C.S. Lewis – “Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back everything is different.”
The one constant in life is that things change. Times, technology, beliefs, people and communities change as they always have. Most of the time it is a slow, organic change. People moving into an area bring their ideas and beliefs with them. They settle in, accepting the ways of their adopted community, while also sharing their ideas with others. As those ideas gain acceptance among the residents, changes happen, little by little.
At other times, change comes with seemingly explosive suddenness, such as the discovery of precious metals in an area, an oil boom, or warfare and violence. These things quickly and permanently change a community.
These rapid changes were part of the early settlement by European/Americans from the 1800s until roughly the 1920s. The earliest Native inhabitants were driven off the land and onto reservations. Vast areas of natural forest were cut down to provide building materials for the growing towns and mines, and agriculture took off along the river valleys and flatland areas. These changes took place across the Rocky Mountain West.
After World War I and the devastation caused by the Spanish Flu epidemic, things settled back into the more normal pattern of slower, incremental change. Other than tourism, which had started back in the 1880s, the area remained somewhat isolated from the rest of the country. While the Great Depression of the 1930s, coupled with drought, hit the Western economies hard, the basic patterns of life changed little. Former President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal brought a huge economic boost and a burst of immigration to the West. But even so, life and culture changed slowly.
The West received a small population boom after World War II, when veterans who had been stationed at bases in the area moved to the area after the war. That was followed in the late 1960s and 1970s by a larger influx of Baby Boomers. These population bursts, of course, caused change, but this migration was driven by those who wanted to escape the areas they had left, and settle into the lifestyle and environment they found.
New patterns and beliefs were absorbed into the fabric of the society. In the Rocky Mountain area, the incoming population accepted what was already there. People would shop at the local stores, eat at the local diners and, on occasion, take a trip to a larger community to get whatever else they might need or want.
The growth of ski areas brought more people to the area. Many wealthy people who could afford to travel would come west to hit the slopes. They also shopped and ate at local establishments, rubbing elbows with the cowboys, loggers, miners and hippies who were part of local life.
In the 1980s, Aspen became one of the first places in the Mountain West to see a vast acceleration of change. Noting the number of wealthy people heading to Aspen to ski, developers moved in. They bought up land and housing, turning the area into higher-end residence. Property values and tax rates climbed steadily. The working class could no longer afford to live in the town and were forced to find housing miles away. The completion of I-70 in 1992 accelerated the change there and in many other mountain towns in Colorado along its path.
The pace of change, overall, in the West remained slow until the beginning of the 21st century. It accelerated from that point, slowed only by the recession of 2008. During the last eight years or so, the changes have happened throughout the area at a pace matched only by the early settlement days.
Since the start of the pandemic, we have been hit hard and fast in this part of the world we call home. Development has been springing up at a rapid pace. Service industry workers have been priced out of living here. Homeowners struggle to pay property taxes and insurance.
The urban/rural divide has widened. People feel that they are unwelcome or being pushed out. The distrust and anger among many people are very real.
The political divide, the economic divide and a sense of entitlement among some are all part of this issue. There are ideals that we can use to rebuild our sense of community.
We must examine all the causes and go back to a time when people would give and take for the betterment of all.
Scott Perez is a Durango area-based former working cowboy, guide and occasional actor. Perez has a Master’s in Natural Resource Management from Cornell University.
