TERRITORIES

E4: Below The Surface: The History Beneath Navajo Lake

Adam Burke — Sun, 10 May 2026 05:46:36 +0000

In the late 1950s, residents living along the Piedra and San Juan Rivers learned that their communities would be condemned and indundated by reservoir water. By the early 1960s, a federal water reclamation project known as Navajo Dam started flooding these river valleys in in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.

This episode tells the story of what happened to Raymond Gallegos' family when they were forced to relocate, and the lives they left behind.

Reporting, production, musical scoring, hosted by Adam Burke.

Image, courtesy of Raymond Gallegos: Gallegos siblings Lydia, Alfonso, Raymond, and Robert at the family homestead in 1955.

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Music:

Western Guard Towers, Daniel Diaz

We Crossed Paths, Ben McElroy

The Shadow Collector, Night Drift

Take Time, Danijel Zambo

Sun In The Heart, Danijel Zambo

Blossom, Danijel Zambo

An Empty Bus, Justin Marshall Elias

Chapters

(00:00:06) - The story of a Navajo family's home
(00:02:35) - Untold Story of the Land They Cried on
(00:10:25) - The Stories of Communities Displaced by Navajo Reservoir
(00:16:01) - The Landscape: Colorado's 150th Anniversary Podcast

E3: One Woman's History in Hardrock Mining

Adam Burke — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 21:47:25 +0000

In Colorado's history of hardrock mining, there are almost no women who worked underground. But in the 1970s and 1980s, legal action and new labor laws pushed mining companies to begin hiring a few women.

Janice Sanders was one of them. She worked as a geologist at the Sunnyside Mine, near Silverton, Colorado.

Sanders loved geology, she loved working underground, but the sexism and discrimination she faced made her feel like an outsider.

This is the story of one woman's experience working underground, in the sunset years of hardrock mining in Colorado.

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Reporting, production, hosting and orginal musical score by Adam Burke

Additional music:

Open Minds, John Glössner

Against The Red Sky, Walt Adams

Boss Walk, Soul City

Between Dust And Dirt, Brendan Burns

Bongo's Bowl, Llamo

Chapters

(00:00:00) - Janice Sanders on the Battle
(00:03:51) - Tracts: Silverton Mining Heritage Museum
(00:08:09) - Janice Sanders at the Silverton Mine Museum
(00:14:15) - The Harassment of Mine Workers
(00:19:45) - Married Mine Workers Talk About Sexual Harassment
(00:26:35) - Janice Sanders on Working in a Mine
(00:31:36) - Janice Sanders on Sexual Harassment at the Sunnyside
(00:36:45) - Janice Sanders on Working in the Mining Industry
(00:40:53) - The Landscape: Colorado's 150th Anniversary

E2: SHORTS: In Search of the Thunderbolt

Adam Burke — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:07:48 +0000

This is the story of how a couple from Cortez, Colorado became apple detectives 20 years ago. Jude and Addie Schuenemeyer were running a nursery selling plants and trees, when they found out about an apple variety that had all but vanished: the Thunderbolt.

It was a trail of breadcrumbs that led them into a nearly lost world of orchards in the arid hills and sandstone canyons of southwest Colorado.

Hosting, reporting, production and musical scoring by Adam Burke.

Support from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, and Southwest Colorado's 250-150 Local Organizing Committee.

Chapters

(00:00:00) - The search for a rare apple in Colorado

E1: The Fruit Wizard of Montezuma County

Adam Burke — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 16:56:52 +0000

In the early 1900s, a man from eastern Tennessee built an apple economy in Montezuma County. Jasper Hall was known as the Fruit Wizard of Montezuma County, and for decades it seemed he had succeeded.

These days, there are only remnant orchards in southwest Colorado, and the heritage apple trees planted at the end of the 19th century are dying off. Was Jasper Hall's life an historic footnote? Or was he a visionary ahead of his time?

This is the story about one man's quest to turn southwest Colorado into an apple Mecca, and the orchard economy blueprint he left behind. We also hear from apple detectives in Colorado and across the US who are working to save heritage varieties before they're lost forever.

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Hosting, reporting, production and musical scoring by Adam Burke.

Support from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, and Southwest Colorado's 250-150 Local Organizing Committee.

Chapters

(00:00:05) - The story of Colorado's crab apples
(00:02:31) - The History of Montezuma County Apple Orchards
(00:13:30) - A taste of Colorado's rare apples
(00:21:25) - The Landscape: Colorado's 150th Anniversary Podcast