A brief and incomplete chronology related to the history of Durango, Colorado, and its environs, since 1909
Compiled by Todd Ellison, revised 2011
1909 June........The City began prohibiting fishing in the City’s reservoirs.
1910........The population of the city of Durango was 4,686.
1910 Spring........The City started placing trash cans on Main Avenue. The City allowed the vendor to place Sanitary Rubbish Cans at no charge to the City, in exchange for his being allowed to sell advertising on 3 sides.
1910 May........Durango’s City Council established speed limits of 10 MPH in the business district and 18 MPH elsewhere.
1910 June........Council approved the first Durango automobile licenses, issued to Dara C. White and The Pioneer Consolidated Company.
1910 June........U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim informed City Council of federal appropriations for the start-up of Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde National Park was founded in 1906 - the first national park in Colorado.
1911 Jan.........Durango Health Officer Hurd reported 5 smallpox patients in the County Pest House, 4 under quarantine within City limits, and 2 lodging houses under a 14-day quarantine.
1911 March........Council instructed the City Marshal to rid the city of vagrants. Those who did not care to leave were to be arrested and put to work on a rock pile.
1911 Oct.........Animas River peaked at 25,000 cubic feet per second, washing out bridges and turning the Animas Valley into a lake.
1912 June........Due to many alleged speeding violations by “autoists”, the Durango City Marshal was authorized to rent a stop watch for 30 days or for as long as he needed, to enable him to enforce the speed ordinances and arrest the offenders.
1912 June........Automatic electric lighting of the dials on the Town Clock (at the County Court House; the City of Durango subsidized the clock’s maintenance) began.
1912 Sept.........Durango was one of the first municipalities in the U.S. to adopt the Council/ Manager form of government -- by charter election on September 3, 1912. (Sumter, South Carolina claims the distinction of being first -- on June 11 of that same year.)
1913 March........Western Colorado Power Company was created; during the ensuing year it consolidated the operations of eight major electrical power companies on the Western Slope of Colorado.
1913........City Council dropped from nine men to three when the City adopted the commissioner form of government. There was less discussion; two men could decide a matter, whereas under the previous aldermanic form of government it required four votes (back then, the mayor would only vote if there was a tie).
1913 Aug.........Durango hired a dog catcher, and allowed him to keep $1 (paid by the dog’s owner) for each arrest he made for violation of Durango’s dog license ordinance.
1913 Dec.........the City established its current practice of having a bulletin board in front of City Hall upon which typewritten copy of statements would be posted.
1915 April........By general municipal election, voters voted by a large majority to change the City Charter to move to a commissioner-manager form of government.
1915 Spring........Council installed a Public Comfort Station for Women, on the south portion of the first floor in the Century Building on Main Avenue.
1915 July........A. F. Hood became the first City Manager of the City of Durango. He was an undertaker by profession (Hood Mortuary).
1915 July........Mr. J. C. Rawlins was allowed $5 a month as the City Pound Keeper and was instructed to drive all foreign horses out of the City.
1915 Aug.........The City began participating in workmen’s compensation (now called workers compensation).
1917........Construction of the highway connecting Durango, Silverton and Ouray ("the Million Dollar Highway") began.
1917 May........The draft for World War I began. City Council agreed to offer any assistance they could offer the County Sheriff, the County Clerk and the Physician whom the Federal Government had appointed as Registrars of the County of La Plata “for the registration of all men between the ages of 21 and 30, in compliance with the Federal Conscript Act.”
1917 June........Durango’s Fire and Police departments were consolidated, to save money.
1917........Construction of the highway connecting Durango, Silverton and Ouray ("the Million Dollar Highway") began.
1918 Aug.........Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the speaking of the German lan-guage in any public building or on any public street or alley. Another wartime measure Council adopted in 1918 was Ordinance 557, requiring all males ages 18 to 55 to engage in some useful occupation.
1918........Fort Lewis School began offering continuous twelve month school sessions.
1918-1919........The flu epidemic ("Spanish influenza") hit the region; 5 of every 75 people died.
1920........The population of the city of Durango dropped to 4,116.
1921 March........The City notified the Durango Railway and Realty Company that unless it removed the track and Main Avenue streetcar from the streets of Durango, the City would sue to compel their removal.
1921 June........Council authorized the Mayor and the City Manager “to arrange for automobiles or City Truck [sic] to help out in the proposed celebration of the Durango-Silverton highway to be held July 3d and 4th.”
1921 July........Council removed “the Quarantine against the Navajoe Indian on account of Typhus.”
1925 Dec.........Red lights for Main Avenue! One of his first actions of Edward Oviatt, when he was still only the City Manager Elect, was to get Council’s authorization for him to order two 250 candle power red lights to be placed in the center of Main Avenue, at 7th and 10th Streets.
1926........A group of busi¬nessmen, including Earl Barker, bought the Strater Hotel.
1927 April........“The City Manager …brought up the matter of perfecting arrangements for a landing for Airplains [sic] and the Council took the matter under advisement.”
1927 May........Durango added its first traffic police. After some discussion, Council empowered and authorized the City Manager “to put on an extra Policeman who would furnish his own Motorcycle, the City furnishing the Gas and Oil and not to pay to exceed $110.00 per month and try it for one month” to enforce a new ordinance to regulate street traffic and automobile signals. (However, the Traffic Ordinance No, 627 was not introduced until July 5th.)
