I didn't make it out of my Colorado journey in my head or on my travelogue blog (which this is turning into) before more violence and tragedy struck. Hard to stay focused on the positive sometimes when shit happens. And shit happens every day. Let's just rip some headlines here for a quick minute:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/man-shot-at-oakland-city-park-on-fathers-day/ngLkN/
Police identify man shot in head near Atlanta park
Frances Jamaal Edmonds, 21, of Atlanta was the victim. Yup, dig the name, make the connection. I did when my cousin posted on fb.
At approximately the same time on Father's day I was at another park, Savoy Town Park honoring my dad by doing this:
I don't know how to describe the odd feeling that comes from hard news, except to say that I called my 21 yr. old and DEMANDED to know if he was in a park in Holyoke or Springfield, buying drugs, hanging out etc. "Chillax," he told me. Chillax, I try, believe me I do.
Then this a.m. more news about a park I had finally made it to and was awed by, Red Rocks Park a mountain park in Jefferson County, Colorado.
http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/06/20/report-of-shooting-at-red-rocks/11033715/
3 people shot at Red Rocks
They scream; headlines, they do. They shock and awe. They fucking suck if you asked me, and I know that noone has, but it's my blog so I can scream back:
THESE KINDS OF HEADLINES FUCKING SUCK.
DOMESTIC GUN VIOLENCE SUCKS.
YOUNG BLACK MALES DYING FUCKING SUCKS.
There, now I can feel a bit better.
Now where was I? Oh yeah, on the road in Colorado. Moved out of Denver heading South. We knew this much: we were going to the National Parks in the 4 Corners Area. In order to tip into Utah, we had found a sweet location at a Ranch in the Canyon of the Ancients. Our Cowboy Cabin was inbetween Hovenweep in Utah and Mesa Verde in Colorado. But that was Southwest, and another day and another story.
In the interim time of planning our trek, the Geeky Pasty White Guy I love so much came up with his very own side trip. That's why we were heading South and not Southwest. We were going on a mystery hunt. You see, I plan and like to go see discovered and easily found stuff. No, not the pasty white guy. He likes to hunt for almost impossible stuff to find. And yes, this side trip was one of those hunts. Of course I have to go, it's only fair. He is so agreeable to my EASY trips. So what were we doing heading South?
We were looking for The Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Raton Basin Area of Colorado. More specifically, we were going to try to follow some Geologists field notes from 1990 to Cokedale, Co to find and dig into and haul back...YUP, haul back rocks from the K-T boundary that allegedly circles the earth, but is only visible (and digable and haulable) from a few rare spots.
What I did not expect was to fall in love with the area. Trinidad, Co was a funky little town with its own violent history and even a
Trinidad War!
As we exitted the highway, the scene wasn't too pretty. In fact, it was run-down and desolate. More coalfield has-been. The region was booming in the late 1800's and early 1900's, but by about the mid 1930's the growing use of other types of fuel undercut the need for coal. Many of the coal camps folded up, and the area we exitted into was on the outskirts of town and very run-down.
Trinidad itself was once a Mexican territory and a part of the Sante Fe trail that folks used to head to the Southwest. About 8,000-10,000 yrs. before this however, the earliest Indigenous settlers, the Folsom, lived in the region, then later many different tribes made the plains their homeland, and finally the Utes and Apaches. Eventually the situation changed, and the story sadly ends with the forced removal of both groups to other places as the Anglos moved into the region, homesteading and setting up ranches and farms.
This once grand dairy farm can be seen from the highway, and at first I thought it was a mill. We went through the run-down little area above in search of the big brick structure and then found this. When we asked in town we were told it was The Bowman/Petramala Dairy, 1910 - Built from brick and based on plans for a Pennsylvannia barn, was first owned by 2 sisters who homesteaded the property in 1881, then sold to Harry and Mary Bowman who built the barns and delivered milk to the coal camps in the area. It was later purchased by the Petramala family who sold the milk in bottles to the Trinidad population.
So instead of the right turn off I-25, if you turn left you come into downtown Trinidad! Population of approximately 9,000, it was the regional center of the coal camps in the early 20th century. The top aerial view of the brick town also shows Fisher's Peak, a National Natural Landmark, is seen in the background. There is a huge 'Trinidad' sign on this outcrop that can be seen for miles, but not from our view. We didn't have time to take a trolley tour :( But we did get to drive thru town, stop at the museum store (of course to buy books, why else stop), eat lunch and then be on the road again. The bottom two photos are of the West Main St. section. More on that later.
Upper right is the approximate area where the U.S. Army marched thru in 1846 (Trinadad was still a part of Mexico then). Lower left, the "Other Place" is a bar at the corner of High and Main. Not exactly sure, but this may be the split of Main, from West side to East Side. The street, like the population is split, about half Mexican-American heritage, and the rest Anglo of mixed descent as the region became more populated by different European immigrant groups.
The top left in this collage shows what Trinidad looked like in the early 1900's. This was also where in 1914, the NYT headline screamed:
"State Troopers Seize Her on Her Return to Trinidad"
The local story paper reported:
"MOTHER" JONES ARRESTED
TRINIDAD, Col., Jan. 12-"Mother" Jones, strike leader, who was deported from the Southern Colorado coal fields Jan. 4 by the militia, returned to Trinidad this morning from Denver. As soon as her presence was learned by the military authorities she was arrested and taken to the San Rafael Hospital, where she was held a prisoner and was permitted to see no visitors.
She left the train at the outskirt of Trinidad and later appeared at a local hotel. She was arrested by a detail of State troops, hurried out of the hotel, placed in an automobile, and whirled through the streets with a cavalry escort galloping at full speed in front and behind the machine.
