Big box retailers in small-town Colorado

[RT Atlanta]

Friends:

The link below is about a local campaign a friend is waging against Wal-Mart and other big box retailers seeking to get their foothold in Pagosa Springs, Colorado:

www.thebigboxtruth.org

Your feedback, etc. will of course be appreciated. Will cross-post on the CO Board as well.

Cheers!

[Froward69]

1. As insane as pagosa springs has been

in recent years... Attempting to ban a Christmas peace symbol made out of Christmas lights/ voting staunchly republican for years...among other things...


this Coloradoan says they deserve a wall mart, home depot and a Sams club... if only for the 7 years or so it takes them to become another Colorado Springs. or better yet another Ludlow.


Ludlow, CO (the train just goes by.)


the mini-mall in Ludlow, CO.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Looking kinda desolate there,

but it is damn pretty country.

I SOOO want to get back west, where I don't have all these damn trees crowding out the horizon.

[Froward69]

3. We have trees too

they are on the mountains and along the rivers/creeks.

(that shiny roundhouse past the "mini-mall" is just off the paved highway. that whole area is a ranch now.)

[CrispyQ]

6. I worked for a man who was from back east.

He couldn't wait to get back there. He described Colorado as stark. "Miles & miles of land & hardly any trees."

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Well, I'm living here now, but my family roots are Iowa and Colorado.

As a kid I got used to having a wide horizon, miles away. Hereabouts, the horizon is a quarter mile off, and you always have to look up to see it.

Downright claustrophobic.

[CrispyQ]

12. Nighttime in an open field - the sky is so big & open

& you can see all the constellations. Well, ok, not the south-eastern sky that is polluted with light from Denver. ;)

I've lived my whole life in CO & never gave the number of trees much thought until my boss made that comment. I can see how you might be claustrophobic.

[TwilightGardener]

4. That's actually kind of picturesque, to me anyway. Poignant old ruins on the high plains.

Usually in rural Colorado the "ruins" are clumps of junked, abandoned mobile homes and cars. Not so poignant.

[Froward69]

10. HA check THIS out...

http://www.ghosttowngallery.com/

(yes, this is where I borrowed the photos from.)

[TwilightGardener]

11. Cool! I am going to browse through that site, thanks.

[Morning Dew]

5. Ludlow. A landmark place in Labor history.

http://www.mineworkers.org/index.php?q=content/ludlow-massacre

The date April 20, 1914 will forever be a day of infamy for American workers. On that day, 18 innocent men, women and children were killed in the Ludlow Massacre. The coal miners in Colorado and other western states had been trying to join the UMWA for many years. They were bitterly opposed by the coal operators, led by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.

[Froward69]

9. the Ludlow Massacre is partly why

I drew Ludlow as an example of a ghost town... the fence along the roadway there is a ranch now. the whole town was a "company town" when it got the rail line run through it.

[Morning Dew]

13. I stopped there in '93 when I was passing through Colorado.

Prior to that, I hadn't heard of the Ludlow Massacre.

What a sad, shocking episode in our history.


Side note: The Sangre de cristo range is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I fell in love with that part of Colorado and haven't fallen out of it yet.

[RT Atlanta]

14. you know what the answer is if you don't act,

and that is "no." in any event, thanks for the thread hijack and for the positive vibes.

[ceile]

8. That sucks.

Pagosa Springs is beautiful.