Hózhó
My mother, my best friend named Jasmine, and our neighbor from back home in Texas named Linda, and I all waited at the mouth of the gondolas for the Telluride Off-road adventures to pick us up.
My mother, who is deathly afraid of heights, seemed strangely pacified about the situation. All of us were surprised she even agreed to come along. When we called the jeep tour three days ago, we opted for the 2-hour tour guide called Seasonal Waterfall Tours, which according to the woman on the phone went through Ophir Pass, Tomboy Ghost Town, Alta Ghost Town, and Last Dollar Road. The first thing my mother asked her was how perilous the tour seemed to customers who were afraid of heights, and the woman reassured her that this was in no way a dangerous tour and that people with fears of heights reported that it never bothered them.
The dark yellow jeep cranked to a stop in front of a store that sold highly expensive ski equipment and clothing. As kids and noisy families jostled around us, we all waited at the street curb to meet our tour guide. I had expected what I thought would be a mountainous man; the lower half of his face covered in a thick beard, with the build of a bear to step out of the driver’s seat. Instead, a lanky man opened the door, wearing a pair of slick sunglasses over his eyes and a tanned, scruffy cap hanging low over his forehead. From the passenger seat leaped out a dog with friendly, beady eyes but resembling much of his owner with his lanky, long legs, and overall stocky figure.
Our tour guide introduced himself to us. His name was Herb, and his partner was called Rocky. Herb shook all our hands, and he had a crooked grin, and upon closer inspection, I noticed he had the barest hint of facial hair beginning to sprout along his sharp chin. The man was all muscle. I’ve come to notice that the men here in Telluride are not brawny like lumberjacks, but had figures that were gawky and thin. He clearly spent more time outdoors than inside a gym, working out on artificial machines. These were the real Colorado mountain men I had heard about--the ones who dared to ski the dangerous slopes of Colorado in the harsh winters and hiked the trails alongside those same slopes in the summer. Even driving on the road revealed how accustomed these people were to the gentle yet overbearing giants around them. No matter how hard me or any of my family tried going the speed limit, we were always too slow, and we always had someone trailing us close behind. We might as well wear a sign on the very back proclaiming we were from Texas and not used to the winding, hilly roads of southern Colorado.
Herb warned us all that the ride will be bumpy. The jeep itself had seats on either side, benches, and they had yellow bars raised overhead, vertically, for if any of us wanted to stand up to look around, we could hold onto those to keep from falling out.
There were no seatbelts.
At first, the tour consisted of jarring historical facts. We sailed through the town, interwoven with the traffic of Telluride, maneuvering our way through the walking pedestrians.
We passed by the sign in the middle of the town with its name written beautifully over the front and colorful flowers on all sides.
Despite the cheeriness of its people, Herb told us that Telluride, like any other town or city, has a past seldom people knew about. This was hard to believe for me, because here in this cozy little town settled comfortably in a box canyon with a beautiful view of steep and towering, forested mountains surrounding it--it was hard to imagine anything bad happening. Telluride after all is nationally known not only for its ski resorts, but its pop culture, being featured in so many songs (by artists like Tim McGraw, Josh Gracin, Laura Marling, and Jake Own) and all its music festivals throughout its warm summers.
But, Telluride was once a mining town. And today I quickly learned that all mining towns, without a doubt, had dark pasts.
Herbs told us the start of Telluride’s discovery, being the pursuits of gold in the late 1800’s. Because of its isolated location, it took some time for its population to grow, despite the riches that were promised the moment John Fallon first allegedly discovered gold in Marshal Basin, which was above Telluride. Eventually, though, in 1878 the town was founded. Even with the disillusioning promises of gold, the area itself was rich in other minerals like zinc, lead, copper, and silver. As the population slowly began growing, everything changed with the emergence of Butch Cassidy and his gang known as the Wild Bunch. Here in Telluride, he robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank, which lay right off the main street, which was now called the Mahr Building.
And today I quickly learned that all mining towns, without a doubt, had dark pasts.
As Herb told us all these exciting stories of a Western time in which Telluride was still young, I was shocked at all the excitement behind the robbers in search of the wealth than came with discovering gold. Even more unrest started, however, at the booming of mining towns. Though I noticed upon mentioning the labor disputes between the mining companies and the workers, Herbs changed the subject.
