By 1 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15, the Chicken Creek Nordic Ski Trailhead outside of Mancos was alive, teeming with more than 100 community members out to celebrate public lands.
Leading up to the parking lot where all the action was, cars lined County Road 40 for at least a quarter mile. People parked and made their way up the unpaved road, lawn chairs in hand, as the sound of live music and voices gradually grew louder.
Tables partially lined the perimeter of the lot, featuring organizations like the Mancos Trails Group and Mesa Verde Backcountry Horsemen, to name a few.
Those groups doubled as sponsors of the event and members of the Chicken Creek Coalition, which formed after the Free Land Holder Committee fenced off and claimed 1,460 acres of land near Chicken Creek in October.
“How often does Mancos make national news,” said Bill Vaughn, a Mancos resident at the event. “It brought neighbors together; we all consider this our backyard.”
And so neighbors got together and decided to celebrate their shared public lands.
It was timely, of course, as the Free Land Holders said that on Dec. 15, the land would be theirs “forever.”
“The day we met, I was in shock. I wasn’t sure how it would go down,” Ryan Borchers, a Mancos resident, said of the first day community members went into the woods to remove fence.
When all of it was removed, “there was a feeling of finality, and moments of relief. A ‘mission accomplished’” sort of thing, Borchers said.
The most recent advancement of the federal government’s lawsuit against the Free Land Holders also brought feelings of relief, he said.
But the Chicken Creek Coalition and greater community still wanted a presence in the forest that day, so they threw a party.
“We’re a Taylor Swift and Grateful Dead cover band,” the three-piece band joked from stage.
They soundtracked the start of the gathering, as people talked and warmed up by campfires, drinking warm drinks and enjoying snacks.
And then Brad Finch, an outspoken community member in the Chicken Creek Coalition, got on stage and introduced Nick Mustoe, the San Juan National Forest District ranger, to kick off the speaker series.
“He’s clearly demonstrated his commitment to public land, transparency and communication in the steadfast manner he has approached the challenge of having to defend the forest against the Free Land Holder claim,” Finch said.
With that, Mustoe got on stage.
“What a wonderful day, to celebrate public lands,” Mustoe said. “In the shadow of the La Platas, we are on homelands sacred to Native Americans throughout the region.”
Mustoe went on to say that “the creation of forest reserves and later, National Forests in Southwest Colorado was dependent on folks like yourself: a public interested in and committed to their care and continued existence.”
He quoted former President Theodore Roosevelt, who set aside public land and expanded Montezuma forest reserves, as “the public good appears to be served by setting them apart for public preservation.”
“The core of that mission, the essence of public lands, caring for the land and serving people stays true today,” Mustoe said.
Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of Towaoc who was born and raised in Southwestern Colorado, spoke next.
She started with a song that she later said she’s sung across America.
“I sing this song for two reasons,” said Lopez-Whiteskunk. “One, so I know I’m home and I announce it to place. Two, I know that the life in that space needs to hear the song, the breath and feel the presence of me.”
“That’s what each and every one of us bring to public spaces, public lands, our home,” she said.
“This land needs you as much as you need this land. This land and these spaces, specifically public lands, they are each and every one of us. We are the land, she is us.”
Lopez-Whiteskunk shared the Ute creation story, and thanked everyone for coming out and “for putting your feet down on the territorial and Aboriginal homelands of the Ute people.”
“Each and every one of you may bring your dogs out, may bring your horses out, may come out and put your skis on … and that’s worth celebrating,” said Lopez-Whiteskunk.
“How many of you feel so connected to this space? Give me a roar.”
The crowd erupted.
Finch returned to the stage, and thanked her for “speaking from your heart.”
He gifted her sweetgrass from Montana and a Chicken Creek Ski hat.
“We hope you will come and ski with us with your daughter and your grandchildren,” Finch said.
Ryan Brown spoke next.
Brown was born into “a Mancos ranching family with deep roots in this valley,” Finch said.
Brown thanked everyone on the behalf of the Mancos Cattlemen’s Association “for protecting the ability for all of us to continue to use these public lands in the many different ways that they’re important to us.”
He spoke of ranchers’ connection to the land, and “families who all care deeply about this valley.” They contribute to the place in multitudes; not just agriculture, “but to the spirit that keeps the history of the valley connected to its future,” Brown said.
“I guess our message to the Free Land Holders is, give it up. Join the neighborhood instead of trying to take something away,” said Brown. “At least they brought us together, we can give them that.”
Jen Magnuson wrapped up the speaker series.
Magnuson is a professional adventure photographer, volunteer for the Mancos Trails Group and the president of the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce.
She said she got to the area about four years ago, and how she “primarily came because of access to public lands.”
She grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C., “where our homes were on fractions of an acre, not acres of land.”
“It was public lands … that gave me an appreciation for the things that we share and own together that didn’t fit on a quarter acre lot in a suburb,” she said.
Magnuson learned a lot about what she enjoyed most on such lands.
“I learned that it was fun to go biking and hiking and get dirty and get sweaty and camp and look at stars. And those are things that if we don’t hold onto them and preserve them for future generations, we end up walling ourselves off,” Magnuson said.
She added that “public lands unite us.”
“Thank you all for coming out and for strengthening that connection with each other, with the land, with our community, and telling the Free Land Holders that they’re welcome to be part of that too, but that we’re here to share it, and not to grab it for ourselves and wall it off from other people.”
