Rabbitbrush Rambler: Ortiz revisited

Virginia Simmons

Near the state line lies Ortiz, Colorado, a small village that was once a more active place, as its impressive church, cemetery, several adobes, and a couple of large homes testify. It’s well worth a visit if you are out for a pleasant ride. 

This unincorporated village, 5.5 miles southwest of Antonito, is reached by turning off U.S. 285 at the narrow-gauge track at Antonito or alternately by going through the village of San Antonio farther south.  Only a few hundred yards south of Ortiz at the state line is Los Piños Creek, an important tributary of Rio San Antonio.

Long ago, the meadows were a favorite camping ground of nomadic Ute Indians, who traveled along Los Piños Creek to and from Cumbres Pass and over the high country to and from the Upper Chama River Valley. In the mid-to-later 1700s Indians also traded here with men like Juan Bautista Pena, whose home base was some distance down the Rio Grande around Belen, NM.

Another bit of information comes from Ronald E. Kessler’s booklet about the Anza expedition of 1779. It states that when Anza came through the San Luis Valley en route to the Arkansas River, “200 Apache and Ute Indians who also wished for revenge against the Comanche,” joined the Spanish force “near the present day settlement of Ortiz.” (These Apaches would have been Jicarilla Apaches, who were allied with Capote Utes and also frequented the area.)

After authorization in 1860 of a U.S. Indian Agency, Conejos was visited by Capote, Muache, and Tabeguache bands of Ute Indians who encamped around Los Piños Creek and visited the agency where Lafayette Head was agent. At a large council at Conejos in 1863, the Tabeguache Ute Ouray became recognized by government officials as the Ute headman, though not by all of the Utes. (His selection was helped by his being able to speak some Spanish that he had learned as a youth in New Mexico’s Upper Chama River Valley.)

With the Treaty of 1868, change came. To the chagrin of Utes and also of Lafayette Head who lost his job as agent, they now had a badly located agency, dubbed Los Piños Agency No. 2, northwest of Saguache.

In increasing numbers newcomers were moving over from the Upper Chama River area, and sheep and wool soon became the principal economic activities. As the industry developed, some of the region’s most highly regarded sheepherders lived in and around Ortiz. Construction of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway south and west made Antonito a major shipping point for the sheep and wool, boosting Ortiz’s population and economic fortunes after 1880. 

Farther afield, the booming mines in the Durango area required railroad transportation across the Continental Divide, but just getting steam locomotives from Antonito up to the dry mesa near Antonito was a major challenge. To solve that problem, Lava Tank was placed on the mesa with water for the tank being pumped uphill from Los Piños Creek. The historic pump house, 3.5 miles west of Ortiz, is being restored by volunteer members of Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, while the pump itself resides on the grounds near the Conejos County Library at La Jara.

By 1885 or 1890 (accounts differ) the little settlement that originally had been called Los Piños had a post office named Ortiz, since the storekeeper and postmaster was J. Nestor Ortiz. It also is said that J. Nestor made some fine filigree jewelry. Over the years, there were two storekeepers in town — one being J. Nestor Ortiz and the other being Damian Duran, and each constructed a large, impressive home.

In addition to a public school at Ortiz, there were Baptist and Presbyterian mission schools at various times. And bars, bootlegging, and ladies of the night.

As early as 1858 a chapel had existed at the settlement. Served first by priests from Conejos and later from Antonito, a new church building was constructed in 1895, and it was replaced in 1938 by the present structure. In the 1990s, while it was receiving repairs and restoration, Michael Derry was commissioned to paint a large mural behind the altar. If you come on a day when services are held, you can see this beautiful mural depicting the countryside.

But by the 1940s, when the sheep industry had dwindled and residents of the community were moving away, the post office closed. One of those who had left was J. Nestor’s son, Joe Nestor Ortiz, who ran a billiard parlor and Joe’s Bar at Sixth and State across the street from Alamosa’s depot. In turn, the billiard parlor-bar became the popular Beef’s Bar, operated by Joe’s son “Beef,” until it too was only a memory and the building at Sixth and State was demolished.