Dove Creek

Dove Creek. . , The World War I veterans who claimed homesteads near here in the [illegible] had never fought an enemy quite as intractable as sagebrush. Clearing the land of it required decades of backbreaking hand-to-hand combat. But the army of farmers prevailed, perhaps inspired by their unofficial commander, tireless Dan Hunter. One of Dove Creek's first settlers, "Sagebrush Dan" ran a successful pinto bean farm, founded the town's high school, organized the municipal water and power utilities, and wrote long, flowery[?] articles for the newspaper he established. The 1930s brought a wave of migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl; miners flocked to town during the uranium boom of the Cold War years; and tourism has emerged recently as a growth industry. But Dove Creek and its people remain firmly rooted in the land, anchored here like the sagebrush.

[Photo caption read] , Daniel Brown Hunter moved to Dove Creek with his wife Loula in 1918. He began publishing the Dove Creek Press in 1919, and though he sold his interest in the paper in 1945, he continued to serve the town in various capacities until his death in 1958.

The Pinto Bean , The self-appointed "pinto bean capital of America," Dove Creek doesn't claim to produce the nation's largest crop, just the best. There's ample justice in the boast. The local soil and climate create a perfect environment for pinto beans, which have been raised here for at least a thousand years. Ancestral Puebloans grew them in profusion, using many of the same techniques modern tillers employ. Locally grown beans filled GI ration tins during World War II, and area farmers later helped researchers develop higher yielding, more durable strains that gained worldwide acceptance. In the 1990s a Dove Creek supplier began selling heirloom beans, grown from seeds reportedly recovered at nearby archaeological sites. But the future of bean cuisine may lie in Dove Creek's homegrown recipes, which include such treats as pinto bean ice cream sauce and pinto bean cookies.