Welcome to spring! Once the snow and mud disappear its a wonderful time to get out the camera and go flower hunting. The picture here was taken one spring when I vacationed in Pagosa Springs and took a day trip over Wolf Creek Pass to visit the old mining town of Creede. As a youngster I never really took the time to smell the flowers or even notice the beauty God placed before me. This time of year to a young boy in the 50s only meant that soon school would be over for the summer. It would be time for finding work for spending money and looking at all of the out of state license plates to figure out who traveled the furtherest.
Thinking back to one of those memorable times when I needed to earn some spending money. Standing on main street, leaning against the rails above the pool hall steps with hands in pocket and hoping some good looking girl would notice me. Suddenly a pick up pulled up and a rough voice called out my name and asked if I wanted to work. Not really knowing what I was agreeing to I was eager to go along with Floyd Bramwell. Floyd needed help on his ranch branding calf's. The only ranch work I had ever done was bailing hay and had no idea what I was in for. I was told that I would be the flanker on a team and had to hold the hind legs while the animal was branded and castrated. The first smell of searing hair and flesh began to turn my stomach and when the other part was done I lost everything I'd eaten for a week. I will always owe a debt of gratitude to all those ranchers who taught me the value of an honest days labor.
I recently read an article in the Durango Herald of the huge land sale of a ranch in Pagosa for
millions of dollars. I was surprised to learn that the same ranch was one I remember being owned by Lucy Turner. After researching the history and seeing how it was transformed from a working ranch to a Paradise for the wealthy I have to agree that "Bootjack Ranch" is a very prestigious beautiful place to visit. Its funny to me that for as long as I can remember tourist have come to San Juan mountains proclaiming its beauty to the world, packing up their belonging and coming to change the very beauty that brought them there in the first place. The wildlife have been driven from there breeding grounds only to learn to forge for food within the city trash bins.
I guess thats why never returned and chose to stay in a concrete forest, my heart breaks every time I visit and see that forest and grazing fields have been taken over by developers. Even fishing and hunting is no longer a sport with all the electronic gadgets to find the poor creatures.
