The Rio Grande County Museum and Cultural Center enriches people’s lives by helping them to understand Rio Grande County’s past, to appreciate the present and to embrace the future. 
​
There is hope on the horizon for a better year in 2021 than 2020. The museum will be looking forward to again being able to be open with less restrictions and have some events. The “Holiday at the Museum” 2nd Annual art show was successful and planning for the 3rd Annual art show is taking place. There were fourteen artists in the show, two of whom were students. The art show had more sales this year than last. People were shopping at home and helping to support the local artists and the museum. We are all thankful for that support. On January 26th the museum was featured as the program for the Monte Vista. A great opportunity to let the community know what we are doing. 
​
As we look forward, the focus on student and young people is continuing. April 28th the second annual Del Norte School art show will open with work from Kindergarten through High School being shown. The reception may have to be modified to be within Covid guidelines, but the show will go on!! It will run for two weeks so there will be time for parents, families and the community members to drop in and see what our children are doing. 2 

A young man from Del Norte will be working with the museum staff to put up the World War II exhibit. He will bring an aspect to the exhibit which will not only show his art work, but bring a different perceptive as a young person interested in the history of this period of time.

My name is Joseph Hunter Trujillo. I was born on the 27th of October, 2006 in Alamosa, Colorado to Leroy J. Trujillo and Kathryn Trujillo. I was born with a full head of dark hair and brown almond shaped eyes. I was a whopping 8 ½ pounds which shocked the doctor and the nurses especially because they had told my mother they were sure I was going to a be a 6 pound baby. I am a native to Del Norte, Colorado as is my father. My mother was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico before marrying my father and coming to Colorado. My family has a rich history in the San Luis Valley and dedication to the country. Raymond Trujillo is my great -great uncle and his name is on the brass plaque in the Rio Grande County House and in the story of the military deaths in Rio Grande County done by the museum staff. Both of my great grandfathers are buried at the local cemetery with military headstones. My mother’s father with his seven brothers all served in a different branch of the service and were discharged with honors. 

I was born a middle child with an older brother who took after my grandfather and father with the name of Leroy. My sister, Julia, is 3 years younger. She was named after Julia Roberts who my mother loved since she was a child. I started enjoying and creating art at a very young age. I attended the Del Norte Head Start at the age of 3. I wasn’t content being at school so arrangements were made for me to attend half days. I was lucky enough to have a stay at home mother at that age and I was glad to be home with her the rest of the day. I began building with blocks, 3 ​drawing and painting. I found that I was pretty good at it and it gradually turned into a passion of mine. 

I don’t remember the first time I drew a picture about the military or how my fascination with the service started, but I have quite a collection of artifacts at home. I would beg my parents for airplanes, plastic army men and tanks to play with as young as age 5. I told anyone who listen that I was going to join the Army and I dressed up as a service member for Halloween for at least nine years. My drawing has continued and expanded into painting, wood work, stop motion movies and 3D printing. I have volunteered for the VFW to help hand out pin wheels for the 4th of July Parade, visited at Home Lake and still have intentions of joining the service. 
​
I am grateful for the opportunity to showcase my work at the Rio Grande County Museum in Del Norte. I have only previously had my art on display during the school art show. In 2017 I won 2nd place in the San Luis Valley Conservation poster contest which consisted of ten schools in the valley competing to win the contest.

​The WWII Tribute at the museum is more meaningful than any other art presentation I have participated in because of my passion for the subject. I hope this inspires other to pursue their pass and live life to the fullest.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Mary Anne Carter has approved more than $84 million in grants as part of the Arts Endowment’s second major funding announcement for the fiscal year 2020. Included in this announcement is an Art Works award to M12 STUDIO for our Landlines Initiative. This is one of 1015 grants nationwide that the agency has approved in this category.

“These awards demonstrate the resilience of the arts in America, showcasing not only the creativity of their arts projects but the organizations’ agility in the face of a national health crisis,” said Mary Anne Carter, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “We celebrate organizations like M12 STUDIO for providing opportunities for learning and engagement through the arts in these times.”

