{"id":22529,"date":"2025-04-24T14:49:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T20:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-archives-to-stage-montezuma-heritage-museum-will-bring-local-history-to-life\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:38:02","slug":"from-archives-to-stage-montezuma-heritage-museum-will-bring-local-history-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-archives-to-stage-montezuma-heritage-museum-will-bring-local-history-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"From archives to stage: Montezuma Heritage Museum will bring local history to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Some
Some of the cast and crew from the \u201cVoices From The Past\u201d play. Seated left to right: Siah Forth, Wynn Tanner, Julia Morris. Standing from left: Larry Archibeque, Donna Peacock, John Fleitz, Jenn Morris, Preston Tanner, Joe Butterfield, Lola Eckhart, Lizzie Dickey, Terri Helm and Maria Chiarizia. (Barbara Stagg\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A poem written by a settler in Yellow Jacket inspired a compilation of local stories from the past that will soon take the stage in Cortez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe minute I read it, I said, \u2018Oh we\u2019ve got to do a program on this,\u2019\u201d said Barbara Stagg of the Montezuma Heritage Museum, who spearheaded this project. \u201cI imagined 40 people, something in our meeting room.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cone thing led to another,\u201d it grew into a play detailing local history \u2013 Stagg related it to a history lesson \u2013 that\u2019ll play at the Sunflower Theatre on Saturday, May 3.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a matinee at 2 p.m., and another show at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will probably leave and say, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t know that,\u2019\u201d Stagg said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s all real people from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the help of Donna Peacock and Terri Helm, Stagg pieced together bits and pieces of historic writings, letters and oral histories to create the play.<\/p>\n

And besides a few transitions and edits \u2013 plus music that ties it all together \u2013 \u201cthis is all their own words,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

What: \u201cVoices from the Past,\u201d a play sponsored by Montezuma Heritage MuseumWhere: Sunflower Theatre, 8 E. Main St., CortezWhen: Saturday, May 3, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets: $20, at sunflowertheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What\u2019s more, all but a few stories are Montezuma County ones; a few are from Dolores County.<\/p>\n

Stagg said they struggled to find Ute stories \u2013 though they do \u201ctouch on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were, however, successful in finding a Navajo story, about a woman named Mary Jelly who lived in the lower McElmo Canyon area and successfully resecured her land by naming all its plants, thus proving it was hers.<\/p>\n

Altogether, 15 characters and their stories make up the play. All the roles are \u201cplayed by amateurs,\u201d and four actors are kids.<\/p>\n

Stagg said she and her fellow co-organizes recruited people, who, in extension, knew of people who might be interested to perform and recruited them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t your classic casting call,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Without giving anything away, the stories span a spectrum of local history.<\/p>\n

One is set in Parrot City, which was a mining town in La Plata Canyon that many don\u2019t realize existed. Another takes place in Disappointment Valley in the wintertime, where a soon-to-be husband and wife lived in the 1880s and walked on snowshoes to Durango to marry.<\/p>\n

All Stagg would say about \u201cpranking cowboys\u201d is that it\u2019s a \u201chigh point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re always trying to imagine how to put on programs that reinforce the vision and mission of the museum, which is to save our history and tell our stories,\u201d Stagg said. \u201cThis is just another way to reach the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play will be recorded, too, and the video \u201cwill be made available to enhance the benefit of the whole thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Stagg went on to say how there are people who still don\u2019t know there\u2019s a museum right here, in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo museum can survive in a small town without deep interest from those in the area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Much of the ticket proceeds will benefit the museum; \u201cWe\u2019re hoping we\u2019ll sell out,\u201d said Stagg.<\/p>\n

Tickets are available for $20 online at sunflowertheatre.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Voices From the Past\u2019 play is coming up at Cortez\u2019s Sunflower Theatre<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,28,198,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-history","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529","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=22529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128465,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22529\/revisions\/128465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22529"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}