{"id":114624,"date":"2015-02-11T21:10:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-12T04:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcelmo-canyon-orchard-recognized-as-endangered-place\/"},"modified":"2015-02-11T21:10:03","modified_gmt":"2015-02-12T04:10:03","slug":"mcelmo-canyon-orchard-recognized-as-endangered-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mcelmo-canyon-orchard-recognized-as-endangered-place\/","title":{"rendered":"McElmo Canyon orchard recognized as endangered place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Vivienne
Vivienne and Phillip Kenyon stand next to one of the apple trees that could be 100 years old in their endangered orchard in McElmo Canyon.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Growing up in McElmo Canyon in the 1930s and 1940s, Vivienne Kenyon recalls a vibrant scene of commercial fruit farms that attracted customers from near and far.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad\u2019s orchard was known for its peaches,\u201d she says. \u201cWe grew watermelons, cantaloupe, berries and called our place the fruit ranch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long-time locals including Vivienne\u2019s husband, Phillip, remember McElmo\u2019s many orchards and truck farms as a popular destination to buy fruit and vegetables in bulk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really beautiful, but then it disappeared,\u201d Phillip said.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of laborers used to swarm the canyon to harvest the many varieties of peaches, apples, pears, mulberries, and cherries.<\/p>\n

Watermelon, cantaloupes, and berries thrived in the loamy soils of this sunny, red-rock canyon protected from the wind.<\/p>\n

Empty trucks arrived, and left full on their way to stock local grocery stores. Thousands of pounds were loaded onto railroads in Mancos and Dolores that shipped the fruit to regional cities and towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provided jobs, and farmers made a good living,\u201d Vivienne recalls. \u201cThe agriculture hub helped spur other trades as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the early 1950s, the railroads left, monoculture crops took over, the local fruit market crashed, and laborers moved on<\/p>\n

Today, there are just a few remnants of those fruit trees left, but a local food movement has grand plans to revive Montezuma County\u2019s once thriving orchard economy.<\/p>\n

They will start on the Kenyon\u2019s land, where five historic fruit trees have survived on a six-acre plot.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 5, the property where Vivienne grew up was recognized as a historic site by Colorado\u2019s Most Endangered Places Program (EPP).<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so pleased that history is being recognized and that we might be responsible for reviving a wonderful industry,\u201d Vivienne said.<\/p>\n

Orchard expert Jude Schuenemeyer, of the Let it Grow Nursery, is on the hunt for the historical apple, peach, cherry and pear varieties once grown in McElmo Canyon, some from more than a century ago.<\/p>\n

As part of the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project, he will graft and clone these antique species, then plant 25 trees at the Kenyon site this Spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a home for these historic varieties,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea is to bring them back and help spread them into the community to create new orchards.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason orchards did not survive locally was the move toward monoculture agriculture, which has little variety.<\/p>\n

In the 1920s, there were 17,000 apple varieties; now, there are 6,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there was a freeze, or pests came through, everything was wiped out. Genetic diversity helps protect against that, for one because they bloom at different times,\u201d Schuenemeyer said.<\/p>\n

He said identifying varieties that are more resistant to late frosts is key for this area.<\/p>\n

Neighbor and arborist David Temple is assisting in the project, preparing the soil, and installing deer fencing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a joint venture between Trail Canyon Ranch and this Gold Medal Orchard,\u201d he said, referring to when fruit from the site won a gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.<\/p>\n

The local orchard boom is picking up steam. The Montezuma School to Farm is also replanting an orchard at Battle Rock Elementary School in McElmo Canyon.<\/p>\n

The orchard restoration project\u2019s goal is to diversify the local ag market with fruits. Colorado peaches especially sell well, bringing in a utilized production value of $22.4 million in 2010, according to Colorado Agriculture Statistics. In 2011, the annual per-acre production value for Colorado peaches was $10,902, compared to $314 for hay and $255 for wheat.<\/p>\n

The nearby Kenyon land is the first time the endangered-places program has recognized an orchard as threatened with extinction. The designation could lead to assistance from Colorado Preservation, Inc., and lets communities know about the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur program has succeeded in bringing national attention to low profile places,\u201d said Danielle Dascalos, a representative of the EPP. \u201cThese stories tell the story of our state and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

plants for fruitful future<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[281,529,188,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-114624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-agriculture","tag-conservation","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114624"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=114624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}