Garfield County News | 1955-02-24 | Page 82 | San Juan Bean Industry Originated by Sam James

MAIN STREET, Cortez. Colo., looking west. In the heart of the richest agricultural and cattle-raising district in the state of Colorado, Cortez has enjoyed a normal but rapid growth in the past several years. The thriving community does have a housing problem,, but current building plans are designed to meet this condition. The population now is a little less than 3,000. San Juan Bean Industry Originated By Sam James In about 1923 Sam James harvested more than a hundred acres of pinto beans that he had gnrwn on bis Montezuma county, Colo., farm and became the first bean grower to make any money from shipping beans from that district. Sam James and his family had come from Texas after having heard of the now-famous "rain-belt" in Montezuma county. Neighboring farmers in the southern Colorado district where he settled advised him throughout that first growing season that his plan was sheer folly. All Vho had previously grown beans for outside markets had lost money because of high shipping costs and local markets had been glutted with the unwanted pinto. But Sam James surprised everyone. When his harvest was completed, a buyer from an eastern market came to his farm, examined the harvested beans, and paid Sam James cash more cash than any other farmer had ever hoped to receive for his bean crops. Moreover, Sam didn't have to pay the shipping charges. From that day on, Montezuma county's pinto beans became a more and more important crop until today more than 85.000 acres in Dolores and Montezuma counties are devoted to growing them. The yield is high, too, averaging about four sacks per acre. Recent bean market quotations are $6.40 per cwt. for pintos. With a yield of about 140,000 cwt bag annually, simple arithmetic shows that pinto beans are now a major contributor to the economy ot tho district.