you could have a picnic on the Plunge. He joined the local Elks Lodge (and soon rose to exhalted ruler), where he befriended miners and consumed their stories of yore. Davison admits he knew “diddly squat” about newspapers when he showed up. He learned fast, writing, bundling and delivering. “You were a jack of all trades. You had to know everything. The workload was tremendous.” During the time his family operated The Times, 1975 to 1981, there was no shortage of news. An infamous drug bust went down, and the Fourth of July Celebration was cancelled. Two men flew off Ajax in hang-gliders, and a tragic accident killed a couple driving over Black Bear Pass. Davison also met his wife, Andie, in Telluride, though they didn’t marry until several years later, after she had moved to Durango, gotten a divorce and returned. That was when, Davison says, he really discovered her. “The lights went on,” he says. They married on the front lawn of their house on a lovely September day in 1986. After the family sold the paper, Davison became an owner of Telluride Travel Connection, a company that organized exotic trips such as African safaris. In 1996, he became an owner of the San Sophia, a capacity in which, he says, it seemed pretty natural to take inn guests on 4-wheel-drive tours, so he started hauling groups up to Imogene Pass. With his love of history, his friendships with miners and his time at the paper, he had a lot of stories to share. With countless tours and tales under his belt, he decided to write a guidebook, which leads to his most recent position: that of an author. After 12 years of research and writing, last summer he published Rudy’s View, a history of the area’s mining through the milestones that tick by on Tomboy Road, from Oak Street to the top of Imogene Pass— unspooling stories of some of Telluride’s most profitable mines and the characters who worked them. A few years ago, he and Andie moved to Durango, though they still have a condo at the San Sophia. Despite relocating, he still leads hikes, gives talks and skis in Telluride. And he continues to expand his vast knowledge of the San Juans, the mountains he loves the best. When I reached Davison by phone in March, he had just returned from sitting in on a class by Fort Lewis professor Dwayne Williams, a preeminent Colorado mining history instructor. “It’s been wonderful. I know more trivia now than I knew before,” he says. This summer, Davison will lead two hikes for the Telluride Historical Museum: one in July in Marshall Basin and one in August to the Mayflower Mine in Grey’s Basin. These treks could be your chance to pick the brain of a regional history virtuoso. ■
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summer/fall 2009 telluride magazine 69