1927 Sept.........Fort Lewis School (out by Hesperus) began offering a two-year college curriculum.
1929 May........Representatives of the Lions Club-American Legion and the Durango Exchange (predecessor of the Durango Chamber of Commerce) appeared before Council, “asking the City’s cooperation in securing an Airport for the City of Durango.” The Commissioners agreed to appropriate $350 to pay a professional “who would come here and make a complete examination and report.” On June 4th Mr. Jeneks of The International Airport Corporation presented his report to Council, recommending Reservoir Hill as the site for the Durango airport. The City selected Reservoir Hill (the later site of Fort Lewis College) for the Durango airport. The City bought 600+ acres of land there from various owners.
1929........The stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.
1929 Dec.........City Council assured the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company “that the City Council as well as a large majority of the people of the Southwest were in favor of retaining the name for [the Durango-Silverton-Ouray] Highway as the `Million Dollar Highway’” rather than changing it to Chief Ouray Highway, which was believed to have been instigated by outsiders,
1930........The population of the city of Durango rose to 5,400.
1931 Feb.........The Depression hit Durango. The Rev. F. R. Shoemaker and others appeared before Council to request immediate relief for the unemployed. “He reported that the situation is more acute now than at anytime heretofore; that there is now on their relief list thirty (30) white families, and sixty five (85) [sic] Mexican families, dependent of [sic] Charity.” The City immediately responded, saying that it “would start at once to spend about $1,200.00 on Street work… [paying] forty-five men in all, working each fifteen men three days, rotating the crews, until the work was finished, or as much work as the $1,200.00 would allow…the pay per day to be $3.20 for eight (8) hours.”
1931........Council agreed that it would be good to sell Brookside Park and use the money at the Airport Park.
1933........Fort Lewis began offering only college-level courses; high school classes were discontinued.
1933-37........Dust Bowl days.
1935........Wiley Post and Will Rogers flew into Durango and stayed at the Strater Hotel. They died in a plane crash in Alaska several weeks later en route to the Orient.
1936 April........City Council agreed to fence the airport grounds on Reservoir Hill as soon as possible, “on account of live stock roaming, and automobiles running at random on the Airport grounds making it unsafe for the taking off or landing of Airplanes.”
1937........The Western Colorado Power Company made progress with electrification of the region.
1940........The population of the city of Durango rose a bit to 5,887.
1941-1945........World War II.
1941 Dec.........Seven days after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Mayor Fankhauser signed a resolution in support of the war effort.
1942 Nov.........The City started collecting an airplane tax. At the Council meeting on November 17, 1942, “It was suggested by the Council that a reasonable fee would be charged for any planes operating for revenue or otherwise from airport, this could be arranged by City installing gasoline pump at airport selling all planes their gasoline at a reasonable profit per gallon. / Guard or some reasonable person being held responsible for all gasoline delivered to airport.”
1944 Feb.........the City Clerk received signatures in support of an application by A. F. Christopherson for a beer, wine and spirituous liquors license for the El Rancho Tavern for the year 1944. Signers included Earl Barker, Nels, Newman, and Durango Mayor John Fankhauser. El Rancho apparently "takes the cake" for having a City of Durango liquor license for the longest time (to the present day).
1945 Dec.........The City wrote a letter of protest to the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Air Force at Peterson Field, Colo. Springs “in regard to the B-17 Bomber flying over the City of Durango at a very low and dangerous altitude.”
1946 May........The Durango municipal airport started its move from Reservoir Hill to the Southern Ute Reservation. City Council adopted a resolution to pay $12,000 to John Cameron for 420 acres located on Ute Indian lands about 12 miles south of the City of Durango, as the site for the new Durango airport.
1947........Uranium mining began in the southwestern and western regions of Colorado, to supply raw materials for nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. Uranium was produced at Durango's smelter.
1947 Oct.........Citizens of the town of Animas City and the City of Durango over-whelmingly voted to unite the two.
1948........Fort Lewis was officially designated as a junior college with its own president; autonomous from Fort Collins but under control of the State Board of Agriculture.
1949 June........Charles Dale Rea became the first president of Fort Lewis A & M College after the resignation of Dean E. H. Bader.
1949 July........The City added a Storekeeper (predecessor of today’s Purchasing Agent). City Manager Hubbard asked the council for permission to acquire a storekeeper for the city. Council “decided …that a storekeeper was very necessary and that a salary from $210 to $225 per month would be paid.”
1949 Nov.........World War II surplus quonset huts in Durango. Council asked the U.S. Public Housing Administration for title to 20 quonset huts. A week later the City had received the Housing and Home Finance administrator’s offer to relinquish to the City its interest in these units. By 1950, the City was selling the quonset huts.
1949 Dec.........Bus fares revised: only school children under age 5 rode free. The Navajo Trail Inc., operating what was formerly known as the Durango Bus Line, asked the Council for a change in bus fares. New fares would be 10 cents a ride to any point in Durango and 5 cents a ride for school children to any point in Durango within school hours and on school days only. Children under five years of age could ride free.
1950........The population of the city of Durango climbed to 7,459. Also, Fort Lewis College began offering extension courses in Durango.
