{"id":27249,"date":"2024-06-08T23:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bob-banks-vision-and-memory-honored-through-western-heritage-award\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:55:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:55:05","slug":"bob-banks-vision-and-memory-honored-through-western-heritage-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bob-banks-vision-and-memory-honored-through-western-heritage-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Banks\u2019 vision and memory honored through Western Heritage Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=208dd8d5-6fd6-58b0-9bbe-d351f701bc4a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"982\" alt=\"Members of the Banks family gather at the start of the rodeo at the Bob Banks Memorial Rodeo Grounds. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Members of the Banks family gather at the start of the rodeo at the Bob Banks Memorial Rodeo Grounds. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>The Bob Banks Memorial Arena received that name in 2005 to honor a local business owner, beloved community member and father who tragically died in 1995.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, 32 members of the Banks family gathered in front of the bucking shoots at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds to again honor Banks\u2019 memory and commitment to the local rodeo, this time with the Western Heritage Award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis dream was the outdoor arena,\u201d said his daughter, Marty Spitzer. \u201cWhen he died, we tried to figure out what to do to carry on his dreams, and this was one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Banks got to see the beginnings of his dream before his untimely passing, the arena, which now seats 2,100 fans, has far outgrown anyone\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s far exceeded anything I think he could have ever dreamed of,\u201d Spitzer said.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from Texas, Banks\u2019 family moved to Cortez when he was a child. The son of a boot and saddle maker, Banks was dedicated to his community. He was dedicated to the Sheriff\u2019s posse, the local 4-H Club, and the county fair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe western tradition was his passion,\u201d Spitzer said.<\/p>\n<p>The community, in turn, respected Banks. When the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel prepared to open in 1992, Banks was among the first who was asked to serve as a gaming commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe passed away before that could really come to fruition,\u201d Spitzer said. \u201cBut he had all these books. I can remember him studying all the gaming rules.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even now, nearly 30 years after his death, Banks\u2019 legacy inspires his family and the community to keep dreaming bigger for the rodeo grounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince (2005), the grandstands, the fencing, the infrastructure, everything, we just keep expanding,\u201d Spitzer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in Montezuma County named after beloved community member<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[364,28,60,937,346,2295],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-community","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-rodeo","tag-sports","tag-ute-mountain-roundup-rodeo"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27249","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=27249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80001,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27249\/revisions\/80001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27249"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}