Hallarville wasn't actually a town, but its location many local people remember.

It was located at the turnoff to Mesa Verde National Park. It had a store, a few gas pumps and several houses. It was owned by Fred Hallar, a longtime resident of the Mancos Valley. The 'town' featured some captive animals, including a chained bear. The bear would lie on his back and drink bottles of orange soda pop to the amusement of visitors. The bear was nicknamed Nehi because that was the brand of the soda pop.

Hallarville existed from the 1920s to the 40s when it was taken over by the Mesa Verde Company and later Aramark.

McPhee was a lumber town created by the McPhee and McGinnity of New Mexico Lumber Company . In 1924, during the timber boom, the company was the successful bidder to harvest 70 million board-feet of timber in the northern part of Montezuma County. The town, intended to house the mill's workers, was laid out and built in one year with orderly streets and blocks and a water system to serve all of the homes. It had, besides the sawmill, a school, store and post office. By 1927, the town was home to 1,500 people and the sawmill was one of the largest in the West.

In 1935, the McPhee company reorganized and became the Montezuma Lumber Company.

On June 30, 1941, a fire broke out at the sawmill and destroyed it, setting the company back some $150,000. Another fire broke out on June 19, 1942 and gutted the machine shop.

In 1944, the business and town were purchased. It was partially rebuilt and reopened but the changes that came about by WWII and the depletion of sawmill reserves, caused by so much logging, were more than the company could handle. Another fire broke out in 1948 wiping out the mill and most of the town. Montezuma Lumber Company was liquidated and the few remaining houses were moved elsewhere. The McPhee site is now covered by the reservoir that bears the same name.

Water was scarce in the Montezuma Valley. and the two good springs located around a mile south of present day Cortez were an important stopping place for anyone traveling through the area.

In the 1880s, a post office called Toltec and a small store were established there. Cattlemen moving their herds across the valley were where they stopped to water their cattle. Porter Mitchell later had a general store, which gave the site the name of Mitchell Springs. Other dwellings soon sprang up. The site however proved too boggy and wet for a major town and quietly disappeared as Cortez began to grow.

To the east was the Mancos Valley ,filled with ranchers and a town that would stay larger than Cortez for two more decades.

Darrel Ellis is a longtime historian of the Mancos Valley. Email him at [email protected].