Conejos, Colorado
County Seat: Conejos
Geography
The Conejos (Rabbits) river, the largest tributary of the Rio
Grande, has its headwaters in the remote South San Juan
Wilderness Area. Blue, Green Red, and Glacier Lakes are a few of
the gems in this unique playground. Platoro (silver-gold), once a
vibrant mining town and now a growing resort community, adjoins
America's largest lake over 9,900 feet elevation. Downstream the
spectacular Conejos Canyon is noted as a top trout stream and
vacation mecca. La Jara Reservoir provides elk hunting and
fishing. Along the Alamosa River you will find the ghost towns of
Jasper and Stunner around the red and yellow Lookout Mountain.
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway is one of the last narrow
gauge railroads, and depots are located at Antonito and Chama,
New Mexico. The line wanders along the Colorado-New Mexico
border. Other historic attractions include the oldest church in
Colorado, Pike's Stockade, Jack Dempsey's Birthplace, and old
Spanish trails from Taos and Santa Fe.
Antonito, at the southern end of the San Luis Valley, is just six
miles north of the New Mexico state line at an elevation of 7,888
feet. The San Luis valley is roughly an oval 100 miles long and 75
miles wide. Antonito is known as a "Perlite Capital of the World".
This volcanic deposit is used in building materials, industrial filters,
and cosmetics.
Platoro Reservoir is approximately 50 miles west of Antonito in the
Conejos Canon at an elevation of 10,034 feet. The reservoir
provides recreation and irrigation water for much of the valley.
The northern portion of Conejos County, around La Jara, is a
rapidly developing agricultural area. Flat, and with good soil
conditions, a developing potato industry is promising a good future.
United States Highway 285 leads on north to Alamosa, a thriving
hub of the San Luis Valley culture and economy. With Adams
State University, a variety of industries and commerce, and
excellent human service care largely as the result of the work of
various denominations, Alamosa is one of the most attractive
residential communities in the county.
As part of the Rio Grande River drainage, the area now known as
Conejos County has been home to a variety of peoples over the past
several thousand years. The great San Luis Valley was home to a
variety of civilizations that struggled with and against each other to
find a place of good food, potential shelter, and reasonable climate.
Various populations found themselves either coming into the area
by choice or being pushed them by population growth in other
areas. Shortly before the Europeans came on the scene during the
late 1600's, growing populations along the lower Rio Grande and in
the southern plains pushed the people who were closer to the
mountains into the high San Luis Valley. The Apaches and Utes
were quite willing then to displace any previous residents and take
command for themselves. Their struggles with each other were as
much for pure rivalry as for survival.
The first Europeans, Spanish explorers and soldiers, came to the
area only for excitement and for gold and silver. Mines in the area
date from the middle of the 16th century.
The lower valley was actually settled beginning in 1854 with the
arrival of major LaFayette Head and Selendonio Valdez. This first
successful colony was at Servilleta, five miles east of the present
town of Conejos.
Conejos became a town of considerable importance with a
courthouse, a general store, the governor's palace and a flour mill.
The Roman Catholic Church built Our Lady of Guadalupe Church,
finishing it in 1866. It is known to be the oldest church in the state.
Because the first settlers were Spanish, and the area is part of the
Rio Grande Basin, the community is a part of the Rio Grande
culture. Spanish is commonly spoken in homes and businesses,
although English is the general community language. Sixty-one
percent of the population is Spanish origin. A very small
percentage has roots in Mexico.
In Conejos County there is little note of ethnic struggles except in
the northern end. There, more recent arrivals, the Mormons, have
created some ethnic awareness. When considering their heritage,
Hispanic persons in the county typically will trace directly back to
Spain rather than note the bypass through Mexico. Most of the
early residents could be noted as having lived in Mexico only
because Texas, at that time, was a part of Mexico.
With the increased economic attractiveness of the United States,
and greatly increasing populations of Mexico and Central America
with their added turmoil and political strife, the county has seen a
real increase in the immigrants both from south Texas and from
Central America. The agriculture of the county no longer can use
such hand labor, and no county manufacturing has ever needed
such workers.
As with most of the counties of this study, Conejos County has a
higher than average ratio of males to females, although there are
still more women than men in the county. The social gauges are all
low. The county has fewer than average marriages, divorces,
crimes, and civil court cases. It is also understaffed for medical and
social purposes.
In the United States, thirty percent of the families with female
householders are below the poverty level. In Conejos County that
figure is 41%, and 36% of all children are below the poverty level.
As with most of the counties in this study, few federal or state
offices exist in the county except for the welfare office. Other
offices that could be of major assistance to the residents have been
regionalized, and their location moved to Alamosa, in this case.
This move creates a further hardship for the citizens of Conejos
County.
