![]() They reasoned that the town would earn more in sales tax revenue that they would lose from coins in those meters. When the downtown merchants found out that there was going to be a traffic signal and realized that it might stop some traffic and tourists could actually cross the street without getting run over by a log truck, they asked the town to remove the parking meters. Later, fill dirt was brought in and compacted and that parking area was added. It sloped right off to the river back then. There were meters on that side of the street in that block also. The parking area that no w overlooks the river and hot springs was not there. There were parking meters on the downtown block of the main street. Some of the newcomers protested that they could no longer tell their urban friends and relatives that they lived in a place where there was not even one traffic signal in their entire county. and Highway 160, it was so the students could get across more safely. When we finally got the traffic signal at the corner of 4 th St. The teachers would march their classes to the corner and try to cross the highway. Football games were played there and physical education classes were held there when the weather was suitable. The only playing field for both the high school and middle school was across the highway from where those two schools were, across Hermosa Street from the town park. The first one was placed by Goodman’s Store. There were no traffic signals in the entire county. Ranching and hay production was a distant second in the local economy. An inversion layer of smoke would hang over the river valley and town especially on cold winter mornings. There was a teepee cone burner at the sawmill where they burned the slash until the EPA made them quit. (Sorry!) Actually some of them sped through town and along many of the county roads and on a lot of national forest access roads. Log trucks lumbered through town at all hours. It employed 300 workers at the peak of each year. This will be more of a narrative rather than a story more informative than entertaining or humorous.Īs I mentioned in my first story – “Moving to Pagosa” – the San Juan Lumber Mill on the corner of Highways 160 and 84, was the dominant force in the local economy. ![]() Perhaps this walk-about will help all of us to recognize what the older natives have experienced and endured already in the past 33 years. Obviously, mine relates to 1975, on how I first immersed myself into this community. That point will be different for different people. Change is inevitable, but the idea of “Keeping Pagosa – Pagosa” is necessarily linked to a point in time. I hope this will give the newcomers and some not so new, a feel for the area in earlier times.
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