1951 Feb.........In response to President Harry Truman’s 12/17/1950 declaration of a State of National Emergency, Council adopted a resolution appointing “Roy W. Secord as Director of Civil Defense in and for the City of Durango and the County of La Plata.”
1951 Dec.........Last trip of old Rio Grande Southern railroad (including the Galloping Goose rail car) through Wildcat Canyon from Hesperus to Mancos, Dolores, Rico and Telluride.
1952 April........The City abandoned the municipal airport on Reservoir Hill in 1952
On April 22, 1952, “Council advised Floyd Gregg and Ralph Burress that municipal airport would be left to the management of individual plane owners under their own management…with privelege [sic] to move to City and County Airport at any time, as Municipal airport will be abandoned.” (City Clerk Wm. Horther was not noted for excellent spelling or the use of the word “the”.)
1954 March........Council agreed to convey to the State Board of Agriculture 193 acres on Reservoir Hill (former site of the former municipal airport) for the use of the branch of the Fort Lewis Agricultural Col¬lege at Durango, for a token sum of $8,400. The agreement states that if the lands ever cease to be used for edu¬cational purposes, the City has the right and option to purchase the lands, “together with all improvements thereon situate and all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining, for the sum of $8,400 cash in hand.”
1956 (summer)........Fort Lewis College moved to Durango (classes began there in September). The Fall enrollment was 384 students (238 full-time and 146 part-time). The Old Fort Lewis College campus at Hesperus began to be used as an agricultural experiment station.
1957 May........Dedication of new Fort Lewis College campus facilities on Reservoir Hill above Durango. Two men's dormitories, one women's dormitory, the president's home (later renamed Kroeger Hall), Student Center (Miller), and twenty married students' apartments were occupied.
1958........New Fine Arts Building (later the Theatre) and McPherson Chapel at the Fort Lewis campus.
Late 1950s........Dozens of indi¬viduals launched the Purgatory ski resort.
1960........The population of the city of Durango jumped to 10,530.
1960 April........Fort Lewis College bought 280 acres on the east side of the Durango campus (later known as Raider Ridge) from La Plata County at $2 per acre for future expansion.
1960 June........The Colorado State Democratic Convention was held in Durango; it was one of the first big events held at Fort Lewis College. Presidential candidate Senator John F. Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the Strater Hotel.
1960 Fall........The College's Hesperus dairy herd of 85 animals was sold at a special public auction. On Oct. 7, 1961, the State Board of Agriculture approved leasing to the Colorado State University Experiment Station 6,318 acres of land comprising the Fort Lewis Reservation, at $10,000 per year. The Hesperus farm equipment was transferred from the college to the Colorado State University Experiment Station at Hesperus, at no charge, effective Nov. 1, 1961.
1961 Dec.........After considering allegations related to the purchase of a 1951 surplus college truck by President Charles Dale Rea at a public sale, the State Board of Agriculture announced the resignation of Charles Dale Rea as president of Fort Lewis A & M College, effective June 30, 1962.
1962........Fort Lewis College became a baccalaureate degree-granting institution; Dr. John F. Reed was installed as president; 7 majors were authorized. The Fort Lewis A &M College Post Office Contract Station (the only other post office in Durango today) began operation.
1963........City Hall at 949 East 2nd Avenue was built; the old one was demolished.
1963 Sept.........The State Board of Agriculture authorized President Reed to ask the Governor to change the name from Fort Lewis School to Fort Lewis College; the change was approved by March of 1964.
1964 April........First commencement of a Fort Lewis College graduating class as a four-year institution.
1967........The City of Durango operated a sanitary landfill at Bodo from 1967 until around 1987.
1967 April........At a special meeting, the State Board of Agriculture approved exchanging 12 acres of the Hillcrest Municipal Golf Course land for equal acreage owned by the City of Durango which was formerly the site of the city reservoir.
1967 Spring........The library/ classroom building (later named Reed Library) was dedicated and occupied. The new dorms were named Bader and [Philip H.] Sheridan halls.
1968........Fort Lewis College opened its new Student Union Building (CUB/College Union Building) and 6 new dormitories.
1968........The U.S. government funded the Dolores Project, an archaeological excavation (the largest contract archaeology project in the U.S. at the time) to salvage artifacts prior to the construction of McPhee Dam and the second-largest reservoir in Colorado.
1969 June........FLC President John F. Reed resigned and was succeeded by Rexer Berndt.
1973 April........The former Hillcrest golf course and reservoir sites (presently the city softball fields) were annexed into the City of Durango.
1974 Aug.........Durango's worst fire in recent memory destroyed buildings on the west side of 800 block of Main Ave.
1980 Aug. 13........President Gerald Ford visited Durango. He was the only U.S. President to do so.
1982 April........The City took over from the County the management and operation of the outdoor La Plata County swimming pool, next to the high school, due to budgetary constraints of the County.
1982 June........Council passed a resolution regarding the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., calling for a freeze on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons.
1982 Dec.........The City approved the purchase of an x-ray device to screen carry-on baggage at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, as recommended by Frontier Airlines.
1982 Dec.........Durango switched to using City-provided trash bins for its commercial customers.
1983 March........The City acquired and financed the parcels owned by the Colorado Ute Electric Association, between 12th and 14th Streets on the west side of Camino Del Rio.