“Property cost here is insane,” Herbs told us as we were nearing the outside of town. “Years ago, I used to say that you had to be a millionaire to live here. Now, I say you’ve got to be a billionaire.” He slowed the jeep down and directed our attention to our right, “Do you see that house right there? That is by far the most low quality house here in Telluride, but it’s on the market for over a million dollars.”
Me and my mom exchanged mystified glances.
“What about the workers?” My friend Jasmine asked.
“Across town, near Bridal Falls, is where the worker sector is. The city’s got houses for workers like teachers and doctors, to make it more affordable to live here. Maybe I’ll take you guys by near the end of the tour.”
Herbs took a thickly sloped road leading to a line of thick, green leaves with peering trunks that reached like claws over the road. We had to be mindful of these as to avoid being hit. Higher and higher we climbed, and soon, the road turned extremely bump. As we took a sharp corner, waving to a passing tour bus, the road turned into a narrow, rocky trail.
My stomach churned.
Beside me, my mother grew quiet.
Meanwhile, Jasmine and Linda were talking animatedly. Often we’d hit a sharp bump that had us stumbling on our unsteady legs. I kept a death-like grip on the railing always, my knuckles turning white. I tried peering overhead to look for signs of bumps as to brace my body for impact. But most of the jarring ones came out of nowhere.
Feeling my stomach churn with even more nerves, I sat down next to my mother and took out my lunch box, where I packed a light snack for myself. Chopped banana and peanut butter, for some quick carbs and some much-needed protein, since we had left so early from the cabin to arrive in Telluride, which was roughly 50 miles away from Delores, where our cabin was. Considering sloping up a higher elevation of 3,000 miles and perilous, sharp turns with no railings on the side of cliffs, the ride itself added up to an hour and twenty minutes. But now, as I chewed heartily on my snack, I realized how nice the roads were there rather than this trail. Sitting on the side of the cliff, as Telluride started appearing more and more like a speck of dots, the jeep tended to lean, and it felt as though it may roll over off the side. I had quickly lost my appetite, but I chewed on, trying to focus on the trail ahead rather than the deathly drop next to my right.
We took several breaks during our climb. With Telluride itself being over 8,000 miles in elevation, we would climb up to 11,000 once we reached the Tomboy Ghost Town at the top. We still had about 2,000 more to go. During our breaks, we all got out to walk and stretch our legs. Rocky often bounded ahead of us, in search of anything interesting left on the trail, but he never ventured too far from Herbs.
Despite the height, the views I saw were indescribable. No wonder the mountains of Colorado inspired many artists, from singers to painters, to writers and to photographers. The sleeping giants towered yet above us, untouched by man; it was an art I saw that was created from nature itself. The air, fresh and open, even though there wasn’t as much due to the higher elevation, was refreshing to me. Though walking a few steps up a slope made me breathless, it was all so awe inspiring with its tint of danger. Like a rose with thorns, the mountains were a sight to see, but it made me wonder how people traveled to the mining towns centuries ago, on horseback and with carriages. With terrible weather, too--it was horrifying to even imagine those mules trudging even in the snow, with the danger of avalanche constantly present on their journey.
Harriet Backus’s personal account of living in the Tomboy Mine called Tomboy Bride: A Woman's Personal Account of Life in Mining Camps of the West depicted a woman who married a miner. Having to leave behind her former life, she moved in Telluride, where it took several years for her to adjust to the rigid landscape and harsh conditions of life. Living so far away from Telluride, the people living in Tomboy could only order groceries once a month, which had to be carried by mules--often items were forgotten or lost on the journey, and that was counting of the mules and rider arrived safely. There were no doctors in Tomboy, so if someone grew sick or a woman became pregnant, they had to make the perilous journey to Telluride. Pregnant women often went to Telluride anyway, for the lower elevation in town. Nonetheless, Backus’ account depicted how the women and men living at this high elevation, where farming was impossible, there was scarce, if any, hunting game, drew together to help each other survive.
Despite the height, the views I saw were indescribable.
