Editor’s note: The mayor was among the speakers at the June 7 grand reopening of the Manitou Springs Heritage Center.
Today, we are reflecting on our yesterdays to see how they fit into our tomorrows. What is the value of the past in pointing to the future? How does a renewed and revitalized Heritage Center serve the community?
Manitou Springs is the place we call home, the place where we feel safe, comfortable and familiar.
What we call home has personality. It is unique, it has its special flavors. It has majestic landscapes, intriguing architecture with distinguished rooflines and grand trees, and such a variety of humanity.
Our communal spirit has been seasoned by celebrations and tragedies of every stripe. It has seen life in all of its seasons.
That has taken time to evolve. It is a long story.
History is the story of people. It is the drama of everyday folks, facing life’s challenges and sharing life’s ups and downs. It is sometimes tragic, sometimes funny and frequently curious.
The Heritage Center houses our collective story, of those who lived before us. It is home to the early chapters in our chronicle. We are writing the current chapter and then we will pass it on to future generations.
Now spread this across decades, many decades, and you have begun to tell the story of Manitou, now you are getting down to the business of the Heritage Center.
Start with the Native Americans, who held this valley to be sacred, a place of peace and healing. Add the lives of those we call the settlers. Many were dreamers, some were schemers. Builders of railroads, roadways, hotels, practitioners of medicine, bottlers of water. Everyday folks. People with tuberculosis who came to die, recovered, lived a full life and died anyway. Some who came with no plan at all.
Today, we celebrate that great, long story whose fabric is woven by so many lives, so many residents, across the years. Let us be proud that we are unique and that our human story is interesting, colorful and checkered. And that it has caretakers.
The Manitou Springs Heritage Center, now fortified and renewed, is ready to continue telling the stories that bring us back to ourselves.
We celebrate that great, long story. – John Graham
On behalf of the people of Manitou Springs, we extend a great thank you to the many individuals responsible for this rebirth. You are telling us the things that are threads in the great, continuing story of Manitou.
Each of us is a part of that fabric. Let us enjoy it.
