Colorado Central Articles From — June 2004

Column by Hal Walter

Birth – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

BEFORE WE GET STARTED, it must be noted that there is someone watching over my shoulder as I write here in my sunny new office. His editorial comments are fairly numerous and somewhat loud, but at this point are about as intelligible as some publishers for whom I’ve worked. His name is Harrison Jake Walter. As of this writing, he is nearly three weeks old. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Robert Lawson

Hal Walter – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I enjoy reading the magazine, specifically any articles relating to Colorado history, railroads, mining, and ranching. Also of particular interest to me are Hal Walter’s contributions. You see, my parents built (or had built) the place he owns east of Westcliffe, so I can literally picture his descriptions of the local surroundings. My brother and I have good memories of countless hours exploring that area. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Doug Brady

Weather – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ed,

Since I know you worry about the cultural status of Central Colorado in general, and Chaffee County in particular, below is a copy of the so-called statewide forecast from the National Weather Service in Denver, available at http://cyclone.natnet.du.edu/cofcst.txt. The words “Chaffee,” “Salida,” “Buena Vista,” and even “Granite” (I thought they might not have been updated on the peregrinations of the county seat) are missing. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Dick Bulinski

Soap – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Regarding “Soap to Savor” in the May edition:

What a refreshing little story of a person who knows what she wants to do, is persistent, and isn’t ashamed of admitting early mistakes — until she finally gets it right.

There is one typo. Saponification was missing an i. I never was a chemist, but I know the word from who knows where. Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0967060435[/amazon-product]Review by Martha Quillen

Local History – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Chaffee County – The First 125 Years
by Kay Marnon Danielson
published by GARNA, 2004
ISBN: 0-9670604-3-5 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]1883726891[/amazon-product]Review by Allen Best

Fire – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Living with Wildfires: Prevention, Preparation, and Recovery
by Janet C. Arrowood
Published in 2003
by Bradford Publishing Co., Denver
ISBN 1-883726-89-1 Read the rest of this article

[amazon-product]0786238038[/amazon-product]Review by Martha Quillen

Tabor Saga – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Matchless
by Jane Candia Coleman
published in 2003 by Five Star in conjunction with Golden West Literary Agency
ISBN 0-7862-3803-8 Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

According to the state Division of Wildlife, it is illegal in Colorado to possess most species of native wildlife. It is also … unlawful for any person to release or possess for release any species of wildlife (native or non-native) except as allowed by specific regulations. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

The iridescent, jewel-toned hummingbird is North America’s smallest bird; many species are less than four inches in length. But size, as Napoleon might have pointed out, isn’t everything.

Despite their diminutive stature, hummers — particularly the males — are extremely pugnacious creatures who seem to expend more time and energy defending their feeders than they actually do feeding. You don’t even have to watch hummers to know when a territorial battle is raging. Just listen for the chattering chase notes emitted to drive away intruders. Read the rest of this article

Article by Lynda La Rocca

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

MY HUSBAND STEVE AND I were in the supermarket produce section when we noticed two teenage boys staring at a hummingbird flitting frantically around the ceiling light fixtures. As we watched, the bird fluttered to the greeting-card aisle and flattened itself, wings outspread, against a bright pink “birthday cards” placard. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Western Life – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

A State of the Rockies Report Card?

We aren’t talking about the baseball team here; we’re talking about the Rocky Mountains — all the way out to the edge of California. The report card is a county-by-county annual report on key regional challenges, including demographic growth and decay, natural resource extraction, tourism and recreation, cultural resources, environmental conditions, and a host of other indicators that define the Rocky Mountain region. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Theater – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine -

CREEDE REPERTORY THEATRE opens its 2004 season on June 4 with a blast of laughter, by presenting The Foreigner, by Larry Shue, author of The Nerd, and winner of two Obies and an Outer Critics Circle Award.

In The Foreigner, an Englishman arrives at a fishing lodge in the South, where the locals talk to him as if he can’t understand English. The visitor plays along by inventing his own language. David McClendon of the Denver Center Theater Company will direct. Read the rest of this article

Article by Brad Goettemoeller

Recreation – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

WHITEWATER FESTIVALS have always been a celebration of the river — and of those who run the river.

But in recent years the festivals have become more popular and higher profile, and thus they deliver a larger economic impact. As a result, festival organizers have had to become more knowledgeable about industry trends. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

Politics – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

ONE OF THESE DAYS, I’ll figure out which America I live in.

For most of my life, I thought that this issue had been settled in the spring of 1865, when various Confederate generals surrendered and urged their soldiers to go home and live as law-abiding citizens of the United States. Read the rest of this article

Cartoon by Jack Chivvis

Modern Life – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Computers – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Most complaints against Microsoft — at least those that end up in court — allege that the software giant impedes competition by including features “for free” that other companies had been selling. Thus Netscape sued over Micro soft’s Internet Explorer web brow ser, and in Europe, the Real Player folks brought similar action over the Microsoft Media Player. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Ken Jessen

Rural Politics – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

IN APRIL, small towns throughout Colorado elected new mayors. Despite the popular image of small towns as harmonious places, these positions can come with some controversy.

