I will start this article by writing a personal perspective on some of the changes that have come to Pagosa Springs. I have lived in the area for twenty-five years. I made it my business to be involved in many civic projects over these years. Many of these projects caused some of the changes that led to growth of the community. A quarter century ago many of us worked long and hard to improve Pagosa Springs. This was an economically deprived area at the time. There was exposed tarpaper, metal buildings, crumbling sidewalks, empty lots and a four-foot pile of asphalt on main street. The remaining streets had no asphalt as they were dirt/gravel roads. Bob Hand, Chamber of Commerce manager, complained that Pagosa's color theme was “brown on brown.” 

Over the 1980s—1990s, a good many Pagosans worked hard to develop a cleaner, more beautiful and economically viable place to live. Now we discover that these changes also made it desirable for EVERYONE else.

I have received both accolades and blame for the work I did. I think I heard such things more because I published a Pagosa area magazine and was very up-front in promotions. Accolades came in the form of nice compliments and being awarded "1998 Citizen of the Year" by the Pagosa Springs Area Association of Realtors. I have also had many, sometimes very tense confrontations with blame heaped on me for the same deeds that the award was for!

Not everyone is thrilled by the growth rate over the last several years. Emotions are on edge because of the nervous feelings of not knowing what to do about the changes in the community. I have had to do some serious thinking about how we got to where we are and what the future holds.

Another thought to consider is Pagosa's perspective. Pagosa had many ups and downs in its history that promoted growth spurts and declines. In the past, most growth was related to employment in the area.

At the turn of the twentieth century the train was finally coming to Pagosa Springs. The all important train system had bypassed Pagosa Springs for many years in favor of a southerly route from Chama to Pagosa Junction, near Navajo Lake, and on to Durango. There were people who predicted Pagosa Springs would become a ghost town with Pagosa Junction becoming the successful town!

The train brought the lumber industry that drew population that lasted for many years. When the big lumber mill at the junction of Highways 84 and 160 closed in the early sixties, it was a hard hit for the area. It employed a quarter of the county population, many of whom left for greener pastures.

The Eaton development, now Pagosa Fairfield-Pagosa Lakes, was a major development starting in the 1970s. Pagosa became the favorite spot for many southern midwesterners. The community joke at the time was that the happiest sight for a Pagosan was "a Texan heading east with an Okie under each arm!"

This period of growth was large for the area and caused many ripples through society. Pagosa had been very rural and the Eaton-Fairfield development rapidly brought in mostly educated, retired people with wealth. For a while, Piedra Road was known as "The Piedra Wall" to some townspeople! Pagosans had a real flair for cute labels. Years earlier, when Mesa Heights developed on the hill overlooking town with new "fancy" houses, it was quickly nicknamed “Snob Knob.”

The longtime population was a hearty lot who worked hard and weathered the hard life of Pagosa's earlier years. The new population was people with a wide variety of experiences and talents. They often had a lot of free time and wanted, in their view, to use their talents and time to improve their new home area.

Implicit in wanting to improve a situation is that the current situation, and those who caused it, were not good enough. That was an affront to the old population and most of the time the new population did not understand or respect this impact. This caused instant hard feelings and conflict.

The divisions, caused by the influx of the Eaton/­Fairfield population, were strong and long lasting. In the 1980s, a major effort was made to build a large hot springs resort on the open field below Highway 160 in Town Park. Architectural plans were completed and grants to build the project were in hand. Many of the sponsors of the effort were seen as "new people." Some of the long term and native citizens rebelled when they realized that it might actually come to pass. Various arguments were made, but in one long and heated meeting, a lady rose and firmly stated, "You new people are not going to come to our town and tell us what to do." They did a petition, won an election and voted the project and the money down. Perhaps some of them really did believe that "nobody would come to town and pay money to sit in that stinky water," but the lady stated the bottom line. It was a purely sociological event, them against us, and there were more of us in the town-only election. The overall effect of this failed effort was division, both between new and old, and between the old against and the old that sided with the new. Several years passed before most wounds were healed.

There were many lessons learned on both sides. After every storm the sun shines! The sun did shine again and a series of more cooperative, less inflammatory projects were undertaken that rejuvenated the town and area into an improved and most desirable place to live.

Now we find ourselves in the midst of another storm; little Pagosa's name being broadcast across the nation on network television as the place to be. New house lights are popping up on ridges and in valleys were none had been before. We were listed as the second fastest growing county in the country in 1996 and it hasn’t slowed much from then!

There is a long used term here for newcomers. It is said they have "the last one in syndrome," meaning, after they move in, we should stop new growth. Everyone who moves here comes for what Pagosa is nowand few want it to change dramatically. It is an impossible riddle. Stopping change is like stopping aging or death. While we would all like absolute control over such events, it is not to be.

