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PAGOSA PAST: Pagosa Walk-About 1975, Part Two |
Jerry Driesens | 3/27/08
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Read Part One
At this point I will stop and insert a little blurb on the first 4th of July Red Ryder Round-up Parade we attended in 1976. There weren’t nearly as many entries in the parades back then, but there were lots of tourists in town and the rodeo had become very well known long before this time. Two or three blocks of the main street pretty much held all of the crowd — with most concentrated in the downtown block. The floats and other parade entries were announced as they passed in review by Jack Peterson with a bullhorn out in front of Jackisch Drug and Pagosa Hardware, next door. When the band came by playing, Jack announced them, saying, “And here’s the Pagosa Springs High School Marching Band.” He went on to add, “Look at them fine young people, folks; not a long haired hippie among ‘em, is there?”
The post office was where Century Tel’s second building is - across 4th Street and Lewis from the Mamie Lynch Gym, which didn’t get built until they added a wrap-around addition to the old high school. You had to get your mail via General Delivery, until a post office box opened up, sometimes a wait of several months.
Speaking of the telephone company, it was then Universal Telephone and Telegraph out of Wisconsin. We waited a few months to get on a ten-party line. There was no direct dial long distance service, all went through the operator at operator-assist rates. La Plata Electric was across Lewis St. where the Education Center is now.
 Across Lewis St., where High Country Title Company is now, was a dry cleaners. On the corner of the main street, where Lewis St. veers off, where the parking area and bell tower is now was the town hall and town police station which were entered from the main street. In the back entering from Lewis Street was both the town fire department and the library.
Citizen’s Bank, the only bank back then was located on the curve across the main street from the courthouse, which was a brick building before the large addition and stucco overlay on the old part. You could not use the excuse that you forgot your checkbook in those days, because every business had counter checks. You could use one of their Citizen’ Bank counter checks and write in your account number if you knew it, but not to worry, the bank knew your account number, just sign the check for the correct amount and you could pay for anything in town. If the merchant didn’t know you or the amount was large, they might call the bank for verification, but that was rare.
The grocery store, Hersch’s, was located where the Sear’s Appliance store recently vacated before moving out to their new digs in Aspen Village. Next door on the corner was Kennedy’s Gamble’s Appliances. Johnson Chevrolet was on that side of the main street where the stucco plaza is now. Vic Poma had a Texaco service station closer to the courthouse that is now a vacant lot. Buhler’s garage and Amoco Station was across the street next to Citizen’s Bank. Across Lewis St. and Fourmile Road, where the Subway sandwich shop is now was a Phillips 66 station which had U-Haul rentals.
East on 160 across from the San Juan Historical Museum was San Juan Chevron run by Jim and Eddie Archuleta. They were our mechanics and were very trustworthy as well as excellent mechanics. You knew they wouldn’t spend any more of your money than they had to. Jim always found time to squeeze my Dad’s car in when he and my Mom would visit from Phoenix. He thought very highly and had a lot of respect for Jim. The shopping center where the downtown Citizen’s Bank and City Market are now was not built until Bill Sielstadt made a major investment downtown.
Other early visionaries downtown were Russ Sanders, who built the “Solar Mall”, where Farrago Market Café is now. First to occupy that space was Matt and Lois Mees with their “Kurio Korral.” Matt joined forces with John Moore to build the River Center, which had a real western flavor with it’s natural wood board and batten exterior, before all the tuttie fruttie pastel tacky colors. (Didn’t Jeff Greer do a beautiful job though, on the exterior of Summit Ski and Sports?) Matt and John later built the Oakridge Best Western after first building just one building that was a roller skating rink. Matt and Bill Dawson went on to really develop The Springs Resort with all of the outdoor hot mineral baths that so many enjoy. (Matt recently reminded me of the really tough times twenty years ago or so and said that back then he would have packed up and left many times if he hadn’t been in too deep to be able to quit!)
The Spa Motel offered the only place to take hot mineral baths, back then. You’ll still save money and get a great hot bath there, even today, just without the outdoor riverfront atmosphere and ambiance available across the street — but the swimming pool is genuine hot springs water.
There was another place for a free hot soak that was a concrete vault out in the field behind the Great Pagosa Hot Spring. You would never know who you would encounter there or what state you would find them in, so we would shine the brights of headlights to see if any cars or any bodies were already there. If occupied, we would come back later or the next night. This has since been filled in but there is a free pool above the bridge made with rocks along the rivers edge behind the Seeds of Learning, which is where the Mary Fisher Medical Clinic was located with the real doctor, Gary Janssen, and his physician’s assistant, Ray Johnson, whom everyone called Dr. Johnson.
A couple other early visionaries were Tim Olson and Doug Sutton who bought the old Los Banos Hotel and remodeled it into the Adobe. Fred Schmidt poured even more money into to make it what it is today. Jim Herzog was the head of the Chamber of Commerce, not a paid position. He was always coming up with ideas to make the town more attractive, particularly to tourists. Most of his ideas were never implemented, but that didn’t stop him from proposing more. An old western theme in the downtown block might help — putting down wooden sidewalks, or hitching rails out by the curb, maybe covering the steel bridge with wood that Worth Crouse and crew had dismantled from where U.S 160 crossed the Piedra River and re-erected it over the San Juan on what is now Hot Springs Blvd. He had me have my 7th and 8th grade Crafts class submit drawings for the best covered bridge drawing with prizes offered for the top three.
He did get a winter carnival started and I won $100 for the name that was selected back then; The Frosty Frolics. Jack Ellis’ name — "Snow Fun" — actually a pun, took second. Years later it re-emerged as Winter Fest. Jim was just ahead of his time.
The only other places you could buy food besides Hersch’s Supermarket was Staner’s Market, east of what is now Hunans and the Wayside Grocery on Put Hill, where Let It Fly is now. The Circle K — now Everyday — was built in late 1975, the year the first radio station, KPAG, went on air.. Many folks drove to Durango and even more to Farmington to stock up on major grocery purchases back then for bigger selections and lower prices. When the Haynes family brought in Ponderosa Home Center and took over Federal Lumber and added first the True Value franchise and later the Do It Best, it saved a lot more trips to Durango.
So, many of the changes and additions have certainly been helpful to old and new residents alike, as are many of the newer ones. As I mentioned in my “Cutting My Own Firewood” story, San Juan Supply was a long time mainstay on Lewis Street selling lumber earlier and feed, tack, hardware, and tools. It was owned by Paul Decker but you got incredible knowledge and old fashioned service from his employees like Carlos La Varta. Carl Bolt built the little log building and named it the Trading Post. It was an excellent sporting goods store with great service and knowledge by Carl. He would sell you something if you went in. You pretty much went into town for any shopping , banking, getting your mail, dining or gasoline back then. It always took an extra half an hour for any of those things because you would always run into people you knew.
Despite not always running into someone you know these days (although at the large grocery store I still always run into someone I know — besides employees) I feel that we still have a strong sense of community in Pagosa country. You still have a lot of volunteers and we still have community fund-raisers for people who have tragedies without insurance coverage. There are still many churches and non-profit organizations that provide wonderful community services. And many of the newcomers are just as active in those as oldtimers are. As long as we don’t lose that, we’re going to be okay.
That’s the part of Pagosa we need to keep; I think we can all agree on that! |
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