1983 Oct.........David Turner was appointed Municipal Judge to replace the resigning Robert C. Dawes who was Municipal Judge since August 1980. Turner had been Substitute Municipal Judge since February 1982. Diane Badgley (now Knutson) was appointed to replace Turner as Substitute Municipal Judge.
1983 Nov.........The City created and established a Public Transit Enterprise Fund, as the City of Durango was assuming legal and operational control of Opportunity/Lift Bus Program that was operated by Club Esfuerzo Inc. by creating a Public Transit Division with the City's Department of General Services.
1984 Oct.........The State Board of Agriculture held a hearing regarding the possibility of removing Fort Lewis College from the Colorado State University System that the Board created on July 26 to include Colorado State University, University of Southern Colorado, and Fort Lewis College. A motion to exclude Fort Lewis College was defeated 5-1 at the Board's meeting on Nov. 16, 1984. The FITE (Fighting for Independence, Tradition and Excellence) Committee of Fort Lewis College faculty, et al., responded.
1984 Dec.........FLC President Rexer Berndt retired; the Durango Chamber of Commerce named him the Citizen of the Year. He was succeeded by Bernard Adams. Adams went on Administrative Leave two years later and resigned soon after.
1986 Oct.........Dedication of Dan Noble Hall (formerly called the New Classroom Building) and renaming of library as John F. Reed Library, in a ceremony held in conjunction with Homecoming and the 75th anniversary of the college. Noble was a Montrose state legislator who persuaded the State to fund the classroom building.
1987/1988 (winter)........Measles epidemic among the students at Fort Lewis College.
1988 (March 20)........Joel M. Jones was appointed president of Fort Lewis College.
1990........The population of the city of Durango rose to 12,439.
1990 Oct.........Hicks House Movers moved the "Old Willis House" from the lot south of City Hall, bound for its new location at 1033 Avenida del Sol. The house would become the New Durango community shelter, “a haven for 20 homeless people.”
1992 (March 17)........Shawn Slater of the Ku Klux Klan appeared at a forum on racial awareness that was sponsored by the Political Science Club. In retrospect, the event was considered to be one of FLC’s most significant “non-events” in terms of cost and time.
1992 Nov.........Silverton’s Town Hall burned—but was restored using grant funding.
Winter of 1992/93........The landmark Fort Lewis College water tower was dismantled. The architectural drawings for the tower had been drawn by Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. in 1955.
1993 Sept.........The $4.4 million West Residence Hall opened on Fort Lewis College campus. For the first time, the College required freshmen to live on campus if their homes are not in the area.
1997 Sept.........Third new $4.4 million Art Building opened on the Fort Lewis College campus.
1997 Oct.........The $5 million Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall was inaugurated. The finale of the month-long series of events was a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
1999 Feb.........Kendall Blanchard took office as the 6th president of Fort Lewis College.
1999 Aug.........Record 7.51 inches of rainfall on Durango during the month.
2000 June........President Bill Clinton signed a proclamation that created Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, 164,000 acres, west of Cortez, containing the highest known density of archaeological features in the U.S.
2001........Completion and dedication of several new buildings on campus: Business/Education Building, Center of Southwest Studies, Chemistry Hall, Dale Rea Memorial Clock Tower, and the Student Life Center.
2002 July........FLC President Blanchard stepped down. Former Durango mayor Vice President of Business and Finance Robert Dolphin, Jr. (who was planning to retire at that time) agreed to serve as Interim President, and was later appointed President.
2002 June........Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed House Bill 1419, approving the creation of a stand-alone Board of Trustees for Fort Lewis College. The State Board of Agriculture (SBA) had governed Fort Lewis since it first became an agricultural high school in 1911 until the passage of this new legislation.
2002 June........Following one of the driest winters and springs on record, the largest forest fire in the recorded history of southwest Colorado began near Missionary Ridge, north of Durango, and moved toward Lemon Reservoir, burning 70,485 acres and numerous homes. It was controlled on August 7, having cost $40.8 million to fight.
2002 June........Nearly all of the married student housing units at Fort Lewis College and Hesperus Hall were razed. ("The wreck of the Hesperus.") The quonset hut (i.e., the last of the buildings that remained of those that were brought to the Durango campus from the Old Fort Lewis campus in the mid-1950s) was demolished at the end of July,
2005 April........Council increased the salary of Council members to $750 per month, plus full medical, dental and vision benefits and (currently) a cell phone sti¬pend.
2007/2008........Fort Lewis College undertook a $55 million bond revenue issue -- the College's largest bond issue ever, by far -- to pay for a new College Union Building (projected to cost around $25-30 million, to be paid primarily through student fees) and new dorms, and to reimburse some old bonds (Student Life Center, etc.) to obtain better terms and lower rates.
2009 Jan.........The City created a Department of Sustainable Services, “to help make Durango greener.”
2009................Difficult economic times began to affect individuals and organizations of the region, as they did elsewhere in the U.S.
2010........The estimated population of the city of Durango was 16,169.
2010 Dec.........The City reorganized a number of its departments, creating a Department of Natural Lands, Trails and Sustainability and a Department of Administrative Services (to combine City Clerk’s Office and Human Resources as a cost-saving measure), and renamed General Services the City Operations Department.
