive very slowly trying to figure out where they wanted to go.

We have found guided tours to be very beneficial when visiting a new area that has a history as rich as Taos. We took guided tours aboard a van or trolley (which is really a small bus designed to look like an old-fashioned trolley) in Charleston, Savannah, and Saint Augustine and haven't been disappointed with any of them. We found the tours to be very informative with a good historical background of the area and a good overview of where things are located in the city. So we signed up for the morning tour with Historic Taos Trolley Tours.

The first thing we learned on the tour was about the mix of cultures in Taos - Pueblo Indian, Spanish, and northern Europeans (or Anglos as they are sometimes called), and a little about the history of how that mix came about.

The Native Americans were obviously there first having lived in the area for thousands of years. The Pueblo Indians share some of the same distant ancestry and cultural development as the Cliff Dwellers in Mesa Verde. The Pueblo Indians in Taos were likely aware of the Cliff Dwellers in Mesa Verde and possibly even carried on trade with them.

Spain sent explorers out of New Spain (Mexico) in 1540 to explore some of the vast territories they claimed in North America. The explorers followed the Rio Grande north and found a string of 19 pueblos along the river. They arrived at the northernmost pueblo in the Taos area in 1541. Pueblo is the Spanish word for village. Today, however, we tend to use the word interchangeably to mean both the village and the structure where the Puebloans live.

In the late 1500s and early 1600s, Spain established its rule in the New Mexico area. In 1680, however, the Pueblo Indians revolted against the Spaniards and drove them out. The Spanish returned in the early 1700s with more of an effort toward settlement than of acquisition and exploitation. When the Spanish converted the Indians to Catholicism, they didn't force the Indians to completely abandon their religious traditions. This resulted in greater acceptance of Catholic beliefs by the Indians and in the unique practices of Catholicism that exists in the area today.

Anglos began coming to the southwest in the early 1800s. The Sante Fe Trail was opened in the 1820s and was a trade route between Missouri and Santa Fe, which was part of Mexico at the time.

In 1846, the U. S. Army of the West used the Santa Fe Trail to enter New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. At the end of the war, Mexico ceded most of its territories in the southwest to the United States.

The trolley tour took us to Taos Pueblo, which is the oldest, continuously inhabited community in the U. S. Pueblo Indians have lived in this pueblo for at least the last 600, and possibly up to the last 1,000 years. We're not sure, because like the Cliff Dwellers at Mesa Verde, the Puebloans even today have no written language and no written history. The north and south pueblo, which are four and five-story, apartment-like structures, look much the same as they did when the Spanish first arrived in 1541. Only doors have been added. Entry originally would have been by means of ladders through holes in the roofs.

Although tradition does not permit electricity or running water at the pueblo, there are several families that live in the pueblo year round. However, most live in conventional houses on the reservation outside the pueblo walls and only occupy their pueblo houses during ceremonies. Many of the ground-floor rooms facing the front have been converted to shops where the Indians sell beautiful art, jewelry, crafts, etc.

The photo below shows the south pueblo...

...and here is closer view of the south pueblo from the right side.

The north pueblo is shown in the photo below.

The north pueblo was very photogenic with the sun on its face and Taos Mountain in the background.

 The pueblos are constructed of adobe, which is made up of clay, sand, straw, and water. Traditional adobe is mixed by bare feet. The core structure is made from adobe bricks, which are molded either by hand or in wooden molds, and then dried in the sun. The bricks are cemented together with adobe, then covered with a smooth coat of more adobe. Earlier Native American structures were probably made of handfuls or basketfuls of adobe instead of bricks with a smooth, outer coating of adobe. The outer coating must be renewed periodically. Walls are often several feet thick at the bottom in order to support the weight of the structure above. Roofs are supported by large timbers hauled down from the mountains.

Also in the village are the ruins of San Geronimo (Saint Jerome) Church. The church is surrounded by a cemetery. San Geronimo is the patron saint of the Pueblo.

The original church, which was built around 1619 by Spanish priests using Indian labor, was destroyed in the 1680 revolt. The second church, which was rebuilt on the same site and whose ruins we see today, was destroyed by the American Army in 1847 during the Spanish-American War.

The third San Geronimo Church is one of the newest buildings in the village having been constructed in 1850. About 90% of the Pueblo Indians are Catholic and the church is still in use today. However, Native American religious traditions are also an important part of Pueblo life and are integrated into their practice of Catholicism.

Interesting photos ops are everywhere at Taos Pueblo. Margery noticed the appealing angles, colors, and doorways and suggested Paul take the photo below.

