The Durango Telegraph, March 16, 2023

the durango

Broken promises

How scaled-back drilling got the go ahead in Alaska

Rallying for rails Change of venue

Group works to save history of former SW lifeline

‘Dead guy festival’ has outgrown its TuffShed

5 Backpedaling

Why Biden caved on promise not to open Alaska reserve to drilling by Jonathan Thompson

8

Rallying for rails

Ear to the Ground

“I know there are aliens out there, but I’ve got better sh*t to do.”

– Hey, there are only so many hours in the day

Cracking up

A few years ago, our old friend “Florida Man,” fed up with a pesky pothole near his business, did what any rational, normal, totally sane person would do: he planted a banana tree in it.

“I pulled up, and I’m like, is that really a tree in the middle of the road?” John Hulker, who lives in Fort Myers, told the news station WINK-TV at the time.

Now, Florida news stations never followed up to find out how banana-gate all resolved, but we get the point – potholes are actually pretty dangerous and can mess up your car. Not to mention causing drivers to swerve at the last minute and hit god knows what.

10 In the trenches

Village Aid Project hosts benefit to fund humanitarian efforts abroad by Alex Vick

Change of venue

Group works to preserve what was once region’s transportation lifeline by Jonathan Romeo On

Victim of its own success, ‘dead guy’ fest finds new, just as weird, home by Michelle Fulcher / Colorado Public Radio

EDITORIALISTA: Missy Votel missy@durangotelegraph.com

ADVERTISING SALES: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

STAFF REPORTER: Jonathan Romeo jonathan@durangotelegraph.com

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Kirbie Bennett, Jonathan Thompson, Rob Brezsny, Alex Vick, Lainie Maxson, Jesse Anderson & Clint Reid

MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332, Durango, CO 81302

VIRTUAL ADDRESS: www.durangotelegraph.com

A skiing shark attacks the slopes of Southwest Colorado recently./ Photo by Missy Votel

And, we bet you know where this is headed – there are a lot of potholes around Durango’s roads right now. I mean, a lot.

“With all the moisture we’ve received this winter, we’re seeing more potholes than normal,” Joey Medina, the City of Durango’s interim streets manager, said.

Potholes are caused by the expansion and contraction of water that enters the pavement. When water freezes, it expands, causing the pavement to bend and crack. When it melts, the pavement gets gaps in the surface. Repeat this process again and again and you’re left with that crater-sized pothole on 25th Street.

To fix a pothole, you need days with favorable weather (i.e. no moisture). The city’s crews are out trying to fix the pesky problems every chance they get, Medina said, but with all the continuous snowstorms this winter, it’s made it hard to get them fixed.

“We’re trying to get ahead on it with every day we have good weather,” he said. “Last week, we had two different crews during the day shift trying to get everything fixed.”

The City of Durango tries to prioritize which problem areas get fixed first, such as heavily trafficked roads like East 3rd Avenue, College Drive and Goeglein Gulch. And it also tries to tackle potholes that are causing drivers the most issues.

And it’s true – potholes can mess up your car, bending/cracking tires, damaging a tire’s sidewalls or knocking your vehicle out of alignment, to name a few.

$150/year

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In the meantime – and we know this is likely to just fall on deaf ears – but here’s a few tips to avoid pothole damage: slow down (shocker!), focus on the road and stay alert (tall order!) and check your surroundings before swerving (the nerve to ask!)

If all else fails, plant a banana tree.

Still here

While Lo Cash Ninjas are busy setting up their gear, a large crowd is forming behind their backs. Sometimes I don’t have the willpower to attend local shows, but when I heard the news that the Indigenous ska-punk band would perform here in Durango, I promised myself I wouldn’t miss it. The band’s a unique and special one for me. We share the same hometown of Shiprock, and I grew up with the frontman, Jordan Steele. Having missed out on their previous stops in Durango, I couldn’t let that happen again last month at Anarchy Brewing Co.

Any time the band members turn around to face the crowd, the size keeps growing. People are standing shoulder to shoulder, constantly reshuffling to make room for each other. The venue seems to shrink for this reason, but it also feels like the world’s expanding. The punks are black, brown and white. Women are at the front of the crowd, like Bikini Kill once demanded. Sometimes I daydream of what another world could look like. I envision a community as diverse as a garden, bringing to life what poet George Oppen once wrote: “We have chosen the meaning / Of being numerous.” Sometimes, like at this show, all I have to do is look around and see it forming in front of me.

When the band’s ready, Steele takes the mic and works the crowd up into a frenzy. A mosh pit is already forming over the first few notes. Along with Matt “Sully” Sullivan, the bar owner, some crowd members volunteer as security, keeping the mosh pit from spilling into the band’s performance space. Maybe trust is as natural as sweat, but the guitarists are unconcerned with the storm they’re stirring up.

During a few songs, Steele swaggers into the crowd while singing. The punks enthusiastically give him space while singing along to every word. The band conjures up a frenzied soundscape of thrash and melody. Harmony and discord are dancing together while Steele’s vocals move from snarled singing to guttural screams. I’m fixated on these moments. I’m witnessing a microcosm of the kind of support I wish to see on a daily basis: white folks not only using their bodies as barriers, giving space to folks of color to dance and thrash around, but also mindfully being accomplices to the chaos.

Steele takes a pause and dedicates the next song “Still Here” to Indigenous people. A joyful cheer fills the air, especially from the Natives who comprise nearly half the crowd. “Still Here” is a militant and melodic celebration of Indigenous resistance. Hearing this song in this setting brings a smile to younger

Thumbin’It

Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park falling under new ownership, after the last owner failed to secure an untreated wastewater pond and provide drinking water to residents. Yikes.

Despite its inevitable world takeover of humans, AI is showing early but promising results in detecting breast cancer missed by doctors.

The United Nations agreeing on a landmark treaty to protect marine life and biodiversity in the world’s oceans.

me. This is the kind of representation and community that was absent from the punk scene I discovered as a kid.

The song is a minute and a half long, but after witnessing it live, I know it will ring in my chest for a lifetime. Once again, I’m reminded of music’s transcendent power. How even the slam dancing taking place in the pit can become something more than just a blissful mess of movement. I think of how my friend Gabby once expressed it. Last year, the day after news leaked that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, Gabby sent me a text. The thread started with: “I NEED TO VENT.” She was at a Bikini Kill show when the radical frontwoman Kathleen Hanna broke the devastating news to the audience.