For instance, some years back former stripper Koleen Kae Brooks was elected to the office of Georgetown mayor. According to the Rocky Mountain News, she was accused of flashing her ample breasts in a Georgetown bar. She then allegedly staged an assault on herself and was subsequently charged with filing a false police report. Ousted by a recall election, she temporarily hosted a show on KBPI. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Betsy Marston

Western Oddities – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

CALIFORNIA

If Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way, gas-powered cars will be terminated in 10-15 years. The media-savvy governor recently drove a hydrogen-powered Toyota to a press conference in Davis, where he championed hydrogen as a replacement for gasoline, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Schwarzenegger, who has played an unstoppable robot from the future, predicted the building of as many as 200 hydrogen-fueling stations — costing a half-million dollars each — along California freeways. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Climate – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

As Mark Twain didn’t say, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” (Although this is often attributed to Twain, it actually came from Charles Dudley Warner, his collaborator on The Gilded Age.) Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Colorado Central – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ray Schoch, a subscriber and contributor in Loveland (along the Front Range about 50 miles north of Denver), sent us a promotional flier for a “Colorado Central” commemorative rifle, connected to Loveland and the Colorado Central Railroad.

There are some connections to Colorado Central Magazine, although they’re more philosophic than geographic or historic. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Recreation – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

ASPEN — The International Mountain Bicycling Associates has released a study that claims that mountain bikes don’t cause any more damage to trails than other uses, including hikers.

Claims that mountain bike wheels cause more damage to trails are “unsubstantiated,” according to IMBA’s Gary Sprung, a Crested Butte resident who conducted the study. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Pets – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Occasionally, there is good news amid the bad. The bad news occurred April 9 when a 25-year-old man from India, Jigmet Dawa, died in an avalanche in the Sawatch Range southwest of Leadville. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Colorado Central – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

With this edition, we must bid farewell to a long-time feature, at least in its present form: the On Mountain Time cartoon by Clint Driscoll. He and his wife, Lin, are moving from Buena Vista to Grand Junction, and Clint told us he didn’t think he’d be able to maintain its Continental Divide relevance from the far Western Slope. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Pack-Burro Racing – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

This year’s pack-burro racing season will start June 26 with an amateur race at Cripple Creek, followed on June 27 with the 12-mile pro race from Victor to Cripple Creek.

There won’t be a Golden race this year, but the three Triple Crown races remain: Fairplay on July 25 (Burro Days), Leadville on Aug. 8 (Boom Days), and Buena Vista (Gold Rush Days) on Aug. 15. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Population – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Generally, we find the World Almanac a reliable reference source. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Land Use – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Billionaire media mogul Ted Turner faces a dilemma that many of us might enjoy: picking among money-making ventures.

Among Turner’s holdings are some large ranches in the West; his largest is the 588,000-acre Vermejo Park Ranch. It spreads west from Raton, N.M., and part of it extends north into Colorado on the east side of the San Luis Valley. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Although the rainbow trout is often identified with the Rocky Mountains, it’s actually an import from California. The brown trout, another favorite, comes from Germany. The only trout native to our mountains is the cut-throat, which gets its name from a red streak under its mouth. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

A group of researchers, most of them with Canadian affiliations, have concluded that it does — and the result is to produce animals less desirable to hunters.

They studied the Colorado state animal, the Bighorn Sheep, in the Alberta province of Canada, and examined data going back to 1971.

It turned out that bighorn males are getting smaller — they weigh less, and their horns don’t grow as large as formerly. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Drought Battle

Farmers in the Monte Vista area are forming a water conservation subdistrict. The participants will budget water use, and plan for the future. If all growers in the designated area agree, the subdistrict will comprise over 7,000 acres of land. The plan must be approved by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Glen Canyon Dam and its associated reservoir (a/k/a Lake Powell) are a hard day’s drive from Central Colorado, but water levels there could have a major effect on life hereabouts. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written and drawn by Clint Driscoll

Mountain Life – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Essay by Tim Westby

Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE FIRST TIME I stood on the shores of Great Salt Lake, I spotted something pink in the midst of what seemed like a bazillion different species of bobbing waterfowl.

“Are there supposed to be pink flamingos in Utah?” I asked my biologist wife while looking through a pair of binoculars.

“It’s plastic,” she said, handing the binoculars back to me. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Last year, three streams that start in Central Colorado made it to the list of America’s 10 Most Endangered Rivers. This year, it was nary a one. But some of our rivers, such as the Gunnison, are tributary to the Colorado, which made the top of the 2004 list.

The list is issued annually by American Rivers, a conservation organization founded in 1973, and it is “not a list of the nation’s ‘worst’ or most polluted rivers.” It lists those facing “acute threats rather than chronic conditions.” Read the rest of this article

WATERSHED SEMINARS

The National Water Health Project has announced free training sessions for watershed groups: 6/11, Developing a Major Donor Program will be at the County Commons Bldg in Frisco; 6/29, Getting Your Community Involved and Utilizing Your Volunteers will be at the Aspinall/Wilson Center on the Western State College campus in Gunnison; 7/14 is a repeat of the Major Donor Program at WSC; 8/12, Advanced Technical Training at WSC; and 9/9, “What would it look like if??” A look at the possible future role and functions of watershed groups will be in Glenwood Springs. <http://www.coloradowater.org/NWHP.htm> Read the rest of this article