 

The next photo is interesting with the cool, dappled shade.

We enjoyed our time at the Pueblo learning about the people who originally built it and who live in it today. In our next post, we will pass on some of what we learned about the Spanish and Anglo influences in Taos and take a look at its more recent history.

Durango Part II: Mining for Gold and Other Gems

Durango is a fairly large town. (Translation: They have a Wal-Mart AND a Dairy Queen.) We went downtown one day to have a look around and found the downtown area to be vibrant and thriving. It is the only downtown area we have run across recently that's big enough to have parking meters and pay parking lots, although parking rates are still fairly reasonable.

Downtown Durango has many of the usual downtown businesses such as bookstores, lawyers' offices, banks, insurance agents, coffee shops, etc.; and they also have plenty of tourist shops selling Indian jewelry, T-shirts, art, and gifts. The photo below shows a section of Main Avenue.

Although Durango has retained a lot of its old-time charm, it has come a long way in a little over a hundred years since its founding. The photo below shows a mural on the side of a downtown building depicting Durango in 1890.

Adding to the old-time charm of Durango is the General Palmer Hotel, which is located on Main Avenue about a block away from the Durango & Silverton Railroad station. The General Palmer was built in 1898 and boasts Victorian elegance. The hotel is a real gem because they have maintained a Four-Diamond Rating from AAA for the last 25 consecutive years.

We enjoyed walking around the downtown area, but the real reason we went was to find the Zuberfizz Factory. Zuberfizz is a soft drink that is a product of the Durango Soda Company. The factory is located right downtown, although the entrance is on a back alley and is a little hard to find. But it turned out to be a jewel that was worth the hunt.

Unfortunately, we were just a little late to watch the bottling operation, but one of the co-owners of the company gave us a quick tour of the facilities. There's not much to see (a couple of tanks and the bottling machine), but he took the time to explain how they made their soft drinks with pure cane sugar instead of less-expensive, high-fructose corn syrup. They also only use glass bottles because they say cans and plastic bottles can alter the flavor of the sort drinks.

Zuberfizz seems very popular in the Durango area where even the Wal-Mart in town carries their root beer, but they don't seem to have much distribution outside Colorado. However, you can order their products online.

They also have a little soda shop at the factory where they serve soft drinks, ice cream sodas, and hot dogs. Zuberfizz has old-fashioned favorites like root beer, cream soda, and ginger ale. We got the opportunity to sample some of their soft drinks and ended up with a carton of key lime cream soda. Yum. :>)

One reason downtown Durango is so popular is they have lots of nice restaurants. Durango has almost as many restaurants per capita as San Francisco, which is known as the restaurant capital of the West. As we walked around town, we checked out menus that some of the eateries had posted outside. Many of the dishes sounded delicious; but unfortunately, most of the restaurants were out of our price range.

We did, however, find one affordable eatery that was a diamond in the rough. A little north of town on the way to the campground was an establishment called Serious Texas Bar B Q. Serious Texas Bar B Q is not fancy, but it has a lot of atmosphere. The decor is rustic with rough wood and corrugated iron. There is a rusty, metal sculpture of a mariachi band on the roof and plenty of pickup trucks in the parking lot. We have found the presence of pickups is usually a sign of good barbecue.

You order your food at the counter and carry it to your table yourself. There is seating at picnic tables either inside or out on the porch.

Texas Bar B Q serves delicious smoked meats like beef brisket, pork loin, Texas sausage, and turkey. The meats are served sliced, without sauce, on a sheet of butcher paper. There is barbecue sauce on each table in a huge bottle. The sauce is a delicious combination of the tart, vinegar-based, western North Carolina sauce and sweet, Kansas City style sauce that is a little thicker. The smoked pork loin is also served with pineapple-jalepeño salsa that Paul loved. They also have ribs and sandwiches. Prices are reasonable at $6.50 for a half pound of meat. The side dishes are so-so, but the smoked meats more than make up for them.

Durango, CO, was named for Durango, Mexico. The name comes from a Basque word "urango" meaning water town. The name is very fitting because the Animas River follows a C-shaped course through town.

The official name of the Aminas River is El Rio de las Animas Perdidas, which roughly translated, means River of Lost Souls. It was so named because several Spanish explorers who set out on the river disappeared and their bodies were never found.

Today, the river is a real treasure and is an important source of recreation in the area. Durango must have more than a dozen river outfitters. We saw their converted school buses everywhere with kayaks and inner tubes on the roof, towing trailers piled high with rubber rafts.