“Now I very much understand why you love punk so much,” she wrote, adding: “I’ve never felt so supported in a mosh pit, so aligned in values with a band and crowd.”

Within that catharsis of colliding bodies, there’s an unspoken understanding that everyone’s trying to look out for each other; an understanding that says beyond these walls the world can break our hearts or take away our rights, but in here with no division, nothing can hurt us.

Near the end of Lo Cash’s set, Steele dedicates the song “Corn Pollen Kisses” to all the lives lost in recent years. The song’s a slow groove ska jam, offering a blessing to hearts still healing in an endlessly tragic world. If you put a mic to the heart, it would sound like Steele’s bellowing screams. Note by note, word by word, the band keeps constructing an architecture of emotional resilience. We take shelter in it.

After the set ended, I visited briefly with Steele.

“Man, I still have that punk rock mix CD you made me in high school,” he immediately told me. It takes a minute for me to remember, but in high school I was constantly making mix CDs for friends. “There’s a Napoleon Dynamite quote on the disc,” he added, to refresh my memory. And that definitely sounds like something I would have done in 2004. He said I had an influence on the path he took with music. We hugged, and I left thinking about the seeds we plant every day and the joy that can sprout in spite of infinite darkness.

When I get home, I’m tired but renewed. Happier than I’ve been in a while. What’s the best way to nurture this hopeful feeling? All I can do is what the writer Jessica Hopper once advised. I walk to my bookshelf, grab “Neon Wilderness” by Nelson Algren, and “kiss it three times for luck and ask god what’s next.”

– Kirbie Bennett

SignoftheDownfall:

An earthquake shaking Southwest Colorado, likely a result of natural gas production. Better sharpen those hiding-under-the-desk skills.

Grab the puke bag: Lauren Boebert refusing to reveal the age of the girl that her son impregnated, other than to say she’s over 14.

Trump ahead of DeSantis by 41 points in a recent New Hampshire hypothetical primary poll. Uh, didn’t we do that before? Wasn’t that not fun?

The Great White Joke

The movie “Cocaine Bear” that’s now showing was based on the true story of a bear that ate 75 pounds of cocaine in 1985. The sequel coming out soon, “Cocaine Shark,” was inspired by the fact that 3.5 tons of cocaine were just found floating in the Pacific Ocean, even though exactly zero sharks snorted any and got high. Both movies were made possible by the success of “Sharknado,” which was produced by a studio that’s releasing “Attack of the Meth Gator” this spring. But as we all know, if you’d rather see “Cocaine Human,” all you need to do is watch Tucker Carlson.

Biden’s broken promise

Alaskan oil and gas drilling project – albeit scaled back – a go

by Jonathan Thompson

THE NEWS: The Biden administration approved a scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil and gas drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, drawing condemnation – and a likely lawsuit – from environmentalists, climate hawks, and residents and leaders of Nuiqsut, the Inupiaq community nearest to the proposed drilling site. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel pushers’ celebration was sullied by Biden’s announcement he would limit or ban drilling on some 16 million acres in the Arctic Ocean and elsewhere on the petroleum reserve.

THE CONTEXT: Though not unexpected, the news of the approval sent shock waves throughout the environmental community. After all, Biden promised during his campaign to halt all drilling on federal lands. He’s had a tough time living up to the pledge during the past two years, sometimes due to factors out of his control. But green-lighting a 200-well development – along with oodles of associated infrastructure and roads – on federal land blatantly breaks the promise, even though the approved version is 40% smaller than what ConocoPhillips aimed for, and the company will relinquish 68,000 acres of leases in the project area as a condition of approval.

Biden did not make the decision to break his promise and risk alienating his progressive base lightly. Nor, in my opinion, did he do it simply to better his chances of reelection. I think he did it because he was under intense pressure from Alaska state lawmakers, Native Alaska leaders and the state’s entire congressional delegation to sign off on the drilling. That included Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the few remaining pragmatic leaders in the GOP and someone Biden doesn’t want to alienate. And, more importantly, Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native woman elected to Congress, who fervently supported the Willow project even as she acknowledged its environmental impacts.

Peltola argued that allowing the project to go forward was the best way to ease the energy transition’s impacts on Alaska’s most vulnerable communities. Not only would it generate huge amounts of tax revenue for the fossil fuel-dependent state, she said, but it would also form a “bridge to fill the gap” as the state and nation move away from fossil fuels.

While Peltola’s argument was convincing, obviously, it also reveals the pitfalls of becoming too reliant on fossil fuel extraction and the jobs and revenues it can provide. This dependency forces the communities most affected by extractive industries and climate change to supplicate themselves to the very industries that harm them most in order to survive.

Mining Monitor

Sen. John Barrasso, the Wyoming Republican, has introduced a bill that would ban uranium imports from Russia or Russian-owned entities. The bill has support

from a broad slate of Western Republican lawmakers as well as from Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. On its face, the legislation is aimed at defunding Putin’s war machine. But an intended side effect is that it could revive the dying domestic uranium industry.

Chronically low uranium prices caused by an abundance of global supply coupled with flagging demand have reduced the U.S. uranium mining industry to a shadow of its former, heavily subsidized self. U.S. mines produced nearly 44 million pounds of uranium concentrate in 1980; in 2021, they kicked out just 21,000 pounds. More than 95% of the uranium that fuels U.S. reactors is now imported.

While just 14% of those uranium imports come from Russia, another 35% comes from Kazakhstan, where many of the mines are operated by Russia’s Rosatom or its subsidiaries. That means Barrasso’s bill could potentially cut off up to nearly half of the uranium imports into the U.S. That would skew the supply-demand balance, cause prices to shoot up and give an economic incentive to operators to restart mothballed uranium mines in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

It’s not clear, however, the bill will pass. The extremist wing of the Republican Party has a fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin, so they may not support a bill aimed at diminishing the authoritarian’s power. And progressive Democrats might be wary of propping up

the domestic uranium industry, given its legacy of harming the land, water and people of the West.

