2000-06-22 - 21:00 MDT

June 22, 2000

Amazement

My ramblings are recounted in stream of consciousness manner - - - - by the time I arrive at a destination I never dreamed of, I cant't remember where my starting point was. But I do enjoy the trip.

It wasn't until the late 60's and early 70's that I had the opportunity to see our southwest area. Once on a pleasure trip I was able to be in four states at once. Four corners is the only place in the country where the states have a common North - South border and a common East - West border. On the precise junction is a large concrete slab with polished stone work in the center, with the four corners inlalid with metal. People looked askance at me, when with my back to the ground I had feet and hands, each in a different state. Some where there is a photo of that. Continuing North we could see the south side of the formations where Mesa Verde is.

We had made that tour a year or so before that, along with The Black Canyon of th Gunnison River and some of the little out of the way mining towns barely existing then. Of course we lunched in Telluride, not a little town any more and much money is in that town now. It is quite a scenic resort now. Some of the other locations are almost ghost towns. A lot of the ghost towns have been stripped of their old, weathered wood for use in these faux mountain style, million dollar homes

Santa Fe, New Mexico, although bigger still had the Mission style structures and old fashioned areas. We went deeper into the Land of Enchantment to Chimayo, a little town where recent murders took place. The town itself is old, and the Church there, as old or older. It is thought that the earth around the church has miraculous power of healing,(healing I think) it was not a large edifice and had adobe walls around it with an adobe entrance equipped with what looked to be the original wooden gate, it would'nt surprise me if it was. On the way to Chimayo I told my wife what we were seeing was scenery and people as I remembered from times with Gramma and Gramps further East and a bit North of there. There are parts of the state that time has forgotten and has stayed as it was many, many years ago. The road was whimsical and went it's own way, the dwellings had the strings of red peppers hanging from the poles sticking out from under the roof. Many of the adobe buildings have the roof made of lodge pole pine logs, or something similar, laid bark to bark and some kind of native waterproofing on top of that to keep the rain out.

There are two authors who do Four Corners stories quite well. One is Tony Hillerman who sets the stories down there and who also uses names that many families down still there carry. The other author I think, was Nichols, who wrote the Milagro Bean Field War whose writing was so perceptive and descriptive of the whole area that many of us who were acquainted there knew exactly the town and the local characters inhabiting it to a tee. All of us were certain we knew - - - - but no two of us could agree.

We visited Aztec, New Mexico and saw the ruins there, I read recently that steps have been taken to protect them.

We rode on the Durango and Silverton rails and the Cumbres and Toltec rails. Both of which were at one time part of the narrow gauge D&RGW Railroad. Both are outstanding for scenery, pretty well undisturbed and so very beautiful. On the Cumbres and Toltec, in New Mexico I saw immense Quaking Aspen trees. (Around our part of the country, aspen was cut and used in the mines - - most of it is now much smaller.)

In running around, my mind pictures an unsettled land, vast in area where there is nothing to see but miles and miles of miles and miles. Land mark moutains and mesas in the distance help to keep a person straight, before roads those sights from a distance enabled early settlers to find their way. There are spots along what is now I-70 that before it existed, off to the side you can see old ranch houses, barns and sheds which obviously had been built by the Pioneers. On the highway, in a speeding car towns are not that far away, but looking back to mule team, horse, oxen drawn vehicles and the footsore seekers of a better place of yore, the mind is boggled. How did they find water before they died of thirst, how did they repair broken wagon equipment, what did they do about sick children, or adults for that matter. In those days there few cures for ailments and many nostrums. It makes me feel so tiny in that country, far away the mountains tower - - - maybe four or five days of walking or wagon team travel away. Out here the nearest neighbors lived an amazing distance from each other. A trip to the nearest town could take several days.

How did those wonderful, gutsy people do that ? Having babies on the way and burying the dead, hunting game for meat, ekeing out water to the last little drop and then going thirsty until more was found. Were they the ancestors of many of the weak willed and apathetic people who inhabit this country now ? Could it be ?

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