Additionally, M12 STUDIO is thankful for the support from our neighbors at Arts in Society and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

About the M12 STUDIO Landlines Initiative:
Landlines is a two-year interdisciplinary art initiative developed by M12 STUDIO in order to stimulate collaborative projects between M12 and visiting researchers, artists, and writers. The initiative is focused on Colorado’s rural San Luis Valley and additionally partners with citizens, farmers, ranchers, and landowners in the area to create site-specific artworks, events, and art publications. The research, events, and artworks produced draw on a range of interests and expertise including architecture, agriculture, history, photography, physiogeography, traditional and contemporary community life, and environmental phenomena.

With Gratitude,
M12 STUDIO
More news coming soon!  Make sure to check back in!

While you are waiting check out their ongoing project:

"The Conejos Fieldwork Site is located outside of Antonito, Colorado, on a 10-acre historic adobe ranch between the Rio Grande river and BLM land. The site is part of a multi-generation family ranch of nearly 500 acres, where the Rael family grows hay, grazes cattle, manages historic acequias, and preserves historic adobe structures." read more...

#mysticsanluisvalley #sanluisvalley #southerncolorado #MuseumSLVandSoCo #m12studio #landlines

San Luis Valley and Southern Colorado making history with our Dark Skies...


"SLUMGULLION PASS — Silent stars sparkle across the night sky and reflect off alpine snowfields like scattered diamonds, a treasure southwestern [all of Southern] Colorado towns are mobilizing to protect as never before by declaring dark zones.

Celestial views from remote spots, such as this pass at 11,530 feet in the San Juan Mountains, measure almost totally free of the artificial light that increasingly blots out starry skies in cities worldwide."

Read more at:
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2021/01/17/colorado-dark-skies-preservation/

#crestone #lakecity #creede #laveta #westcliffe #coloradostargazing #mysticsanluisvalley

​By P.R. "Bob" Griswold

​Perhaps it would be better to ask, "What was Iceville?" The name would imply that Iceville was a pleasant but cold little town with the usual shops along Main Street surrounded by a small residential section similar to most towns in the San Luis Valley.
 
Before 1930 there was no Iceville, and Iceville never was a town, just a place. This place began on July L 7, 1930, when the Trinchera Irrigation District, which included the Blanca area and which owned Smith Reservoir on Trinchera Creek, granted A. W. Olsen and W. W McClintock the right to cut ice on Smith Reservoir. The Irrigation District leased these two gentlemen land at the west end of the reservoir on which to build an ice storage house.

​The year 1930 was in the period when vegetables of all kinds were grown throughout the San Luis Valley for shipment to the major markets in the Midwest. The object of the deal with Olsen and McClintock was to furnish ice for the refrigerator cars loaded on the San Luis Valley Southern Railway which passed Smith Reservoir just a short distance to the west. On August 27, 1930, Olsen and McClintock entered into a contract with the San Luis Valley Southern to build the icehouse and to build a siding to it. At this time the San Luis Valley Southern Railway established the station known as Iceville 3.3 miles south of Blanca, but Iceville was not a town.

Excerpt for the San Luis Valley Historical Society - Historian -  Volume 21, Issue 4, 1989
Email: general@slvhistoricalsociety.org
​www.facebook.com/SLVHistoricalSociety

​Reprinting of article, "The Return of Orlando Lujan Martinez" by A. Rooney from the Summer/Fall 1983 issue of Alma Magazine

​
After 52 years in Denver's penetrating, inner city atmosphere of parking lots, bail bondsmen, crime and pollution, Orlando Lujan Martinez and his 80-year-old father packed their goods and left their downtown digs headed for el Valle de San Luis. 
 
His new home in Alamosa was at once familiar and comforting. It was, he said, as if he had finally come home. Although Orlando was born and raised in Denver, both parents were from the Valley, many of his relatives were living here and he had heard about and visited the great San Luis Valley all his life. 
 
As an architectural illustrator in Denver, Orlando was an artist in search of a theme. Since his arrival in the Valley, he has found a wealth of subject matter in people and places that make up his rediscovered home. His medium, watercolor, suits not only the flavor of the Hispanic culture, but also his own philosophy and lifestyle. 
 
Most of his Valley scenes are gentle still lifes of adobe houses, churches and villages with either the Sangre de Cristos or the San Juans as a backdrop. Occasionally, such as the cover watercolor of the "Count of Costilla County," he paints people. "The Count" has a surrealistic quality, yet it still manages to capture, primarily through the use of black-and-white, the essence and character of a southern Colorado Hispanic gentleman. 
 
