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Honoring the preservationists

McDaniel, Seyfarth and San Juan Mountains Association thanked
Front to back: Susan Bryson, executive director of San Juan Mountains Association, Jill Seyfarth, Ruth Lambert, cultural program director for SJMA, and Robert McDaniel. The La Plata County Historical Society’s Community Heritage honorees included McDaniel Seyfarth and the San Juan Mountains Association.

So the La Plata County Historical Society’s Community Heritage honors individuals and organizations who have made a difference for all of us, those who have helped preserve that legacy for our benefit.

This year, the honorees were Robert McDaniel and Jill Seyfarth along with the San Juan Mountains Association. McDaniel is best known for saving the Animas City School and being the moving force into turning it into the Animas Museum as its founding executive director for 31 years. Project after project, exhibit after exhibit and programs galore put the Animas Museum on the map. Eventually, during McDaniel’s tenure, the organization received the 2008 Governor’s Award, the highest award given by the Colorado Historical Society for preservation, for its restoration of its historic hip roof structure. His partner in making that happen was Mary Jane Hood, president of the historical society at the time, was on hand to present the award.

McDaniel was also a charter member of the city of Durango’s Historic Preservation Board, which works to keep the look of our Victorian town authentic. (A New York Times travel writer once wrote something about how authentic our faux Victorian look is, and I wanted to write a letter to the editor saying “There’s nothing faux about it!”) That’s in large part thanks to Seyfarth and McDaniel.

As he accepted, McDaniel noted that he has mostly made an impact on the local preservation scene, but his wife has played her part on a larger stage.

Perhaps Seyfarth’s greatest contributions to local preservation were the creation of the Historic Preservation Board when she worked for the City Planning Department. Or maybe it’s the creation of the city’s inventory of historic buildings. I am only one of many researchers who have found that inventory to be invaluable, and Animas Museum Executive Director Carolyn Bowra said it is one of the most requested resources in their collection. Seyfarth was also one of the most persuasive voices in saving the old power plant, which, after $4 million of restoration, is one of the jewels in Durango, housing the Powerhouse Science Center. So it’s hard to say which is the most important, but they’re all key.

But she has also worked on projects far outside the local scene, including in all Four Corners states, Missouri and even a lighthouse restoration project on Lake Superior.

When your husband stands up in front of more than 100 people and says how proud of you he is, that’s romance.

McDaniel had to get a hip replacement after a skiing accident a few months ago, and Seyfarth already had a planned hip replacement scheduled, so it was thanks to his sister Joan Kuhn that they and their household kept moving.

“They’re both truly hipsters,” Bowra said with her signature sense of humor.

San Juan Mountains Association, McDaniel said about his co-honorees, may be a model for both Durango and Santa Fe for how to balance cultural and recreational activities, because both are significantly weighted toward one or the other.

The award for the SJMA was accepted by Executive Director Susan Bryson and Cultural Programs Director Ruth Lambert. The organization also has educational outreach, visitor information services and a bookstore, working in collaboration with the San Juan, Uncompaghre and Rio Grande national forests, the Bureau of Land Management Tres Rios Resource Area and the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument to be stewards of our public lands.

It’s a shame Kathe Hayes wasn’t on hand to personally receive accolades for her many years of service recruiting and directing scads of volunteers in programs such as Tread Lightly, Leave No Trace and the Wilderness Information Specialist Program.

To learn more about both sets of honorees, check out the History La Plata issue that was issued May 3. If you’ve already recycled your papers, then stop by the museum at East Second Avenue and 31st Street to pick up a copy. And while you’re there, if you haven’t done it already, that would be a good time to become a member of the historical society so you can support the work it does.

The party was great fun, too, with a lot of longtime La Plata County residents and newer ones who have fallen in love with our area.

The historical society put together a foodie silent auction that inspired some bidding wars. Sheri Rochford Figgs and Moni Grushkin swooped in at the last minute to win a Night at the Museum for 16, including appetizers, wine, beer and a special cocktail that will be concocted with the Durango Distillery’s Soiled Dove Vodka. They beat out Ed and Patti Zink and Richard Ballantine, all of whom agreed to match the bid to get a party of their own.

Master rhubarb pie baker Jan Postler has been requested year after year to make the pie more tart by Ballantine, to the point where she’s dropped the amount of sugar included from 2 cups to half a cup. Then the pie was bought out from under him by Chuck Williams, who I hope realizes what extra-tart means. Ballantine’s matching that bid, too, so he can get his annual rhubarb-pie fix.

Also offered were Board President Kathie McKenzie’s chocolate-chile cake, pineapple-apricot and lemon meringue pies, Helen Ruth Aspaas’ homemade wheat rolls with her special chokecherry jelly, a handmade potholder with a fruitcake made to Marguerite Paulek’s recipe, a cookie kit with the museum’s cookie cookbook and the ingredients to bake from it, a cheesecake with orange-rum sauce, and a multi-course meal by Marilee Jantzer-White featuring recipes I imagine she picked up on some of her travels on the Silk Road. And so much more, but who has space?

Hot Tomatoes catered a delicious dinner of barbecue beef brisket roasted chicken with Riesling wine sauce, and fresh citrus, green salad, roasted red potatoes with herbs, wild rice and sautéed veggies, with strawberries, lemon bars and chocolate chip cookies for afters.

Jeff Johnson and Andy Janowsky from The High Rollers Band provided the accompaniment to the evening, and they played some classic country music like “The Tennessee Waltz,” perfect for the venue at the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks Lodge 507 and the event.

Sponsors included the aforementioned railroad, Purgatory, Maria’s Bookshop (one of last year’s honorees), La Plata Electric Association, First National Bank of Durango, and Southwest Colorado Federal Credit Union.

Thanks to all involved.

abutler@durangoherald.com



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