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Using these Materials

Please contact the Center of Southwest Studies Archives Manager at archives@fortlewis.edu for more information about reproductions and accessing the collection.

 

Access Restrictions: There are no access restrictions on the use of this collection. The collection is non-circulating but open to the public for use in the Delaney Southwest Research Library at the Center of Southwest Studies.

 

Reproduction and Copyright: Materials held by the Center may be protected under U.S. and international copyright laws. Reproduction does not constitute a transfer of copyright or publication rights. Researchers are solely responsible for complying with copyright law and for obtaining any necessary permissions for reproduction or publication. The Center assumes no liability for unauthorized use of materials.

 

Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Collection Title], [Collection Number], Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.

 

Collection Description

Historical/Biographical Note: Alton Curtis Dorsett was born February 19, 1905, in Brownwood, Texas. He was the ninth of 10 children of W. O. and Ellen Dorsett. He grew up in the Brownwood area and attended Howard Payne University in Brownwood and then the University of Texas in Austin. He wanted to be an architect, but he never received his degree. He was active on the University newspaper staff, and this probably led him into his career in advertising.

He married Norma Alberta Wall on December 23, 1931, and they had three children, Terry Stuart (8/27/1937), Susan Ellen (10/22/1947), and Carol Ann (2/3/1951).

He worked for the Abilene Reporter News (a Harte-Hanks Newspaper) in Abilene, Texas, and was the Advertising Manager when he left to take over the Durango Herald Democrat as publisher and co-owner on August 1, 1945. In 1948 he and his partner Prexy Anderson sold the paper, but he always had printer ink in his blood.  In 1950, Mr. Hanks of the Harte-Hanks Newspapers contacted Mr. Dorsett and convinced him to temporarily go to Snyder, Texas, during their oil boom and convert the local weekly newspaper into the Snyder Daily News.  He also bought the Ignacio Chieftan in his later years and printed it on the old Durango Herald Democrat flatbed press that he had purchased when it was replaced by more modern presses.

After the sale of the Durango Herald Democrat, Dorsett formed La Plata Realty and went into real estate. His first real estate development was Riverview Heights on the mesa on the East side of the Animas River. There was a junkyard at the South end of Riverview, below the mesa and next to the river. He purchased this property and built Island Court Mobile Home Park. He built a bridge to the island in the middle of the river using old narrow gauge flat cars.

His next major project was Town Plaza shopping center.  He replaced a box factory on the west side of the railroad tracks with a shopping center anchored by W.T. Grant and Safeway. Kroeger Hardware was a partner and adjacent to the Grant’s store in the shopping center.  He also developed Florida River Estates east of town on the road to the Vallecito Reservoir.  The lakes in this project, Lake Carol and Lake Susan, were named after two of his children although he never named any part of his projects for himself.

He also had an advisory role in the development of Easter Heights.

Alton Dorsett was instrumental in the development of the Navajo Trail Highway as President of the Chamber of Commerce. All four governors of the four corner states met and had lunch on a card table straddling the four corners monument with each sitting in their own state. He was awarded Realtor of the Year by the La Plata County Board of Realtors and was a long-time member and served a term as President of the Durango Rotary Club.

Alton Dorsett died January 19, 1989, in Chandler, Arizona.

Submitted by his son, Terry Dorsett, September 22, 2005

 

Arrangement: The series and boxes are numbered consecutively. Because we do not expect to add to this collection, the boxes are numbered in one single numbering scheme starting with 1.

 

Acquisitions Information: Alton Dorsett donated these materials to the Center of Southwest Studies in August of 1988 (accession number 1988:08003).

 

Processing Information: This inventory was drafted by Todd Ellison, revised October 17, 2005.  Student archival assistant Gretchen Gray typed up the biographical sketch that Terry Dorsett sent the Center in September, 2005.

 

Subjects:

Real estate development--Colorado--Durango

Riverview (Durango, Colo.)