The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 56

The motel in Cisco it presently occupied by chickens. That's at good a way at any to introduce you to Gsco, Utah, population 25, including nine children (that's children, not chickens). Cisco lies off the beaten path, on Highway 125. Gsco residents say Johnny Cash wrote a tong about it, "The Gsco-Qifton Filling Station," which gets right to the heart of the matter: That old "interstate was just too hard to fight." "The interstate is about the final blow that killed the cafes and everything," said Verl Rose, a Cisco resident. Rose was referring toI-70 which, when completed around 1970, bypassed Gsco and almost took the town off the map.

Rose, 34, tends oil wells in the flats near Gsco for a man in California. He also recently opened up a small lumber mill to keep himself busy. A Cisco resident for five years, Rose does not have to live in the town, "but it's easier," he said. Why does he want to live in Cisco? "That's a damn good question," he said. A ranch hand for many years on a ranch near Gsco, Rose believes Gsco "boomed three or four times during the years." He remembers Gsco in the 1950s, during the peak of the uranium boom, when the town had its own school.

When the uranium boom aked out, Gsco began to go with it, said. "The town started dying and it just never stopped," he said. "Every other vear, we lose some more people out here. Hell, another 10 years and there won'tbe anything." Rose now lives in a trailer with his wife and children. They leave him every school year so the children can attend school in Moab.

Rose doesn't have to worry about emergencies, living In a small town: In fact, he said, Gsco hasn't had any in the past three or four years. He likes the fact that there are "not too many people around here to bother you all tne As for law enforcement, Rose added, if anyone gets to drinking or raising hell, "the locals just take 'em home and put 'em to bed." A1 Turner, 581 Walnut, grew up on a ranch north of Gsco. He recollects visiting Gsco as early as 1920. Cisco "never was a pretty town," he remembered. "You could count the trees on one it used to look pretty good to me after being up on that mountain by myself." Turner remembers Cisco in its heyday: when it had a two-story hotel, one of "the best stocked (merchandise) stores in the whole western area," a pool hall, and bootleggers.

It boasted a population of about 200 at its peak, he said. Cisco grew up around the trains. It was an important loading point for cattle and sheep ranchers from the Bookcliffs and the La 5als, he said. The steam engine trains also used the town as a water stop, and ranchers and other persons used it to pick up supplies and mail, The coming of the diesel train engines tolled one death knoll for the, town; advancements in transportation another. When it was no longer necessary to make water stops, trains stopped hauling water-to the town.

As transportation developed, people were able to drive to other places to buy food and equipment ana pick up mail. And Gsco began losing its population, he said. Turner said the town began to go downhill prior to World War II. He has not been in the town for six years. "It brings back old memories, yeah," he said.

"Course the old days are gone entirely the way I knew them. There isn't such a thing as a cow-' puncher so the whole thing is just a page in history to me." Guy Cherp, Grand Junction Coors distributer, purchased some of the land in Gsco two years ago. Some say he bought it when he was drunk. Some say he won it in a poker game. "All roads lead to Gsco," declared the straight-faced, stone-cold sober entrepreneur recently.

"I just think there's potential out there." Cherp is president of CISCO DEVELOPMENT, INC Other members of the board include his wife, Hart, who is vice president, and his brother, who is secretary-treasurer. Cherp admits his purchase of about 115 acres for which he will not dls- closf the price was part "lark." But Cherp also thinks Gsco has potential. ''Every drop of water you got here you have to haul in," said Ron. Most residents store water in a holding tank and run it through the house, which means they have running water for and doing dishes, but do not have enough for Indoor toilets or real honest to goodness baths or showers. The town is in the middle of a natural gas and oil belt.

River rafters frequently stop there. The town itself lies in the midale of spectacular desert and mountain beauty: The Bookcliffs to die north, the La Sals, Dewey Bridge, the Colorado River and Fiiher Valley to the south. changei "It's it's too fresh oi Toni Desert tive as up her i ing to Trees "We' we coui Hertrei in Gate The year. 1 They a Grand "I'd like to see water put in here," said Sharon Dalglelsh, postmistress. Mrs.

Dalgleish moved to Gsco from Michigan when she and her husband Larry were married. Larry has lived in the town for 20 years. They have three At first, she adfnltfcd, "it (the town) freaked me out." But she has since Gsco residents might agree with him about the desirability of living in the town, but they agree with one another about one major disadvantage. Water or, rather, the lack thereof. eieUAwuuni 'I HftitlUT ff.