Just north of the New Mexico border and nestled in the middle of not much sits tiny Antonito, a former sheep-herding town of about 750 people that straddles a section of U.S. 285.
Mostly a pass-through place, its biggest tourist attraction had been Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the state’s oldest church and congregation. Then there’s the castle made of beer cans.
Like many towns its size, the idea of legalized marijuana sales was both appealing and appalling, with visions of overflowing town coffers intermixed with nightmares of overflowing streets.
“We are so isolated, such a small community, that some take exception to the number of strangers we see now,” said Mayor Aaron Abeyta, the seventh of nine generations of his family to call this southern piece of the San Luis Valley home.
Before marijuana came along, Antonito — “ant-NEE-doe” to some and “ahn-toe-NEE-toe” to others — had its fair share of infrastructure problems that were difficult to afford.
The town in 2009 successfully sued the U.S. Department of Energy over trucked nuclear waste from Los Alamos that stopped in town long enough to be transferred on rail cars — right next to the town’s main water source.
Then marijuana legalization came to Colorado, and the town quickly voted to approve local shops — by a margin of five votes.
Suddenly, Antonito was on the map and its diminutive downtown — with a single four-way stoplight and a pig named Fred that roams freely — was bustling.
Today the town sports three retail marijuana outlets and three cultivation facilities. Other businesses too.
It coincided nicely with an improvement to U.S. 285 that beautified once-choppy roads. There is now a library, a tire repair shop and a new medical clinic, along with a Family Dollar store.
The town’s $295,000 annual take from marijuana sales taxes has made a large dent in a number of critical areas, including paying for a new police cruiser to replace the one totaled at the stoplight during a chase.
It also helped the town leverage matching funds for a major water project, a difficult prospect on an annual budget of just $2.1 million.
“This has been smart,” Abeyta said.
The town was also able to purchase the 106-year-old Warshauer Mansion, once owned by a sheepherder whose fortunes nose dived after his suicide. Once a convent, the building will become Antonito’s new Town Hall and include a cultural museum, a business incubator and the police station.
