At the retreat this year, we learned about the things that fall under the commonwealth of our community. Things such as wildlife, stores, school sports, and tourist attractions. The most striking example I saw, that I didn’t even know about, was tourism. For example, near La Junta is the Picketwire Canyon area, where people come from all over the world to see the dinosaur tracks. Another place people come to see is Bent’s Fort, a recreation of the fort on the Santa Fe trail. The original fort was actually burned to the ground, unfortunately. Another asset that we have is the place I work. The Lighthouse book store. It is the only brick and mortar Christian bookstore for hundreds of miles in many directions. Some customers come from New Mexico, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Utah. We also have quite a few indigenous species of flora and fauna, such as field mice, aspen trees, barrel cacti, and black capped chickadees. There are also lots of attractive, well maintained walking, biking, and horse trails scattered across the landscape. It really is a beautiful place.
