Little Towns We Do Not Know

 

Eads, Colorado

Demographics[edit]

As of the census[13] of 2000, there were 747 people, 320 households, and 193 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,579.7 people per square mile (613.7/km²). There were 389 housing units at an average density of 822.6 per square mile (319.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 95.85% White, 0.67% African American, 0.80% Native American, 1.47% from other races, and 1.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.95% of the population.

There were 320 households out of which 25.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.4% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the town, the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 23.2% from 45 to 64, and 21.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $27,024, and the median income for a family was $35,625. Males had a median income of $29,375 versus $19,792 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,944. About 7.0% of families and 12.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.8% of those under age 18 and 13.5% of those age 65 or over.

We blew through this little town, and now that I see the demographics off of Wikipedia I do mean “little”.  We have been having this problem with the rear tailgate on the Ford Escape we are driving.  It suddenly comes up with an error message (yes, just like your computer), an alarm starts beeping and you either have to have a stronger will than I do or else you stop, wherever you are, go to the back of the car and re-latch the rear tailgate.  That’s how I ended up stopping in Eads.  I don’t think we were there for more than ten minutes.  I did take a couple of pictures, but really, we keep moving when we have it in mind to get someplace.

It was February.  That means that there were not a lot of people outside their houses anyplace that we went unless we went to town center in the middle of the day, and even then people could be kinda sparse.  I was impressed by the lack of finish on the buildings.  They had allowed the wind (which I understand can be considerable and long), and the snow, and the rain, and the relentless sun to weather the boards on the houses.  I always wondered what “weathered” meant and now I know.

Haswell, CO

I don’t think I have a picture of Haswell, but it was a similar kind of town:

Demographics:

"As of the census[11] of 2000, there were 84 people, 31 households, and 24 families residing in the town. The population density was 99.8 people per square mile (38.6/km²). There were 41 housing units at an average density of 48.7 per square mile (18.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 90.48% White, 2.38% African American, 5.95% Native American, and 1.19% from two or more races.  

There were 31 households out of which 41.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.3% were married couples living together, 16.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.4% were non-families. 19.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.04.  

In the town, the population was spread out with 33.3% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 28.6% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 13.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 127.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 124.0 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $30,938, and the median income for a family was $32,500. Males had a median income of $31,875 versus $9,750 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,638. There were 25.0% of families and 27.3% of the population living below the poverty line, including 34.6% of under eighteens and none of those over 64.

Notable facilities[edit]"

Haswell is believed to have the United States' smallest jail.[12] The Jail is approximately 12 feet by 14 feet (Exterior Dimensions), which makes it several feet smaller in each dimension than that of Randsburg, California's jail.

Also, the Paul Plishner Radio Astronomy and Space Sciences Center is located a few miles from Haswell in a remote, radio-quiet area. The center includes a 60-foot parabolic dish antenna used for radio astronomy research.

I couldn’t help but notice “Paul Plishner Radio Astronomy and Space Sciences Center” as we drove past.  I thought that maybe it was a place where a reason for Haswell being might be.  Once again the town looked less than prosperous as I think the demographics off of Wikipedia suggest.  There is a lot of land in this country that is virtually unpopulated, and maybe even more that is literally unpopulated.

My hometown is Arlington, Washington.  There is an Arlington, Colorado.  I didn't even see a real building there as we drove through.  "The town of Arlington was established by the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1887. The Arlington Post Office opened on August 16, 1887."

I got a look at “badlands” in New Mexico.  I’m not following any timeline here, just jacking my jaws with my fingers improvising my thoughts.  There was more than one place, and believe me these lands are “bad”.  There’s nothing growing on them, which to my mind defines what “badlands” are.  I had to think that there had to be some kind of chemical reaction going on in the soil as the lands that surrounded these “badlands” had sage brush, tumbleweeds, grass, etc growing on it.  I have seen this in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and New Mexico.  If there is any land like that in Washington state it is much more limited and I haven’t seen it (or don’t remember).  When I looked up “badlands” on Wikipedia I found their explanation much less than what I had hoped for.

