Colorado Central Articles From — July 2002

Column by Hal Walter

Livestock – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

If there’s anything I don’t like about my small-time dealings in the stock market — the livestock market — it’s dealing with hay.

The basics are bad enough. The stuff is heavy and getting it, especially a decent supply of it, to my place is problematic. I drive to where the hay is, and in my case the empty rig is always going downhill. When I get to wherever I’m buying the hay, I have to unstack it, then restack it in my truck or trailer. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Drama – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

After a year on the job as creative director of the Creede Repertory Theatre, Maurice LaMee is feeling confident.

“I’m starting to think I’m beginning to have an idea of what’s going on,” he says. “The learning curve was steep the first year.”

This year’s schedule is “really insane,” according to LaMee, comprised of 15 actors doing more performances this year than ever in CRT’s history. The season opened on June 6 with “The Philadelphia Story.” Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Politics – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

I’m sitting here tonight feeling guilty about missing a meeting, an educational forum with the “Pathfinder Group” that is working with the Forest Service to try to peacefully and sensibly resolve the problem of in-stream flows for waterways in the local National Forest. Read the rest of this article

Article by Allen Best

History – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

The wildfire history of a landscape is arcane knowledge. Various government agencies assiduously record people and their doings, and several state and federal agencies have tried to determine “what is natural” for wildlife.

But for fires, which we now understand balance our landscapes in critical ways, there is no clearinghouse of information, no well-defined timeline that helps us to define what is “natural” for a particular piece of geography. Read the rest of this article

Article by Mick Souder

Wildfires – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

By 10 a.m. yesterday morning, I heard two chain-saws doing whatever it is they do when the neighborhood is a ponderosa forest during a drought on the edge of the San Juan Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. By 10:05 I only heard one chain-saw: mine. I was creating a brushless space around the log house we live in. I imagine that’s what the neighbors I couldn’t see (nor hear at that point) were doing as well. Read the rest of this article

Article by Patricia Nelson Limerick

Wildfires – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

from the Wirth Forum, Feb. 16-17, 2001, Center of the American West

For the West, the Summer of 2000 added up to a prolonged reminder of the untamed power of fire. Money, public attention, and firefighters were directed to a number of serious and severe fires in the region. With the archaeological sites at Mesa Verde and the nuclear labs at Los Alamos at risk, fires at “celebrity places” focused public concern on the accumulated fuel load of forests in which fire suppression has been the reigning policy for decades. Nearly everyone recognized that recent history has left the West with a very big fire problem, but not everyone agrees on the proper response to this dilemma. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Wildlife – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Even though marmots are relatively common in our mountains, they don’t appear much in our history or lore.

There’s a tale I read somewhere once upon a time, and it goes like this: Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Allen Best

Wildlife – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Take one marmot, skin, gut and cut meat into pieces. Read the rest of this article

Article by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

What animal sleeps more than half the year, emits unusual noises, gobbles cookies by the bagful, and is often referred to as a “pig”?

If you’re thinking the answer is the family dog, think again. These are all characteristics of Marmota flaviventris, the yellow-bellied marmot. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Martha Quillen

War – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

In February, I wrote that we needed to figure out how to talk about America’s war in Afghanistan. That letter got a lot of responses, some favorable — and some vociferously angry. Then, for months after encouraging everyone else to talk about the war, I avoided it assiduously. The war is still a touchy subject, rife with emotions, and I figured I’d said enough already. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Dave Delling

Mining – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed:

I enjoyed your May issue very much but especially the two articles on the proposed mica mine on Poncha Pass. Your article presented a realistic and balanced appraisal of what might be expected if this early stage exploration project ever developed into anything. That’s unlikely since most mineral exploration projects never get beyond that stage based on technical issues alone. You put it all in perspective. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Roger A.C. Wiliams

Colorado Central – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editor:

