The Golden Years Return to Colorado’s Old West

Picture the set of a Hollywood Western, only with tourists starring for the macho mountain men of another century.

That’s Durango.

During the West’s golden years Durango sprang up in this one-time lusty, hell-raising corner of Colorado where for more than a century it prospered as the gateway to some of the richest glory holes on earth. Will Rogers described it as “out of the way and glad of it.”

Founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, Durango was the scene of bars, brothels and shoot-’em-ups, including a gun battle involving the notorious Stockton-Eskridge gang that lasted for more than an hour. When the smoke had cleared, Main Street resembled nothing less than a war-torn battlefield. Windows were shattered and blood was spattered--but the player piano in a Main Street saloon never missed as much as a single note.

Today tourists ride the range in four-wheel Mustangs and mingle on Main Street, taking in the melodrama at the old Strater Hotel and riding the Durango & Silverton narrow-gauge railroad. Others disappear to three guest ranches as well as Tamarron, a five-star attraction spread across 600 acres of fir and aspen.

At Tamarron a herd of elk stares at guests while guests fire back with Instamatic cameras. Stan Wadsworth bought a meadow and carved out a kingdom. In a land of lakes he dug others, planted more trees, built a lodge and surrounded it with town houses.

The result is a Rocky Mountain all-weather playground for well-heeled vacationers, with golf a leading attraction.

With the arrival of winter, players trade clubs for ski poles and disappear into the forest. Just above the 18th fairway, novice skiers schuss down a beginner’s hill and others skate on a frozen pond not far from the 10th fairway.

Still others commute by helicopter to Purgatory with its maze of trails, lifts, bars and restaurants.

Guests at Tamarron choose between studio apartments in the main lodge and spiffy condominiums that face the golf course. The tab figures out to $125 a night for a double (make that $115 for a single) and runs upscale to $350 for a pad in the pines that accommodates a family of four. In case the guest gets hooked with all the beauty, Tamarron will sell him a condominium priced from $62,000 to $350,000.

At Tamarron, depending on the season, one may take lessons in archery, raft down a river or climb the highest mountain. In addition, there’s an indoor-outdoor swimming pool as well as a fleet of Jeeps for exploring ancient ruins, abandoned mining towns and alpine meadows high in the awesome San Juans.

A favorite hangout of an evening is a lively pub called the Miner’s Shaft where ore cars make do as booths and miners’ lamps provide the light.

Beyond Tamarron, guests visit the ancient cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park and explore Silverton where Bat Masterson patrolled a beat of 37 saloons that operated around the clock.

Ricky-tick piano drifts out the swinging doors of the Grand Imperial and the Bent Elbow, and strangers spill their silver up and down Blair and Main streets, buying up mementos of the tumble-down mining town.

During winter the winds howl off the Rockies and strangers warm themselves beside potbellied stoves; they look in on Lee Lung Ty’s abandoned laundry and study the sign nailed over the undertaker’s parlor: coffins, shrouds, tombstones.

Silverton’s handful of old-timers call it “the mining town that wouldn’t quit.” But little life remains in winter. With summer throngs gone, silence returns to Main Street, save for the mournful cry of an icy wind.

Head for the Hills

Meanwhile, back in Durango other vacationers head for the hills to ride for a week at Western-flavored guest ranches. Places with pure air and pure water and a sky that’s ignited with stars. No smog or sirens. Just the open land and the San Juan Mountains with their quaking aspen and lofty pines.

At Colorado Trails Ranch, Dick Elder has been welcoming guests for 26 years. Ever since he plunked down $35,000 for 555 acres of pine-covered mountains and valleys--a spread valued conservatively today at $1.5 million. Elder is both a cowboy and a showman who built a Western village complete with opera house and a trading post as well as a saloon with soft drinks in place of stiff booze.

Cherry Cokes are on tap at an old-fashioned soda fountain along with lemon phosphates, peanut butter milk shakes, Popsicles and sarsaparilla.

Youngsters crowd the Ruckus Room with its pinball machines, Ping-Pong and old Bailey piano. Next door, staff shows are staged in Schaeffer’s Opera House--whenever guests aren’t dancing to country music.

The Daily Schedule

Elder runs his ranch like the captain of a cruise ship. A daily bulletin tells of “early bird coffee” at 7 a.m. followed by trail rides, trapshooting, round-robin tennis matches, volleyball, hayrides, breakfast rides, raft trips, fly-fishing, water skiing and square dancing in Schaeffer’s Opera House for those who can still muster the energy after a day on horseback. For riding, essentially, is what Elder’s ranch is all about.