We stayed in Bloomfield, NM for a couple of days.  Actually we arrived on a Tuesday after driving all day and left on Friday at 8 am.  We were doing our own thing there, using it as a base to visit Chaco Canyon, an Anasazi Indian archeological site.  We had been driving through almost all little towns.  We spent Monday night in Pueblo, CO which is a considerable town, having a population of over 100,000 and fully drenched in American monoculture, which is one positive with the small towns.  They don’t have big box stores, and so I have to assume that most of the money made there stays there as little cash as it may be. 

Between Pueblo and Bloomfield we drove through a lot of mountains, and stopped in Wickenburg, CO to visit our old friend, Will Dudley.  We actually got out of the car, visited Will’s house in Wickenburg, and walked around town – got a pretty good look at what life is like in Wickenburg, CO.  That doesn’t mean that we actually know that much about life in Wickenburg, but we have a strong visual impression of what life is like there.  Once again – no big box stores.  It is all local business, and I’m sure they all go into Pueblo if they need anything from the monsters who dominate this country’s economy.

After we left Wickenburg we drove west.  The mountains around there are amazing.  The towns are between 5-6000 feet in elevation, and higher.  I think we hit 10,000 feet in elevation that day.  The largest town we went through was Alamosa, which has a population of about 8,000.  We stopped for gas there.  It seemed like a pretty nice town just driving through.  The rest were all smaller towns.  Antonito, which I don’t really remember but then we came to Chama after driving through some really high mountains with a lot of snow by the road (road was bare and dry).  It looked like spring was coming there.  We stopped in Chama because I remembered it from a J.W. Sparrow song that we used to play with him.  Chama has a narrow gauge railroad with steam engines and the entire railroad adventure package so I took a few pictures there.  It looked like if you could get someone to come to Chama, you might get them to stop and ride the railroad.  It was a very nice looking place but I’m betting that the residents are challenged to make a good living there.

“Chama is the western terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, a steam-driven, narrow gauge heritage railway which carries visitors to and from Osier, Colorado, and Antonito, Colorado, during the summer months. It is the remaining 64 mile portion of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad's San Juan Extension built in the 1880s between Alamosa, Colorado, and Durango, Colorado. The route was abandoned in the late 1960s and the tracks from Chama westward to Durango were torn up soon afterwards.”

From Chama we drove through more mountains into increasingly rugged country.  After Dulce we began to see a lot of fracking stations. 

“Dulce was founded by the Gomez family as a ranching operation. The original name was "Agua Dulce," Spanish for "sweet water," because of the presence of natural springs that provided good drinking water for the people and their animals. The original homestead was gounded in 1877 by Jose Eugenio Gomez. The Jicarilla Apache reservation was established in 1887 when the Apache people were forced into a reservation. The Gomez Ranch is currently kept under Manuel Gomez ownership, though surrounded by reservation land.”

This bit from Wikipedia is interesting as I remember that there was a grocery store that boasted to be the Gomez grocery.  We saw a restaurant on the outskirts of the town and both of us were thinking that it might be difficult for them to get enough business.  We did not see a lot of trucks or other cars on this route to Bloomfield.  Wikipedia gives Dulce a population of around 2600. 

“The median income for a household in the CDP was $26,818, and the median income for a family was $29,402. Males had a median income of $26,055 versus $21,623 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $10,108. About 24.8% of families and 29.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.6% of those under age 18 and 41.4% of those age 65 or over.”

Next stop was Bloomfield.  As I said before we were there for a few days.  There were more and more fracking stations in the rocks and hills as we neared Bloomfield.  The lady who checked us into our motel told me that the jobs that used to be there had all gone to Texas, I’m assuming for the next big oil rush.  I had a feeling that the people there were just a little oppressed, and as the days moved on we had a better, and better look at what the town really consisted of.

Demographics[edit]  -  Bloomfield, New Mexico

"As of the census[7] of 2000, there were 6,417 people, 2,222 households, and 1,708 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,280.7 people per square mile (494.5/km²). There were 2,446 housing units at an average density of 488.2 per square mile (188.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 62.38% White, 0.33% African American, 16.71% Native American, 0.34% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 15.96% from other races, and 4.22% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27.51% of the population.