When we rode the Durango & Silverton Railroad, we saw many rafters on the upper part of the river below Silverton. This is where the outfitters take you if you want a little wilder ride since there is more drop to the river in the mountains and, therefore, more white water.

We also saw many people with rafts, inner tubes, and kayaks floating on the river through town. This is where the outfitters take you if you want a milder, more relaxing float trip.

Durango has made a sterling effort to take advantage of the recreational aspects of the river by building a paved bicycle/walking trail along the river most of the way through town. There are also several parks along the walkway. We took a walk a little way down the trail one morning and watched the kayaks...

...and rafts go by.

Mining for gold and silver is an integral part of the history of Durango, Silverton, and other small towns in the San Juan Mountains. We decided it would be interesting to find out more about mining so we drove back to Silverton bright and early one morning to tour the Old Hundred Gold Mine. Although it took three and a half hours to get to Silverton by train, it is only about 45 miles north of the campground and only took a little over an hour by car. Well, OK, it takes an hour and a half if you stop a bunch of times for photos.

Unfortunately, it was another cloudy day in the mountains, as many days seem to be. Except for the day we left Durango, there were clouds over the mountains even when it was mostly sunny in Durango. Even so, the mountain views are gorgeous.

We got a few glimpses of the sun, but the clouds still hung around the peaks.

This view across this lake was very picturesque.

We got to the mine just in time to don our raincoats and hard hats and make the 11:00 tour.

The reason for the hard hats was obvious - low clearances and the possibility a loose rock could fall on your head from above. The reason for the raincoats wasn't immediately apparent, but we got a clue when the guide handed us a towel to use to dry off the seats in the mine car. Then we all piled in and headed off into the mine.

As soon as we entered the tunnel, we knew the reason we were all wearing raincoats and the reason we had to dry off the seats. There was water, lots of water - not dripping, but pouring through the rock over our heads. Fortunately, the heavy water is only for the first several hundred feet and it subsides when you get further into the mine.

In 1872, three German brothers by the name of Neigold arrived in the Silverton area and staked a mining claim in Number 7 vein. Gradually, the Neigold brothers had assembled a large block of claims. One good claim located in 1892 was called Old Hundred

The brothers sold out their claims to a mining company organized in Maine that called itself the Old Hundred Mining Company. By 1906, the mine had built its own mill and was shipping gold to the Denver mint.

However, shortly afterward, the gold was mined out. The Old Hundred Mining Company never turned a profit and defaulted on their payments for the claims to the Neigolds. The brothers were unable to resell the money-losing mine and eventually lost it due to unpaid taxes.

During the 1930s, new owners worked the mine sporadically, and it was still unprofitable. In 1967, a Texas oil company took out a lease on the property in the hope enough low-grade ore could be found to be profitably processed by new, more efficient milling and processing methods.

After spending more than $6 million driving over 5 miles of new tunnels into the mountain, they, too, gave up. Today, the mine is an official Colorado Historic Landmark and is operated as a tourist attraction.

Once inside the mine, we began the walking tour. The type of mining done in the San Juan Mountains is called hard rock mining. This refers to various underground methods used to extract ores containing gold, silver, zinc, copper, and lead. Soft rock mining is used for soft minerals such as coal.

In the San Juans, quartz is the indicator for gold-bearing ores. When miners found veins containing quartz, there would be a chance of finding gold ore along with it.

As we started our walking tour, the guide first demonstrated hand drilling methods used in the early days. Holes would be drilled in the direction of the vein in order to plant explosives. In the photo below, the guide recruited a brave volunteer from crowd to hold the drill while he used the sledge.

Then, the guide demonstrated an early pneumatic drill. The drill was mounted to a jack post and advanced into the rock by means of a screw with a crank.

The noise echoing in the confined space of the mine tunnel was unbelievable when the drill was running! And the early drills didn't use water to keep the dust down so the mine would be filled with rock dust. Many coal miners suffered from black lung disease from breathing coal dust. Similarly, hard rock miners suffered from silicosis from the rock dust. Later drills did use water and were more portable with a pneumatic leg for support.

Along the tour, we saw the mine elevator and learned about the bell the miners used to signal the lift operator as to what level they were on and where they wanted to go. We also learned about mine lights from candles in the beginning, to carbide lamps, and to the electric cap lamps used today. The guide showed how the miners would use their lamps to signal each other because they couldn't be heard with all the noise. In the photo below, the guide has his cap lamp hanging around his neck. That way, it would be available if he needed it, but it wouldn't shine into peoples' faces.

