A Little "Ditty" We Kept Passing as We Drove Between Cortez, CO & Durango, CO...

   Abandoned
Sinclair Station

37001 U.S. 160          Mancos, Colorado 81328

You can't miss this huge "toxic site" on the drive along Highway 160 in between Mesa Verde and Mancos/Durango.
The signs warning about toxic contamination and blaming the state of Colorado for a massive fuel spill are pretty jarring.



Located on Highway 160 in between Mesa Verde National Park and the town of Mancos, CO is a former Sinclair gas station and "Wild Wild Rest" general store. All that remains, however, is a shell of the station and store and a contaminated plot of land after residual fuels flowed from gasoline storage tanks into the ground during a tank removal process in 2006. 
Frustrated by the perceived inaction of both the gas station's operator and the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety, land owner Ray McCarty placed signs--bracketed by skull-and-cross bone flags and graphics--declaring the area a "Massive Petroleum Spill, Toxic Site," a "State-Chemical Landfill," and warning "Benzene, Cancer Hazard" in 2013.