Compiled by Todd Ellison, revised 2011
1909 June........The City began prohibiting fishing in the City’s reservoirs.
1910........The population of the city of Durango was 4,686.
1910 Spring........The City started placing trash cans on Main Avenue. The City allowed the vendor to place Sanitary Rubbish Cans at no charge to the City, in exchange for his being allowed to sell advertising on 3 sides.
1910 May........Durango’s City Council established speed limits of 10 MPH in the business district and 18 MPH elsewhere.
1910 June........Council approved the first Durango automobile licenses, issued to Dara C. White and The Pioneer Consolidated Company.
1910 June........U.S. Senator Simon Guggenheim informed City Council of federal appropriations for the start-up of Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde National Park was founded in 1906 - the first national park in Colorado.
1911 Jan.........Durango Health Officer Hurd reported 5 smallpox patients in the County Pest House, 4 under quarantine within City limits, and 2 lodging houses under a 14-day quarantine.
1911 March........Council instructed the City Marshal to rid the city of vagrants. Those who did not care to leave were to be arrested and put to work on a rock pile.
1911 Oct.........Animas River peaked at 25,000 cubic feet per second, washing out bridges and turning the Animas Valley into a lake.
1912 June........Due to many alleged speeding violations by “autoists”, the Durango City Marshal was authorized to rent a stop watch for 30 days or for as long as he needed, to enable him to enforce the speed ordinances and arrest the offenders.
1912 June........Automatic electric lighting of the dials on the Town Clock (at the County Court House; the City of Durango subsidized the clock’s maintenance) began.
1912 Sept.........Durango was one of the first municipalities in the U.S. to adopt the Council/ Manager form of government -- by charter election on September 3, 1912. (Sumter, South Carolina claims the distinction of being first -- on June 11 of that same year.)
1913 March........Western Colorado Power Company was created; during the ensuing year it consolidated the operations of eight major electrical power companies on the Western Slope of Colorado.
1913........City Council dropped from nine men to three when the City adopted the commissioner form of government. There was less discussion; two men could decide a matter, whereas under the previous aldermanic form of government it required four votes (back then, the mayor would only vote if there was a tie).
1913 Aug.........Durango hired a dog catcher, and allowed him to keep $1 (paid by the dog’s owner) for each arrest he made for violation of Durango’s dog license ordinance.
1913 Dec.........the City established its current practice of having a bulletin board in front of City Hall upon which typewritten copy of statements would be posted.
1915 April........By general municipal election, voters voted by a large majority to change the City Charter to move to a commissioner-manager form of government.
1915 Spring........Council installed a Public Comfort Station for Women, on the south portion of the first floor in the Century Building on Main Avenue.
1915 July........A. F. Hood became the first City Manager of the City of Durango. He was an undertaker by profession (Hood Mortuary).
1915 July........Mr. J. C. Rawlins was allowed $5 a month as the City Pound Keeper and was instructed to drive all foreign horses out of the City.
1915 Aug.........The City began participating in workmen’s compensation (now called workers compensation).
1917........Construction of the highway connecting Durango, Silverton and Ouray ("the Million Dollar Highway") began.
1917 May........The draft for World War I began. City Council agreed to offer any assistance they could offer the County Sheriff, the County Clerk and the Physician whom the Federal Government had appointed as Registrars of the County of La Plata “for the registration of all men between the ages of 21 and 30, in compliance with the Federal Conscript Act.”
1917 June........Durango’s Fire and Police departments were consolidated, to save money.
1917........Construction of the highway connecting Durango, Silverton and Ouray ("the Million Dollar Highway") began.
1918 Aug.........Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the speaking of the German lan-guage in any public building or on any public street or alley. Another wartime measure Council adopted in 1918 was Ordinance 557, requiring all males ages 18 to 55 to engage in some useful occupation.
1918........Fort Lewis School began offering continuous twelve month school sessions.
1918-1919........The flu epidemic ("Spanish influenza") hit the region; 5 of every 75 people died.
1920........The population of the city of Durango dropped to 4,116.
1921 March........The City notified the Durango Railway and Realty Company that unless it removed the track and Main Avenue streetcar from the streets of Durango, the City would sue to compel their removal.
1921 June........Council authorized the Mayor and the City Manager “to arrange for automobiles or City Truck [sic] to help out in the proposed celebration of the Durango-Silverton highway to be held July 3d and 4th.”
1921 July........Council removed “the Quarantine against the Navajoe Indian on account of Typhus.”
1925 Dec.........Red lights for Main Avenue! One of his first actions of Edward Oviatt, when he was still only the City Manager Elect, was to get Council’s authorization for him to order two 250 candle power red lights to be placed in the center of Main Avenue, at 7th and 10th Streets.
1926........A group of busi¬nessmen, including Earl Barker, bought the Strater Hotel.
1927 April........“The City Manager …brought up the matter of perfecting arrangements for a landing for Airplains [sic] and the Council took the matter under advisement.”
1927 May........Durango added its first traffic police. After some discussion, Council empowered and authorized the City Manager “to put on an extra Policeman who would furnish his own Motorcycle, the City furnishing the Gas and Oil and not to pay to exceed $110.00 per month and try it for one month” to enforce a new ordinance to regulate street traffic and automobile signals. (However, the Traffic Ordinance No, 627 was not introduced until July 5th.)