Also on the table were several types of lunch boxes used by miners throughout the years. Miners call their lunch boxes pie cans, no matter what type they have. This is because there were many Welsh miners whose wives made them meat pies also known as pasties for lunch.

Then the guide showed an example of the hole pattern used for explosives and how dynamite would be placed in the holes. Specific charge patterns would be used and certain fuses would be lit first. As the explosions progressed out from a central point, the rock from subsequent blasts would have someplace to go. Later, the development of blasting caps with precise time delays made the job of sequencing the blasts much easier.

After large quantities of rock were blasted loose, the miners would lay rails for the loader to come in and load the ore. The guide demonstrated the loader, which, like everything else in the mine, was very noisy. It clanked, banged, and roared its way back and forth from the rock pile to the ore car.

We are learning that there are people who have truly very hard and dangerous jobs.

At the end of the tour, we all got back into the mine car and headed back out into the fresh air. Paul is waiting his turn to climb out of the mine car in the photo below. By the way, for Paul's former co-workers - he told the people in the office they had the wrong kind of hard hats. They needed to get MSA V-Gards because they're THE best. :)

 

After we got our raincoats and hard hats hung back up, we tried our hand at panning for gold. Margery has a fair amount of "color" in her pan.

 

Paul got into the act, too.

The light-colored specks at the top of the pan are some of the results of our efforts.

The troughs are supposedly "salted" with gold and silver. At the price of those metals today, we doubt there is much gold in the troughs; and if there is any silver in the specks of metal we found, the percentage is probably pretty low. But it was fun learning how to use the pan and to actually find something.

We took our time driving back to Durango, stopping for photos every now and then. The one below is looking down the road from the Old Hundred Mine.

And down at the end of the mine road, we couldn't pass up a golden opportunity to get the photo below of a beautiful scene of wildflowers beside a stream.

Between Old Hundred Mine and Silverton, we stopped for this photo of Mayflower Mill, which was built in 1929 to process ore from the Mayflower Mine and other mines in the area. The mill operated until 1991. Our tour guide at Old Hundred used to work in the Mayflower Mine before it closed.

In this closer shot of Mayflower Mill, you can see one of the overhead tram buckets that were used to haul ore from the mine on the hill opposite the mill. The mine was uphill from the mill, so gravity did most of the work moving the ore. At the start of each shift, miners would stand in the empty buckets to ride up to the mine. That was obviously before OSHA.

As we approached Silverton, we caught a glimmer of sun on the mountain. You can see just a little of Silverton at the base of the mountain.

We wound our way back down from the mountains; and just a little north of the campground, we stopped to see a hot spring along the side of the road. A family by the name of Pinkerton settled in this area in 1875 and started a dairy farm. The Pinkertons built a bath house so family and guests could enjoy the hot springs. The springs were known as Pinkerton Hot Springs. In the 1920s, Pinkerton-in-the-Pines Resort offered a pool for swimming, plus music and dancing. The photo below shows the travertine mound the spring has built up over the years.

We had the next day to relax before we hit the road for our next stop in Taos, NM. The campground has a large field completely enclosed by a fence for a dog run, so we took Molly over to see what she would do. Molly has never been very trustworthy off-leash because she usually has a tendency to take off. But she seems to have mellowed in her old age, and she didn't venture very far from us. While Paul was busy taking photos of the interesting sky and the clouds over the mountains (shown in the photo below), Margery walked around the perimeter of the field and got Molly to follow her.

Margery and Molly are returning from the far side of the field in the photo below. Molly followed on the way out, but seemed eager to lead the way back to the gate.

Back at the motor home, Molly rested from her long walk, and we finished up some chores in preparation for our departure the next morning.

Durango Part I: Durango & Silverton Railroad

Our last drive from Moab, UT to Cortez, CO was a short trip of only 2 1/2 hours, but the drive from Cortez to our next stop in Durango, CO was even shorter at just a little over an hour. We took our time getting underway, and we still arrived at Alpen Rose RV Park around noon.

Alpen Rose is located north of historic downtown Durango in a beautiful, wide valley lined with red cliffs. The campground is very well maintained and very well managed. It has wide, gravel roads; gravel pads; free Wi-Fi; cable TV; and full hookups. There is a section that is well-shaded, and the section where we were located for better satellite reception that has only a few smaller trees. The photo below is a view of our site at Alpen Rose.

