GREAT LOCAL STORIES History La Plata The 1960S: Snapshots in Time A Publication of the La Plata County Historical Society May 2018 v Volume XXIV History La Plata v The 1960s: Snapshots in Time 2 May 2018 z Volume XXIV From The President Kathy McKenzie Snapshots are defined as informal two answers. Either of those questions bring back fond memories from your photographs taken with a small hand- will bring back snapshots of very vivid past or give you a new insight as to held camera as a record or view of memories for you or nothing comes to what was going on in our area during a particular point in a sequence of mind since you hadn’t been born yet. the 60s. We all need to recognize how events or a continuing process. This The 1960s were full of many memories historically important this decade was year’s History La Plata hopes to give which were both unsettling and and how it changed all of us. It was you “snapshots” of the 1960s using exciting. Those of us who were living known as “The Decade That Changed a photos as well as the written word to in the Durango area during this time Nation”. The La Plata County Historical remind or inform you of a decade of enjoyed going to the drive-in theater, Society and the Animas Museum hope discontent as well as a time of peace, ice skating at Huck Finn Pond by the you have a blast reading this year’s love and harmony. fish hatchery, and watching the Navajo History La Plata publication. If someone mentions “dragging” Trails Fiesta Parade. The fiesta’s name Main Street or they ask what you were was changed from Spanish Trails to Kathy McKenzie is President of the La doing when you heard JFK had been Navajo Trails in 1966. It is our hope that Plata County Historical Society Board of shot, you will probably have one of reading this year’s History La Plata will Directors and is a Durango native. Familiar Faces Visit the Kathy McKenzie (LPCHS President), Andres Animas Museum “Pabblo” Carlos (Museum Office Assistant), Museum Hours Amber Lark (Animas Museum Collections 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Mon. - Sat. Manager) ready to hit the road in a classic (May – October) 1965 Ford Mustang. Along for the ride are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Tues. - Sat. volunteers George Johnson, Ed Horvath, (November – April) Chuck Williams, Carolyn Bowra, Janet The Museum is located at Williams, Raelynn Torres, Carol Schmudde, 3065 West 2nd Avenue and Pam Dyer. Special thanks to Derrill and in Durango, Colorado Nancy Macho for the groovy wheels! 970-259-2402 [email protected] About this Issue On the Cover: Board of This issue was produced by La Directors Marigold Glassware from Rocky Mountain Glass Company was created by 2nd generation Plata County Historical Society glassmaker Joe Hamon at their factory 2 miles north of Durango on Highway 550. The volunteer researchers and writers. Kathy McKenzie - President glassworks opened in 1965 with an eye towards the tourist market. Many of them remember the 1960s. Cheryl Bryant - Vice President Durango High School Cheerleaders epitomize 60s fashion (and school spirit). Pictured: Therefore, the writers’ photos Sandra Jones - Secretary Madelyn Clark, Lois Short, Janie Perkins and Pat Haney. which accompany each article are Caroline Kinser – Treasurer from the 60s. We hope you enjoy Denver and Rio Grande locomotive 483 prepares to transport tourists to Silverton in R. Michael Bell reading this issue of History La 1969. Freighting had declined, and the line was primarily tourist based. Today the 483 is Charles DiFerdinando Plata as much as we have enjoyed in Chama at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Jeremy Foote producing it. We are so grateful to George Johnson Durango at night looking north from the 800 block of Main Avenue in the mid-60s. our advertisers. Please patronize Jeff Johnson All cover images are from the Animas Museum Photo Archives. these businesses and thank them for their support of La Plata Duane Smith – Emeritus County’s history. A PUBLICATION OF THE LA PLATA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY WWW.ANIMASMUSEUM.ORG Volume XXIV v May 2018 3 The 1960s: Snapshots in Time z History La Plata Chaos and Continuity 1968: By Cody Ferguson, Ph.D. he more one studies into a bloody and increasingly By late spring, a charismatic, scoring an important point in the history, the more one controversial undeclared war that youthful, antiwar late-comer to Space Race and paving the way for an finds oneself suspended has claimed thousands of American Democratic presidential primaries eventual moon landing. T uncomfortably between lives. Christmas has just passed. It’s sweeps the contests. After winning Any one of these events would have two poles of historical thought. a new year - 1968. It’s an election California, Robert Kennedy, his