Godly Towns

The town of Westcliffe, Colorado is one that I have driven through many many times for quite a few years. One thing that has always stood out was the number of churches and I generally come through on Sunday going home. There are more damn people running around all dressed up you wouldn't believe. There must be at least five churches in a 10 block area and there's more other places.

A few years ago there was a strong effort to get prayer in the local schools but fortunately people were smarter than that and it did not happen.

About a year ago now the local county sheriff started an investigation into this allegation.

Two months after a mass raid of a polygamist Mormon compound in Texas piqued the nation’s interest, a similar sect in southern Colorado is flourishing — and in fact some speculate that the tiny town of Westcliffe in southwest Colorado may become the next polygamist nerve center in the United States. A compound there already hosts an estimated 30 members of the breakaway Mormon sect, and an aide to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has already shelled out more than $1 million for nearly 200 acres of land nearby.

I have not seen another article about this investigation but last month this article appeared in the Denver Post about the Amish in Pennsylvania coming to Westcliffe to settle because of cheaper land prices. There are Amish back in the cornfield but you never hear much about them and I'm not quite sure why.

WESTCLIFFE — A new road sign cautions drivers to watch for Amish horse-drawn carriages in the valley beneath Colorado's Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Which brings me to why I'm writing this post. I had not been through Westcliffe since the end of March when I returned from a road trip from California. So last Sunday it very nice out and I pulled off to take a picture or do a video of the mountains which is below. I didn't take a picture but at the very end of the video is the picture I should have taken.



So I decided I'm going to drive down the road for 3 miles and just see just what the hell is out here. I don't go over a mile and way down the road I see a horse and buggy coming.


I did not do a very good job on the pictures or on this short video. Part of the reason is that I did not want to intrude on these people's privacy. Remember the movie Witness? I had the first two articles stored for some time to eventually do a post about the number of religious crazies in this area. And when the story about the Amish locating here and the coincidence of me pulling off and seeing his horse and carriage was kind of cool. I get a kick outta of shit like this.



But I want everybody to understand that I do not have an issue with the Amish here or anywhere else. Unlike so many other believers who feel they need to spread and force their dogma on others here and all over the world these people never enter that realm of religious nuttery.

Because of that and the fact that they live more green than probably 95% of this country I'm okay with that. Now if they come knocking on my door like the Mormons do then we have a problem but until then there is probably a lot we can learn from these people and the first thing would be to live simply!