Surprisingly, Orlando ranks his art as secondary in his life. His love of nature and his affection for people are primary. He is fascinated by people and is continually amazed at the beauty in and around the Valley.   

School class photo that is featured on the 1985 SLV Historian, Volume 17, Issue 4

Aspen Creek Sawmill School, 1929-1931

Back row (L to R): unknown, Ethyl Franks, Margaret Black, Albert Lenew, 
unknown, George franks, and teacher Ruth Denton.
Front row: P. Nations, Daniel Nations, unknown, Barney Black,
Rob Nations, unknown, unknown.

"Aspen Creek Sawmill School, also known as "W. R. Black Sawmill School," was established by Ernest and Barney Black's father, W. R. Black, who had a school built for his sawmill camp in the fall of 1928 due to the problem of transportation of the camp's schoolchildren to Del Norte.

This school was located west on Highway 160 from Del Norte, turning left onto Pinos Creek (County Road 14) for approximately twelve miles to where a locked metal gate and dirt road can be seen on the right side of Pinos Creek Road. The Aspen Creek School and sawmill were located about two more miles up this small dirt road, winding south and west from the locked gate, on the west branch of Pinos Creek. The one-room, frame school was perched on a little hill about three hundred yards northeast of the sawmill and close to the junction of the two creeks. The schoolhouse is no longer there, and the land belongs to the Forest Service." by Joan Pace Hanna in her article titled "Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic in the Early Rural Schools of Del Norte (Part 3)

"For years I have been collecting thimbles, beginning with ones from my family. The idea came to me of making an historical collection within my personal collection. These thimbles, which belong or have belonged to pioneer ladies in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado, I can enjoy now. They are to be placed in the Saguache County Museum at my death. Information, when available, is listed on a card for each lady whose thimble is in the small type drawer, housing forty-two thimbles. 
 
Thimbles of aluminum, china, silver, gold, copper, brass, plastic, and steel; advertising, jeweled, and children's thimbles all are there. 
 
One of the oldest appearing thimbles was found up Taylor Canyon by Jerry and Kenola Wintz in 1971 in the ruins of a homestead. The thimble has been bent and burned, but I treasure it, for its owner was no doubt the pioneer lady Taylor. 
 
Many of the thimbles have been given me by the ladies themselves, while others have been given me by members of their families. I purchased only one of these historical thimbles. 
 
How nice it will be for future generations to be able to locate and see an ancestor's sewing thimble in the museum in Saguache and perhaps add some personal information to the cards there. If anyone would like to place a lady's thimble in this collection, please contact me at Villa Grove, Colorado. Thimbles are easy to mail and easily lost in a home environment. In the museum they will be permanently on display for everyone's enjoyment. "
 
Elaine Woodard
Villa Grove, Colorado

Article originally ran in the 1985 SLV Historian, Volume 17, Issue 1

Update on this collection -- The Saguache County Museum has a nice display of Mrs. Woodard's Thimble collection that includes origin stories for the thimbles. The museum is hoping to open for the 2021 Memorial Day Weekend. ​  Read more about the museum, its collection and the history of Saguache County @ Saguache County Museum's webpage.

"As the year of 2020 comes to an end, it is time to thank those who have supported Rio Grande County Museum with financial donations, their taking time to visit and share their memories and see what the Museum has to offer over the past several years. We fail to mention the importance of the artifact donations that continue to be received. These items are what gives us the collections that can be utilized in displays and used to continue history. These donations become the archives that are so important to the history of the area."  read more...

Reflections, remembrances and traditional southwestern recipes

Story and photographs by Marilyn Maquire

"San Luis Valley nights have grown long and the smell of pinyon smoke floats in the sharp, cold night air. The holiday season is upon us. While much of the coun­try 1s planning for the Christmas turkey and sing­ing "Silent Night," kitchens across the Southwest are rich with the smells of posole, red chile sauce, biscochitos, and empanadas, and the soft sounds of "Vamos Todos a Belen" ("Let's Go to Beth­lehem") and "Noche de Paz" ("Silent Night") fill the churches." ....

Reprinting of article from the 1983/84 Winter/Spring issue of ALMA magazine - the Magazine of the San Luis Valley


Read the full story and recipes by downloading the PDF