dominated the short attention span of On the one hand, we know dates and year; all polls indicate that the great nomination practically assured, the today’s news cycle for the better part decades are merely conveniences that majority of the public approve of the candidate to whom millions look to of a year and these are just the most allow us to place a person or event in current president—Lyndon Johnson mend the gaping divides in America obvious events of 1968. Fifty years relation to other persons and events is expected to run for a second term. is shot dead. The chasms widen. on, we have our own unique set of to explain why or how something In January, the tide of war shifts. After By the end of the summer, antiwar challenges. However, as disorienting happened and, perhaps, why it is being told the U.S. was winning, the activists descend upon Chicago and and overwhelming as today’s news significant. The dates or decades fall enemy launches a massive offensive the Democratic National Convention. can feel, it is worth considering our into place in the unstoppable march which drives America’s forces, a Despite their protests, party stalwarts current circumstances in light of such of time aligned with things we deem half million strong, temporarily back and loyalists organize to nominate a turbulent year. At probably no other important. Continuity on their heels. By the the stand-pat sitting vice president. time since the 1850s and the Civil spans the years and early spring, President Outside, plain-clothed police try to War, has America been as close to decades connecting the Perhaps Johnson’s approval rating incite protestors to riot and helmet- “revolution” as it was in “the Sixties.” past and present. has plummeted. On March clad, billy club wielding officers And yet, though damaged and changed, On the other hand, we Heraclitus 31, he announces that he clash with activists. Tear gas wafts American institutions emerged cannot seem to escape was right, will not seek re-election into the convention hall as votes intact. The reader might find this fact the gravity of certain leaving the Democratic are tallied. America watches on TV reassuring or alarming but if 1968 dates and decades that “the only Party floundering as the political process appears to teaches us anything, it is the reality of stand out and seem to between its stand-pat and degenerate into chaos. In November, America’s durability even in the midst grow to take on an air constant is antiwar factions. the Republicans capitalize on the of existential trials. Continuity and of inevitability. As the change.” Four days later, the disillusion and fragmentation in change merged and emanate from 1968. saying goes, the only nation’s pre-eminent Democratic ranks and capture the Perhaps Heraclitus was right, “the only constant is change and civil rights leader, presidency, their candidate, Richard constant is change.” changes happen on dates. In the Martin Luther King Jr. is shot dead Nixon, promising to end the war United States, July 4th is more than a outside his motel room in Memphis. and bring “peace with honor.” On Dr. Ferguson is an Assistant Professor holiday; the Twenties were “roaring”; In the four previous summers, the Christmas Eve, astronauts aboard an of History and Environmental Studies at Fort Lewis College. in the pre-dawn dim of July 16, 1945, unrelenting press of poverty and American spacecraft orbit the moon the world entered the atomic age. racial tensions have boiled over in Los Perhaps more than any other decade, Angeles, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, “The Sixties” has taken on almost Washington, D.C. and dozens of other mythic status as a time of great cities. Americans watch on the nightly transition and even revolution. Of all news as the nation’s inner cities the years in this incredible decade, burn. Upon hearing the news of the 1968 was, arguably, the most pivotal. assassination, frustrated Americans Whether you lived through this most take to the streets—in anticipation tumultuous of years in a tumultuous of violence, the President calls in decade or you were born later, it is the military to defend the Capital; worth taking a moment to recall the the mayor of Chicago tells the police events of 1968. to shoot rioters. Meanwhile, young For a moment, try to imagine the people protest all around the world, following as if it had happened today. from Prague to Paris, Mexico City, We are more than three years Poland, and across the United States. A PUBLICATION OF THE LA PLATA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY z WWW.ANIMASMUSEUM.ORG History La Plata v The 1960s: Snapshots in Time 4 May 2018 z Volume XXIV 60s Fashion: The They Hemlines are A-Changin’ By Susan Jones s Bob Dylan’s 1964 song The youth of the 1960s had more the early 1960s.