Energy Fuels, which operates the White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah and owns several mines in the West, has long favored uranium import restrictions. Apparently this sentiment doesn’t extend to uranium-bearing radioactive waste.

State inspection reports reveal that the White Mesa mill last year received 660 metric tons of radioactive waste from a facility in, get this, Estonia. Yep, Estonian rare earth elements processor Silmet shipped about 2,000 55-gallon drums of “alternate feed material” over ocean and land to the mill outside Blanding so that Energy Fuels could reprocess it and store the waste on site. Silmet pays Energy Fuels to essentially serve as its de facto waste dump.

Currently Energy Fuels relies on the alternate feeds branch for nearly all of its uranium production and a good chunk of its income, according to SEC filings. Last year, the company received $2.6 million, or about 21% of its total revenues, from the Estonian firm Silmet. That was for both alternate feed payments from and sales of rare earth carbonates to Silmet.

The Land Desk is a newsletter from Jonathan P. Thompson, author of “River of Lost Souls,” “Behind the Slickrock Curtain” and “Sagebrush Empire.” To subscribe, go to: www.landdesk.org ■

An exploratory well in the proposed Willow oil project site in Alaska./ Courtesy photo

SoapBox D-Tooned/by Rob

Word to Durango

“Sarah, David died.” My husband, Rafael, lurched into the kitchen and blurted out the impossible about his brother. We went to Durango. David Diaz’s friends gave immense hugs where love flowed from heart to heart, and the embrace lasted long enough for the download to complete. Diaz’s best friends, Shelley Mauch and Aaron Schenk, already had gears in motion for the GoFundMe and celebration.

On Main Ave., everything evoked a memory: The Strater Hotel, Brown’s Shoe, the cougar.

Many businesses had Diaz’s GoFundMe flier prominently displayed. Jon Roberts, of Crossroads Coffee, created latté art of Diaz’s likeness. Family members reported receiving free meals from restaurants Diaz frequented.

On Wed., Feb. 22, Diaz’s friends met at Purgatory for first run. The mountain was eerily empty. Low visibility closed Highway 550 for a time. While wicked, whipping winds that felt like Diaz’s feisty energy and daredevil shenanigans were stinging their faces and caking their beards, Diaz’s gentle arms

led them down the perfect chute. It was an epic powder day.

Then norovirus hit, and we had to call the ambo. Jordan, the EMT, knew Diaz from their kids’ hockey. Melissa, the wife of Diaz’s very best childhood climbing buddy, Dan, was the nurse; she and Dan were also a big help packing up Diaz’s house.

Packing supplies were donated and delivered. Diaz’s friends all helped with the enormous task of shutting down his home.

David’s sweet neighbor kept Diaz’s sidewalk clear, and Springer kept the driveway plowed.

“Saint Schenk,” who was with Diaz when he passed, and “Saint Shelley,” shuttled Tucker and Milo, his sons, back and forth to our Airbnb for sleepovers.

Friends sweetly and humbly asked for Diaz’s ashes. Coons in Alaska; Evan across Europe; Viv, Priscilla and Vivian in Puerto Rico; and so many more that will spread Diaz’s magic dust.

Missy Votel beautifully showed Diaz’s true colors in a column in The Durango Telegraph. Dennis Rypkema and Ian Stewart, of Durango Autoworks,

Pudim

donated lube and oil for Diaz’s Subaru. At Pop Sushi, we were given a private booth and served Diaz’s faves. JBo’s, where Milo and Tucker reign, gave plans for artwork to memorialize Diaz.

Matt Rousseau with Your Flesh Tattoo duplicated Diaz’s amazing stick figure tattoo for the bargain price of $2.99. Rafi and some other of Diaz’s buddies got stick-Diaz tattoos on their thigh. Schenk told me Diaz’s next tattoo would have been of three aspen trees that represented himself, Tucker and Milo.

The root system of quaking aspens is the world’s largest living organism, symbolizing Diaz’s enormous love for nature and family. Diaz understood the power of family, by blood or bond. My tattoo will be of an aspen leaf to honor Diaz’s commitment to family, and mine to his.

Amy Sovocool and Chris Hughes organized the silent auction, featuring donations from almost every local business. Lew Sovocool, Kris & Paul O’Neil, Corey Zirkelbach, Megan Palmer and others helped. Artist friends donated pieces: Dustin Cook, Stacy Falk, Brittany Cupp, Schenk and Jamie Zogg. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, we have raised more than $100,000 for Tucker and Milo.

Andy, aka Muff, secured the Elks Lodge. Billy French captured Diaz’s soul through photography; Tucker and Milo giggled watching the slideshow of their daddy. Gillian Arnwine facilitated videography (High Ability). All the food and beverages were donated, not a small feat considering the hundreds who showed up.

Thank you to Zack Williams, who led food set up with Colin Bunson, of 2nd Deli, Bo Maloney and Matt Spanjers, of JBo’s, Eric Frost, of Rice Monkey, and Kelsy and Peter Westwater, of Mill Street Bistro.

On Feb. 26, more than 150 people skied together in honor of Diaz, following Schenk down “Dave’s run.” The group included Purgatory Ski Patrol, whom we cannot thank enough for bringing Diaz down one final time. Schenk later said, “Dave has given me the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been a part of (aside from the birth of my children). It was magical and beautiful.”

Uber drivers, baristas, waiters and shop owners all shared their condolences. I have never seen or felt anything like this. My heart wants to break, and I see this same pain in everyone that Diaz loved. It’s an acute,

beautiful, pure love.

The love Durango has given back feels like a tsunami that washes through your heart. This is Diaz’s effect; he saw the joy and adventure in everyone.

Thank you, Durango.

Word.

Prohibition redux

A recent article in The Durango Herald talked of a presentation by the Durango Police Department to City Council outlining plans to limit the sale of “airline bottles of alcoholic beverages.”

– Sarah and Rafael Diaz, and family, Denver

No yelling on the bus

I have read a lot of letters to the editor about bus drivers in the Durango papers, most not so nice. These drivers have to get a CDL license. Do you have one? Have you ever driven a school bus? Bus drivers are paid $14.75 an hour –15% lower than national pay. Heck, dog walkers get $20/hr. for a dog.

