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I grew up always with a fascination of the West and it took two trips and almost thirty years to finally get here. Since 1974 I have lived in the Four Corners region but it wasn't until 1975 that my now former wife and I were able to finally settle down in a home. We were able to find a place in Southwestern Colorado, about 35 miles southeast of Durango, Colorado. We had upon coming west, given up the fast city life of rural Cleveland, Ohio, and had no idea where we were going. We ended up in Durango, by a twist of fate. We had been trying to figure on how to earn a living while traveling around the west and by another twist we got interested in Southwestern style jewelry and that brought us to Durango, Colorado. In the year that followed we had started to produce some jewelry of our own mainly because I wanted to do something different and also because it seemed a way of staying out the mainstream of having a job!! Upon our arrival we opened a small trading post north of Durango, at a place called Purgatory, a ski area. One Winter was all it took to decide that winter in Colorado was tough. We ended up the following year on a ranch closer to Durango, where we met a lady whose name was Sally Carleno. She offered us a chance to trade her for 80 acre ranch and a small town in Colorado called Tiffany and she wanted us to make jewelry to trade her for this little place. Think about that. It was a great opportunity and we jumped on the deal, and that was in 1976. Much has taken place since then and now twenty 27 years later I am still producing jewelry and so does my former wife. We have two great kids, both born in Colorado, one in college to become a horse Vet, and the other a builder in Arizona. Kenny Bracken |