Colorado Central Articles From — June 2000

Column by Hal Walter

Equines – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

WHEN I WAS ABOUT 6, during one of my family’s cross-country migrations, my great-uncle Glenn, who plowed untold acres of northern Missouri with horses and mules, put me on the back of a Shetland pony. My parents and other family members watched in horror as the pony bolted. He bucked and galloped across the grassy farmland, finally jerking to a stop just short of a fence. Somehow I managed to stay on, but I believe the experience scarred me for life. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Jeanne Englert

Politics – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Ed, I agree with most of your opinions, but beg to differ with you about Pat Schroeder. Certainly she had a national feminist constituency, but the main reason she got re-elected and re-elected, etc., was because she was constituent-oriented. You had a problem with Social Security? Veterans benefits? She got her staff right on it. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Agitation – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Martha:

Okay, so my story about poor typing skills was a bit of a lame excuse. After a couple of turkeys retrieved from the Saguache dump, the Alamosa Dumpster Goddess came forward with a ’71 Smith Corona which isn’t too quirky and only draws one amp. Take that, you modem-heads. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Steve Hannon

Forest Service Fees – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Editors,

About the latest expansion of fees to use our public lands, it only seems fair that those who use something should pay for it.

What about livestock? Public-lands ranchers pay approximately $1.50 per “animal unit month” — a cow and calf for one month. That’s 1,000 pounds on eight feet that stomp all over the land, but mainly wetlands, at a fee of 5¢ per day. Each human fee-payer averages 150 pounds on two feet, at $10 per day. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Andy Burns

Colorado Central May edition – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Martha,

About your “Cures…” article in #75. I used to watch an excellent Spanish lesson in the middle of the night on my 3-inch T.V. I only got one channel. I even donated some $ to PBS. The very night after I mailed my check it went off the air, along with a very interesting class on tort law. After several weeks it came back on again, but during the hiatus I discovered that I’d donated to the Denver PBS. I don’t know why they were soliciting in Salida, since we got our PBS out of Pueblo then. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

Outdoor Recreation – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

IT IS NOT FASHIONABLE to express sympathy for government employees, especially those of the federal government, but I always feel sorry for forest rangers.

Why? In high school, many of us took those personality-profile tests that were supposed to match your characteristics with a career. If you were a self-starter who also scored very low in the “social interests” section — that is, you didn’t much like being around people or working with others — then the guidance counselor invariably suggested that you should become a forest ranger. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Bob Berwyn

Forest Service Fees – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

When and if the recreation fee program is made permanent, the greatest impact will likely be felt on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service, simply because the agency is by far the largest federal provider of outdoor recreation. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Bob Berwyn

Forest Service Fees – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

As Congress prepares to consider making the recreation fee program permanent, Forest Service recreation managers are putting together a wish list by identifying sites that could benefit from the cash infusion that fees can bring.

On the Pike-San Isabel National Forest, the emphasis seems to be on a series of historic buildings that the agency would like to open up to the public. Currently, there is very little funding available to preserve valuable historic resources. Read the rest of this article

Article by Bob Berwyn

Forest Service Fees – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

IT’S THE BEST TIME of the year at Cataract Lake. The fields are full of sassy wildflowers, each flaunting a brighter color than the next. The lake, cradled in its setting of glacially polished granite, glistens like an alpine jewel, reflecting the toothy crags of the Gore Range. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Local arts – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS isn’t old for a redwood, a building, or a human being, but for a small theater in a tiny town, it’s ancient.