There were 2,222 households out of which 42.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9% were married couples living together, 15.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.1% were non-families. 19.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.85 and the average family size was 3.26.

In the city, the population was spread out with 32.4% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $32,905, and the median income for a family was $34,760. Males had a median income of $29,144 versus $19,203 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,424. About 15.2% of families and 14.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.5% of those under age 18 and 13.6% of those age 65 or over."

We became increasingly curious about Bloomfield, especially after visiting Aztec, which is about 10 miles away.  Aztec had an artsy feel to it.  It had a lot of boutique businesses and the advantage of a serious archeological dig with a complete restoration of a Kiva informing our investigation of Chaco Canyon considerably.  The people we met were more upbeat, and optimistic about the future of their little town.  It was a contrast to Bloomfield.  When we returned to Bloomfield after our last day at Chaco Canyon we decided to take a drive around town.

I kept thinking that there must be a part of town where the more well heeled citizens live.  After driving around for a bit we kept commenting on how almost all of the houses were prefabricated, relatively inexpensive.  Kristi looked up prices of real estate in Bloomfield and it turned out that the houses would have been overpriced in Tacoma.  In short, it is a humble town.  It looks like people work really hard there and don’t have much to show at the end of the day for their labors.

“In April 2007, Bloomfield attracted attention and some controversy when the city council voted unanimously to erect a stone monument of the Ten Commandments at the city hall.[2] In August 2014, a federal judge ruled the monument must be removed.”

Sign by house in Bloomfield

Kristi and I have both concluded that life is very good in the far west, better than most places in the Midwest and Rocky Mt. states.  That said, we saw some really nice houses in Kansas City.  If I was going to choose a place to move to from here to one of the places we visited, it might be Bozeman,Montana. 

Downtown Bozeman, MT

One final observation before I post this on our blog.  In 2016 we drove down through the Rosebud Indian Reservation from Rapid City, SD.  This year we drove I-90 over to Souix Falls, SD before heading south.  The route we took this year was through much more prosperous towns than the route that went due south from Rapid City.  I suppose this should be obvious that more robust transportation routes bring more prosperity to the towns through which they pass.  There is a lot of this country that doesn’t share in whatever prosperity comes here.  We just happen to be born and raised in a part of the country that has always gotten its’ share of the wealth coming into the US. 

I can understand the desires of people to live in the wilds of Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, or Colorado.  There is often something magnificent in the geographic features of those states.  I also remember the beauty of living in a small community detached from the rest of humanity dependent only on the creativity, and ambition of the population who lives there from our time in Nome, Alaska, and other Alaskan towns like Cordova.  I absolutely love Alaska and the days we spent there are a treasure trove of memories for Kristi and me.  We left Alaska because of the isolation from the outside world and the difficulties of taking my music anywhere from there.  I need to remember those days and the beauty of that life when I travel. 

Lotsa mud in winter driving in NM (apparently)

Graffitti on wall of old Holbrook, AZ Jail

On the other hand we must remember that just because life is good for us doesn’t mean that we should forget the rest of the people in our hard working, beautiful country for whom no matter how hard they work, or how much they desire it will never see great wealth.  When you think about the current politic in this country remember that it isn’t just about you and yours.  I am not a patriot, and I am not a nationalist.  I am, however, an American.  I speak the language, I know the people here, and wherever I go in the world as much as I might want to deny it sometimes, I cannot escape from the fact that I grew up here, and have lived in this country for most of my life.  I am a humanist who believes that we must care for our natural world.  It has been proven time, and time again that we can ruin the land that we live on.  We are already responsible for mass extinctions, and our population on this big blue ball is growing by leaps and bounds. I have seen the enemy, and it is us.  We, as a people may have the option to save ourselves and the planet.  It is worth a few sacrifices in lifestyle, and perhaps opportunity to do so.

Steve Nebel, March 2, 2017