BASECAMP CUISINE

Looking out among the agricultural lands of Paradox Valley in the West End of Colorado, with the La Plata Mountains in the background. photo by Tiona Eversole

Heritage, Apples & Bounty in the West End

How one part of Southwest Colorado seeks to reclaim the bounty of yore through agriculture and cultivation

BY DANI REYES-ACOSTA

Cows meander through fields lying fallow: alpine snowpack keeps the lowing animals rumbling through rolling desert country this time of year. In the distance, a jagged ochre ridge saws to the horizon: the La Sal mountains gaze toward us, silently, deferentially.

Sixty miles from the nearest stoplight, the West End of Colorado corners Montrose and San Miguel Counties into the towns of Norwood, Naturita, Nucla, Bedrock, Redvale and Paradox. The region’s slogan, "Many Towns, One Community" belies its varied past.

Known for years as a hub of extraction — first of vanadium, uranium and coal, then later as manual labor exported to wealthier towns up-valley, the West End might be refreshing its approach to survival. Instead of relying on external benefactors, the communities — more than ever — are turning inward to reinvest in their future. THE FOUNDING OF THE WEST END COMMUNITIES

With the founding of Piñon in 1896, West End settlers bought into the concept utopia. Part of a broader movement of communal societies founded in the wake of 1893’s economic crisis, “small groups … elected to remove themselves entirely from [the capitalist] system in favor of a more communal lifestyle in which they could support and rely upon one another,” writes Madison Basch for Colorado Virtual Library.

Many of the transplants migrating from the Midwest by way of Denver imported a mindset framed by modesty, pragmatism and hard work. A massive labor of economy and love, founding members of communities known then as Piñon, Coventry and Cottonwood dug the ditch and erected the trestles that would provide water for (hopefully) decades to come. They planted hectares of apples, pears, peaches and grapes. Barns were raised, and children were reared in the idyllic yet difficult country life many so often romanticize. The West End, for years, blossomed. ››