“So few arts organizations are this old,” says Richard Baxter, artistic director of the Creede Repertory Theatre. “Considering the location — Creede has only 500 year-round residents — it shouldn’t exist.” Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0967941903[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Mining history – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Climax Mine – An Old Man Remembers the Way It Was
by Jim Ludwig
Published in 2000 by Pleasant Avenue Nursery
ISBN 0-9679419-0-3 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0967182905[/amazon-product]Review by Hal Walter

Sangre de Cristo Range – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado Sangre de Christo Trail Guide
Third Edition
by Michael O’Hanlon
Published in 1999 by Hungry Gulch Press
ISBN: 0-9671829-0-5 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]1555914357[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Colorado – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado’s Best – The Essential Guide to Favorite Places
by Bruce Caughey and Doug Whitehead
Published in 2000 by Fulcrum
ISBN 1-55591-435-7 Read the rest of this article

Article by Steve Voynick

Local Artists – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

FORTY-SIX YEARS AGO, Leadville’s Ted Mullings began his art career literally at rock bottom — a thousand feet underground on the Phillipson Level of the Climax Mine. Despite that inauspicious beginning, Mullings has earned a reputation as one of the region’s best-known artists. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Corrections – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

It might appear that way in Park County, where Civigenics, a private jail operator, said it wasn’t getting enough state prisoners to turn a profit and so it was pulling out of Park County.

The county built the jail a few years ago, and contracted with Civigenics to operate it. A few cells are reserved for county prisoners, while Civigenics planned to make most of its money by housing overflow prisoners for the state Department of Corrections. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local history – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

One of Colorado’s oldest working ranches, the Salt Works Ranch near Antero Junction, will be featured in a History Channel documentary scheduled to be broadcast on June 3.

The production, called “The Vanishing Cowboy,” examines the myths and reality of cowboys in the conquest of the West and in the minds of Americans. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Salida economy – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Salida is a city of contradictions, according to the people who put together the city’s proposed new comprehensive plan.

The average Salida resident is, to put it politely, “economically challenged.” Median household income in Salida in 1990 was $17,482, lower than Buena Vista’s $20,462 and the county’s $21,174. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Media – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

The century-long newspaper war between the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News came to an end on May 11, with the Rocky throwing in the towel and asking for a “Joint Operating Agreement.”

The JOA means the papers can combine production and marketing functions, while maintaining separate news and editorial operations. Under the plan, both would continue to publish on weekday mornings, while there would be a Saturday Rocky and a Sunday Post. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Tourism – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Many mountain towns would be eager to get another 400 visitors a day, but Creede isn’t one of them.

The visitors would arrive by rail on the 21-mile line from South Fork to Creede, which the Durango-based Denver & Rio Grande Historical Foundation plans to purchase from the Union Pacific this summer. Freight service ended in 1985 when the last of Creede’s mines closed. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

www.Philanthropy

The Sanford sports teams have new uniforms, thanks to the World Wide Web. Area resident Bill Werner donated the proceeds from an eBay auction to the K-12 school to buy the new threads. Werner’s property, three small parcels near Alamosa, brought in $6,000 for the cause. Rah, rah! Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Mining – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Five years ago, molybdenum prices were so high that the Climax Mine above Leadville re-opened after a 10-year shutdown. It stayed in production for only a couple of months; by the time the mine was running again, the price of moly had begun to fall. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Crime – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

How safe is your town from crime?

CAP Index, a company in Pennsylvania, uses census demographic data to generate a statistical likelihood for crime, rather than following the traditional reliance on police reports.

The company has a theory that the amount of “socia Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip by Clint Driscoll and Laura Ravenwood

Mountain Life – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Essay by Allen Best

Outdoor recreation – June 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

FIRST CAME the backcountry ski huts. I loved them, but they took “back” from the backcountry. Summer brought different toys, similar dynamics. Gleaming four-wheel beasts of burden were just the start. New toys, the all-terrain vehicles and mountain bikes, broke down distances and, by extension, forests. Read the rest of this article

SNOWPACK

Early snowmelt ended up being absorbed into the ground with most of the snowpack left in May being lost to sublimation.

(Sublimation is the process where snow evaporates before it melts) At the beginning of June, snowpack was only about 14% of average. Stream and river flows are expected to be substantially diminished this summer where they are not augmented by releases from reservoirs.

Reservoir storage remains at or above average Read the rest of this article