Would all the complainers drive a school bus where kids are yelling and playing while you drive? Have you ever chained up a car, let alone a school bus? I think not.

Instead, thank bus drivers for protecting your kids and getting them home safe. For a lousy $14.75 an hour in all kinds of weather, all the attacks on them is spiteful.

– Bob Battani, Durango

The severity of the drug and alcohol problem in Durango is so great that limiting only one component of the problem is nonsensical.

Colorado law CRS 44-3-105 allows municipalities in Colorado to hold an election to outright ban the sale of alcoholic beverages or to limit the sales of alcohol to certain classes or types of licenses.

I believe that if alcohol sales were eliminated, a lot of the substance abuse problems facing Durango and La Plata County could be eliminated.

Couple that with strict enforcement of all alcohol and drug laws from the municipal court level to the state/district court level, and perhaps the problem could be minimized to some extent.

Hold your district attorney and local governments accountable for the strict enforcement of all drug and alcohol laws.

Make Durango dry!

– Mike Green, Cortez

Back in time

Effort afoot to save historic Denver and Rio Grande Western byway

by Jonathan Romeo

Once upon a time – but not that long ago – nearly all of the major hubs in the Four Corners were connected by railway. Now, one nonprofit group seeks to preserve one of the most storied lines – the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

The group, Tracks Across Borders, was formed in the mid-2010s to preserve the legacy of the rail line that connected Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico, which is also considered the nation’s largest narrowgauge railroad system at over 1,000 miles.

Once a lifeline for dispersed communities along the route from Durango to Chama, there’s little left of the D&RGW save for pockets of abandoned tracks, old steel bridges, decrepit buildings and other related infrastructure in disuse.

But it’s these relics – as well as the landscape itself –that Tracks Across Borders is intent on not only preserving but also bringing to the forefront of the region’s history. In recent years, the nonprofit received official byway status for the 128-mile route in both Colorado and New Mexico.

“I’m always amazed about the history that has gotten lost,” Scott Gibbs, president of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a historic route that runs from Chama to Antonito, said. “But it wasn’t too long ago that the only transportation connection was through railroads.”

The D&RGW came on line in 1887, connecting Colorado’s Front Range to Chama, Durango, Silverton and other towns in the San Juan Mountains, with other branches reaching Farmington and Pagosa Springs.

In its heyday, a number of communities sprung up along the line, including Allison, Arboles, Dulce, Ignacio, Juanita, Monero, as well as across two Native American tribes, the Jicarilla Apache and Southern Ute. These settlements were known for agriculture, mining and timber.

“The byway has a lot of history that goes well beyond the railroad itself,” John Porco, executive director of the Tracks Across Borders Byway Commission, said. “But the

railroad was obviously the spark plug that encouraged settlement of the region.”

In the 1940s, however, roads in the region, particularly in the mountains, were improved and started to become the main source of travel and transportation of goods. As a result, freight and passenger traffic dramatically fell off.

On top of that, railroads were upgraded from narrow gauges, leaving the D&RGW a thing of the past.

The D&RGW hung on for a few more years, though. But in 1968, the line was officially approved for decommission. In the ensuing years, most of the track was pulled up and towns abandoned, (though many com-

munities continue to this day).

And while the once grand rail connections of the West were decommissioned, some sections of the old line survived, too, as tourist trains, such as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

Over time, the memory of the D&RGW faded into the past, Porco said. But as encroaching development continues to gobble up swaths of the old route, momentum started to grow to preserve its legacy in some way, resulting in Tracks Across Borders.

“Whenever people lose interest, there’s a risk of losing

Once a lifeline for communities between Durango and Chama, there’s little left of the D&RGW save for pockets of abandoned tracks, old steel bridges and decrepit buildings. However, a group called Tracks Across Borders is working to preserve the legacy of the rail line that connected Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico./ Courtesy photo

an important part of history,” Porco said. “A number of people were instrumental in getting this pulled together.”

The scenic and historic byway program is administered by the transportation departments in each state. In Colorado, the program was established in 1989 and now boasts 26 designated scenic and historic byways across the state, comprising nearly 2,600 miles of roadway.

“CDOT recognizes the importance of these designated scenic and historic routes, especially to the local communities and regions,” Lisa Schwantes, spokeswoman for CDOT, said. “Each byway provides a sense of place unique to the area.”

For the Tracks Across Borders Scenic and Historic Byway, one of the major goals is to preserve what’s left of the railroad infrastructure, including the track, steel bridges and old buildings, whenever possible.

At the now-ghost town of Juanita, just on the Colorado side of the border, some ruins remain from when the D&RGW built a section house, bunkhouse, tool house and small station. The site also includes a 1925 church and historic cemetery.

Further west, in the unincorporated town of Allison, several historic buildings, including a grange and church, not only still stand, but are in active use.

Amid the increasing threat of development in the area, it’s even more important to increase preservation efforts, Gibbs said.

“Development is rapidly taking over,” said Gibbs, who also serves on the Tracks Across Borders board. “There’s a piece of understanding our history and where we came from.”

But it’s not just the railroad and Western settlement that Tracks Across Borders seeks to preserve and highlight. There’s also a deep recognition that Native American tribes inhabited these lands long before the railroad, Sean Valdez, heritage specialist with the Jicarilla Cultural Affairs Office, said.

“It does a great job of connecting the past to the present, allowing people to understand how development and progress influenced the area, and how our ancestors had to adapt to the changing times,” he said.

Valdez added that the effort keeps the stories and lessons of past generations alive. Members of the Jicarilla Apache tribe even recorded stories to be archived and shared as part of the Tracks Across Border initiative.

“A lot of our history, like family stories, have been left out of the historical texts,” Valdez said. “There’s no text book

or accurate full picture of what life was like around the train, unless you’re actually able to visit it and meet people.”

And therein lies one of the true missions of Tracks Across Borders – to have the public come out and visit the route firsthand. Porco said increased visitation would not only bring awareness to the historical significance of the byway, but also an economic boost to towns along it.

Driven as a straight shot, the trip from Durango to Chama is about two hours. Tracks Across Borders, however, has installed several historical signs along the route for people to stop and read. Plus,

there’s a map that can be found on the nonprofit’s website that provides historical information for travelers.

