Jim Jackson, who led a revitalization of downtown Durango in the 1970s after retiring from a successful financial career in New York, died July 30 in Palm Springs, California. He was 92.
“As a kid, my father grew up on a ranch in Burbank (California). They raised Morgan horses and they had orange groves. And he wanted his kids to grow up in the environment he enjoyed as a child,” said Jackson’s son, Jamie Jackson.
Jamie Jackson said his father, whose full name was James Meadows Jackson, brought the family to La Plata County in 1974 or 1975, after having purchased a 640-acre ranch that had been unoccupied for a number of years in Cherry Creek in western La Plata County in 1972.
“It took some time to renovate the house. No one had been living there for a while,” Jamie Jackson said.
The move to La Plata County came after Jackson had retired as a stockbroker from the company now called the Jefferies Financial Group, a large investment banking, asset management and capital markets firm in New York.
Jackson discouraged his children from going into finance. Instead, he wanted them to “find our interests and pursue our passions,” Jamie Jackson said.
His son followed his father’s advice, opening The Palace Restaurant in 1974 and serving as owner and operator until the early 1990s.
Owning land in Durango began with a purchase of what Jim Jackson dubbed “Rio Grande Land,” a three-block area around the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
Other properties were added to the family’s real estate portfolio through the years, including an ownership interest in the Crossroads Building and the Crossroads Center in downtown.
Jackson began remodeling buildings in Rio Grande Land one by one, his son said. In addition, he eventually built new buildings, including what is now the Gaslight Theatre, to fit with the Victorian style of Durango’s first buildings.
When Jackson bought Rio Grande Land, only two tenants occupied buildings, the General Palmer Hotel and bicycle shop called Dr. Gear’s.
“When he bought Rio Grande Land, everyone in town would say, ‘No decent woman in town would walk past Sixth Street (what is now College Drive),” Jamie Jackson said.
Jackson’s own passions were history, ranching and riding horses, his son said.
His fascination with history led him not only to restore old buildings downtown, but to also purchase Pusser’s Rum, which fortified sailors in the Royal Navy for 350 years. The rum company remains a family holding, but the Royal Navy no longer serves rum to sailors.
Jamie Jackson said the last use of Pusser’s Rum came on July 31, 1970.
“In the new nuclear age, it probably wasn’t the best thing for sailors to have a half pint of 100-proof rum,” he said.
Jackson joined the merchant marine at the tail end of World War II and was aboard one of the first merchant ships in Tokyo Bay after the surrender of Japan, Jamie Jackson said. He also served five years in the U.S. Navy.
Jackson’s daughter, Amy Jackson, moved back to the Cherry Creek ranch six years ago after living in California.
“He taught us the value of hard work and a love for the beauty of the land. He loved history, old buildings, the architecture, the train, and he wanted to preserve things and build not only for us to enjoy, but for future generations,” Amy Jackson said.
Amy Jackson said she returned to the Cherry Creek ranch because she, too, wanted to pass down to her children a love for the land that her father had given her.
Jackson was buried at the ranch next to his wife, Aline, who died in 2007.
Jackson is survived by his children Shea, Jamie, Amy and Tim; and five grandchildren.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
