I joined a small group to hike Box Canyon, West Mancos, and Rim Trail with a local historian, Andrew Gulliford. I’ve done the hike before in a past year and we’ve ridden this as well. This time though, I was treated to all sorts of local history and fascinating stories.
Box Canyon was originally one of many mining camps in the region. Golconda, an old post office and supply store serving miners in the late 1800s and early 1900s, was located near the Box Canyon Trailhead on West Mancos Road. These weren’t the first people in the area. The area has been settled since at least the 10th century AD by the ancestral Pueblo people.
The hike has outstanding views of Hesperus Mountain. Navajo traditional healers, sometimes referred to as shamans, are deeply connected to the land and the Diné people’s traditional homeland. This homeland is marked by four sacred mountains located in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. While there might not be a strict rule about living within a specific distance like 300 miles, proximity to these sacred mountains is important to their traditional beliefs and practices. Mountains play a significant role in their spirituality and are often sites of pilgrimages and ceremonies. Hesperus Mountain is one of these four sacred mountains.
We spent a lot of time also talking about public lands and the struggle to keep them public. This doesn’t mean as much to folks in parts of the country that don’t have much in the way of public land…like Texas. Texas sold most of it’s public lands to pay off it’s debts from before statehood. Sadly, Texas has almost none left.
I had a great time with the folks from Mancos Conservation District.
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