At its meeting on May 2, the Cortez Historic Preservation Board put the final touches on its plans for Historic Preservation Day on May 19.
This will be the ninth time the city has organized the event, which is designed to celebrate a different aspect of Cortez history each year. Last year, the board celebrated Cortez’s parks by installing a plaque in City Park near the Colorado Welcome Center.
This year, board president Patricia Lacey will offer free walking tours of downtown historic architecture, and the Cultural Center will host a historical HerStory presentation.
At the meeting, vice chairwoman Linda Towle said she worked harder to advertise this year’s celebration. In addition to the street banner the board received at the end of 2017, Towle has put up posters on city properties around town and asked History Colorado to put the event on its website. At the meeting, the board voted unanimously to fund an ad that will run on several other sites in the Four Corners.
The board has planned three tours for Historic Preservation Day, at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., all starting from the Cortez Cultural Center.
Lacey, an archaeologist who works with Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, has said she plans to focus on the historic buildings in downtown Cortez. The tours will be based on walking tour brochures the city has offered in the past, but Lacey said she’s updated it.
“It will include the information from some surveys that we’ve done, that we’ve had updates from some people on,” she said.
At 7 p.m., the Cultural Center will also host a HerStory presentation, part of a series of stage performances founded by Montezuma County resident Margaret Kirk to celebrate historical women. This one is titled, “I Remember,” and tells the story of several local pioneer women.
Last year’s Historic Preservation Day only drew 21 people, and Towle said she’s not expecting a crowd this year, either. It’s competing with several other events, such as the Cortez Cleanup Day, Colorado Public Lands Day and the broadcast of the royal wedding.
“The third Saturday in May has become very popular around here,” Towle said.
But she said she believes the added advertising could bring more people in.
During Wednesday’s meeting, the board also discussed some changes to the city’s historic place application form, suggested by City Attorney Mike Green. Towle and City Planner Tracie Hughes suggested multiple edits to the form, and Towle said it will likely go through several more changes before it’s brought before the City Council.
Lacey gave an update on the request for proposal the city recently put out for its historic podcasts, and said she’s received some interest in the project from as far away as Denver.
The deadline for the RFP is May 11, but Towle said the city likely won’t start recording the podcasts until July, when grant money from the State Historic Fund is expected to arrive.