Several hundred coal mine strikers lined the streets and cheered wildly while "Mother" Jones waved her hand in response.
She was there to support the local coal miners in their strike against The Rockefeller + Gould Corp, CF&I. Once called "The Most Dangerous Woman in America," she is an idol of mine. Her words,
You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
The Trinidad Opera House, also called the Jaffa Opera House, is located at 100 West Main. The edifice was raised in 1883 and was built by Henry Jaffa and Sullivan Jaffa who were joint owners with Samuel Jaffa. The building materials are adobe with brick and stone facing. This building contains some of the finest incised sandstone to be found in the city. The city is very proud of this pretty building.
We were amused by the tractor slowly rolling through town (gives you an idea that farming may still be hapening on the plains). In the late 1800's, Trinidad was the headquarters for huge ranches. And yes, of course I found a thrift store, right across the street from the very cool lunch place we ate. I loved the old clock and chandelier.
The building above used to be Chappelle Mansion, part of "Millionaire's Row" It is now the home to Mullare-Murphy Funeral Home. The front says 1863, while the side view says Murphy 2003. Across the street was another mansion, The Bloom Mansion, now a museum and store. We got to talking to the clerk, and in the small universe in which we live, found out she was from Pittsfield! The bottom two showcase the town's revival as a tourist destination. The Purgatoire Trading Co. features Native Amer. jewelry and Western Art. Don't quite know what that means as we didn't get to stop in.
As you headed to the West Main St. end of town, and its outer bounds, there was no Millionaire row. It definitely was less gentrified and then as you traveled further out, there was a sense of old Hispanic settlement remnants as the top two pictures show (I love the top right picture, one of my best shots of the trip). The HS is in the Western part of town as well, with this funky geodome gym. And then we were almost nearing Cokedale when we came upon the brown marker. But here is some history on the region before we go:
The first permanent settlers along the Purgatoire were Hispanic families from northern New Mexico. Some came with Felipe Baca, a trader from near Mora, who founded Trinidad in 1860, after he discovered the valley while taking a load of goods from Mora to Denver to markets that served the mountain mining camps. Others soon followed. Some scholars believe that the long isolation of the northern frontier of New Spain-Mexico resulted in a culturally distinct “Hispano Homeland,” (Nostrand 1992) wherein Hispanics whose heritage lies in this region (i.e., northern New Mexico and southern Colorado) are culturally distinct from Hispanics who are descended from Mexican immigrants or other Latino groups. For many years the Purgatoire region was largely Hispanic: The 1870 U.S. Territorial Census shows that of the 4,276 residents of Las Animas County, 78 percent were born in New Mexico, and many others had parents who were. It is notable that the 1870 census takers categorized these residents as ‘white,” whereas by the 1880 Census, Anglo-American census takers racially categorized the same people as “Mexican,” although this was an unofficial designation within that category. This conflation of race and nationality would be used to marginalize people who, in fact, had not moved across a national border, but rather the border had moved over them. As Hispanic people moved into the area from the south, Anglo Americans and European immigrants moved in from the north and east. By 1880, at the apex of the first wave of settlement in the Purgatiore Canyon region, Las Animas County’s population had more than doubled, but the number of residents born in New Mexico had dropped to 44 percent, although Colorado-born Hispanic residents still kept Hispanos in the majority—in the Purgatoire Valley, Hispanics still comprised 58 percent of the population. The influx of non-Hispanics were mostly US-born, but of the 550 county residents who were immigrants, more than half (228) were English, Scottish, or Irish. Germans and other northern Europeans also accounted for a strong number of immigrants. But most of the Anglo-American settlers came from the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic states.
Tensions between Hispanic and Anglo-American citizens were more often rooted in conflicts around economics or land usage than in ethnicity, and differences between sheep and cattle ranchers were not unheard of. The "War" was basically a race war that was fed by the prevailing attitudes of the time. According to the Beshoar account, it started with confrontation between “Mexicans and Americans” after a physical altercation that quickly got out of control, on Christmas Day, 1867.
Before it was over, federal troops were called in from Fort Reynolds (near present-day Avondale) and Fort Lyon. The war ended with the arrival of Brig. Gen. William H. Penrose and the Fort Lyon troops. “The Fort Lyon troops with three companies of mounted infantry and C Company of the Seventh Cavalry after a fantastic march 130 miles in thirty hours, in temperatures ranging as low as 26 degrees below zero arrived on January 5th. The troops left Fort Lyon at sundown Friday, January 3 and arrived at Trinidad at 8 AM Sunday, January 5th with half of the original complement of men and horses.” Gen. Penrose immediately put Trinidad under martial law and the Trinidad war was over; only the aftermath remained.
This entire incident is a very interesting bit of little-known Colorado history and Fort Lyon was a very important part of it.
Of course there is other deeper conflict and painful history in this area, I just couldn't re-visit. Kit Carson is all over this town. Trapper, Scout, Soldier- he is held up as a great hero and legedary man. There is a park, and of course a statue. His life as an Indian Agent is little mentioned, and when it is, they call him an "Indian Fighter," others see it in another way- "Indian Killer." He is vilified for his conquest of the Navajo and their forced transfer to Fort Sumner, where many died.
So as I leave this funky little place with it's own violent history, I gladly joined Peter on the more benign hunt for naturally occurring solid aggregates. Sometimes we just need to get back to nature, get inside something good and hang on for as long as we can.
I will go now and celebrate this longest day of the year, not of course at Stonehenge, but at an equally as spiritual a journey as I can take- over to the mighty Hudson for a lovely environmental and musical festival and a good nights stay on Bear Mountain in the Highlands of the Hudson.
Happy Summer Solstice All!