The only drawback to Alpen Rose is they have side-by-side hookups. Side-by-side hookups make for close quarters on the driver's side of the RV; but if they are done right, they can make the living space on the door side of your RV more spacious. The space on the living side at Alpen Rose is pretty decent; however, you end up face to face with one of your neighbors, which means you have to share your living space. That's something Molly isn't too fond of. She figures anything she can see is her turf; and if someone (especially another dog) steps out their door right across from her door, she barks to let them know of her disapproval. But our first neighbors, who had a dog, were only there one night after we arrived; and the neighbors who replaced them were very friendly and even Molly seemed to accept them right away.

The primary reason for stopping in Durango was to ride the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Narrow gauge means the rails are 42 inches or less apart while standard gauge rails are 56 1/2 inches apart. Standard gauge is based on the width of the track of Roman chariot wheels. Whatever Roman chariots have to do with railroads, we don't know. :) But that's supposedly where they came up with the dimension for the spacing between the rails. Durango & Silverton uses a gauge of 36 inches. The narrower spacing between the rails means the tracks can be built with tighter curves, which is substantially less expensive for mountainous terrain.

We enjoyed our trips last year on the Grand Canyon Railway and on the Manitou & Pikes Peak Cog Railway. We like the atmosphere of the old trains and the sounds of the old steam locomotives make, especially the character of a real steam whistle that can't be matched by a diesel horn. We have heard and read a lot about Durango & Silverton Railroad, and so we had been looking forward to experiencing it.

The town of Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1880. The railway constructed a line to Silverton in 1881 to haul gold and silver ore. In fact, the railroad has carried over $300 million in precious metals. Today, Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad carries approximately 200,000 passengers annually in vintage cars behind vintage steam locomotives. The railway has been in continuous operation for over 125 years.

In the summer, Durango & Silverton RR runs three trains daily from Durango to Silverton and back. The route takes you through scenic canyons along the Animas River and through wilderness areas in the San Juan Mountains.

Although we enjoyed the trip, we thought the ride was a little long at 3 1/2 hours each way. The route is only about 50 miles, but the train travels slowly and makes several stops along the way.

One thing that we could have done to reduce the travel time would have been to take the train one way and the bus the other. This would have reduced the travel time by at least an hour and a half, and it would have probably meant more comfortable seats on the bus. However, the train fare is already pretty expensive at $75 for adults, and taking the bus one way would have added between $12 and $17 each depending on whether you were taking the train up or back. Besides, the idea was to ride the train. We just didn't realize the trip would feel THAT long.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start the train ride from the beginning. We had to go into town to pick up our tickets the day before our scheduled trip. That also gave us the opportunity to get the "lay of the land" to find out where we were to board and where parking was located. While picking up the tickets, we noticed this sculpture in front of the station. The horses seem to all be looking right into the camera.

 

The building on the left is the train depot which looks about the same as when it was constructed in 1882. There is a hotel next door with beautiful flowers and patio dining.

We had tickets for the first train which departs at 8:15 AM. The railroad asks passengers to arrive a half an hour before the scheduled departure time. We arrived a little before that, so we had time to stop at Micky D's for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked next door to the station just in time to see the locomotive being backed in to hitch up to the rest of the train.

The train departed at 8:15 on the dot. The photo below shows the train a short distance outside town heading to Silverton.

As we got a little higher in the mountains, we caught some beautiful views of the Animas River like the one in the photo below. The tracks follow the river fairly closely all the way to Silverton.

As we mentioned, the train makes several stops along the route. One of the stops was at Soaring Tree Top Adventures. As the train approached the stop, one of the Soaring guides took off down a zip line while hanging upside down.

Soaring Tree Top Adventures features over one mile of zip lines strung among 32 platforms high in the tree tops. The only way to get to Soaring is by the Durango & Silverton Railroad. The adventure is a little expensive at $339 per person; but it includes round-trip train fare, 5 hours of zip line soaring with instruction and guides for the day, use of all necessary equipment, and a four-course gourmet lunch in the tree tops.

Another stop the train made was to take on water. The D&SNGRR uses 10,000 gallons of water per round-trip and 12,000 pounds of coal. The coal is shoveled into the firebox one shovelful at a time.

As we approached Silverton, at the base of a hillside there was an old mining structure that reveals Silverton's history of gold and silver mining.

The Silverton mining district was officially opened to miners in 1874 following the signing of a treaty with the Ute Indians. Two thousand men moved into the area that year. However, by 1875, there were only about 100 people living in the town of Silverton itself. The peak mining period was from 1900 to 1912. The population of the county in which Silverton is located peaked at about 5,000. The area boasted four railroads, three smelters, over thirty mills, and innumerable mines throughout the surrounding mountains.

