Colorado Central Articles From — September 1998

Column by Hal Walter

Wildlife – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazin

THE BIG SNAKE coiled and commenced to shake its tail when I was still about 10 yards away. It had apparently been sunning in the barrow ditch. When I approached on my morning jog, it did what all good rattlesnakes do, and warned me of its presence.

I made sure of where my dog was, then slowly walked up and looked at the buzzworm, coiled and menacing, its body as thick as my wrist, its head up and alert. These serpents aren’t supposed to be here at nearly 9,000 feet. But they are. I’ve seen horned toads around here too. Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0966384202[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Local History – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

From Trappers to Tourists – Frémont County 1830-1950
by Rosemae Wells Campbell
Originally published in 1972
Third printing in 1998
by the Frémont-Custer Historical Society
ISBN 0-9663842-0-2 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0870814699[/amazon-product]Review by Ken Wright

Outdoors – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

River Odyssey: A Story of the Colorado Plateau
by Gerald N. Callahan
Published in 1998 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 0-87081-469-9 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0965532208[/amazon-product]Review by Martha Quillen

Mountain Life – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

High Altitude Ranch Life
by Phoebe Cranor
A Low Altitude Transplant With a Music Degree
published in 1996 by Davidson Publishing
ISBN 0-9655322-0-8 Read the rest of this article

Essay by Martha Quillen

Modern Life – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

HERE’S a multiple choice question for September: How does the old song go?

“School days, school days, …” a) I’d rather be a fool days. b) I’d much rather play pool days. c) Take a gun and duel days. d) None of the above.

You’re right, it’s “d.” The real song goes “Dear old Golden Rule days.” Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Beef – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

AFTER LOOKING HARD at the fence and wondering how fast I could get over it, I hesitantly followed Ron Jones into his corral several miles west of Salida.

The critters — a bull, along with cows and their calves, a couple dozen all told — appeared rather placid, ignoring us as they concentrated on swishing their tails and shaking their heads to discourage the flies on this summer morning. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Livestock – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

IF YOU EAT BEEF and you’re concerned about your health, then residual antibiotics and growth hormones should be the least of your worries.

Instead, you should purchase your beef from a properly inspected facility or from a store that gets all its meat from one. And once you’re home, you should focus on refrigeration, sanitary habits, and proper cooking, because that’s where the biggest dangers to your health can creep in. Read the rest of this article

Article by Steve Voynick

Livestock – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE COLEMAN RANCH in Saguache is one of the West’s most-visited working cattle ranches. Regular guests include newspaper and magazine writers, television crews, supermarket meat buyers, and executives from across the U.S. and Japan, along with range management experts, proponents of natural foods, and environmentalists. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Clay Warren

August 99 edition – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Finally, a reason to go on-line

Editors:

Man! Ah never thought I’d see such a good use for the Internet, and to think ah missed out on this’n cause ah’m not on line. Here was another o’ them opportunities far me to be the voice o’ reason, the man in the middle, etc., etc., and ah got to read ’bout hit after the fact. Ah mean Steve and Jim both got good valid points, and hit seems to me that they’re talking all round the same subject in his own way. Hit wudn’t so much a debate, as hit wuz a contradiction in terms. Ah mean that stuff thet all of us consider to be productive, is just dirt that would be referred to as the Great American Desert in Yankee circles. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Jeanne Englert

History – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

America’s oldest homes are not in Pennsylvania

Editors:

In reading Ed Quillen’s excellent essay, “George Washington Never Slept Here” in the August edition of Colorado Central, I was surprised at his oversight in omitting daughter Columbine’s experience at Salida High School. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Jim Ludwig

History – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine -

Revisionist History? What about `Movie History’?

Ed:

Thank you! For publishing my thoughts, for your comments about them, and the extra copies.

There is some food for thought in Ray James. If we could impress on kids how easy it is to slip into a life-ruining habit by being independent, greedy, and anti-authority, and the consequences of such an attitude, maybe more of them would move on to adulthood without unbearable baggage. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Roger Williams

August 98 Edition – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Fences trap many critters, including humans

Editors:

The August edition inspired lots of comments. I’m glad the Royal Gorge line will be running; will check out their web page, if the state hasn’t washed away yet (dire warnings on NOAA Weather Radio about the North Fork of the South Platte River, just now). I was amused those paw prints led to, or near, a skunk. Read the rest of this article

Letter by Jeff Stern

Summitville – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Galactic kills Alamosa fish, not old mines at Summitville

Dear Ed and Martha:

One of the casualties of the Summitville Mine disaster — in addition to dead fish, and the accumulation of heavy metals in soils and crops irrigated from the Alamosa River — appears to have been perspective.

Some folks, particularly boosters of the hardrock mining industry, it seems, have downplayed the impact of the gold mining operation that was abandoned by Galactic Resources of Canada in 1992. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Local Artist – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Some things can’t be repressed — like talent.

Sandi Patterson took a 35-year hiatus from art to raise a family in Brighton. Then she and her husband, Cart, retired to Crestone.