1927 Sept.........Fort Lewis School (out by Hesperus) began offering a two-year college curriculum.
1929 May........Representatives of the Lions Club-American Legion and the Durango Exchange (predecessor of the Durango Chamber of Commerce) appeared before Council, “asking the City’s cooperation in securing an Airport for the City of Durango.” The Commissioners agreed to appropriate $350 to pay a professional “who would come here and make a complete examination and report.” On June 4th Mr. Jeneks of The International Airport Corporation presented his report to Council, recommending Reservoir Hill as the site for the Durango airport. The City selected Reservoir Hill (the later site of Fort Lewis College) for the Durango airport. The City bought 600+ acres of land there from various owners.
1929........The stock market crashed and the Great Depression began.
1929 Dec.........City Council assured the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company “that the City Council as well as a large majority of the people of the Southwest were in favor of retaining the name for [the Durango-Silverton-Ouray] Highway as the `Million Dollar Highway’” rather than changing it to Chief Ouray Highway, which was believed to have been instigated by outsiders,
1930........The population of the city of Durango rose to 5,400.
1931 Feb.........The Depression hit Durango. The Rev. F. R. Shoemaker and others appeared before Council to request immediate relief for the unemployed. “He reported that the situation is more acute now than at anytime heretofore; that there is now on their relief list thirty (30) white families, and sixty five (85) [sic] Mexican families, dependent of [sic] Charity.” The City immediately responded, saying that it “would start at once to spend about $1,200.00 on Street work… [paying] forty-five men in all, working each fifteen men three days, rotating the crews, until the work was finished, or as much work as the $1,200.00 would allow…the pay per day to be $3.20 for eight (8) hours.”
1931........Council agreed that it would be good to sell Brookside Park and use the money at the Airport Park.
1933........Fort Lewis began offering only college-level courses; high school classes were discontinued.
1933-37........Dust Bowl days.
1935........Wiley Post and Will Rogers flew into Durango and stayed at the Strater Hotel. They died in a plane crash in Alaska several weeks later en route to the Orient.
1936 April........City Council agreed to fence the airport grounds on Reservoir Hill as soon as possible, “on account of live stock roaming, and automobiles running at random on the Airport grounds making it unsafe for the taking off or landing of Airplanes.”
1937........The Western Colorado Power Company made progress with electrification of the region.
1940........The population of the city of Durango rose a bit to 5,887.
1941-1945........World War II.
1941 Dec.........Seven days after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Mayor Fankhauser signed a resolution in support of the war effort.
1942 Nov.........The City started collecting an airplane tax. At the Council meeting on November 17, 1942, “It was suggested by the Council that a reasonable fee would be charged for any planes operating for revenue or otherwise from airport, this could be arranged by City installing gasoline pump at airport selling all planes their gasoline at a reasonable profit per gallon. / Guard or some reasonable person being held responsible for all gasoline delivered to airport.”
1944 Feb.........the City Clerk received signatures in support of an application by A. F. Christopherson for a beer, wine and spirituous liquors license for the El Rancho Tavern for the year 1944. Signers included Earl Barker, Nels, Newman, and Durango Mayor John Fankhauser. El Rancho apparently "takes the cake" for having a City of Durango liquor license for the longest time (to the present day).
1945 Dec.........The City wrote a letter of protest to the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Air Force at Peterson Field, Colo. Springs “in regard to the B-17 Bomber flying over the City of Durango at a very low and dangerous altitude.”
1946 May........The Durango municipal airport started its move from Reservoir Hill to the Southern Ute Reservation. City Council adopted a resolution to pay $12,000 to John Cameron for 420 acres located on Ute Indian lands about 12 miles south of the City of Durango, as the site for the new Durango airport.
1947........Uranium mining began in the southwestern and western regions of Colorado, to supply raw materials for nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. Uranium was produced at Durango's smelter.
1947 Oct.........Citizens of the town of Animas City and the City of Durango over-whelmingly voted to unite the two.
1948........Fort Lewis was officially designated as a junior college with its own president; autonomous from Fort Collins but under control of the State Board of Agriculture.
1949 June........Charles Dale Rea became the first president of Fort Lewis A & M College after the resignation of Dean E. H. Bader.
1949 July........The City added a Storekeeper (predecessor of today’s Purchasing Agent). City Manager Hubbard asked the council for permission to acquire a storekeeper for the city. Council “decided …that a storekeeper was very necessary and that a salary from $210 to $225 per month would be paid.”
1949 Nov.........World War II surplus quonset huts in Durango. Council asked the U.S. Public Housing Administration for title to 20 quonset huts. A week later the City had received the Housing and Home Finance administrator’s offer to relinquish to the City its interest in these units. By 1950, the City was selling the quonset huts.
1949 Dec.........Bus fares revised: only school children under age 5 rode free. The Navajo Trail Inc., operating what was formerly known as the Durango Bus Line, asked the Council for a change in bus fares. New fares would be 10 cents a ride to any point in Durango and 5 cents a ride for school children to any point in Durango within school hours and on school days only. Children under five years of age could ride free.
1950........The population of the city of Durango climbed to 7,459. Also, Fort Lewis College began offering extension courses in Durango.
