The Cortez Journal

more Gulliford's travels

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  The Virgin never leaves Hispanic roadside shrines dot the mystic West

Driving across the mystical West, it is important to say a prayer, leave an offering, think of others. The Spanish phrase is “vaya con Dios,” or “go with God.” North of Abiquiu, N.M., is a roadside shrine with a statue of the Virgin Mary. She rests in a small stone grotto surrounded by offerings of rosaries, necklaces,...

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  A stone garage's weird story

OURAY - Driving across Colorado and the West, I see historic buildings or structures that compel me to get out of my truck and take a walk. For years, I've driven between Silverton and Ouray and noticed the large stone garage just east of Crystal Lake in Ironton Park. I've always wondered what it was, but in my most vivid imagination I could never...

• Research goes canyons deep

As a young canyoneer and backpacker, Steve Allen wanted to learn more about the red rock canyon country of southern Utah. He began a desert quest that took him into some of the wildest country in America. Forty-thousand hard-hiking, boot-busting, knee-wrenching miles later, he shares his knowledge in Utah's Canyon Country Place Names, a...

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  Unwanted in the West

This year marks the 100th anniversary of statehood for Arizona and New Mexico, but why did it take until 1912 for them to become states? Amidst all the hoopla of centennial celebrations the actual history of statehood deserves a closer look.

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  How Lincoln settled the West It’s been 150 years since president’s pen brought flood of farmers

WESTCLIFFE — All across the West they stand forlorn and forgotten. Many have tumbledown roofs, sagging walls, gaping doors. Yet these modest 10-by-12-foot homestead cabins represent a revolution in public-land policy, an American dream born of Thomas Jefferson’s belief that we should become a nation of farmers.

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  Searching for Sundance

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series. The first discussed Butch Cassidy and train robberies and appeared Sept. 15. Both stories will be posted in the Special Reports section at cortezjournal.com.
By Andrew Gulliford
Gulliford’s Travels

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  The train robbers

THE OUTLAW TRAIL — For stealing a $5 horse, Butch Cassidy spent two years in the Wyoming State Prison. He learned his lesson, though. He never got caught stealing horses again. Instead he turned to robbing trains. Butch figured they’d pay better. He was right.

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  It was a Grand time

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. — Six months of planning for a Grand Canyon river trip, then bam! A scorpion sting the first night! What did I do to deserve that? At 3 a.m. I’m wide awake. My left shin felt seared by a red-hot poker.

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  In the line of fire

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — We live with the heat, the dust, the smoke. They live with the fire. We complain, but they do the work as volunteers for local fire departments and as red card carrying federal firefighters on hotshot crews.

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  The 1982 bust: A morality play

GRAND JUNCTION – I’ll confess that I’m an environmentalist, an earth muffin. So what was I doing having drinks and dinner at the DoubleTree Hotel in Grand Junction with retired executives from Exxon-Mobil, the largest oil company in the world?