Silverton is a Victorian town that sits in a valley in the San Juan Mountains at an altitude of over 9,000 feet. As you can see from the photo below, Silverton is fairly compact; and only one of the roads running through town is paved. It's the largest town we've ever been in that had not one traffic signal!

The train pulled into Silverton a little before noon. After we got off, we waited around a few minutes for the crowd to clear and got a good photo of the train.

And a fellow passenger took a shot of us in front of the locomotive.

There would be a little over a two-hour layover in Silverton allowing time to look around some of the shops and to grab a bite to eat. The train drops the passengers off on Blair Street which is where most of the restaurants are located. Blair Street was also the location of most of the saloons and brothels back in the old mining hay days. Even today, Blair Street is unpaved and retains that "rough and tough" feel.

The building in the photo below was built in 1888 and was the last operating brothel in Silverton. It closed in 1947. It is now the Shady Lady Restaurant and boasts root beer floats, home cookin', and family dining.

One block over on Greene Street, which is the only paved street in town, and on some of the connecting side streets, are numerous quaint shops selling Indian jewelry, gifts, art, T-shirts, and train memorabilia.

We walked most of Blair Street and up and down both sides of Greene Street. The photo below shows the courthouse on the far end of Greene Street.

The mountains around Silverton are pretty rugged, and we saw a lot of Jeeps and ATVs in town. The most interesting means of transportation we saw was this WWII half-track parked outside the Miners Tavern on Greene Street. It turns out the tavern was also the American Legion.

On the way back to the train, we stopped for some ice cream. It was quite warm In spite of the clouds, the threatening rain, and the altitude. Shortly after we got back to the train, the whistle blew, and we were underway.

The photo below shows an afternoon train leaving Silverton and heading down the valley toward Durango.

We were assigned seats on the left side of the train for both legs of the trip. Since the train is turned around after it gets to Silverton, we now got to see the view on the other side of the tracks. A little way from Silverton was this mountain view.

The views on the return trip were beautiful, even though we only caught a few glimpses of the sun on the way back. Here is another mountain scene.

The tracks cross the Animas River several times, so the river can be seen from either side of the train depending on where you are on the route.

There were quite a few rafters on the river.

The peak flow of the Animas River is in June and is 4 to 5 times what it was when we were there in August. The river a little to the south of Silverton at its peak flow is almost a continuous series of Class IV and V rapids and is home to kayak races during Animas River Days in late June. What is a fun ride for novices in August is best left only to the experts in June.

A little farther along, the river drops into a deep canyon and the tracks run right along the ledge of the cliff.

From the shot below, you can see how close the train is to the edge.

In our opinion, the better views are on the east side of the train (right side going up, left side returning). From our experience and from the experience of another RV couple who are work-camping in the area and whose blog we follow, clouds and thunderstorms frequently develop on summer afternoons in this part of Colorado, especially in the mountains. Even though the train gets turned around for the return trip and you get to see the views to both the east and to the west, we recommend trying to get seats on the right side going up because it is more likely to be cloudy or raining on the return trip.

We rode in a vintage coach, but there is also seating available in first-class parlor cars, in observation cars, and in open-sided cars. The open-sided cars provide a less obstructed view; however, keep in mind the possibility of rain (and, depending on the time of year, possible cool temperatures) when selecting the type of car you want.

A great service offered by Alpen Rose RV Park was dog walking if you were going to be away from the RV for an extended time. We were grateful to have this available. We're trying to keep Molly's bladder infections at bay by letting her out every 4 hours. We were concerned about leaving her for 10 hours. The lady who does the dog walking stopped by the night before to meet Molly and pick up the keys to the motor home. We ended up with a perfect solution. Carol was not intimidated by Molly's barking when she came to the door and quickly won Molly's trust. For $10, Carol came twice to let Molly out, giving us peace of mind on our all-day excursion. We also were gratified to hear that Molly was a model client. :)

Durango is a mecca for outdoor enthusiasts; but even though we aren't into rock climbing, white water rafting, mountain biking, or fishing, there is still more to see and do in the area. We're off to do some exploring. Check back soon, and we'll let you know what we found.

Mesa Verde

From Moab, we drove a short 2 1/2 hours to Cortez, CO, where we stayed at La Mesa RV Park. It has paved roads and gravel and dirt pads. There is sparse grass between most of the sites, and the sites are a little small. There are concrete patios at some of the sites, but they are too small and not placed well enough to be very useful. We had to park over part of our patio to have enough room on the other side to get our slides open.

