Mapping Memories: Conference Mural Artist is Capturing Regional Agricultural Heritage at the 2026 Apple(less) Days Festival

Activation instructions by the conference mural artist.

The memories, places, and stories that connect us. We have 5 key themes for the history, legacy, and future of apples in the 4 Corners.

1. Small apples, big recognition

Southwest Colorado’s apples once earned national recognition for their quality. In 1904, fruit from the Gold Medal Orchard in McElmo Canyon won a gold medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair. This history speaks to the pride, skill, and care of local growers—and how fruit grown in a small corner of Colorado could make an impression on the wider world.

2. From Orchard to Mountain Town: Apples Connecting Communities

Apples helped connect the region’s agricultural valleys with towns, transportation networks, and markets farther away. The railway nicknamed the Red Apple Flyer linked Farmington and Durango beginning in 1905, carrying fruit from San Juan County, New Mexico, through Durango toward broader markets. Agriculture also supported mountain mining communities: one local orchard supplied a cider-vinegar plant that served Silverton’s mines, according to Fenceline’s cofounder. Together, these stories show how growers, workers, and communities depended on one another.

3. A Whole Region of Apples

Our region’s apple heritage is wonderfully diverse: different colors, shapes, sizes, flavors, harvest seasons, and uses. Names such as Thunderbolt, Winter Banana, and Colorado Orange hint at the personalities and stories these apples carry. Some heritage varieties survive in old orchards and overlooked trees; others are being identified, grafted, and replanted through the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project. This theme celebrates abundance, curiosity, and the importance of keeping many kinds of apples—and the knowledge surrounding them—alive.

4. Community Apple Harvest and Apple Days

Each fall, neighbors share their backyard fruit, and Good Food Collective brings volunteers together to harvest it. Apples are donated to food pantries and gathered for a community pressing celebration. Now in its 18th year, Apple Days gives people a chance to use old wooden presses, drink fresh juice, and enjoy the harvest together. At its heart, this is a story about generosity: turning fruit that might otherwise go unpicked into nourishment, shared work, laughter, and connection.

5. Mountain Sun and the Continuing Cider Story

Mountain Sun Juice in Dolores turned the region’s orchard harvests into a nationally distributed organic juice business, described in local reporting as once the largest organic juice factory in the United States. It provided jobs and an important market for local growers before closing in 2002. Today, cideries such as EsoTerra and Fenceline continue connecting heritage apples with local livelihoods and distinctive drinks. This theme explores how an old agricultural tradition can take new forms while keeping its connection to the fruit and people of this place.

How do you celebrate local harvest traditions when a late spring frost leaves the orchards bare? You shift the focus from the physical fruit to the roots of the community itself.

Tomorrow, Saturday, October 10th, Codesigned Collaborative is partnering with The Good Food Collective in Durango, Colorado, for a live, interactive community graphic recording activation: the "Story Core" Apple Mural.

While the historic orchards of Southwest Colorado might be quiet this season, our collective memory is vibrant—and we want to use live visual storytelling to preserve it.

Spotlighting The Good Food Collective: Cultivating Food Equity in Southwest Colorado

The Good Food Collective is doing some of the most critical regional food security and agricultural preservation work in Mountain West communities. Far beyond putting together local festivals, this incredible organization spearheads regional food equity, manages community harvest initiatives to prevent waste, builds regional food system plans, and fosters robust networks for local agricultural producers.

Through programs like their Community Harvest Program, they bridge the gap between overlooked local resources and neighbors experiencing food insecurity. They prove that a resilient food system is built on mutual support, shared resources, and deep local relationships.

Tomorrow’s Interactive Activation: The "Story Core" Apple Mural

At Codesigned Collaborative, we believe that live graphic recording is more than just capturing corporate keynotes—it is an executive offsite tool and a public engagement medium that can turn community feedback into a collaborative work of art.

Tomorrow at the Apple(less) Days Festival, we are launching a live graphic facilitation project called the "Story Core" Apple Mural.

We want to hear directly from you. We are inviting everyone in the Durango and surrounding Southwest Colorado community to stop by our station and share your fondest memories involving apples:

• The People: A grandparent who baked a legendary heritage pie, a local orchardist who taught you about grafting, or a neighbor who let you glean their trees.

• The Places: A hidden, historic mining-era orchard along Hermosa Creek, a backyard tree you climbed as a kid, or a favorite local farmstand.

• The Traditions: Pressing fresh cider on crisp autumn mornings, swapping recipes, or volunteering to harvest fruit for neighbors in need.

As you share your stories, I will be synthesizing those memories live on a massive physical canvas, drawing your personal history into a permanent visual archive for posterity.

Why Visual Facilitation Belongs in Community Heritage Projects

When organizations or municipalities need to gather stakeholder insights or preserve community history, standard surveys often miss the heart of the narrative. Interactive graphic recording bridges that gap. By translating spoken personal history into immediate visual metaphors, we create a "social magnet" that invites connection, honors diverse voices, and helps cross-generational stories click into place.

Come out to support The Good Food Collective, grab some local cider, watch the apple-less pie-eating competition, and add your piece to the visual map of our region's heritage.

Event Details:

• What: The Apple(less) Days Festival 2026 & Live "Story Core" Mural

• When: Tomorrow, Saturday, October 10th, starting at 9:00 AM

• Where: Durango, Colorado (Check full details at Good Food Collective Events)