That Tonto Mine in Poncha Pass (p. 46, May edition) would draw 109.57 million gallons of water over 25 years @500 gal/min., not 15.6 M, my hp-28C tells me. BTW I can’t read the fine print in the “Public Notice” sign on that gate in the picture. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Modern life – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors,

It was great to read the June entry of Tony Malmberg. I’ve lived 22 of my 55 years in ranch country but haven’t often got inside the mind of a cattleman, and Malmberg is articulate and insightful. I envy anyone born to property like that. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Paul Snyder

Conservation easements – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ed:

I think you just sold a lot of subscriptions to Colorado Central here in Custer County. As I pass around copies of the June issue (illegally violating copyright laws, no doubt), I do make sure to mention that those not reading Colorado Central on a regular basis are denying themselves one of life’s minor pleasures. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Kenneth Jessen

Local history – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine -

Editor:

Dick Dixon is an extraordinary Colorado historian. Read the rest of this article

Review by Allen Best

Skiing – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Spirit of Snow

A Film by Dave O’Leske

I never put on skis until I had twice voted in presidential elections, but I had voted yet a third time before I learned how to turn those skis. That was seminal. Now, 20 years deeper yet into life, I’ve turned skis often and count those days as being among life’s richest. Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0300091222[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Wilderness – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Wilderness and the American Mind
by Roderick Frazier Nash
Fourth Edition
Published in 2001 by Yale University Press
ISBN 0-300-09122-2 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]1566080770[/amazon-product]Review by Lynda La Rocca

Fantasy Fiction – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Sweet Uncertainty
By Arthur Zapel
Published in 2001 by Meriwether Publishing Ltd.
ISBN 1-56608-077-0 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0870816551[/amazon-product]Review by Ed Quillen

Recreation – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Geezer’s Guide to Colorado Hikes
by Stuart A. Schneck and Ida I. Nakashima
Published in 2002 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 0-87081-655-1 Read the rest of this article

Poem by Don Richmond and Teri McCartney

Daily Life – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ordinary Things

© 1995 by Don Richmond and Teri McCartney

You wonder and you wander, you search for something fine

Just to come full circle, to what’s been there all the time

In the old wood by the doorway, seen in the setting sun,

a quiet conversation, when the day is done,

In the warm wind through the cottonwoods,

and the promise that it brings Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Local arts – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine -

When I arrived at Don Richmond’s studio in Alamosa for our interview, he was working on a computer, gazing intently at squiggles and symbols that looked like an alien language to a hack writer. He explained that he was burning a CD for a young musician, having used the computer as a recording device.

“None of the music was synthesized,” he emphasized, “it was just recorded on the computer. The advantages are instant access, and easier cutting, splicing and editing. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

The nominating board for the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District — one commissioner from each of its three counties — interviewed candidates for three director seats in May, and made recommendations to District Judge John Anderson in Cañon City, who made the appointments.

But one of Anderson’s appointments was not the person recommended by the three commissioners. They had proposed Pete LoPresti for a Custer County seat on the conservancy board, but Anderson appointed Bill Donley to another term. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Local History – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

The first person to write about Central Colorado — more specifically, the area of Saguache, Poncha Pass, and Poncha Springs — was Juan Bautista de Anza, the governor and military commander of the Spanish province of New Mexico.

In 1779, he led a military expedition north from Santa Fé, and his campaign journal became the first written account of this part of the world. On Aug. 27, 1779, he crossed Poncha Pass, and camped that night at the present site of the town of Poncha Springs. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Law enforcement – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

It’s usually considered a good thing if a convention comes to town for a few days and fills up entire motels in the process.

But it’s not exactly a welcome development in Gunnison this summer — the convention that will take up the entire 58-room Comfort Inn is the “USA Run,” a gathering of Hell’s Angels on their way from California to the big annual biker bash in Sturgis, S.D. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildfires – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Given the combustible nature of Colorado this spring, we’ve heard a lot about “Stage I” and “Stage II” fire restrictions, and we wondered whether there was a “Stage III.”