La Mesa is very close to U. S. Route 160 so there is a fair amount of road noise, and there is a gas station right next door with bright lights that are on all night. But we had the air conditioner running all day and night so the road noise wasn't too noticeable. We drew the drapes at night, and we weren't planning to sit out, so the gas station didn't bother us either. In fact, if you had a site in the back of the campground, the road noise would be less; and you wouldn't see the lights at the gas station.

La Mesa RV Park is a Passport America campground and at the half-price rate of $14 a night (plus tax) for full hookups and free Wi-Fi, it really isn't bad for one or two nights. It is very conveniently located at only about 9 miles from Mesa Verde National Park. In fact, you can see Mesa Verde from the front of the campground.

Mesa Verde is the reason we stopped in Cortez. Mesa Verde National Park is the former dwelling place of the Ancestral Puebloan people. The photo below shows Point Lookout as seen from a short distance inside the park entrance. It is this promontory that can be seen from the campground in Cortez.

Inside the park, the road winds part way up the face of Point Lookout, then goes around the side and continues to climb up to the top of the mesa. About 10 miles inside the park on the way to the visitor center, we stopped at an overlook and took the photo below looking back toward Cortez.

The Ancestral Puebloan people lived in the Mesa Verde area for 700 years from about 600 AD to 1300 AD. The park is the location of about 4,000 known archeological sites including about 600 cliff dwellings. About 1,400 years ago, a group of nomads came to the Mesa Verde (Spanish for green table) area and began to lead a more settled life. Known as the Basketmakers, they began to farm and to build more permanent homes. These early homes were built partially underground and are called pithouses. The park has a number of excavated pithouses like the one in the photo below. The excavations are protected by permanent structures.

The early pithouses were fairly shallow. Off the main room, they had a smaller room (at the top of photo above) that was probably used for storage. The main room had a roof and sloped walls supported by four wooden poles covered by more poles and mud. The large indentation in the floor was the fire pit, and there probably was smoke hole in the roof overhead.

As time went on, the Basketmakers became more skilled in their crafts. They learned how to make pottery (the early people only had baskets, hence their name the Basketmakers) and they acquired the bow and arrow. By 750 AD, they began to build structures of poles and mud above ground. From this time onward, they would be known as Puebloans (Spanish for village dwellers).

By 1000 AD, the Puebloans began to build using stone masonry for construction. Buildings were two or three stories tall and contained as many as 50 rooms. Circular pit rooms, much deeper than earlier pithouse dwellings, were built in front of the pueblos. These pit rooms, called kivas, were completely underground and were entered by means of a ladder through a hole in the roof. Kivas were used as ceremonial meeting rooms. The photo below shows the remains of a stone tower at Sun Point Pueblo. The tower is connected to the kiva in front of it by a tunnel.

An example of the Puebloans' expert stonework is Sun Temple. Although the exact purpose of Sun Temple is unknown, modern Pueblo Indians say its features classify it as a ceremonial structure. Because no remnants of roof beams were found, it is theorized the structure was never completed. Based on the amount of fallen stone removed during excavation, it is estimated the walls were originally 11 to 14 feet high. Modern concrete covers the top of the remnants of the walls to protect them from moisture.

Around 1200 AD, the people began to move from pueblos built on top of the mesas to the sheltered overhangs and alcoves in the cliffs on the sides of the mesas. Here, they continued to build even more elaborate stone dwellings. Centuries earlier, the ancestors of the Basketmakers and Puebloans sought shelter in the alcoves on the cliffs. However, at that time they were still nomads and had not developed the skill to build even primitive structures.

Archeologists do not know why the Puebloans moved from the mesa tops to the cliffs. Perhaps the people sought better protection from enemies or from the weather. The Ancestral Puebloans had no written language and therefore no written history, so we will probably never know the reason they moved. But their elaborate cliff dwellings remain for archeologists and anthropologists to study and for us to view in amazement.

Being located on the sides of the mesas, the cliff dwellings are a little harder to get to. Some of the cliff dwellings aren't open to the public and can only be seen from overlooks. A few cliff dwellings can be seen by self-guided tours and three of the most elaborate dwellings can only be seen by means of ranger-guided tours. The ranger-guided tours require advance tickets costing $3 per tour for adults. One of the first things we did when we arrived at the park was to go to the visitor center to inquire about the difficulty of the hikes to the cliff dwellings and to determine which ones we wanted to see.

The ranger at the visitor center advised us the ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace, which is the largest and most popular cliff dwelling, was a fairly strenuous hike. She advised us to first try the self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House, which is the best-preserved dwelling in Mesa Verde. Since Spruce Tree House was a self-guided tour, we could go at our own pace and even turn back if it became too difficult, things we couldn't do on the ranger-led tours.

