Colorado Central Articles From — June 1998

Column by Hal Walter

Military overflights – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

I COULD HEAR THEM COMING before I could see them. The drone of low-flying cargo planes distracted me from my work. I turned to my big office window and watched as the olive-drab behemoths came into view, buzzing single-file like giant bumblebees at eye-level just above the canyon two miles to the east. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

Politics – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE OLD SAYING is that “You can’t fight City Hall,” but I’ve been doing it anyway, with a lawsuit filed on April 28 against the City of Salida.

It was never my life’s ambition to take our mayor and city council — some of them friends — to court. But as I learned, that’s the only way to enforce the Colorado Open Meetings Law, also known as the Sunshine Law. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Paul Larmer

Residency – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

“I’m a third-generation Coloradan,” the man tells me, leaning in close across the kitchen table inside his trailer home. “My people settled country down in southern Colorado.”

I read between the lines: “I belong here. Do you?” Read the rest of this article

Essay by Allen Best

Residency – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

by Allen Best

A few years ago I was out on a backcountry ski trip with a guy from Englewood, a computer programmer who works for what we used to call a military-industrial contractor. He began railing about the migration o Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]1559635452[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Community – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities
by Jim Howe, Ed McMahon, and Luther Propst
published in 1997 by Island Press
ISBN 1-55963-545-2 Read the rest of this article

Review by Ed Quillen

Forestry – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Decline of the Aspen
Special Report on the Health of National Forests in Colorado
by the Club 20 Research Foundation
Published in 1998 by Club 20
P.O. Box 550
Grand Junction CO 81502 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0966233107[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Livestock – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Riding the Higher Range – The Story of Colorado’s Coleman Ranch and Coleman Natural Beef
by Stephen M. Voynick
Published in 1998 by Glenn Melvin Coleman
Distributed by Big Horn Booksellers, Fort Collins
ISBN 0-9662331-0-7 Read the rest of this article

Article by Lynda La Rocca

Local Artists – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR POTTER AND LINGUIST Lucia Hand, the visual arts and the art of communication go, well, hand in hand.

“They’re all about the same process of learning and testing and having the courage to try new and different ways of expressing yourself,” Hand says.

Hand’s life mirrors her philosophy. For 15 years, she has successfully combined these seemingly disparate disciplines as smoothly as she shapes mounds of wet clay on the potter’s wheel in her Leadville home studio. Read the rest of this article

Letter by P. Geoffrey Feiss

Residency – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

No carpetbagger; indeed, he was conceived at Climax

Dear Mr. Quillen:

One of my oldest friends, Doug Brady, who now lives high on a terrace above Buena Vista on the flanks of Mt. Princeton, sent me a copy of your grand article on the naming of Mt. William and Mary from the May edition of Colorado Central. Your favorable spin on this effort by my faculty member, Ken Kambis, is most appreciated. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Bob Engel

Planning – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Portland really isn’t planning to become Los Angeles

Dear Editor:

In the article titled “Portland Plans to Becomes Los Angeles?” (Colorado Central, January 1998), the author, Randal O’Toole, manipulates the data to support his jaundiced view of Oregon’s approach to planning.

His article contained enough obvious twisting to prompt further research. I also telephoned Mr. O’Toole for his comments. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Slim Wolfe

Boundaries – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Somehow, you can find gates just about anywhere you look

Colorado Central:

So you’ve got a bug up your butt about gated communities, as well you should. First time I sighted the San Luis Valley I knew I’d found the best gates around, chains of fourteeners. It took a few years before I got my piece of that. We’re like-minded, we like elbow room and vistas. Human-made gates here seem trivial. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Marcia Darnell

Accessibility – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Only human-made structures need be accessible to all

Martha & Ed:

I enjoyed Paul Larmer’s “Wilderness is No Handicap” in your May issue.

Although I don’t ski, my prosthetic leg and I have hiked on Mosca Pass, passed through the natural arch of La Ventana and even traversed part of the Continental Divide Trail. I, too, enjoy the wilderness I’m able to sample, especially when I reflect on the many able-bodied people I know who won’t so much as walk around the block. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Clay Warren

May 1998 edition – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Bear spray under your pillow

Editors:

Mah Goodness!!! Get a few days of Spring-like weather and all sorts o’crazy ideas related to food come to the surface. Sort of like the dog stuff under the ice on the north side o’ the cabin. Anybody with a lick o’ common sense would know that in addition to being a potent mineral supplement, Stringtown eggs, effen they wuz really produced in Lake County, would also carry the prospect of a gold nugget in the occasio Read the rest of this article

Letter by Charles Bevier

Politics – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Wringing it from local politics

Dear Mr. Quillen:

Ask anybody, I rarely fawn over fellow writers, reporters and journalists.

Perhaps it’s because, as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson once observed, old whores don’t do much giggling. I once labored for a series of unremarkable rural weeklies. So I’m constantly amazed at the depth of meaning, clarity and humor that you’re able to wring from the local political landscape. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Wendy Rector Herrin

South Park TV – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

South Park Disclaimer

All characters and events in this show (even those based on real people) are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated… poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content, should not be viewed by anyone.

South Park Theme Song Lyrics Read the rest of this article

Article by Wendy Rector Herrin

Media – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

STRANGE THINGS are happening in a small mountain town of Colorado, and the national media are starting to swarm. Local residents are being interviewed, students are being questioned about the death of a young child, rural high school students are becoming celebrities, and the Central Colorado town of Fairplay and its citizenry are losing all credibility. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

RUMORS HAVE BEEN floating around that the Union Pacific Railroad might resume service over Tennessee Pass this summer, perhaps to alleviate the congestion that has plagued the system since last fall, when Tennessee Pass was taken out of service.

Another variant has it that BNSF is interested in using Tennessee Pass. Burlington Northern Santa Fé has trackage rights on the Moffat Tunnel Line, but it, too, has been congested of late. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

RECENTLY WE SAW an ad in a local publication for a house with a “zero-scaped” yard.

We doubt they meant that the yard had absolutely no landscaping, or that it was decorated extensively and exclusively with “0″ ornaments.

We suspect they actually meant xeriscaped, which means the yard has plants which don’t consume much water. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local History – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Along the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City abides the settlement of Cotopaxi, which inspired a recent call inquiring if we knew how it came by its unusual name.

“How Cotopaxi got its name is unknown,” according to historian Virginia McConnell Simmons in The Upper Arkansas Valley, but we can start speculating in Ecuador, home of the above Cotopaxi. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Cyber-hood Booting Up

Milt Trosper, the Valley’s answer to Bill Gates, is planning to build a wired community on the west side of Monte Vista. The development will include a business plaza and at least 100 “smart” homes, for starters. Further plans include a computer training center, corporate headquarters, restaurants and, naturally, a golf course. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Geography – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Has Chaffee County joined Club 20? Or merged with Gunnison County?

Look closely at the above logo for Club 20, which has outlines of member counties. Working down on the right, there’s Jackson County, then Grand, Summit, and Lake.

Below Lake, where Chaffee normally abides, there’s an expanded Gunnison County, and no Chaffee at all. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Mark Matthews

Outdoors – June 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

I used to haunt the backcountry other people avoided. Places like the Grand Gulch in Utah’s canyonlands and the Charles Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana’s Missouri River Breaks. I sought these lonely spaces, not because I was anti-social, but because I was poor. Read the rest of this article