But perhaps the biggest game changer, Porco said, is a new, interactive app people can download on their phones for free and follow in real time as they drive the byway. The app, available in Google and Apple stores through the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, features more than 30 stops.

“It’s a chance to go back in time before there was a lot of development in the area,” he said. “It really feels like you’re stepping back in time.” ■

The Dulce, N.M., depot and train circa 1951

Jamming with intention

Fundraiser to benefit humanitarian projects around the world

by Alex Vick

Having the freedom to pursue passions and do what we love is a beautiful thing. Here in Durango, it can seem as though conditions are perfect to go exploring for fun. Between the natural beauty that surrounds us and the close-knit community in town, fun can be found in almost every direction.

To be able to translate that fun into a community-wide good time has the potential to benefit those in and outside our small town.

Raja Braford, a student at Fort Lewis College, also serves as the fundraising coordinator for the Village Aid Project, or VAP. According to Braford, VAP is a humanitarian organization whose mission is to partner with underprivileged communities around the globe to find sustainable solutions to critical engineering problems.

“Some solutions include water, sanitation and hygiene systems, as well as schools,” she said. “These solutions are a manifestation of a collective desire to help communities in a way that honors different cultures and promotes sustainability.”

Braford is organizing an event to benefit VAP at 7 p.m. Fri., March 17, at The Hive, 1150 Main Ave. For the low price of $15 and the high reward of feeling linked to the greater good of serving communities abroad, you’ll get a night of music, camaraderie and pop-up merchandise from Yikes ski apparel.

Desiderata will provide the tunes for the night. The band fuses jazz, soul and indie pop, forming potent grooves topped with hypnotic vocals.

“One of the band members is a current VAP member and will be traveling with us this spring,” Braford said.

This season, VAP will be heading to a small town in Nicaragua. Braford said when the group goes to these communities, it tries to involve the community as much as possible. “The projects wouldn’t be possible without the help of the community members,” she said. “Before we arrive, they do a lot of preparation, and once we are there,

they continue to help us until the project is complete. It’s an amazing feeling to watch us all come together.”

A sense of community, Braford said, can be just as fulfilling as a warm meal or just as crucial as having a sustainable wastewater management system. Traveling with VAP has shown her how rewarding it is to be a part of something bigger than herself.

“We don’t go to your typical tourist spots; we go off the beaten trail and get experiences most travelers won’t get,” she said. “We get to spend a large amount of time in one village and build relationships with the community members that will last a lifetime.”

In order to get to Nicaragua, build these systems and connections, VAP is looking to the Durango community for financial support. All ticket sales from the event will go toward students’ airfare as well as monetary needs of the project. VAP hopes to raise roughly

$20,000 for each of its projects abroad. Braford said the end result is always worth the effort.

“It’s not always easy working with VAP; it forces me to step out of my comfort zone,” she said. “But that’s where the most personal growth happens. Working hard side by side with community members is an incredible and humbling experience. You work hard and get dirty, but once you see running water in a village or a brand new school, the incredible amount of gratitude from the community makes it all worth it.”

What better way to serve our worldwide community than by enjoying local music and purchasing local apparel from a brand promoting women in winter sports? All the while, you’ll know your money and energy is going to remote places to encourage healthy and sustainable engineering, economies and communities. ■

FLC’s Village Aid Project aims to help communities around the world by partnering on sustainable engineering projects./ Courtesy photo

A new home for Bredo

Victim of its own success, ‘Frozen Dead Guy Fest’ moves to Estes

by Michelle P. Fulcher Colorado Public Radio

Even by Colorado’s standards, Nederland’s famous  Frozen Dead Guy Days festival is a weird one. A very weird one.

In fact, Aimee Resnick asked through  Colorado Wonders: “I have always wondered about the history of the ‘Frozen Dead Guy Days’ festival. As someone who isn’t from Nederland, it seems crazy to me! Would love to know more.”

For years, thousands of people packed the tiny mountain town north of Boulder annually for the celebration that included, among other things, a hearse parade and coffin races. The streets were crowded with people wearing skeleton costumes and ghoulish makeup.

Well, this year, the festival is moving to Estes Park for the weekend of March 17-19. There’s at least the possibility that the body of its namesake may not be far behind.

But we’re ahead of the story: In real life, the “dead guy” was a Norwegian retiree named Bredo Morstoel, whose beloved grandson, Trygve Bauge, still remembers celebrating Norway’s midsummer holiday with him.

“He was kind. I never heard him angry. I never saw him unjust,” Bauge said.

Park

This caricature of Bredo Morstoel, whose body is frozen on dry ice in a state of suspended animation in a nearby shed, adorns various buildings and Tshirts around Nederland./

Bauge is in Norway now, but in the 1980s, he lived in Boulder. He was, and still is, an ardent believer in cryonics — the practice of freezing people’s bodies at extremely low temperatures with the idea that science will someday find a way to revive them.

When Morstoel died in 1989, Bauge immediately flew home to Norway and had his grandfather’s body frozen. It was transported to an institute in California for several years, and when that didn’t work out, Bauge had it moved to Nederland. Morstoel’s remains are still there in a metal box, under ice, in a Tuff Shed with a

small Norwegian flag hanging from the rafters.

But Bauge isn’t in Colorado to take care of Morstoel’s remains. His visa expired, and he was deported in 1994. Since then, several caretakers have tended to the body, including Brad Wickham, who took on the job 10 years ago and now makes two trips a month to the site to keep Morstoel’s remains covered in dry ice.

“Every two weeks, I have to go down to Denver to a distributor and pick up the dry ice. It’s usually 900 to 1,200 pounds, and that’s all year long. I’m wired money from Norway by his grandson, Trygve, to move the ice, and that’s what I do,” he said.

Bauge oversees the whole operation from afar. Even current cryonic practices are controversial, but he theorizes that someday science will advance to a point where scientists can create his grandfather’s younger genetic twin.

Still, Bauge admits the situation isn’t the best.

“Of course, he wasn’t stored under ideal circumstances compared to what we will be able to do 100 years from now, but you have to start where you are, and you have to improve from there, step by step. We live in a real world, not a fantasy world,” he said.

