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Faces of Durango
Durango area has a lot of unique, entertaining and at times
even little known facts.
Did you know that Durango is the hometown of the original Rocky
Mountain Chocolate Factory?
Durango area is a great location for movie making. Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, City Slickers, Cliffhanger,
National Lampoons' Vacation, Night Passage, Ticket to Tomahawk,
Around the World in Eighty Days, How the West Was Won, and
Tracker are just some of the many Hollywood classics filmed
in the area.
Durango has had the fortune to have a number of famous
people call Durango home.
- Harry Carey, Jr., veteran western movie actor, starred
in over 70 westerns including; "Red River",
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, " The Searchers",
"The Way West", and "The Long Riders".
He also has 75 television shows among his credits.
He appeared in "Gunsmoke", "Have Gun
Will Travel", "Bonanaza, "Rio Bravo",
"Wagon Train" and many others.
- Speed skier Ross Anderson, "The Fastest Skier in All of American History", is the 9th fastest all time skier in the world. Ross is a Cheyenne/Arapaho/Mescalero
Apache who was adopted by a Durango family years ago.
He has been clocked at 154.060 mph in speed-skiing
competition.
- Jack Turner, Olympic athlete in cross country skiing
and commentator for the Olympics.
- Louis L'Amour, western author who wrote his Sackett
Series at the Historic Strater Hotel. The Strater
staff will gladly walk you thru a wonderful tour thru
time.
- Jack Dempsey, boxer who became the Heavy Weight
Champion in 1919, won one of his first fights in a
10-round boxing match at the Central Hotel. There
is a wall mural depicting this historic event in Durango
at the corner of 10th and Main.
- Mike Elliott won the Junior National Cross Country
Ski Championships at age 17 and then went on to compete
around the world on the U.S. Nordic Ski team from
1962 through 1972. He also competed as a cross-country
skier in two Winter Olympics. Mike is now a proud
staff member of the Durango Mountain Resort.
- Nancy Wiley, world-class whitewater competitor
- Cap Allen, world-class 2-man kayak competitor
- Jackson Clark, expert in Navajo weaving. The Jackson
family began trading with the Navajos in approximately
1933.
- Senator Ben Nighthorse, the only Native
American U.S. Senator, lives, ranches and designs
jewelry in Ignacio, Colorado just outside of Durango.
- Bob Minser, played with the original Sons of the
Pioneers. He plays with the Bar-D Wranglers at the
Bar-D Chuckwagon.
- Jackie Robinson, author of 8 books on quilting.
Durango now hosts an annual Quilt event, which attracts
followers from all over the county.
- Mick Reber, an internationally recognized and collected
artist
- Ray Parker, former writer for Bob Hope
- Steve Carlton, former professional baseball player
- Robert Winslow, internationally acclaimed wildlife
photographer
- Dolph Kuss, first director of the city of Durango's
Parks and Recreation Program, finished second in the
World Master Cross Country Ski Championships held
in Finland in 1988. He won the downhill event in the
National Masters Alpine Championships in1991.
- Ned Overend, world-class mountain biking athlete,
holder of numerous mountain biking titles including
the 1990 World Championship in the cross-country.
- Greg Herbold , world-class mountain biker, won the
1990 World Championship in the downhill. He designed
the downhill course for the Durango World Cup in 2001.
- Bob Roll, world-class road bike competitor, raced
in the Tour de France and was a commentator for the
Tour in 2001.
- Ruthie Matthes, world-class mountain biker and year
2000 Olympian. Ruthie has competed in numerous championship
events in national and world mountain biking competition.
Her specialty is cross-country and she rides for team
Trek-Volkswagen.
- Missy Giove, world-class mountain biker. Missy has
competed in numerous world and national mountain bike
events in the downhill and dual slalom. She rides
for Global Racing Team.
- Elke Brutsaert, world-class mountain biker. Elke
has competed in the World Mountain Bike Championships
every year since 1994. Her disciplines are the downhill
and dual slalom. She rides for team Schwinn.
- Myles Rockwell, world-class mountain biker. Myles
has participated in the World Mountain Bike Championships
since 1992. His specialty is the downhill and he rides
for the Giant global Team.
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And we are also proud to say that A/C Power began in the
San Juan Mountains and Durango's 1893 power plant fully electrified
Durango City before main cities such as Chicago and New York.
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