Art and Ann Van Sant are avid horse people, so in the 1980s when their lame mare needed a place to hang out and graze, they brought her to Falcon, Colo. Art Van Sant looked around Falcon’s commercial area, which, at that time, was the complex that now houses Rock Island Restaurant, Falcon Chiropractic, the Prairie Jewelers and Dish Network, including the building where Rawhide Realty resides. He told his wife that he wanted to buy the complex.That was in 1984 when the Diamond Shamrock was a Kwik Way and the commercial complex consisted of a beauty shop, the Last Chance Bakery, a liquor store and S.S. Subs (which Van Sant owned and operated). Rawhide Realty was a farmhouse, and, behind the farmhouse was a post office.After he bought the commercial center, Van Sant befriended Hugh Bennett, one of Falcon’s ranching icons. Bennett’s ranch encompassed an area bordering Eastonville Road to the east, Meridian to the west, Murphy Road and McLaughlin Road. Bennett was also a close friend of the famed Will Rogers, another icon in Colorado Springs and an early supporter of Pro Rodeo. Van Sant said the Falcon Fire Protection District building used to be a marshalling yard in the old days, where they herded the cattle onto the trains. Van Sant said Bennett always rode in one of the cars to Kansas City to make sure his cattle were immediately taken off the train – he didn’t want to be charged for an extra day.Bennett died about 15 years ago, and his descendents sold all of his property. “Bennett wanted to preserve the land, and I have a feeling he is rolling in his grave right now,” Van Sant said.Van Sant is familiar with the history of the eastern plains, and he talked about Eastonville’s former affluent position. “Eastonville was the potato capital of this area, and, at that time, Eastonville was four times larger than Falcon,” Van Sant said. However, Mother Nature can take a city from glory to gloom in a heartbeat. In the 1920s, a mineral penetrated the soil and rotted the potatoes. “It was comparable to the potato famine in Ireland,” Van Sant said. Eastonville’s heyday was over.Falcon originally had its heyday in the railroad era. However, the area has always maintained an identity of its own, and, like Van Sant, Falcon residents have taken pride in that identity. Van Sant headed up Falcon’s 100th anniversary, which took place in 1988, and the celebration was nothing short of a small-town extravaganza. “Everyone wanted to be in the parade, and, before it even moved, the parade of participants stretched from Falcon Elementary to Highway 24,” Van Sant said. “We had fireworks and a guy doing stunts from a plane. People came out of the woodwork.”Van Sant was fondly referenced as the mayor of Falcon in times past; today some refer to him as the godfather of Falcon. Whatever his tag, he is one long-ago Chicago transplant who loves Colorado and has a desire to preserve as much of its natural beauty and open spaces as possible. “I am not anti-growth,” Van Sant said. “I am a developer.” But Van Sant considers the onset of rapid development in the area “bedlam.” Although he no longer resides in the area, as a landlord and the “Falcon godfather,” he takes pride in the community and its rich heritage.Van Sant said the bottom line regarding development is matching the resources to Falcon’s comprehensive plan. “We have to be adjunct to the will of the people, and the people out here are independent,” Van Sant said. He believes one reason the voters failed to pass last year’s school bond is that they were “sick of people dictating what they should or shouldn’t do.”Van Sant does not see a coordinated effort among developers and planners. Van Sant recommends incorporating to combat the chaos. “There are three reasons to incorporate,” Van Sant said. “The first is to avoid being incorporated as a part of Colorado Springs. Once the city extends their utilities, they will want their just do, which means more expenses. Second, Falcon has been a separate entity since its birth, and we need to maintain that. Third, we now have a sales tax base to support the services we need. How long can the county continue to provide services like police and road maintenance?”We need to control the density. In Douglas County, they accommodated thousands of homes and said we had plenty of water, and now they say there is only enough water in that county for 20 years. We need to have policies in place that address these issues.”Van Sant believes Americans are “bred on development.” He said, “We just can’t stay the way we are. Van Sant said Hugh Bennett would ask, “What are we doing to this gorgeous landscape?” Van Sant asks, “Why are we raping the land?”At the May meeting of the Falcon Professional Development League, Van Sant talked about General Grant’s assessment of Colorado’s eastern plains. Van Sant said Grant said the territory east of a mountain in Colorado – 150,000 square miles – was a desert, and its only value was for the construction of a canal that would run from the Missouri River to Colorado Springs; otherwise, Grant was recorded as saying, “It was a wasteland.”What would Grant say now? We won’t know that answer, but Van Sant is clear about his convictions: “We need people in positions to protect our resources.” Perhaps it is one reason Van Sant ran for City Council during the last elections. Whatever the opinions regarding development, it is nice to know that Falcon’s godfather presides over its history and open spaces with as much passion as he and Ann had for that lame mare that brought them to Falcon in the first place.