While science develops, Bredo Morstoel’s story remains a legend. Ultimately, the Nederland festival became a victim of its own success, and it would have been canceled this year if it hadn’t moved to Estes Park.

That move was the brainchild of John Cullen, the president of the city’s historic, but eerie, Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King’s horror novel, “The Shining,” and the movie and TV series that followed.

Cullen sees a connection between the Stanley’s otherworldly reputation and the story behind the frozen dead guy, and the festival isn’t the only thing he might move. There’s a historic ice house on the Stanley property, and Cullen is talking to a nonprofit foundation that specializes in cryonics about leasing that space.

Potentially, the body could then be moved to the ice house, where the foundation would maintain it in its frozen state and create a cryonics museum.

Cullen says he thinks the hotel’s zoning would accommodate that kind of move, but he plans to work closely with regulators and the public before there’s a final plan.

In the meantime, Wickham will continue delivering the ice every couple of weeks, and he said he’ll be a little sad when that ends.

“After awhile, you feel like part of the family,” he said, “to the point where I’m almost going to probably have some stages of grief once this is over.”

For more from Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org ■

Brad Wickham, the caretaker of the TuffShed, on one of his two trips a month. / Courtesy photo

Photo by Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

is Monday at noon. To submit an item,

Thursday16

Bingo Night, 5 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos.

Bike Durango’s En Masse Group Ride, 5:30 p.m., meet at Durango Cyclery, 143 E. 13th St. Ride to Zia’s north, rain, snow or shine.

HER Story: An Evening of Storytelling, part of Women’s History Month, 5:30 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.

River Spell plays, 6 p.m., Durango Hot Springs.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Trivia Night, 6:30 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1330 Camino del Rio.

Ecstatic Dance, 6:30-8:30 p.m., American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave.

Float Like a Buffalo, Apollo Suns and The Buzz play, 7 p.m., Animas City Theatre.

Merely Players present “The Lifespan of a Fact,” 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center.

Friday17

St. Patrick’s Day/Spring Break Festival, runs thru March 19, American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave. Full lineup of events at durangoamericanlegion.org

Chapfest, three days of competition and celebration at Chapman Hill, info at thehivedgo.org

Gary Walker plays, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

Sitting with Peace Meditation, 12 noon, Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave.

St. Patrick’s Day Snowboard Giveaway, 3 p.m., The Bear Bar at Purgatory Resort.

Fanny Pack Friday, 3 p.m., The Nugget Mountain Bar, 48721 Highway 550.

St. Patrick’s Day Party, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.

The Kitchen Jam Band plays, 5 p.m., Four Leaves Winery, 528 Main Ave.

Larry Carver & Jack Ellis play, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Grant Livingston Band plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Chris Murray plays, 6 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office, 699 Main Ave.

Ru Paul’s Drag Race Watch Party, 6 p.m., Father’s Daughters Pizza, 640 Main Ave.

Desiderata plays, 7 p.m., The Hive, 1150 Main Ave.

Merely Players present “The Lifespan of a Fact,” 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Dr.

Ben Gibson Band plays, 7-10 p.m., American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave.

Haro in the Dark plays, 7 p.m., EsoTerra Ciderworks, 558 Main Ave.

Reefer Madness, The Musical, 7:30 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

Hip Hop is Dead plays, 8 p.m., Mancos Brewing.

Drag Show, 8:30 p.m., Father’s Daughters Pizza, 640 Main Ave.

Saturday18

St. Patrick’s Day/Spring Break Festival, runs thru March 19, American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave. Full lineup of events at durangoamericanlegion.org

Chapfest, three days of competition and celebration at Chapman Hill, info at thehivedgo.org.

The Metropolitan Opera – Live in HD –Wagner’s “Lohengrin,” 10:55 a.m., FLC’s Vallecito Room.

Mancos Melt Putt Putt Tournament, 12 noon, Fenceline Cider, Mancos.

Snow Science & Social, 1 p.m., Andrews Lake winter parking lot.

The Lost Boys String Band plays, 5 p.m., Mancos Brewing.

River Spell plays, 6 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Community Yoga, 6-7 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations accepted.

Merely Players present “The Lifespan of a Fact,” 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Dr.

Reefer Madness, The Musical, 7:30 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

Silent Disco w/DJ Squoze, 9-11:30 p.m., 11th St. Station.

Sunday19

St. Patrick’s Day/Spring Break Festival, American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave. Full lineup of events at durangoamericanlegion.org

Chapfest, three days of competition and celebration at Chapman Hill, info at thehivedgo.org.

Veterans Benefit Breakfast, 9 a.m., VFW Post 4031, 1550 Main Ave.

Feed the People! free mutual aid meal & winter gear drive for homeless community members, every Sunday, 2 p.m., Buckley Park.

Merely Players present “The Lifespan of a Fact,” 2 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Dr.

Open Mic, 4 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos.

Reefer Madness, The Musical, 5 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Sunday Funday, 6 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Monday20

Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.

Meditation and Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave, Suite 109.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Open Mic, 6 p.m., Weminuche Woodfire Grill, Vallecito.

AskRachel

Top scooper, republi-cant’s & work-life imbalance

Interesting fact: The first known drag balls were held in Harlem in the 1920s. I know for a fact that Tennessee lawmakers don’t know this historical fact, or else they’d have preemptively outlawed drag in, like, the 1870s.

Dear Rachel, Spring break is coming soon for Durango kids, and the dog trails are open, but there is way too much dog doo-doo to be seen. How about the City has a contest to see who picks up the most and give them $100 or whatever? Clean up for fun and get some money while getting in a nice walk on the trail. I think your bark will help the cause. Oh, ask City Market to donate the bags as a tax write-off for them.

Dear Bag Man,

– John Crapper

I like your idea, but man, that contest would be way too easy to rig. All I’d have to do… erm, I mean all someone totally hypothetical would have to do would be to start walking her dog on the trail, but like the north end, and toss all the sculptures just off the trail. Then, come back on contest day and collect the bounty. Bonus points for bringing full bags that I’ll start stealing from my neighbor’s rolling trash can the moment this contest gets announced.

