Law enforcement rangers staff the entrance of Mesa Verde. In the days immediately following the government shutdown, the rangers – among the few who stayed on duty – estimate they turned away close to a thousand cars./Photo by Paul Ferrell

Sorry folks, park’s closed

Workers staycate, tourists vacate and Washington stagnates

by Paul Ferrell

Rangers at Mesa Verde National Park received a memorandum last week. It read: “You are hereby notified that you are placed in a furlough status effective one minute past midnight on Oct. 1, 2013." The closure of Mesa Verde, caused by the partial government shutdown, began on that Tuesday.

Only a handful of law enforcement rangers remained on duty that day to turn away nearly 500 vehicles from entering the park. Four hundred more were refused entry on the following two days.

By day three, the park’s enormous campground was empty, the Far View Lodge was closed for the season, and about 75 employees were laid off. Businesses in Cortez, Mancos, Dolores and Durango immediately felt the loss of tourist dollars. Soon, the effects of the government shutdown began to ripple across Southwest Colorado and beyond.

One week after the closure of Mesa Verde, cars continue to drive up to the entrance gate and visitors chat with law enforcement rangers and snap photos. For the most part, it’s a civil affair. “We had a few people yell at us, and they want to give us their political views,” Andy Blake, a law enforcement ranger, says. “After that, they calm down and they are very polite. Most people are very polite and very understanding.”

Tami Schattner, a visitor from New Mexico, was understanding but disappointed. “We wanted to see the park, but darn it – bad timing.”

Schattner will not be spending any money in the area. “I’ve got two grandkids and a great nephew that would have loved to have had T-shirts and dream catchers and 4  key chains and things that make noise to irritate their parents,” she laughs and adds, “I try to be a good grandma.”

Tami Schattner, a tourist from New Mexico, poses for a photo outside the Mesa Verde gates. Schattner said she wanted to see the park and go in to buy trinkets for the grandkids, but now she will be moving on. Laurel Rematore, of the Mesa Verde Museum Association, which runs the gift shops in the park, estimates the nonprofit is losing $40,000 a week due to the closure./Photo by Paul Ferrell

Such trinkets as well as and other, less frivolous, items are sold at two bookstores in the park by the Mesa Verde Museum Association. Laurel Rematore is the executive director of the Association, she estimates that the nonprofit is losing $40,000 per week due to the closure. “We generate all the money that we spend. We exist to benefit the park so we don’t receive any kind of government appropriations. We’re here to basically supplement what it is that the National Park Service can accomplish in Mesa Verde.”

The government shutdown has idled Rematore; she and 14 of  her 17 employees have been laid off.  “This is something that is being played out all across the United States. There are nonprofit organizations like the Museum Association that support public lands, and we are being locked out of our offices. We are not able to generate income that’s to support the parks and the public lands. It is supremely frustrating.”

After a week of the government shutdown, frustration is growing among merchants and business people in the gateway community of Cortez. Jude Schuenemeyer has operated the Let it Grow Cafe for 14 years. He says last week saw a complete drop-off of tourists. And this week, almost nothing. “It definitely affects us,” he says.

Ignacio Martinez, general manager of the Best Western Turquoise Inn on Main Street, says the shutdown has also had a major impact there. “We’ve had two tours cancelled,” he says, estimating the cancellations will cost the motel $7,000. “It’s 40 percent to 50 percent off from last year. We laid-off two people yesterday. We’ll probably be cutting off three more.”

Neighboring business are not doing much better, says Martinez. “I go to City Market almost daily and I’ve talked to them and they say the same thing –  they are not seeing any traffic like they did a year ago.”

One location in downtown Cortez that is seeing an increase is the Colorado Welcome Center. “It’s been crazy; visitation is up,” Tiffany Alexander, manager of the center, says. “I would estimate at least double.” Alexander says the increase is due to tourists seeking an alternative to Mesa Verde. Many people are traveling from national park to national park, but with the parks closed, many pull into the Welcome Center on their way out of the area. “We have a list of things to try to keep them in the area because, unfortunately, once they leave here they are lost to us,” she says.

Alexander’s list has more than 40 tourist sites in Cortez, Dolores, Mancos and Durango, as well as attractions in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico – all within a half day’s drive. She fears the flood of visitors to the Welcome Center may soon dry up as pre-shutdown vacationers return home and potential new vacationers just stay home. “Some are already on the road, they couldn’t cancel their plans, and they’re already going,” she says. “But it’s going to dry up – I’m afraid it will.”

Meanwhile, furloughed rangers and other Park Service personnel are on staycation – staying close to home in case the gridlock in Washington breaks. Some, like archeologist Kay Barnett, want to work but are forced to sit on their hands and wait. “Most of us could be doing something right now, at least in our division. We could still be working in sites. We could still be doing documentation. There are a lot of us that could be doing stuff right now. Yet, we’re told we can’t even go to our office.” 

For park ranger Tim Stubbs, of Mancos, the timing of the shutdown and the promise of retroactive pay worked out perfectly. “I just bought a house and three days later, I was furloughed from my job, so I’m basically getting paid to stay home and work on my new house. So that part’s great, but as a taxpayer, I’m a little outraged that, you know, if we’re going to pay unemployed federal workers why not just re-open the parks and services and allow people to go back to work?”

He also laments the fact that now is prime viewing season in the park. “I’ve been working there a decade, it’s a beautiful time of year and it’s a damn shame that nobody gets to go up and see it.”

Linda Martin spent nearly four decades with the National Park Service – 36 years at Mesa Verde as a supervisory park ranger before retiring two years ago. She saw three government shutdowns in her time and is not happy with the current situation. “Here we are, the No. 1 country in the world, and we shut down the government. How does that come across to anybody that we deal with, with any other country in the world? For the foreign visitors this may be their only chance to see Mesa Verde, their only chance to go to the Grand Canyon, to go to Yosemite,” she says. “I’d be bent out of shape if I were in this country and all of a sudden they shut something down out of stupidity.”

Martin is not one to suffer a fool or a foolish government. “It doesn’t mater whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat; the fact is it’s the ends of the spectrum that are causing the problem. At some point, they’ve got to learn to compromise. These are big boys; they’ve got to learn to play the game.”

Ranger David Franks worked at Mesa Verde for 13 years and he agrees with Martin, but has a slightly different perspective. “The politicians have put up this wall between people but we’re really not that different. I think that’s the problem – it’s a big one. It’s an ‘us against them’ attitude. The truth is, we’re all very much the same.  It’s too bad we can’t resolve this in – and I know this sounds cliché – in a loving and peaceful way.”