While researching to try and find photos of Pagosa Springs during my childhood of the 40s and 50s I found some interesting sites and stories posted on web sites. One of the historical stories was of the way the narrow gauge found its way to Pagosa. I remember as a young boy playing in the area of the old narrow gauge train station, using a coal shoot shed as a hideout playing cowboys. The coal shed has long disappeared like so many other memories, it was located on highway 160 at Putt Hill.
One my favorite old time friends Margaret Archuleta did a marvelous job of telling her memories of Pagosa. The Archuleta family were life long friends of my family and Pagosa lost a great patriarch of the comnmunity with her passing.
One of my favorite memories of Margaret was during the big 4th of July celebration in 1965. I had proudly taken my in-laws to Pagosa to see the parade and rodeo. My father-in-law who loved to drink his beer ; sat down in Margaret's bar enjoying a cool one, when one of my old friends thought it would be funny to send a couple of Indian ladies to flirt with him. Little did my father-in-law know that they were quite serious and began bartering to see who would take him home. Margaret,seeing what was happening came to the rescue made them leave him alone. Later in the day my father-in-law left the bar with a cold bottle of beer only to be told by a deputy to get back inside. He always told the story of being thrown into a bar in Pagosa!