It should be noted that many positive benefits have come from growth. Twenty years ago, there were parts of town and the county that showed obvious evidence of economic depression. Those places now have new paint, new siding, new cars and, in some cases, all new homes. It must also be noted that such rapid growth brings an economy of its own. This economy is based on the new people moving in and spending large sums of money that they earned somewhere else. Most any long term resident of the area can list a host of people who moved here, built homes and lives and, when their savings ran out, so did they. Right now we are at a pinnacle of people moving in and spending. It is booming but it must be considered artificial and, to some unknown extent, temporary. Pagosa has boomed and crashed before.

In this article, I have been explicit about some of the events and the attitudes that were engendered in the past. Some people may say, "Why bring all of that up again?" The reason is because we need to know our history, learning lessons from the past, in order to better address the future.

The cute anecdotes Pagosans used for newcomers and growth were also symptoms of deeper emotions that were never dealt with, only repressed. To a lot of locals, Pagosa is Home, and when Home changes it's traumatic. This growth and community change is serious business.

A few seasons ago, a man knowledgeable in the sociology and psychology of growth and change was invited to speak. He made many interesting observations about the dynamics involved and how, if a community were a person with this amount of change in one’s life, that friends would suggest ministerial and professional counseling! He called for such counseling for Pagosa Springs.

As an example of psychological conflict, he noted, from his experience, the last thing a small rural community wants to see develop are "gated communities." I was reminded of this a few years ago when a lawman from Lake City, Colorado was killed by bank robbers. His replacement sent word out for everyone to stay home and keep their doors locked until the outlaws were found. The people panicked because they could no longer remember where they put their house keys!

That was the speaker's point; that into a community that doesn't lock its doors people move in who feel the need to not only lock up, but to wall and gate themselves away from everyone else. Those inside and those outside may all be good people and become best friends but it is still a difference in mentality that changes things.

Pagosa can be best described as "laid back" but it was a lot more relaxed before the growth spurt. It still takes newcomers months to years to join the rest of us living on what has long been called, "Pagosa Time." Of course, newcomers buzzing around at faster speeds threatens Pagosa Time.

It was easy to note the nervousness of the old timers go up a notch when teams of bulldozers hit the ground recently for the new shopping centers in Pagosa Lakes. In conversations, I discovered many deeply felt, emotional and psychological traumas within the people.

There is a term used for a variety of people moving into one location: "melting pot." Pagosa has become a melting pot of the old, the new and the newer. It’s natural for long term Pagosans to want to stay the same and it is natural for newcomers to want to mold their new home. This is where melting pot conflicts come in.

Part of the “ugly” was the social/cultural events of early 2005 concerning a new “Town Plan.” It was promoted both by the town leaders and some wealthy developers. The plan was extremely well done, and extremely overdone! It was way too much change and too much all at once! The old timers and natives generally took great offence of the total redesign of THEIR town. It is one thing to show a few nice sketches and a whole different thing to show a map of the future where people with years, if not generations, invested in their property find that they no longer exist. It was situation of a vision of some people, some of whom were again seen as “outsiders,” wanting to force their vision on the comfortable landscape.

For more information on this event see:
http://pagosa.com/0105/opinions/17apocalypse.htm

http://pagosa.com/0205/opinions/04cvc.htm

http://pagosa.com/0205/opinions/03norm.htm

http://pagosa.com/0405/neighbors/29growthboom.htm

Like many others, I was angry for some time about this developer until I realized that, to the natives of the area, I had been a part of the ugly outsiders during the Hot Springs resort project. We all meant well, but we didn't carry it out well. We didn't understand the underlying sociology and psychology and that it would have been better for us to curb our enthusiasm and go slower. We needed help that we didn't have and didn't know we needed and, we still do. There are talented people with the education and experience to be community councilors. Sometimes their services are free or relatively inexpensive.

We have examples all around us of what can and will happen to us if we don't seek help and start managing and healing divides. Who can remember Durango of thirty years ago when they considered managed growth? They didn’t do it! Now it's huge and known to some here as 'Derango.'

Telluride was completely consumed by newcomers who drove the prices so high that the old local population had to leave and the working class now lives down the highway away from the town. To say it cannot happen here is to put our heads in the sand. It is happening here. In a recent conversation with a person from South Fork, Colorado the conversation included, "Yes we are growing, getting a new golf course and developments, but we sure don't want to become another Pagosa Springs!"

If there is an area where our government and civic leaders have fallen short it is in the area of monitoring and proactively providing help concerning the sociological-psychological effect on the community. Certainly an alert community councilor would have sent up “red flags” over the Town Plan and its overwhelming impact. It is possible to manage and to get counseling for the community as you would for an old friend who is subjected to overwhelming change.

It is a strong testament to the old timers and natives of the area that they have faired as well as they have during this time of extreme change. They should be respected and given credit for handling it well and without much help.

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