1951 Feb.........In response to President Harry Truman’s 12/17/1950 declaration of a State of National Emergency, Council adopted a resolution appointing “Roy W. Secord as Director of Civil Defense in and for the City of Durango and the County of La Plata.”
1951 Dec.........Last trip of old Rio Grande Southern railroad (including the Galloping Goose rail car) through Wildcat Canyon from Hesperus to Mancos, Dolores, Rico and Telluride.
1952 April........The City abandoned the municipal airport on Reservoir Hill in 1952
On April 22, 1952, “Council advised Floyd Gregg and Ralph Burress that municipal airport would be left to the management of individual plane owners under their own management…with privelege [sic] to move to City and County Airport at any time, as Municipal airport will be abandoned.” (City Clerk Wm. Horther was not noted for excellent spelling or the use of the word “the”.)
1954 March........Council agreed to convey to the State Board of Agriculture 193 acres on Reservoir Hill (former site of the former municipal airport) for the use of the branch of the Fort Lewis Agricultural Col¬lege at Durango, for a token sum of $8,400. The agreement states that if the lands ever cease to be used for edu¬cational purposes, the City has the right and option to purchase the lands, “together with all improvements thereon situate and all rights and privileges thereunto appertaining, for the sum of $8,400 cash in hand.”
1956 (summer)........Fort Lewis College moved to Durango (classes began there in September). The Fall enrollment was 384 students (238 full-time and 146 part-time). The Old Fort Lewis College campus at Hesperus began to be used as an agricultural experiment station.
1957 May........Dedication of new Fort Lewis College campus facilities on Reservoir Hill above Durango. Two men's dormitories, one women's dormitory, the president's home (later renamed Kroeger Hall), Student Center (Miller), and twenty married students' apartments were occupied.
1958........New Fine Arts Building (later the Theatre) and McPherson Chapel at the Fort Lewis campus.
Late 1950s........Dozens of indi¬viduals launched the Purgatory ski resort.
1960........The population of the city of Durango jumped to 10,530.
1960 April........Fort Lewis College bought 280 acres on the east side of the Durango campus (later known as Raider Ridge) from La Plata County at $2 per acre for future expansion.
1960 June........The Colorado State Democratic Convention was held in Durango; it was one of the first big events held at Fort Lewis College. Presidential candidate Senator John F. Kennedy was the keynote speaker at the Strater Hotel.
1960 Fall........The College's Hesperus dairy herd of 85 animals was sold at a special public auction. On Oct. 7, 1961, the State Board of Agriculture approved leasing to the Colorado State University Experiment Station 6,318 acres of land comprising the Fort Lewis Reservation, at $10,000 per year. The Hesperus farm equipment was transferred from the college to the Colorado State University Experiment Station at Hesperus, at no charge, effective Nov. 1, 1961.
1961 Dec.........After considering allegations related to the purchase of a 1951 surplus college truck by President Charles Dale Rea at a public sale, the State Board of Agriculture announced the resignation of Charles Dale Rea as president of Fort Lewis A & M College, effective June 30, 1962.
1962........Fort Lewis College became a baccalaureate degree-granting institution; Dr. John F. Reed was installed as president; 7 majors were authorized. The Fort Lewis A &M College Post Office Contract Station (the only other post office in Durango today) began operation.
1963........City Hall at 949 East 2nd Avenue was built; the old one was demolished.
1963 Sept.........The State Board of Agriculture authorized President Reed to ask the Governor to change the name from Fort Lewis School to Fort Lewis College; the change was approved by March of 1964.
1964 April........First commencement of a Fort Lewis College graduating class as a four-year institution.
1967........The City of Durango operated a sanitary landfill at Bodo from 1967 until around 1987.
1967 April........At a special meeting, the State Board of Agriculture approved exchanging 12 acres of the Hillcrest Municipal Golf Course land for equal acreage owned by the City of Durango which was formerly the site of the city reservoir.
1967 Spring........The library/ classroom building (later named Reed Library) was dedicated and occupied. The new dorms were named Bader and [Philip H.] Sheridan halls.
1968........Fort Lewis College opened its new Student Union Building (CUB/College Union Building) and 6 new dormitories.
1968........The U.S. government funded the Dolores Project, an archaeological excavation (the largest contract archaeology project in the U.S. at the time) to salvage artifacts prior to the construction of McPhee Dam and the second-largest reservoir in Colorado.
1969 June........FLC President John F. Reed resigned and was succeeded by Rexer Berndt.
1973 April........The former Hillcrest golf course and reservoir sites (presently the city softball fields) were annexed into the City of Durango.
1974 Aug.........Durango's worst fire in recent memory destroyed buildings on the west side of 800 block of Main Ave.
1980 Aug. 13........President Gerald Ford visited Durango. He was the only U.S. President to do so.
1982 April........The City took over from the County the management and operation of the outdoor La Plata County swimming pool, next to the high school, due to budgetary constraints of the County.
1982 June........Council passed a resolution regarding the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., calling for a freeze on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons.
1982 Dec.........The City approved the purchase of an x-ray device to screen carry-on baggage at the Durango-La Plata County Airport, as recommended by Frontier Airlines.
1982 Dec.........Durango switched to using City-provided trash bins for its commercial customers.
1983 March........The City acquired and financed the parcels owned by the Colorado Ute Electric Association, between 12th and 14th Streets on the west side of Camino Del Rio.
