View From the Pagosaw Saloon
Thoughts on Pagosa’s Reservoir Hill
I was over to the Pagasaw Saloon last night in Pagosa
Springs, Colorado, getting a little hair off the dog that bit me the night
before and come across a some guys that was talkin bout that Reservoir Hill
project there in town. They was sayin how in the old days, that hill was
witness to a lota courtin and in fact, there was the beginins of a lotta families up there. Seems back then it was a
handy place where a guy could take his girl fer a look at the stars and the
twinkling lights of town. They said under the ether of that view, and with the
help of a little Boon’s Farm Strawberry Hill, or a snort or two of Mad Dog
20/20, an ole boy could sometimes get well beyond first base with his gal. Outa
that, The Hill (that’s what they used to call it) kinda became a place that
stuck in their minds as special, beins what got conceived up there, so that’s
one of the reasons some folks is against changin it.
Anaway-some other fellars in the bar was sayin there’s secret
government plan underway to transfer the alien community from Archuleta Mesa up
there to The Hill and nobody’s supposed to know. That got me thinkin. I seen a
lot of them blacked out SUV’s with no plates on em when I was in town earlier
in the year. And, when I was movin cattle off DeRosset’s place up next to the
top of the Mesa a couple years back, I seen them Black Ops guys on the back of
his ranch and they run me outa there. They said they was patrolling the area in
their Humvees for the Injuns, but they didn’t look like no Injuns. They had
black military gear on and wasn’t none too polite in escorting me outta there. Guys
I know out there twixt the San Juan River and Montezuma sez there’s been some
recent animal mutilations, including a horse that ended up with weird tattoos
and fishing tackle pierced onto its face. They think them alien fellars are
getting stirred up again like they did when that guy tried to develop the
Archuleta Mesa Ranch ten years back.
Apparently there’s a group of folk comin to the Town
Meetings fightin the move by Disneyland to put PagosaWorld up there. Buford,
the one drinker in there with a real bad case of stink breath sez those Disney
folks are determined to get that park built up there and have even brung in
George Lucas, that fellar that done Star Wars to negotiate with the aliens down
there other side of Edith. Supposedly he was joined by some high powered
attorney outa Dallas by the name of Rosey that’s gonna be sure Disney gits what
it wants. He and Lucas is supposed to give them alien beings some jobs at the
park and in his next movie if’n they agree to keep their underground city
inside Archuleta Mesa.
This gal who was sittin two stools down from me heard us
talkin and she offered her two cents worth. She said she been there for 30
years and she seen them aliens more than once, even before she was sent to
detox. Seems she wuz out trappin fer pelts on the Mesa early one winter and
come across a big ole burn hole up in the trees. She said this creepy looking
thing with a big head and no hair on em come up outta that hole and squeeked
sumpin to her in some alien tongue. She got so scared she ran down the other
side of the Mesa and kept running til she got into Dulce. She said the Tribal
police refused to help her and she never went out there again. She said her husband,
Clovis went out there to check things out and never returned. She filed a
missin person report and nobody ever followed up. She’s thinkin if they do move
them aliens to Reservoir Hill, her husband may show up again, though she said
she might not recognize him.
Another gal in there by the name of Faylene sez the real
reason folks is against fixin things up on The Hill is cuz some of them
newcomers got some wacky tobacky plants growin up there. Seems they dropped a
big long extension chord they plugged in to put growin lights in to keep them
pot plants a growin. Faylene sez she seen those people in the Farmers Market and
the Folk Festival sellin their crops and they is the same ones that show up at
the public meetings speakin out against any development on The Hill.
Finally, another fellar named Cooter chimed in with his
opinion on why some folks is against putting anything up on The Hill. Cooter
sez it’s all about keepin some endangered wildlife species protected. According
to him there a rare kinda miniature skunk that makes its home up there and The
Hill is one of the few places that skunk is reproducing. The animal protection
folks is trying to get The Hill designated as a National Monument to the Rocky
Mountain Dwarf Skunk and they are expecting President Obama to declare it so,
just as he done fer Chimney Rock. Accordin to Cooter that tiny skunk packs a
mighty wallop of stink, unlike any other skunk. He sez the Injuns thowed him
into the Pagosa Hot Springs way back when, and that’s how they got the smell
them springs got. (A former owner of them springs always told me it was the
smell of money.)
After hearin all these stories I realized things ain’t right
in Pagasaw. Maybe after a couple more Jacks and branch water things will look
better. That’s the View from the Pagasaw Saloon-
See ye all next time I’m in town-
Travis “Buck” Kingman III
