Southwest Colorado’s mountains are celebrated today as a playground — but for Peggy Montaño, they have always meant something more. As a descendant of Hispano sheepherders with deep roots on both sides of her family in northern New Mexico and the Ignacio area, Peggy grew up understanding these peaks as a place of labor, sacrifice, and identity. In this podcast episode, she reflects on why she felt called to write and share this story — and why she believes understanding the full history of a place matters not just for those living here now, but for the generations still to come. It is a thoughtful, personal meditation on what it means to belong to a landscape, and to honor the people who shaped it long before recreation ever entered the picture.
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.
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Transcript
When we look at the mountains now, we think about hiking and fishing and skiing and all this recreation, which I enjoy. I love all of that, but it’s also important to think about what did these mountains mean to people before the Utes? Of course, to them, these mountains are sacred, and I have many Ute friends and respect their history and all that’s happened to them. But there were also others like my family, my ancestors, who came and they worked when they looked at those mountains. My father used to complain about having to go and share Waterholes with bears. It’s worthwhile to think about that in your own history. My history and other people who are here now. I’m the oldest daughter in a large family, and so I think that’s why I decided I should write this story. My family, my father used to say, I didn’t come to this country. The country came to me, were descendants of the original, some of the original Spanish settlers that came up to Rio Grande. Like so many people in this part of the world, he grew up in a small town north of Santa Fe, named Canjilon. His father was born there also in Canjilon as his grandfather and became a sheep herder because they had a large tract of land. My mother was born just south of Ignacio in a little town that doesn’t really exist anymore. Kala La Canalla Bonita, which is near Tiffany, which is kind of an abandoned town. So I have long roots in this part of the world on both my mother and my father’s side. Well, I know a number of people around here, and one of my dear friends is Ellen Roberts and I had done a presentation with Ellen in Telluride. We drove leaving Durango early in the morning as we went over Lizard head pass. I said to Ellen, you know, my family herded sheep here for years and years, and since the magazine was called Power of Place, I thought about writing about the place where these men worked. So I wrote it for the Power of Place Magazine at their request. People should realize that there’s a long history here as there are in many other places, and by understanding some of that history, I think it helps you reflect on the future as well. So part of it is not so much even for the people who are here now, but the people who are going to be here, children, grandchildren, and people who will come to read this story. Visit Colorado 150southwest.org Alpine Bank, committed to Colorado, and you.