When we finally reached Tomboy, I was surprised at how green everything was. Due to the temperature growing significantly lower, I pulled on my red jacket halfway through the trip up, glad to have brought it like my mother had advised. There were other people parked near a bunch of shambles, and Herbs told us that those were the remains of the houses and stores of the town. When we passed by what used to be the convenience store, I was shocked to see inside the shambles were still forms of shelves, where items used to be stocked.
Around us, we were surrounded by slopes of mountains. We could clearly see the treelines stop at a certain point, and there were still splotches of snow adorning the mountain sides. The vastness of the space around us was what really took my breath, as we all unloaded from the Jeep. My mother, who had resorted to getting on her knees in the middle of the journey, close to having a panic attack, seemed to be more collected now that we were no longer teetering on a cliff. It was quiet here, except for the voices of tourists. There weren’t many children, I also noticed.
We all went separate ways, off to look at everything ourselves. Jasmine went to a small, trickling river stream, Linda went to check out the remains of buildings, and my mother and I went to look over where we just came--where miles away, was Telluride. I tried to imagine this place covered in snow. How did people do it?
“It was a very harsh life up here,” Herbs was telling us. “With no dirt, people couldn’t even bury bodies. And they had trouble keeping everyone alive. With mice issues, they tried bringing cats, but the cats didn’t do very well with the elevation. The mining had the worst conditions, though. The companies looked for orphans to become miners because miners often died at an early age. So with them being orphans…”
“They had nobody to really account to,” I murmured.
“What a shame,” my mother commented.
“My mother, who had resorted to getting on her knees in the middle of the journey, close to having a panic attack, seemed to be more collected now that we were no longer teetering on a cliff.”
“The Tomboy Mine sure didn’t last forever,” Herbs continued. “The people eventually realized this bit of land just didn’t have liveable conditions. Slowly, people began leaving. When everyone was gone, the mining company tried blowing up whatever mines were left. They didn’t like to keep track of their records with the labor disputes starting up in Telluride.”
Rocky trotted past me and my mother with a huge stick in his mouth, his tail wagging excitedly. I sat down on a nearby boulder, seeing Jasmine’s petite form standing over by the river. Just standing. And looking. And listening. I didn’t want to move much, either. Not because of the elevation, but because I wanted to just take it all in as much as I could.
A place unlivable, I thought to myself. Even to this day, as I’m back in South Texas, I keep thinking back to Tomboy Mine. The beauty of the wildflowers that you didn’t see in Telluride or Delores. The overreaching mountain peaks that stretched for the sky. The vastness of it all. I’ve heard stories of entire civilizations of people having to pick up and leave because of lack of resources. Recent studies discovered that it was decades of droughts that drove the Cliff Dwellers in Cortez, Colorado away from their entire civilizations, to be wiped off the face of the earth completely. For years we had no idea how they suddenly vanished, but now, speculations arose with some possibilities that have happened before.
As with the Cliff Dwellers, all these people here had hopes and dreams, of which now were mere shambles of buildings, crumbled remains of shelves and pottery, children’s toys. I can’t help but think of the challenges humanity is facing right now, due to climate change and
human impact on our planet.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has spent years researching our climate and the past’s climate. In the past ten years or so, they have deducted that they were 90% certain humans were making an impact of the rate of climate change. Otherwise a naturally occurring process, humans are not the only ones affecting it. However, we are speeding up the process from thousands of millions of years to decades--which has never happened before on Planet Earth. The IPCC’s most recent conjecture, however, stated that they are 99% certain that humans are making an impact on the rate of climate change.
They aren’t the only ones concerned, however. Institutes all over not only the United States but the world are coming together with speculations, research, data, and concerns for our future. NASA has come up with a prediction that by the year 2050, the world’s population will face long enough droughts that threaten our ways of life as of now. With the rising of the sea oceans due to the polar ice caps melting, many cities like Miami, Florida living on the coasts will be under water, which will in turn displace thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people.
All I can think about now is at the rate we are going now, can we someday end up like the Cliff Dwellers, or the people living in Tomboy? People who had soaring hopes and dreams, only to be forced to pick up everything and leave because the area was simply unlivable? I believe it’s not too late to change our way of thinking and our way of doing things. It’s only the matter of how many people want to do just that.
