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Legendary Abe Chavez shares tale of
San Juan success
by Lynette Chilcoat
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| Tim (left) and Abe Chavez work the
fly counter in the store Abe founded in 1958 in Navajo
Dam./Photo by Todd Newcomer |
Fish stories are notorious for falsehood and sliding
truth scales. That is, unless you’re talking to
honest Abe – not he of presidential fame –
but Abe Chavez, owner of Abe’s Motel and Fly Shop,
just south of the state line, in the community of Navajo
Dam and near the San Juan River’s prized Gold Medal
Waters.
“About a half mile from here my grandmother used
to live on the riverfront,” Chavez says. “When
I was a kid, I used to fish the San Juan for suckers and
catfish. There were no trout here then.”
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| Abe's motel sign shines like a beacon
for weary motorists and fishermen./Photo by Todd Newcomer |
But the man, who now makes a living largely on fly fishing
with barbless hooks, adds emphatically, “Suckers
are good white meat, though. There would be nothing left
but the bones.”
Abe has a whopper of a story to tell of reining in the
big one – not actually a fish, but a nice-sized
slice of the fishing industry itself. Over time, he has
become a true local legend and his business an institution
in the region. The mere mention of Abe, first name only,
brings nods of recognition and murmurs of approval.
“Honesty will get you more places than being dishonest,”
says Chavez as he sits sipping a cup of coffee on a temperate,
early summer day. “We have always run the business
as honestly as possible.”
Abe’s is a funky mixture of fishing shop and convenience-style
grocery store separated by a section for the standard
hat, shirt and coffee mug souvenirs. There’s also
a mini-motel on site as well as an attached restaurant
and tavern that all have grown from the original building
in beehive fashion.
Memorabilia from his half-century long venture grace
the walls, including framed photos of fishermen holding
up their prize catches, a portrait of a somewhat younger
Abe and little plaques tucked into any available wall
space with platitudes like “Fishing spoken here.”
His youngest son, Tim Chavez, briefly takes time to join
in on the conversation. Tim has helped his father operate
the business since he graduated from college, making him
an integral part of the shared success. It is, as it always
has been, a family-run deal, with Abe’s wife, Patsy,
and elder son, Randy, dividing the responsibilities over
the many years, as well.
“It’s been a mom and pop thing,” says
Tim, adding that it was always something special, however,
due to the location. “We see people from all over
the world because of the quality waters.”
Pointing to a case containing flies and nymphs, Tim relates
some of the oddities that are available only at Abe’s.
“There are a few flies that the guides tie that
are unique to the region, like the Princess, a little
red fly that does very well here, and the Desert Storm,”
he says.
He lets his dad take over from there. Abe’s 4 story
is told slowly, thoughtfully, as he tries to remember
events as they took place, starting from his childhood.
“My dad was an avid trout fisherman,” says
Chavez, speaking animatedly as he remembers the endeavors
that have gotten him to the place where he is today.
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A school of swallows feast on
an array of flies as a group of fishermen hope
to get a strike on the San Juan River just downstream
from Abe's store./Photo by Todd Newcomer.
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“He loved to fish,” he says. “In fact,
I’ll tell you what, my dad had a lot of history
in Durango. Then when he married into my mother’s
family, my granddad was running sheep up at Flint Lake
in the summertime and so they’d go up and fish the
stream all the way up there. I was about 7 years old the
first time I went up there. I’ll never forget it,
my dad was fishing one morning real early, and I was on
the other side of the stream.”
He pauses to clarify the timeline and chuckles good-heartedly,
“I was a little older then, maybe 9 years old, and
my dad says ‘Hey, hey, there’s a big one’
and I thought he meant a big bear, so I jumped in the
stream and messed up his fishing.”
Chavez grew with roots firmly planted in the San Juan
River valley and had the forethought as a young man with
a new bride to start a business near the river.
“When they were getting ready to build Navajo Dam,
around ’58 or ’59, I decided to come out here
and get in on the ground floor,” he says.
“My Aunt Tina – she liked to fish, too –A0she
loaned me $3,000 to start it up,” Chavez adds. “My
first building was the old Durango & Rio Grande train
depot in Farmington, which we bought and then moved out
here. At first, we were only doing $5 to $10 of business
a day – a Coke here and there, but we were having
fun.”
Slow business was the norm for some time, but 4 Abe’s
never had to make huge compromises.
“By then the construction had started on the dam,
but nobody really knew we were here and just went on by,”
Chavez says. “Then one day a security guard from
the job site came out and accused me of running a front
for prostitutes.”
Chavez adds, “He could tell just by looking at me
that he’d insulted me. I tried to take a swing at
him, but he held me back and got in his car and left.
Well, I was real mad by then and so followed him back
up to the work site, never mind the security gates.”
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| Abe surveys the business
climate outside his store along Highway 173, just
a stone’s throw from the San Juan River./Photo
by Todd Newcomer |
Abe lost the security guard, but by then he was fuming
and asked to see the foreman. The man tried to placate
Abe as best he could, found out that he was running a
little grocery store and fishing shop and agreed to help
bring business his way.
The first break had happened.
Next came the offer of running the newly-acquired post
office. Abe and his wife weren’t quite prepared
for the influx of customers as the guys working on the
dam formed lines to pick up their mail.
“We were young,” says Abe. “Whatever
we learned, we learned by experience. My wife ended up
running that post office for 22 years.”
Then the dam was built, the river stocked with trout,
and Abe continued with his entrepreneurial ventures, and
life was good. The third big break came when a writer
for Outdoor Life showed up in 1968. The subsequent article
stated, “We fished and did great, but if you really
want to know about it, go to that little store called
Abe’s.”
Chavez says, “Things really snowballed after that.”
At that time, Chavez was able to expand into the guiding
business, Born ’n’ Raised on the San Juan
River Inc.
“Tim had always been a fantastic fisherman,”
Chavez says, “so when he got out of college and
came back to work with me, I told him that there was going
to be a boom concerning the fly fishing. For years I would
take people fishing right near the store, but I would
always do it for free. Tim started guiding people and
charging them.”
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| An old sign securely fixed to an
employee door is partially obscured by the rack of
life preservers for sale./Photo by Todd Newcomer. |
Over the years, Abe and his family have made friends
with people from all walks of life.
“We’ve met lots of famous people,”
Chavez says. “Robert Duvall was a real cool guy.
He grabbed me one afternoon and said ‘Abe, let’s
you and me go fishing.’”
With a sincere smile, Tim concludes, “I have the
utmost admiration for my dad. He is the coolest guy. He’s
fun, and I’ve learned a lot from him.”
After an open invite to continue on another time, Abe,
who has been chatting amicably for nearly two hours, muses,
“I’ve got stories to tell.”
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