“Coming down here and the whole change of lifestyle is so peaceful,” she says. “I didn’t do any artwork for 35 years, but I picked it up again down here.” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Don Olsen

Law – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Last spring I bought a pair of Nikes down at the mall, thinking they would be my summer work shoes.

But in about two weeks, the Nikes fell apart, literally, right before my eyes. I vowed never to buy such rotten shoes again, and found a pair of canvas sneakers in a catalog that were advertised to last much longer than other shoes because they were made with hemp. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local Publications – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

May the G Force be with You

Among the more unusual local publications we’ve encountered is G Force: A Newsletter for True Believers, also billed as the “official publication of The Holy Order of Qapla.”

To our modest surprise, it originates from red-meat Gunnison, rather than enlightened Crestone.

It’s for fans of television and movie science fiction, like Star-Trek and Babylon 5, and the self-professed cult members use it to swap videos and the like — although there’s one ad for a tile shop that offers “the best craftsmanship this side of Z’Ha’Dum.” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Pack-Burro Racing – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Pack-burro racing celebrated its 50th year this summer, and Colorado Central columnist Hal Walter, along with his burro Spike, won two major events: the Fairplay World Championship on July 26 and the Leadville International on Aug. 9.

Barb Dolan of Buena Vista won the women’s events in Fairplay and Leadville, and beat all contenders of any genders in Buena Vista on Aug. 2. This would give her the female triple crown, except that she didn’t run with the same burro in all the races. The association is trying to figure out how this fits into its rules and by-laws. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

History – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

The historic Leadville Mining District may be a cleaner place, thanks to all the millions of dollars of work the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has done in recent years, but it’s also an endangered one.

Colorado Preservation, Inc., which bills itself as “a statewide organization dedicated to promoting and advancing historic preservation in the State of Colorado,” just issued the “Colorado’s Most Endangered Places List,” selected from nominations submitted from citizens throughout the state. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Does our Transportation Department need lessons in geography? Or just arithmetic?

Interstate 70 is “a high-mountain road that crosses the Continental Divide twice,” according to Guillermo Vidal, executive director of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

This description appeared in the July 26 edition of The Denver Post, and we’re still looking for the second crossing. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Quail Mountain Ski Resort – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

The official Colorado state motto is Nil Sine Numine (Nothing Without Providence), but we might change it to “The State of Eternal Life” — no proposal ever really dies here. They may lie dormant for a few years, but they always seem to spring back to life.

Such is the case with the Quail Mountain Ski Area, proposed on the south side of Twin Lakes by Dennis O’Neill of Leadville. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Media – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Buena Vista: The New Aspen?

“Salida isn’t totally undiscovered,” according to the September edition of Men’s Journal, although it “feels like a frontier” in comparison to its “tourist-trap neighbors such as Buena Vista and Aspen” which are “attracting all the attention.”

That’s the first time we’ve seen Buena Vista and Aspen lumped together in any category, but the rest of the short piece seems reasonably accurate, with Salida’s “attitude” defined as “neo-hippie meets adrenaline junkie.” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local History – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Christening of Cotopaxi

The question of how our Cotopaxi got christened may have been answered in 1950, in a master’s thesis presented to the history department of the University of Colorado by Flora Jane Satt, who then lived in Highland Park, Michigan.

A copy of her thesis, The Cotopaxi Colony, arrived from Randy Brady of Cañon City, a former president of the Frémont-Custer Historical Society.

Most of Satt’s work details the failed agricultural experiment there (of which we hope to publish more one of these days, perhaps in an account of “Great Scams of Central Colorado”). But she does have this about the naming. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Swine Questions

Residents of Costilla County are raising questions about a hog farm proposed by Bowman Farms. Members of SANGRE (Sustainable and Nurturing Growth through Responsible Economics) are asking the county commission to take six to 12 months to devise a master plan for the county’s economic development. Issues such as employment of locals, pollution and taxes are under discussion. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Media – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Another magazine for the geographically challenged

Newsweek devoted the cover and several pages of its July 27 edition to the worldwide spread of American tourism and the difficulty in finding a place that doesn’t yet boast a Hard Rock Café.

But the feature did mention seven places that weren’t all that crowded or connected, among them the Nada Monastery near Crestone where “there isn’t a ski lift for a hundred miles, and the nearest espresso is 50 miles off.” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Real Estate – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

Historic Chaffee trophy home can be yours for only $4 million

If you’ve got about $4 million to spend on a house, you can own a piece of Chaffee history, although it’s in Westchester County, New York, rather than Chaffee County, Colorado.

The July 23 edition of the Wall Street Journal reported that an 11-acre estate in North Salem, New York, with a 13,000-square-foot mansion, was for sale for $3,850,000. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ron Baird

Growth – September 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine

I KNOW IT SOUNDS LIKE A BAD DREAM or even the plot to a third-rate science fiction movie. But a couple of months ago, I “awoke” to find myself a stranger in my own town — Boulder, Colo. — a place I’ve lived near and worked in for 20 years.

I had just quit a reporting job I held for 10 years, a job in which I wrote about the foibles, peccadilloes, felonies and misdemeanors, scams, triumphs and trends of the populace. Read the rest of this article