Beginning on Oct. 2, news from Mancos will be reported on Tuesdays and Fridays in The Journal, along with news from Cortez and Dolores, much like the Montezuma Journal, of 1888.
Archives on micro-film at the Mancos Library show that the Mancos Times was there through it all, chronicling the railroads of Southwest Colorado, the discovery and mapping of Anasazi ruins, the birth of Mesa Verde National Park, the booms and busts of the mining, dairy and logging industries, and the current success of Mancos as an enclave for artisans, farmers, ranchers and tourists.
The Times' first main editor, W.H. Kelley, was a big mining booster, imploring citizens to "get a move on yourselves and dig out the precious metals God has thrown in your yards."
Kelley was convinced that the Mancos region had the "greatest gold fields yet uncovered, and they will stay idle until capital steps up."
Dense with print, the early Times had no photographs and covered national and international news of the day. Coverage was devoutly partisan, with articles taking sides on national news.
After its first year, Kelley acknowledged the financial challenges of a newspaper: "As a moneymaker, it is a blooming failure. The paper has flourished despite the moss backs and Mother Grundys."
A plethora of murders, train crashes, Indian clashes, town fires, and train robberies dominated early headlines. Then on June 29, 1906, Mesa Verde National Park was established by the U.S. Secretary of Interior, and Mancos welcomed the attention.
"This means the government will spend thousands building roads, beautifying the park, constructing hotels, and drilling artesian wells," a reporter wrote. "All together, this will be the most important and far-reaching influence for the this country yet."
The 1920s, '30s, and '40s
Locomotives hauled freight through Mancos in the 1920s, including timber and livestock. The Red Arrow Mine saw early promise for gold, and its status was reported week to week. Kraft Foods Inc. strongly hinted that it wanted to build a cheese factory, a prospect that dominated headlines for months.
In the mid-1930s, a health assessment of the grade school revealed that many students suffered from malnutrition, which was attributed to the Great Depression.
Then in 1940, it was announced with banner headlines that Jackson Reservoir would be built under the Case-Wheeler Act. The $1.6 million project created a 10,000-acre-feet reservoir, securing an agricultural industry that survives today.
"It is felt that after so many dry years, a storage reservoir is the only salvation for the valley," a reporter wrote. "This creates additional revenues for farmers, allowing for two additional irrigation cycles per year."
Completing the project was a difficult challenge. Another fight in the 1940s was the battle to keep the Mancos School District from being swallowed by Cortez.
Birth of an arts town
Mancos embraced the arts in force beginning in the 2000s with the opening of the Mancos Artisans cooperative, in the historic Bauer building. The Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce was the project's main backer.
Now, dozens of collective galleries on Grand Avenue showcase local talent and draw in tourists and locals. In 2003, Mancos had more art galleries per resident than any other town or city in the U.S., according to one article.
"We're seeing arts and creativity of every type flourish in Mancos," the Times reported in 2009, "and we're being recognized as a true Arts Community. We are certainly proud of that! Now something has taken hold in this community; an optimism and a new and welcome vitality."
Editors reminisce
Some recent editors were Suzy Meyer, Ellen Holsten, Julie Powell, Kiertsen Faulkner, and Jeanne Archambeault.
Tom Vaughan was the editor from 1999 to 2006, and is a Mancos historian.
"In the early 1900s, who went where was just as interesting as national news," Vaughan said, "including whose car ended up at whose house at night, who bought a Buick, who got in a fight, and who traveled to Durango."
Meyer said she loved the experience, "I wish I could go back to being the Mancos Newspaper Lady!"
She recalls reporting on the Biomagnetic Education Foundation issue, two winter plane crashes, and all those town meetings.
"I mainly remember many community events that I enjoyed covering, and the hundreds of photos of smiling people I was privileged to know," she said.
Vaughan recalls a newspaper job could be controversial. "I was the face of the newspaper, and sometimes the fallout fell on me."
"On one hand, I remember it as a grinding job," Vaughan said. "On the other, I loved covering the community, reporting on the meetings. Education was a focus of mine, giving kids recognition for their awards."
The archive of 52 weeks a year for 122 years is priceless, he said, and they contain 25,000 newspaper pages of local history.
"The online cache of the Mancos Times should be on the reference list for every Mancos student assigned to write a paper, especially about history," Vaughan said. "I'm sad to see the old girl go."
Check out the Mancos Times archives at the Mancos Public Library, or online at www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org.
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com
