Durango, CO Chamber of Commerce records

M016 - Durango, CO Chamber of Commerce records

Collection Overview

Creator: Durango Chamber of Commerce
Dates: 1892-currrent, inclusive; 1989 bulk
Extent: 11 linear shelf feet (approximately 8,000 items, in 20.5 document cases and 2 flat boxes)
Abstract:
Records and correspondence of the Durango Area Chamber Resort Association and its predecessors, dating from circa 1892 to 1998. Includes Board of Directors minutes, subject files, printed materials, a 1915–1926 volume, and a Chamber history covering 1883–1972.
Language: English
Collection Identifier: M016
Physical Location: This collection is located at the Center of Southwest Studies on the campus of Fort Lewis College (1000 Rim Dr. Durango, CO).

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.

Related Materials:

M027	Durango, CO City Government records

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

Collection Description

Scope & Contents: The collection contains legal, administrative, evidential, and informational records. The subject files are the predominant series. Material types include minutes, photocopied newspaper clippings, correspondence, financial statements, and printed publicity materials. Topics covered encompass many of the areas of life and issues in Durango for the year span of the collection.

Historical/Biographical Note: The Durango Board of Trade, "though active in the 1880s, died and was resurrected in 1892." Its goal in 1892 was "to advertise the city and promote its interests by disseminating information related to commercial, financial, and industrial affairs." Richard McCloud, a lawyer and former registrar of the U.S. Land Office, was its secretary (a term that included daily leadership of the organization) and as such was its spokesman. He wrote the Durango As It Is pamphlet that first year (1892), to promote the city and the region. Other influential Durango businessmen dominated the Board. Its members were "promotive, aggressive, and confident," even seeing to it that Durango had an exhibit on coal and coke at the Chicago World’s Fair. As Duane Smith noted in his history of Durango, "A prime objective of these men was to carve out an economic empire, increasingly referred to as the San Juan Basin." He added, "As conceived by Durangoans, the San Juan Basin stretched from Pagosa Springs on the east to Cortez on the west. North to south, it ran from Silverton to the Farmington area. More correctly it should have been called the Animas Basin, but the name San Juan translated into bigger things."

In 1914, the Durango Board of Trade merged with the Durango Club (a social organization) to form the Durango Exchange, which became the Durango Chamber of Commerce in 1930. Through at least the 1920s and probably for much longer, the Durango merchants and the Chamber of Commerce were considered to be the strongest civic influence in the city. Duane Smith quotes Lester Gardenswartz (who opened a sporting goods store before the 1929 stock market crash) as saying that "The town was run by a group of men that was running the Chamber of Commerce. It was a clique, we had a hard time breaking into it." Increasingly, the Chamber’s mission was to promote tourism while also supporting agriculture and industrial development in the Basin.

As the records in this collection demonstrate, the early themes of the Chamber’s history persisted as it grew ever more busy and maintained its influential role in the development of Durango and the surrounding area of the Animas River Basin.

Arrangement: The series and boxes are numbered consecutively. The records are first organized by type of document into series and arranged chronologically within each series.

Acquisition Information: The bulk of this collection was acquired in two accessions (including 2002:03099 which was a retrospective accession of 2.5 linear shelf feet of records that the Chamber donated to the Center in 1968) through the efforts of Duane Smith and Jasper Welch. Most of these (accession 1984:04026; 10 linear shelf feet before processing) are records of the Chamber's 20th century operations through 1984 that were given to the Center of Southwest Studies by the Chamber in 1984 through the agency of Jasper Welch, who was the key administrative official of the Chamber in its last years, in 1984. Accession 2002:10010 in October of 2002 added inactive business records that Jane Zimmerman had compiled during her 19-year tenure as Director of the Durango Area Chamber Resort Association.

Processing Information: The collection was processed and inventoried by the archivist and Jayne Mitchell, a student in the archival theory and practice course, from September through December of 1997. Especially acidic materials (newspaper clippings, 1890s minutes on poor quality brittle brown paper, early thermofax photocopies) were photocopied onto archival paper. This finding aid was reformatted to current standards in October 2011 by student employee Daryl C. I. Begaye.

Subjects:

Business records--Colorado--Durango.
Durango Exchange.
Durango Civic Club.
Durango Chamber of Commerce.
Businessmen--Colorado--Durango.
Business enterprises--Colorado--Durango.
Business records--Colorado--Durango.
Durango (Colo.)--Commerce.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Container List

Series 1: Legal documents
Series 2: Minutes
Series 3: Financial records
Series 4: Printed materials
Series 5: Committee records
Series 6: Subject files
Series 7: Administrative records and correspondence
Series 8: Durango Civic Club records

Series 1: Legal documents, 1962-1979. 3 folders containing articles, amendments, and bylaws.

Description	Date	Box/Folder
Durango Chamber of Commerce articles of incorporation with amendments	1962, 1972	1/1
Durango Chamber of Commerce bylaws	1962, 1972	1/2
Colorado Motel Association, Inc., Durango Chapter, bylaws	circa 1968	1/3

Series 2: Legal documents, 1892-1984. 37 folders containing minutes and financial reports.

Description

Date

Box/Folder

Board of Trade minutes (volume 1)

1892-1893

1/1

Board of Trade minutes

1894-1895

1/2

Board of Trade minutes

1895

1/3

Board of Trade minutes

1896

1/4

Board of Trade minutes

1896

1/5

Board of Trade minutes (volume 1)

1904-1906

1/6

Board of Trade minutes (volume 1)

1906-1910

2/1

Board of Trade minutes (volume 1)

1910-1915

2/2

Durango Exchange minutes

1915-1925

3/1

Durango Exchange minutes (incomplete)

1919-1935

3/2

Durango Exchange quarterly financial report

1925-1927

3/3

Durango Chamber of Commerce minutes

1932-1936

3/4

Durango Chamber of Commerce minutes

1936-1940

3/5

Durango Chamber of Commerce minutes

1945-1946

3/6