If Margery did OK on the Spruce Tree House tour, the ranger advised us to go to the overlook for the Cliff House (something we could do without tickets), and look to see how far the climb would be before we committed to buying tickets. The Cliff House tour, although more strenuous than Spruce Tree House, is the least strenuous of the ranger-led tours.

So off we went to Spruce Tree House. From the overlook, the walk down to the ruins didn't look too bad.

Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling at Mesa Verde and contains about 130 rooms and 8 kivas or ceremonial chambers.

While taking the photo above, Paul happened across a nest of robins in a nearby tree. The mama returned and then tried to hide when she was surprised to see Paul so close by. She stood very still for a few seconds while the chicks squawked. As soon as Paul moved to try to get a better camera angle on mama, she took off.

Spruce Tree House was named for a large Douglas fir which was growing from the front of the ruins. The tree, which was later cut down, was called a spruce by the men who first discovered the ruins. Spruce Tree House is built into a natural alcove measuring over 200 feet wide by about 89 feet deep at its greatest depth.

We made the climb back out of the canyon with only a little huffing and puffing. In the photo below, Margery is standing with Spruce Tree House on the background after making it back up the hill.

Having successfully made the climb at Spruce Tree House, we followed the ranger's advice and went to the overlook for Cliff Palace. Cliff Palace contained 150 rooms and 23 kivas. From the overlook, we got an excellent overall view. To get an idea of size, there are several people standing around one of the circular kivas in front of one of the taller towers at the right of the photo.

While we were at the overlook, a ranger-led tour was about to get underway; and we eaves-dropped on the beginning of the tour. The ranger asked the crowd where they were from and got responses like Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. The Europeans outnumbered the Americans on this particular tour. We have encountered quite a few overseas visitors during our travels this summer due in part to the weak dollar making travel in the U. S. very economical for them.

As we looked down into Cliff Palace, we could see the descent was very steep; and the climb back up was even steeper. The return climb is up 120 uneven stone steps. Since it has only been five months since Margery's last knee surgery, that many steps are still problematic so we decided to pass on the ranger-led tour of Cliff Palace. Our self-guided tour of Spruce Tree House would suffice as a good, first-hand viewing of Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. We continued on with our auto tour of the mesa.

The mesa covers quite a large area and is cut by numerous north-south canyons such Cliff Canyon shown in the photo below.

Large cliff dwellings such as Spruce Tree House and Cliff Palace were the exception rather than the rule. Of the nearly 600 cliff dwellings within the park, about 75% of them are 5 rooms or less. An example of a smaller dwelling is House of Many Windows, which is on a 10 foot wide ledge just to the upper right of center in the photo below. The openings are not really windows, but doors. Although it can't be seen from across the canyon, above the House of Many Windows is a toehold trail that leads to an upper alcove that probably had one or two rooms. From there, the trail leads to the top of the cliff. Climbing was a part of everyday life for the Ancestral Puebloans.

Another dwelling that can only be viewed from an overlook is Square Tower House. At a height of 26 feet, Square Tower House is the tallest dwelling in Mesa Verde. The four-story tower was part of an extensive, multi-story complex that originally had about 80 rooms.

The peak period for the Ancestral Puebloans was around 200 years from about 1100 to about 1300 AD. During that time, they may have had as much as 30,000 acres under cultivation on the mesa tops. Shortly after 1300 AD, however, the Mesa Verde area was deserted. The people didn't disappear, but they moved into New Mexico and Arizona and settled among other Native Americans already living there. As we mentioned earlier, the Ancestral Puebloans had no written language, so we'll probably never know the reason they left Mesa Verde. Maybe it was drought, overcrowding, or depletion of the soil and natural resources.

We completed our tour of the cliff dwellings and the mesa top and began the drive back out of the park. On the way out, we took a short side road to Park Point, the highest point in Mesa Verde at 8572 feet above sea level. We stopped for a photo near the fire lookout tower.

Mesa Verde has had three recent fires - one in 1996 that consumed almost 5,000 acres, a very large fire in July, 2000 that burned 23,000 acres, and another in August, 2000 that consumed 5,300 acres. Today, many hillsides in the park have standing deadwood resulting from fire. Mesa Verde is in the Upper Sonoran zone and is semi-arid. Trees include Juniper, Pinyon pine, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and lots of Gambrel or scrub oak. The photo below shows Gambrel oak killed by fire on a hillside near Park Point.

 

With our visit to Mesa Verde complete, we headed back to the motor home. The next stop is Durango.