Scott Perez grew up in farm country and spent nearly 50 years as a working cowboy. But it was his passion for oral history that led him to dig deeper into the agricultural past of Southwest Colorado — pouring over old journals, talking to longtime residents, and uncovering the small, vivid details that bigger histories tend to overlook. In this episode, Scott shares what drew him to write for the Power of Place Magazine, why he believes local agriculture deserves protection, and what indigenous land stewardship can still teach us today. It is a candid, grounded conversation about the hidden costs of losing farmland — for wildlife, for water, and for the communities that depend on both.
The Power of Place Magazine is a special initiative of the Colorado 150 Southwest organizing committee, featuring 20 articles by professional historians and local writers exploring Southwest Colorado’s rich and complex heritage.
This story is sponsored by Alpine Bank, Sky Ute Casino and Strater Hotel.
Watch the full series, Voices of the Past: Southwest Colorado.
Transcript
I grew up in farm country and then I was a working cowboy for almost 50 years. I wanted to collect oral histories. And so as I looked into the history here and I started talking to people and reading old journals, it was, I just kept coming across fascinating little stories. You know, things that, you know, if you were reading a whole book, you might miss this little piece over here about what somebody said to their neighbor, and that’s what got me going. And then I put it in the context somewhat of what we go through now in agriculture. I’m hoping that anyone who reads this article maybe gets interested enough to look at it a little further and then look around at what we have now, what’s left of ag. I, I hope that when people understand the importance of our local agriculture and stuff, they’ll, they’ll do more to help protect it. I mean, we have a lot of opportunities here to buy local and organic produce. Now I understand it’s generally more expensive than what you can buy at some grocery store or someplace like that, but that’s a, that’s a case of to me of there’s hidden costs to doing that. ’cause the more land we lose here, that’s more, that’s less land that’s available for wildlife. It’s less land that’s available to capture what rain we do get. And I think we need to protect our ag lands here. I’ve always been interested in history and I’ve learned a lot from it. People should learn from their past. I mean, we are repeating the same dang mistakes we’ve made year after year after year. ’cause people don’t remember anything. We’ve lost a lot. And so history to me is something we can definitely use from ’em. Plus, if you look from an indigenous perspective, they managed to survive in this valley quite well. Growing crops that worked here and you know, we could learn a lot from the survival skills and the way they managed the land way back then. To read this story, visit Colorado 150 Southwest.org Alpine Bank, committed to Colorado and you.