– Eyes on the prize, Rachel

Dear Rachel, Tennessee passed a law that drag shows

“Native Bees” presentation, 6:30 p.m., Animas Valley Grange, 7271 County Road 203.

Comedy Showcase, 7:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Christopher Williams plays, 7:30 p.m., Smiley Café, 1309 E. 3rd Ave.

Tuesday21

Rosie the Riveter Day, pop-up exhibit, 10 a.m., Animas Museum, 3065 W. 2nd Ave. Grand opening celebration March 25 at 10 a.m.

Community Yoga, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd. Donations accepted.

cannot be performed on public property, as this is bad for minors to see. What a joke. What’s next? No white blues music? No white people dancing with Black people in Tennessee? By the way, who went to see the drag shows and then passed the law? Must have been the GOP lawmakers. Tennessee lawmakers must think no one is LGBTQ in Tennessee. Your Hollywood thoughts?

– Stormy Spanials

Dear Jackie O’nasty, Oh, Tennessee lawmakers know full well that there are LGBTQ people in Tennessee. They think they can legislate them into compliance. (Either that, or exodus.) But they have no idea just how many obstacles a whole lot of drag queens and drag kings have had to overcome in life just to get to where they can express themselves in drag. If they think some repressed conservative pricks are going to stop them, then I can’t wait to see the eventual drag show in the state capitol building.

– Get it, Rachel

Email Rachel: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

Dear Rachel,

My friends and I have a debate. Which is the better gig: an 8-5 job on site where you really only work two to three hours a day? Or, a full-time job working from home but you actually have to pull down your eight hours? There’s no consensus, and this is actually getting quite contentious.

– Working Class

Bluegrass Jam, 5:30 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.

Jason Thies plays, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office, 699 Main Ave.

Open Mic , 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Sarah Shook & the Disarmers with Mightmare play, 7 p.m., Animas City Theatre.

Wednesday22

Live music, 6-9 p.m., The Office & Diamond Belle, 699 Main Ave.

Dear Job Lesson, I got your beat: take on the kind of work (from home, duh) that you can put off until the last minute, so that you get it done in a fraction of the time after having an entire day to do whatever you please. Welcome to my life. It’s pretty great, but even I think the grass is greener. You want to know what I aspire to? Whatever Mr. Crapper up there does for a living, getting to sit around and think up genius ideas to beautify the city all day long.

– Punching the clock, Rachel

Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 8 p.m., The Roost, 128 E. College Dr.

Karaoke Roulette, 8 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.

Ongoing

Durango Bach Festival, thru March 18, all events at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 910 E. 3rd Ave. durangobachfestival.com

!Jubilee! spring art show, Nadya/Tron digital/watercolors, Durango Rec Center, through March.

62nd annual Student Juried Exhibition, The Art Gallery at Fort Lewis College. Exhibit runs until April 8.

Deadline to submit items for “Stuff to Do” is Monday at noon.

FreeWillAstrology

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I highly recommend the following experiences: 1. ruminating about what you learned in a relationship that ended – and how those lessons might be useful now. 2. ruminating about a beloved place you once regarded as home – and how the lessons you learned while there might be inspiring now. 3. ruminating about a riddle that has long mystified you – and how clarifying insights you receive in the coming weeks could help you finally understand it.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): For “those who escape hell,” wrote Charles Bukowski, “nothing much bothers them after that.” Believe it or not, Taurus, I think that in the coming weeks, you can permanently escape your own personal version of hell – and never, ever have to return. One strategy that will be useful in your escape is this idea from Bukowski: “Stop insisting on clearing your head – clear your f*cking heart instead.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini paleontologist Louis Agassiz (1807–83) was a foundational contributor to the scientific tradition. Among his specialties was his hands-on research into the mysteries of fossilized fish. Though he was meticulously logical, he once called on his nightly dreams to solve a problem he faced. Here’s the story: A potentially crucial specimen was largely concealed inside a stone. He wanted to chisel away the stone to get at the fossil, but was hesitant to proceed for fear of damaging the treasure inside. On three successive nights, his dreams revealed to him how he should approach the work. This information proved perfectly useful. Agassiz hammered away at the slab exactly as his dreams suggested and freed the fossilized fish. I bring this marvel to your attention, Gemini, because I suspect that you, too, need to carve or cut away an obstruction that is hiding something valuable. Can you get help from your dreams? Yes, or else in deep reverie or meditation.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Will you flicker and sputter in the coming weeks, Cancerian? Or will you spout and surge? That is, will you be enfeebled by barren doubts, or will you embolden yourself with hearty oaths? Will you take nervous sips or audacious guzzles? Will you hide and equivocate, or else reveal and pounce? Dabble gingerly or pursue the joy of mastery? I’m here to tell you that which fork you take will depend on your intention and your willpower, not on

the caprices of fate. So which will it be: Will you mope and fritter or untangle and illuminate?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I applaud psychologists who tell us how important it is to feel safe. But there’s another meaning of safety that applies to those of us who yearn to express ourselves creatively. Singersongwriter David Bowie articulated the truth: “If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a bit out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re in the right place to do something exciting.” Almost everyone benefits from being imaginative and even a bit daring in their own particular sphere. And this will be especially applicable to you in the coming weeks, Leo.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You are in the sweet, deep phase of the Receiving Season. I urge you to do everything necessary to become a welcoming beacon that attracts a wealth of invigorating and healing influences. For inspiration, read this quote by author John Steinbeck: “It is so easy to give, so exquisitely rewarding. Receiving, on the other hand, if it be well done, requires a fine balance of self-knowledge and kindness. It requires humility and tact and great understanding of relationships ... It requires a self-esteem to receive – a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran poet E. E. Cummings wrote that daffodils “know the goal of living is to grow.” Is his sweet sentiment true? I would argue it’s only partially accurate. I believe that if we want to shape our destinies with courage and creativity, we need to periodically go through phases of decay and decline. They make periods of growth possible. So I would say, “The goal of life is to grow and wither and grow and wither and grow.” I suspect you are finishing a time of withering and will soon embark on a series of germinations and blossoms.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): All of us have elements of genius. It could be subtle or unostentatious, like a skill for communicating with animals or for seeing what’s best in people. Or maybe it’s more spectacular, like composing beautiful music or raising children to be strong and compassionate. I mention this, Scorpio, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to identify your unique genius in

