Cowboys vs. Tourists

After reading this New York Times article, maybe I am not so hot to go over to Utah and ride horses after all.

New Feud on the Range: Cowman vs. Tourist

I grew up in Durango. My grandparents are all buried there. I remember before Purgatory was built, surviving the winter was tough, everyone was flat broke. My dad was a mechanic, and I remember one particularly bad week when his paycheck was a total of $5 because no one was getting their cars fixed. With skiing, a year-round tourist business brought a lot of prosperity.

I know what the pitfalls of tourism are firsthand. I had 13 cousins in Durango at one time, but now, they all moved off to less touristy communities, where land values are more realistic for the working people. My kin can't afford to live there, but I believe it's because they didn't see the economic opportunity in front of them.

I agree with the man in the article that a boom town full of tourists is better than a ghost-town full of ranchers and miners. Well, in most of this area, the point is moot, really. Erase the tourists from the picture, erase the ranchers, erase the "yuppie scum" newcomers (not my words - read the article) and you would still have a booming oil/gas economy. Such is life.