Antonito and Conejos are two of the oldest towns in the United
States. At People's Drug Store in Antonito you can belly up to the
hardwood counter and drink a milkshake made from hard ice
cream and milk in an eight-beater milkshake maker. Have a little
malt tossed in from the malt dispenser, and you have a little taste of
the good life.
The communities have a bit of Old Spanish charm and graciousness
in them. The people are warm and open to visitors, preferring to
include strangers into their discussions and debates rather than
shut them out. Visitor services are good and community agencies
go out of their way to be helpful the traveling people, whether they
be laborers, business travelers, or tourists.
Conejos County has been a thriving area at various times in its long
life. Beginning with the gold and silver mined from the mountains
in the western county, the economy has been on an up and down
ride for over 300 years.
One factor that has created a large part of the current economic
crunch is a demise of the fresh pea industry. At one time before the
development of frozen food packaging and shipping methods
Conejos county produced a major portion of the fresh English peas
for eastern markets.
These peas were picked and packed by hand labor, loaded on iced
railroad cars and trucks, and shipped off to Denver, Chicago, New
York, and other areas clamoring for fresh vegetables. The traveling workers from Texas and Mexico came into the area by the
thousands in the early summer to work the crops.
Eventually some of these workers stayed in the area, able to make a
small transition from picking and packing in the fresh pea industry
to the support operations such as planting, irrigating, cultivating,
mechanical work, and management. Some of the workers found
jobs in the secondary services industries, such as grocery stores, gas
stations, and government.
With the coming of frozen food techniques, the hand work was no
longer needed, and the great number of traveling workers just left,
no longer to return. Stores began to close, housing slowed to a halt,
and businesses went bankrupt.
For reasons of lack of capital for investment and lack of personal
certainty that it could be done, the community did not make the
shift from the fresh pea industry to the frozen pea industry. The
entire economic structure was geared to the massive amounts of
hand labor required in the fresh pea industry rather than to the few
workers needed in the frozen pea industry.
With mechanization, and with the new technology, work that
required a thousand workers in the old processes can be done by
twenty-five in the new. This requires an enormous capital
investment, however.
Shortly before the fresh pea market died, many of the farms came
to be owned by absentee investors who were unwilling to risk large
amounts of cash for the economic growth of the community. Many
of the farms were converted to cattle operations which required far
less capital for a good return (at that time), and almost no
investment in a community processing plant. Necessary long term
investment was just not made.
In recent years the county has been making a turn. Through a
combination of factors, including an ambitious state program, a
new sense of pride in the community is arising. The soil is good, the
mountains are beautiful, the recreation in the area is second to
none, and the potential for a variety of economic development work
is outstanding. The community is pressing ahead on a drive for
economic development, and some progress is being made,
particularly in agriculture and in tourism.
Vacation and retirement homes are becoming popular in the area.
There is some potential for a water impoundment project which
would create a great area for water skiing, fishing, and cruising.
The county is becoming aware of its history as the Crown of the Rio
Grande, and additional moves are being made to advertise the
goodness of the area.
While Conejos County does not have a United Methodist Church,
much mission work is carried on through the congregation at
Alamosa. Both the larger church and the congregation at Alamosa
have committed good funds and effort to the development of
Christian Community Services, Inc. That group actually is the
primary human services agency for Conejos county as well as
several others. The General Board of Global Ministries has been a
large part of this work.
Christian Community Services provides a great deal of ministry in
the whole area, including such packages as counseling, gleaning,
housing assistance, clothing, food supplies, and many other
ministries. While it serves six counties, it appears that much of its
work is focused on Conejos and Costilla Counties, the two poorest
in the area. In fact, most people in that area will state that Costilla
County is poorer than is Conejos County.
The oldest church in the state is in Conejos, the county seat. This
Catholic church has been active since 1830 or so. However, as so
many Roman Catholic churches today, a real shortage of priests is
limiting its work. While the congregation gets a strong share of
displeasure from the community for its lack of participation in the
community life as a whole, it seems that much of this might be
traced to this lack of personnel. Sixty percent of the population of
the county is Roman Catholic. The building apparently will seat
about 250 for worship.
Other congregations in the area include a strong Mormon group in
the northern portion of the county, around La Jara. This group is
rather active, including such things as Scouts, welfare practices,
recreation, and economic development in the area. Their building
will seat around 250.
Other churches in the area include small Churches of Christ,
Baptist Churches, and Assemblies of God. Church affiliation is said
to be 62.3% Roman Catholic, 31.7% L.D.S., 3% Assembly of God,
and less than 1% for the Church of Christ and Mennonites.
The future of Conejos appears to hold promise in tourism,
retirement housing, some mineral deposits and perhaps some
revitalization of a dead agriculture. The climate is very good for all
these activities. The county only awaits the structures to make them
realities.
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