This feisty Marlboro type issues commands like a cavalry captain leading an attack on a band of Apaches. Dressed in jeans, chaps and a cowboy hat, Elder sits cocksure in the saddle, barking instructions to guests as they parade before him at the start of a trail ride that takes in meadows and mountains.

On the other hand, he’s a sentimentalist who names his buildings for guests he takes a liking to. Edna’s Trading Post is named for an Illinois guest who rides each summer and Schaeffer’s is for the mayor of a small Ohio town.

Quotes Will Rogers

A sign in Elder’s office quotes Will Rogers: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Elder confesses to getting emotionally involved with guests. A chosen few arrive in springtime to help spruce up the ranch before the season begins, repairing fences, painting and doing an assortment of other jobs--and paying (not being paid) for their labor. Elder calls it Old Timer’s Week and last spring his volunteers included a surgeon, an astronaut, a financier, an airline pilot and an artist, among others. Says Elder: “If I paid them what they’re worth it would have cost me $1,000 an hour.”

Elder’s blonde wife, Ginny, is a former wrangler who married the boss. Together they put in 16-hour days during a season that starts in June and continues till September. Depending on their ages, guests are divided into four groups: buckaroos, rough riders, bull whackers and prospectors. The ranch gets high points for the children’s program (5 years and up) as well as a friendly staff consisting mostly of college-age boys and girls.

Youngsters fish in a pond and adults fly-cast in a river. (In a single day this summer 45 trout were prepared for dinner.)

Meadow and Mountains

Cabins face a meadow, towering mountains and groves of aspen and fir trees. Colorado Trails can accommodate up to 75 guests with prices ranging from $560 to $750 a week for adults, $400-$665 for children under 8, depending on the type of accommodations. The parlor where guests retreat to read and play cards contains a World War I phonograph, an 1888 church organ and an old-fashioned radio (circa 1928).

At a welcome dinner on Sunday night, Elder tells his guests that “you’re going to have a good time whether you like it or not.” Later during a riding lesson he declares: “You don’t just hop on your horse and say, ‘Hi, Yo Silver!’ and take off just like that. We’ll teach you the proper way.”

Then there are Lake Mancos and Wilderness Trails, a couple of other family ranches. Lake Mancos--a 480-acre spread--rises on a mesa between two canyons at the 8,000-foot elevation, providing accommodations for up to 60 guests in cabins painted bright red and containing king-size beds. A week in the wilderness will cost the vacationer $395, or as little as $276.50 in the case of children. This plus $75 if one chooses to ride. In autumn while the colors are changing, Lake Mancos does a special adults-only program between now and the first week of October.

In Pine River Valley

Wilderness Trails, which snuggles in the Pine River Valley near Vallecito Lake, is reached by a gravel road that twists through a world of wilderness off County Road 501. Meadows unfold to infinity, and the only sound one is likely to hear is the chatter of mockingbirds or the voice of the wind.

There’s an old-fashioned goodness to the ranch with its log cabins and miles of trails. A trout stream cuts through the property and there’s a pond that’s stocked with fish.

With accommodations for 55 guests, Wilderness Trails opens in June and closes in early fall, followed by hunting season in October and November.

Cattle graze in meadows and eagles soar high overhead. If one wishes to duck out on civilization, Wilderness Trails is prepared to slam the door.

Including daily rides, the weekly rate at Wilderness Trails figures out to $465 for adults and as little as $260 for children (the ranch gets high points for its children’s and teen program). Wilderness Trails features craft classes, rafting trips, hayrides and overnight camping adventures into the San Juan wilderness.

Owners Gene and Jan Roberts got into dude ranching 15 years ago after tiring of city life in Denver. He was an accountant, she was a nuclear technologist, and they traded their world of stress for a valley with a river and the promise of endless tomorrows where the cracking of a twig is as startling as thunder.

Following are addresses of resort/ranches named in this article:

Tamarron, P.O. Box 3131, Durango, Colo. 81302. Telephone (303) 247-8801.

Colorado Trails Ranch, Box 848G, Durango, Colo. 81301. Telephone (303) 247-5055.

Lake Mancos Ranch, 42688A County Road N, Mancos, Colo. 81328. Telephone (303) 533-7900.

Wilderness Trails Ranch, Box B, Bayfield, Colo. 81122. Telephone (303) 247-0722.