Cortez

The Cortez Public Library’s July programs include summer reading, dinosaur activities, a Tyrannosaur display, story time, teen events and a puzzle race.

Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez has been honored nationally, even as it faces financial struggles that are being shared by many hospitals across the state and nation.

Twenty-five years after the murder of Fred Martinez Jr. in Cortez, former Cortez Journal managing editor Gail Binkly reflects on the local reporting that followed and how language around Two Spirit and LGBTQ identity has changed.

The principal of Montezuma-Cortez High School, Dr. Jennifer Boniface, has been named the 2026 Colorado Secondary School Principal Rookie of the Year.

The Cortez Public Library is preparing for a busy June, with a summer reading kickoff party, children’s programs, movie screenings, adult activities and special events tied to this year’s “Unearth Your Story” theme.

The Cortez City Council on Tuesday adopted a proclamation declaring June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month despite one council member’s ten-minute-long speech against the measure. Also on Tuesday, Cortez city manager Drew Sanders told the council about an award the city recently received from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada.

Hundreds of Montezuma County residents took advantage of the county’s free clean-up days at the landfill Friday and Saturday, dropping off old appliances, furniture, electronics, and tires without paying a fee.

A Cortez man accused of brutally beating three men in Veterans Park in 2025, killing one of them, entered a not-guilty plea in District Court on Wednesday. In other news, a man who was struck by a plane and killed after he trespassed onto a runway at Denver International Airport on Friday reportedly had lived in Montezuma County.

The Mesa Verde Writers Conference will take place in September this year after organizers cited summer crowds and heat in southwest Colorado.

Montezuma County is moving ahead with efforts to clean up the county through clean-up days and a possible ordinance about trash.