Masonville

I take my sister Susan to the Fort Collins library once or twice a week, and while waiting for her, I pick up some of the free local papers to read, such as The Senior Voice, which is published monthly and has a lot of articles about the history of Northern Colorado (referred to as NoCo, of course). The April issue features an article about the town of Masonville, just a little to the southwest of Fort Collins up in the foothills, which was settled by ranchers in the 1860s.  A man named James Mason arrived in 1885, started a ranch, and then opened the Masonville General Store in 1896, which is still open to this day.  After I read the article, and since we had some time to spare, we drove up there to check it out.  I took the photograph on the left of what is now called the Masonville Mercantile, and showed it to my sister.  She demanded to know why that "intrusive face" was in the picture? Enough said.

The Masonville area is still mainly made up of ranches, and there are a lot of Hereford cattle up there, as well as herds of deer.  But no moose, damn it to hell.  There also seems to be a number of new homes in the area these days, not doubt people who commute to Fort Collins, but who want to live in a mountain environment.  Good luck to them in the wintertime, I say.  In front of the general store is a fairly large size park, with a number of historical artifacts, including the coffin on a wagon seen in the photograph on the right.  On the coffin it says " Here Lies Less More, He Robbed the Masonville Store, died from two slugs from a .44, No  Less, No More." Personally, I don't believe a body is in there. Although there was an attempt to rob the store that was foiled by a clerk with a shotgun, it was never known if one of the robbers was hit.  Plus, it all rhymes too perfectly.

As I was about to drive away, my sister asked if I had taken a photograph of the horse statues, which I had not.  I got out of the car and took the photograph on the left, which also shows a bit of what the countryside looks  like.  It is nice to know that there are still areas like this which keep the traditions of the west alive, and are only a short drive from urban areas, where we are all about modern living, what with traffic, cell phones, computers, Amazon, Donald Trump, etc. etc. It is much too rural a lifestyle for me, but it is nice to be able to visit.  My only suggestion is that the city fathers, if that's what they call them out there, add a few herds of moose.