LandDesk
From mining to metropolis Durango’s early vision to shape an emerging urban area
by Jonathan Thompson
T
he manila envelope arrived in the mail last summer, containing a longtabloid-sized document on aged, brittle newsprint. The washed-out cover photo was black and white, but it was framed by a thick blue square. Sunday, August 15, 1971, it said on the top righthand corner, then: DURANGO! Shaping An Urban Area above the old school Durango Herald flag. It was accompanied by a handwritten note from Richard Ballantine, the Chairman of Ballantine Communications, the Herald’s parent company. He had excavated it from the depths of his desk pile (if you’ve seen Richard’s desk, you know what I mean) and thought I’d be interested, in part because the document – the Durango-area comprehensive plan – was compiled and edited by my father, but also because of the window it offers into my hometown’s history. At first it seemed a bit quaint, a relic from a simpler time, when folks in Durango – and dozens of other similar communities across the West – couldn’t even imagine the sorts of challenges their town would be facing half a century later. Then I started reading and realized I was wrong. The “planners” of the time, a group of local volunteers, anticipated the hurdles to come with remarkable foresight, and the goals they set shaped Durango into what it is today – for better and at times for worse. Durango was established in 1880 as a supply town and the mercantile and professional hub of the area’s mining camps. During the community’s first several decades, coal mines dotted the surrounding ridges, a massive smelter on the south edge of town processed concentrates from the Silvertonarea mines, nearby farms and ranches fed the mining camps, and rail lines stretched out of town to the north, west, south and east. During World War II, the smelter was converted into a uranium mill that supplied the Manhattan Project. In the 1960s, however, many of Durango’s extractive-industry roots had begun to wither. The uranium mill shut down in 1963 after locals figured out it was contaminating the Animas River and the Southside’s air with radioactive materials. Trucks and highways displaced rail transportation, and by 1970, all of the rail lines out of Durango except the Silverton
Durango’s Main Avenue in the late 1960s or early 1970s. The town sign code, implemented in the early 1980s, would do away with neon and big signs./ File photo segment had been abandoned. Only one a group of 12,000 we will let that change shape everyone because, “all economic levels are Silverton mine, the Sunnyside, continued us or whether we will shape the change. … Dunecessary to assist economic and social to churn out significant amounts of ore. rango is a series of communities: labor, educagrowth.” Damned good point. The San Juan Basin just south of Durango tion, retirement, agricultural, professional, They also were fired up about establishwas home to a major natural gas boom, service, youth, educated, uneducated, Chicano, ing greenbelts, open space, parks and but Farmington became the hub of most Anglo, poor, middle income … and among other areas for recreation. So all those activity, not Durango. many of these sub-communities there is almost folks who try to say that bike paths and That left Durango with tourism and – no communication, no feelings of concern for recreation are imposed upon Durango though the coin wasn’t yet in common the other. It is this fragmentation that makes from the outside are, well, wrong. parlance – the amenities economy. If it us very much ‘urban’ in the modern American The planners tried to guide growth and couldn’t make it by extracting minerals sense. We are not a small town.” development via subdivision regulations, from the hills, it would have to bank on I don’t remember anything from 1971 – zoning, land-use and building codes, and the scenery, history (real and imagined) I was less than a year old. My first memories by acquiring and establishing green spaces and elusive “quality of life.” To this end, with a time stamp kick in during 1974, to “limit population growth within set Denver oil man Ray Duncan established when nearly a block of buildings on Main boundaries” and “increase the density of Purgatory Ski Area in 1965. The DurangoAvenue burned, and we drove up onto the population within these boundaries Silverton train became a tourist attraction Cemetery Hill to watch the drama unfold. instead of having urban sprawl.” and a major character in various Western Regardless, the planners hoped to reSo did the planning succeed? Did it films, from “Ticket to Tomahawk” to “Rio tain the community’s assets and fix its succeed too well? I’ll tackle that in a future Grande” to “Butch Cassidy and the Sunweaknesses. These guys (yes, all of the post, along with some planning suggesdance Kid.” And the Animas Regional planning commission members were men tions for Durango – and similar towns – Planning Commission, of which my and all but one were white) used some for the next 50 years. grandfather was a member, set out to pretty strong – and, in my opinion, accuThe Land Desk is a newsletter from Jonathan guide inevitable change to result in a com- rate – language regarding suburban develP. Thompson, longtime journalist and author of munity, “which will become progressively opment and wanted to limit strip malls. In River of Lost Souls, Behind the Slickrock Curtain, more fulfilling and livable for all of us.” America, no less! They also clearly stated and the newly released Sagebrush Empire. To “The challenge we face is whether or not as the necessity of providing housing to subscribe, go to: www.landdesk.org.■
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8 n Feb. 24, 2022
telegraph
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