The Story Behind Shores of Pueblo
For 15 years I have walked the river in Pueblo and asked a simple question:
How did we get here?
Not just economically.
Not just politically.
But culturally. Spiritually. Collectively.
Pueblo is a place that carries memory in layers. The river valley holds stories that began long before state lines or rail lines. Steel mills reshaped the skyline. Floods reshaped the land. Immigration reshaped identity. Industry reshaped opportunity. And yet through every transformation, something essential endured.
That endurance is what this project is about.
Why Twelve Chapters
Time moves in cycles. Twelve months. Twelve seasons of reflection. Twelve opportunities to pause and listen.
Rather than publish a single book all at once, I chose to release Shores of Pueblo chapter by chapter over the course of a year. Each month, one story. Each story rooted in a different era. Each era told through a human voice standing inside its moment, not looking back with hindsight, but living forward with uncertainty.
The goal is not nostalgia.
The goal is preparation.
If we understand the people who stood at these shores before us — the First Peoples of the river valley, the early Spanish borderlands, railroad builders, steelworkers, farmers, labor organizers, immigrants, artists, civic leaders, and everyday neighbors — then we begin to see patterns. We begin to see resilience. We begin to see warning signs. We begin to see possibility.
The world always changes.
But the stories stay.
Why Launch Through the Pueblo Star Journal
I co-founded the Pueblo Star Journal in 2021 because I believe local storytelling is a public good.
Before these chapters live as a book, they live as journalism — accessible, shared, and rooted in community conversation. By publishing each chapter first in the PSJ, the stories remain what they were meant to be: communal.
They are not artifacts.
They are invitations.
An invitation to read.
An invitation to remember.
An invitation to ask better questions about where we are going.
The flyer for the 2026 series calls this “Walking the stories that made us” GH 2026 12 CHAPTER PUEBLO STORY…. That phrase matters to me. These are not abstract histories. They are footsteps. Decisions. Turning points.
And we are still walking.
The North Star
Every chapter carries the same thread:
When we listen and remember the stories, we will be prepared for whatever comes.
Preparation does not mean control. It means awareness. It means humility. It means understanding that borders are rarely lines — they are collisions of stories.
Pueblo has lived through borderlands, industry booms, economic collapse, natural disaster, civic reinvention, and cultural renaissance. We are still evolving.
This series is not about proving anything.
It is about listening long enough to recognize ourselves.
An Ongoing Conversation
Each chapter will be released monthly. Each one will stand on its own. Together, they form a year inside the soul of Pueblo.
If you choose to follow along, I invite you to do more than read.
Ask your elders what they remember.
Walk the river.
Stand in places where something once began.
Listen.
Because the world will continue to change.
But if we know the stories, we will know how to walk through whatever comes.
