County Seat, Mining Town, Historically Designated or Ghost Town? It is hard to put an exact label on Hillsboro. It has been the home of Spaniards, Indians, cowboys, ranchers, miners, prostitutes, madams, artists, writers, retirees, military, teachers, children, lawyers and outlaws. Most are now gone but a few ...

A Cold Christmas Eve for Pike and his Men, 1806 A number of times, over the course of fifty years, I have stopped at the site where Zebulon Pike and a number of his men spent a cold Christmas evening back in the year 1806.The campsite is at the base of several 14,000 foot peaks known at the Colligate Range, north of Poncha Springs. I’ve climbed all those peaks, I believe, so while driving through this valley following the Arkansas River, I think of this early explorer, Captain Zebulon P...

Eureka Nevada, I’ve found it!” I texted to a few of my friends and family. One recipient of my text wrote me cryptically, “Found what? Your long lost soul? ” Well, maybe I did as I traveled west on Highway 50 across the Great Basin west of Salt Lake City, Utah. Years ...

Over the last few years, since I became a full time RVer, I have visited numerous historic sites west of the Mississippi River. None, however, have had the unique impact on me of Ft. Sumner and the Bosque Redondo Memorial. Many Forts were built by the Army to protect the settlers. Ft. Sumner...

Last week, I left Durango, Colorado for a trip that has long been on my “bucket list”. For years, I have wanted to see Yosemite and the Oregon Coast. Arriving in mid-April, it was still too early to see Yosemite because the roads had not been opened and the Park was not yet s...

Last week, I attended the annual conference for Southeast Publications in New Orleans. One of the attendees told me that that his uncle was a Nez Perce Indian. I told him that I have visited two of the battlefield sites of the U.S. Army and the Nez Perce Indians. I recommended a book to&...

Durango, Colorado, is now my base camp for excursions into the mountains, prairies, canyons and the desert. I have lived here for about four years now and am gradually learning some things about its history. I have always had a great interest in Colorado history. My maternal grandparents migrated from&#...

About four and one-half years ago, I visited Alamogordo, New Mexico on the edge of the Tularosa Basin. I stayed at the Oliver Lee (1865-1941) Memorial State Park. Now, I am back, preparing the park’s Guest&#.......

This week, the new owner of the local ski area here in Durango changed the name of place back to the original one, that being Purgatory. It had been called Durango Mountain Resort, but the new owner, James H. Coleman, Jr. said “Like many of the locals and our longtime guests, I’ve&#3...

A missing cotter pin almost wrecked my brand new car recently. I was driving from Ehrenberg, Arizona to Durango, Colorado with a rest stop in Kingman, Arizona. I rested from 6PM t.......