The Colorado Division of Fire Safety lists only I and II which can be put into effect by county commissioners. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

This is the centennial year for one of the biggest players in the Mountain West — the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. It was founded on June 17, 1902, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Newlands Act, named for Rep. Francis G. Newlands of Nevada.

It represented a federal attempt to succeed where private, local and state efforts had failed in making the desert bloom. Initially, reclamation dams were to be financed by public-land sales (the land would presumably increase in value if irrigation water were available), but then electricity sales became a driving force. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Recreation – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Lake County’s relatively new Mineral Belt Trail was named to the National Trails System on May 31 by Interior Secretary Gale Norton (for some reason identified as the U.S. Secretary of State in the Leadville Herald-Democrat).

The 12.2-mile trail opened two years ago. It winds through the historic mining district on the east side of Leadville. (Check our August, 2000, edition for more.) Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Colorado Central – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

The magazine may look a little different this month, since we finally got around to upgrading our page-layout software.

Most publications use Macintosh computers, but when we started in 1994, we used Ventura Publisher, since it ran on the DOS/Windows computers we had at hand. That was version 4.1. Ventura was acquired by Corel (which makes the CorelDraw software we use for graphics), and when Corel Ventura version 5.0 came out in 1995, we quickly upgraded. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

There’s an old joke that Colorado highways are either under construction or overcrowded. But U.S. 285 will be both this summer.

The crowds are the usual summer traffic, which seems to be holding up despite the economic slowdown, the 9-11 travel worries, and worries about drought and wildfire. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Bright Side

The drought plaguing the San Luis Valley has an up side: The Alamosa River — what there is of it, that is, is the cleanest it’s been since the Summitville spill. Lack of snowmelt at the Superfund site means lack of cyanide-laden runoff in the river. Officials say Terrace Reservoir has healthy fish in it, and insect life is reappearing, too. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildfires – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Two of the worst wildfires in Colorado’s history started on the eastern edge of Central Colorado.

As we went to press, the Hayman Fire had spread across 87,000 acres, making it the biggest fire in Colorado history (although, as Allen Best explains in an article on page 49, our pre-1960s fire history is rather sketchy).

It started with an illegal campfire on June 8 near Lake George in Park County, and strong winds were pushing it northeast toward metro Denver. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written by Clint Driscoll and illustrated by Judie Moorhead

Mountain Life – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Essay by Peter Letheby

Politics – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

When it comes to environmental, wildlife or habitat issues, it’s smart to be wary of names and titles. I was reminded of that recently when a group called the Nebraska Habitat Conservation Coalition gathered to consider strategies for halting habitat protection for wildlife along the Platte River. Read the rest of this article

Article by Richard Proboscis

Recreation – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Most rafting guides would hate to have a crew like this one. Six men who weighed over 250 pounds each and had never been rafting were slowly and gracelessly getting into an inflatable boat that sat on the dry river bank. One man laughed that he had not worn shorts in front of other men in over ten years. A dozen professional raft guides were watching to see which among them would be assigned the brutal job of guiding this heavy raft. Read the rest of this article

DENVER IMPOSES FIRST WATER RESTRICTIONS SINCE 1981

Denver water officials have enacted restrictions on water use, joining several other Front Range cities in attempts to cut demand during the worst drought ever recorded. Denver Post; June 26 <http://www.headwatersnews.org/stories/redirect.php?id=3084> Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Drought – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Even places that usually have plenty of water are hurting this year. One of them is Green Earth Farm near Saguache, where owner Tom McCracken said he’s already had to abandon his peas, oats, and barley.

When we talked to him on June 9, he said his ditch had been turned off for 10 days. He couldn’t remember his exact water priority date, “but it’s an old one,” and his is the seventh-oldest of the 130 on a ditch that gets its water from Saguache Creek. “The top six on the ditch are getting only 40% of their water.” Read the rest of this article