Montezuma Historical Society
Position: Staff reporter

Emil Johnson and the start of hospital care in Cortez

Emil E. Johnson was born in the south of Sweden in 1882. In 1897, he came with his brother, Otto, to Minnesota but settled on a farm in South Dakota. He did farm work and went to school. He ...

Part 2: Living at Big Bend in July 1882

Editor’s note: Part 1 of Mrs. S.O. Morton’s recounting of life at Big Bend was published in The Journal on Oct. 6. These excerpts are from an article in “Volume I, Great Sage Plain to Ti...

Living at Big Bend during the 1880s

Editor’s note: Part 2 of Mrs. S.O. Morton recounting of life on the Big Bend will be continued in The Journal on Nov. 3. These excerpts are from article published in “Volume I, Great Sag...

Ed Noland’s Four Corners trading posts

Editor’s note: This story was printed in Vol. 3 of the Montezuma County Historical Society’s “Great Sage to Timberline.” It was given to the historical society by the family of Oen Ed No...

Lizard Head has changed landscape of Southwest Colorado

The Mancos Times-Tribune Dec. 29, 1911 The skyline of the mountains to the southwest of Telluride was changed last night when, through some mighty upheaval of nature, t...

The journey from Utah to the Mancos in 1882

By MARY L. LAMB Part 1 We first came from Utah to the Mancos in 1882. There was quite a large party of us consisting of my mother, Mrs. Sarah C. Lee, known to all as “Grandma Lee,...

Conflict at Totten Lake in 1880s

By Mrs. Matt Hammond Editor’s note: Mrs. Hammond came to Dolores River with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Louis Simon in July 1881. Mrs. Hammond’s, daughter, Rose Roelker, was inte...

The times were lively, and life was grand in 1909

Editor’s note: S. H. Phlegar, Dolores, wrote this story in 1934 about events in Montezuma Valley in 1909. Twenty-five years ago at Lebanon in the Montezuma Valley – well, those were the ...

The Old West: Cowboys at Beaver Creek and Indians at Meadows Trading Post

Part 2: Continued from The Cortez Journal, Jan. 3, 2014 In her interview, Allie Meadows Baer talked about an interesting visitor to her father Billy Meadows’ trading post in the s...

Looking Back Which came first: the chicken or the chicken ordinance?

From the Cortez Sentinel, March 21, 1929 CHICKEN OWNERS Notice is hereby given that henceforth chickens must be kept on the premises of the owner. Allowing chickens to ...

Mesa Verde’s early park visitors

PAST HISTORY OF EVENTS AT MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK Making Camp for the Night, July 1909. Prof. Ed Levy was a teacher in Cortez in 1909/10. This...

German Settlement 'just like Germany'

Many residents had known one another before settling southwest of Big Bend