great detail – and then nurture it and celebrate it in every way you can imagine.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The emblem associated with Sagittarius is an archer holding a bow with the arrow pointed upwards. This figure represents your tribe’s natural ambition to always aim higher. I bring this to your attention because your symbolic quiver is now full of arrows. But what about your bow? Is it in tip-top condition? I suggest you do some maintenance. Is it as steady and stable as it needs to be? I have one further suggestion as you prepare for the target-shooting season. Choose one or at most two targets to aim at rather than four or five.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): It’s prime time to feel liberated from the urge to prove yourself to anyone. It’s a phase when your self-approval should be the only kind of approval you need, a period when you have the right to remove yourself from any situation that is weighed down with gloomy confusion or apathetic passivity. This is exciting news! You have an unprecedented opportunity to recharge your psychic batteries and replenish your physical vitality.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I suspect you can now accomplish healthy corrections without getting tangled up in messy karma. Here are my recommendations: 1. As you strive to improve situations that are awry or askew, act primarily out of love rather than guilt or pity. 2. Fight tenderly in behalf of beautiful justice, but don’t fight harshly for ugly justice. 3. Ask yourself how you might serve as a kind of divine intervention in the lives of those you care about – and then carry out those divine interventions.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In describing her process, Piscean sculptor Anne Truitt wrote, “The most demanding part of living a lifetime as an artist is the strict discipline of forcing oneself to work steadfastly along the nerve of one’s own most intimate sensitivity.” I propose that many Pisceans, both artists and non-artists, can thrive from living like that. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to give yourself to such an approach with eagerness and devotion. I urge you to think hard and feel deeply as you ruminate on the question of how to work steadfastly along the nerve of your own most intimate sensitivity.

Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon. Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com.

Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check.

(Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.) Ads can be submitted via:

n www.durangotelegraph.com

n classifieds@durango telegraph.com

n 970-259-0133

n 679 E. 2nd Ave., #E2

Approximate office hours:

Mon-Wed: 9ish - 5ish

Thurs: On delivery

Fri: Gone fishing; call first

Annoucements

Applications for Advanced Standing MSW Program

Students with a bachelor’s degree in social work (BSW) are eligible for a oneyear Masters of Social Work program through the University of Denver. The program starts summer 2023 and classes are taught in Durango. Stipends for child welfare, integrated behavioral health care are available.  Native American tuition support to eligible students is also available.  For more info contact Janelle.Doughty@du.edu or www.du. edu/socialwork

!Jubalee!

Durango Rec Center spring art show, Nadya/Tron digital/watercolors. Sale prices $40-$120.

Classes/Workshops

Yoga Teacher Training

Yoga Alliance certified 200 + 300 hr. yoga teacher training courses starting April 14 here in Durango. Join us on this transformational journey! www.Trans formativeLearningCenter.com

Join Our Neighborhood Yoga Class

50+ Gentle Yoga w/modifications, Wednesdays 9-10:15 am @ Florida Grange; 656 Hwy. 172, Durango. (Jill) jillfay07@gmail.com

Free AMD and Simple Will Pres.

Colorado Legal Services will host a free legal presentation about advance care planning and simple wills: understanding Colorado advance directive forms with estate planning attorney, Tracy J. Cross. Advance care planning is

the process of expressing and documenting wishes for future healthcare decisions. March 21, 5:30-7 p.m. Durango Public Library and via zoom. Durangovap.com/events

HelpWanted

Front Desk Receptionist

We are looking for someone that has a positive attitude, is an effective problem solver, has a strong desire to achieve goals, and is knowledgeable of the Durango area. Handling check-ins and check-outs office duties, answering phone calls, responding to emails, creating reservations, inform guests of rates, available rooms, motel amenities and information, maintaining a high standard of cleanliness of lobby and property, resolving guest issues and conflicts in a professional and timely manner Start date: March 2023 job types: full-time, part-time salary: $15.75/hr. Motel Durango, Jbutts@ moteldurango.com

Durango Outdoor Exchange

is looking for a full-time or part-time Gear Specialist. Do you have -retail sales experience -gear knowledge -Saturday availability - self motivation - stoke for the outdoors? Come join the crew! Applications available on our website or swing by to meet with Jen, 3677 Main Ave.

Wanted

Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum, Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970-2593494.

GarageSale

Home Content Sale

03.17 & 03.18, 10am-3pm. Furniture, framed art, jewelry, knick-knacks,

dishes, women’s clothing, linens, kitchen/HH goods, books, tools, restaurant stuff and more. 15 Sandstone Dr, Durango.

ForSale

HaikuMovieReview

‘You

People’

A sadly, soulless pseudo-remake of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”

and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494.

Registered Australian Shepherd Puppies

Black tricolors ... $800. **Reserve your puppy for early summer ... call Laura @ 505-258-7894 ** References available.

Selling

2 Nemo Cosmo insulated sleeping pads, 30XL $75 each. New, all-season truck tires set of five 235/65R16, $250. Call 970-749-9037

Reruns Home Furnishings

Brighten up your indoor (and soon outdoor!) space with bistro sets, plant stands, side tables, mirrors, tables and cool corner cabinet. Looking to consign smaller furniture pieces … 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.

ForRent

Furnished Studio in Town $900/mo. specula1@gmail.com

Services

Harmony Cleaning and Organizing Residential, offices, commercial and vacation rentals, 970-403-6192.

Lowest Prices on Storage!

Inside/outside storage near Durango

Stop Smoking/Break Bad Habits

Effortless! Relaxing! Get the results you want! Professional hypnosis with Susan Urban, (CHT, HA, TH).  Use your own brain to make the positive changes you want in your life. Free phone consultation. 970-247-9617.

BodyWork

Discounted Massage on Wednesdays

Clinical deep tissue massage, specific, therapeutic w/ mobilizations. 30% off for a limited time. Located at Mountain Medicine / Pura Vida, downtown Durango. 60 min: $63, 90 min: 87.50 Call to schedule w/ Dennis @ 970.403.5451

In-Home Fitness Training

Get fit in 2023! I come to you! All ages. Diane Brady NSCA-CPT. 970-9032421

Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-7590199.

– Lainie Maxson