1983 Oct.........David Turner was appointed Municipal Judge to replace the resigning Robert C. Dawes who was Municipal Judge since August 1980. Turner had been Substitute Municipal Judge since February 1982. Diane Badgley (now Knutson) was appointed to replace Turner as Substitute Municipal Judge.
1983 Nov.........The City created and established a Public Transit Enterprise Fund, as the City of Durango was assuming legal and operational control of Opportunity/Lift Bus Program that was operated by Club Esfuerzo Inc. by creating a Public Transit Division with the City's Department of General Services.
1984 Oct.........The State Board of Agriculture held a hearing regarding the possibility of removing Fort Lewis College from the Colorado State University System that the Board created on July 26 to include Colorado State University, University of Southern Colorado, and Fort Lewis College. A motion to exclude Fort Lewis College was defeated 5-1 at the Board's meeting on Nov. 16, 1984. The FITE (Fighting for Independence, Tradition and Excellence) Committee of Fort Lewis College faculty, et al., responded.
1984 Dec.........FLC President Rexer Berndt retired; the Durango Chamber of Commerce named him the Citizen of the Year. He was succeeded by Bernard Adams. Adams went on Administrative Leave two years later and resigned soon after.
1986 Oct.........Dedication of Dan Noble Hall (formerly called the New Classroom Building) and renaming of library as John F. Reed Library, in a ceremony held in conjunction with Homecoming and the 75th anniversary of the college. Noble was a Montrose state legislator who persuaded the State to fund the classroom building.
1987/1988 (winter)........Measles epidemic among the students at Fort Lewis College.
1988 (March 20)........Joel M. Jones was appointed president of Fort Lewis College.
1990........The population of the city of Durango rose to 12,439.
1990 Oct.........Hicks House Movers moved the "Old Willis House" from the lot south of City Hall, bound for its new location at 1033 Avenida del Sol. The house would become the New Durango community shelter, “a haven for 20 homeless people.”
1992 (March 17)........Shawn Slater of the Ku Klux Klan appeared at a forum on racial awareness that was sponsored by the Political Science Club. In retrospect, the event was considered to be one of FLC’s most significant “non-events” in terms of cost and time.
1992 Nov.........Silverton’s Town Hall burned—but was restored using grant funding.
Winter of 1992/93........The landmark Fort Lewis College water tower was dismantled. The architectural drawings for the tower had been drawn by Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. in 1955.
1993 Sept.........The $4.4 million West Residence Hall opened on Fort Lewis College campus. For the first time, the College required freshmen to live on campus if their homes are not in the area.
1997 Sept.........Third new $4.4 million Art Building opened on the Fort Lewis College campus.
1997 Oct.........The $5 million Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall was inaugurated. The finale of the month-long series of events was a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
1999 Feb.........Kendall Blanchard took office as the 6th president of Fort Lewis College.
1999 Aug.........Record 7.51 inches of rainfall on Durango during the month.
2000 June........President Bill Clinton signed a proclamation that created Canyon of the Ancients National Monument, 164,000 acres, west of Cortez, containing the highest known density of archaeological features in the U.S.
2001........Completion and dedication of several new buildings on campus: Business/Education Building, Center of Southwest Studies, Chemistry Hall, Dale Rea Memorial Clock Tower, and the Student Life Center.
2002 July........FLC President Blanchard stepped down. Former Durango mayor Vice President of Business and Finance Robert Dolphin, Jr. (who was planning to retire at that time) agreed to serve as Interim President, and was later appointed President.
2002 June........Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed House Bill 1419, approving the creation of a stand-alone Board of Trustees for Fort Lewis College. The State Board of Agriculture (SBA) had governed Fort Lewis since it first became an agricultural high school in 1911 until the passage of this new legislation.
2002 June........Following one of the driest winters and springs on record, the largest forest fire in the recorded history of southwest Colorado began near Missionary Ridge, north of Durango, and moved toward Lemon Reservoir, burning 70,485 acres and numerous homes. It was controlled on August 7, having cost $40.8 million to fight.
2002 June........Nearly all of the married student housing units at Fort Lewis College and Hesperus Hall were razed. ("The wreck of the Hesperus.") The quonset hut (i.e., the last of the buildings that remained of those that were brought to the Durango campus from the Old Fort Lewis campus in the mid-1950s) was demolished at the end of July,
2005 April........Council increased the salary of Council members to $750 per month, plus full medical, dental and vision benefits and (currently) a cell phone sti¬pend.
2007/2008........Fort Lewis College undertook a $55 million bond revenue issue -- the College's largest bond issue ever, by far -- to pay for a new College Union Building (projected to cost around $25-30 million, to be paid primarily through student fees) and new dorms, and to reimburse some old bonds (Student Life Center, etc.) to obtain better terms and lower rates.
2009 Jan.........The City created a Department of Sustainable Services, “to help make Durango greener.”
2009................Difficult economic times began to affect individuals and organizations of the region, as they did elsewhere in the U.S.
2010........The estimated population of the city of Durango was 16,169.
2010 Dec.........The City reorganized a number of its departments, creating a Department of Natural Lands, Trails and Sustainability and a Department of Administrative Services (to combine City Clerk’s Office and Human Resources as a cost-saving measure), and renamed General Services the City Operations Department.
