Old mining town turns to marijuana after prison, factory close

Trevor Hughes
635705742656485449-Potfarm
 
WALSENBURG, Colo. – A developer’s plan to build hundreds of cannabis greenhouses could make this tiny southern Colorado town one of the nation’s largest producers of legal marijuana.
The town sold 330 acres of municipal land for more than $1 million to create a campus for growing, processing and distribution, with the marijuana to be trucked 160 miles north to consumers in metro Denver. Walsenburg is a former coal mining town that never recovered when the mines closed by the 1960s, and its population has dropped to fewer than 3,000 residents. In Huerfano County, which is home to Walsenburg, 20% of the population lives below poverty level.
 
Full Article:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/22/colorado-walsenburg-marijuana-facility/29110033/