Colorado Central Articles From — February 2007

Column by Hal Walter

Mountain Life – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

RECENTLY WHILE READING the book Blood and Thunder, a chronicle of Kit Carson’s role in settling the West, I was struck by the tenacity of the early settlers, not to mention Native Americans, in dealing with the elements, particularly winter weather. Read the rest of this article

Article by Allen Best

Wildlife – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

TWICE IN HIS 42 YEARS Brad Phelps has seen the strange sight of crickets above timberline, hundreds of thousands of them, so thick that several were squashed with every step. The first time he observed this spectacle was in the 1980s when he was archery hunting in the La Garita Wilderness Area between Saguache and Creede. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Local Artist – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

FARMWORKERS ARE GENERALLY hidden from the American consciousness. Those who labor to provide our food are invisible, except when held up as objects of pity. Artist Annette Troncoso sees them differently. Her paintings honor the farmworkers, imbuing them with pride and dignity. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Environment – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

ALONG WITH PROBABLY a lot of the conscientious readership of Colorado Central, I’ve seen “the Al Gore Movie,” An Inconvenient Truth — although it’s been so culturally “mediated” that I didn’t really need to actually see it to know what it’s about and get the message. Gore’s Inconvenient Truth is that we humans are putting humongous quantities of heat-trapping gases into the planet’s atmosphere that are changing the global climate in unpredictable, often violent, and potentially catastrophic ways, and we only have about a decade left to get really serious about mitigating this situation. Read the rest of this article

Column by John Mattingly

Outdoors – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Close Encounters With Other Species

DURING THE LATE SUMMER of 1973 — the year the Endangered Species Act (ESA) passed and became a contentious topic in our local coffee shop — a prolonged rainy spell shut down haying operations in our area long enough for me to read Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda. The book was a gift from a neighbor, a dairyman named Ross whose son had given it to him, claiming (hoping) it would “blow his mind.” Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

Tourism – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE ‘60S ARE REMEMBERED in the U.S. as a time of turbulence, of war and protest, of free love and hippies. When people think of the ’60s they recall love beads and incense, the Beatles and tie-dye, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Read the rest of this article

Historical Novel – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Vote
by Sybil Downing
Published in 2006 by University of New Mexico Press
ISBN-10: 0-8263-3857-7 Read the rest of this article

Transportation – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

The White Cascade – The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America’s Deadliest Avalanche
by Gary Krist
Published in 2007 by Henry Holt & Co.
ISBN 0-8050-7705-7 Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

History – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR MUCH OF THE PAST YEAR, I have followed Zebulon Montgomery Pike across the Great Plains and around Colorado — reading his journal, writing a monthly summary for this magazine, attending a few bicentennial events. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

Transportation – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Does the addition of a new tourist railroad in our area take business away from the other lines? Read the rest of this article

Article by Virginia McConnell Simmons

Transportation – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

AMID ENTHUSIASTIC PUBLICITY from railroad operators, chambers of commerce in Alamosa and La Veta, tourism promoters, and fans, the new Rio Grande Scenic Railroad excursion train hummed across the Sangre de Cristo Range on May 27, 2006, to open its first regular season. And it rolled to a smooth stop on October 15. Read the rest of this article

Sidebar by Ed Quillen

History – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Pike Bicentennial celebration is winding down in Colorado, and we haven’t found anything scheduled for later this year in New Mexico, where history goes so far back that a mere bicentennial apparently doesn’t attract much attention. Read the rest of this article

Article by Ed Quillen

History – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

AT THE END OF January, 1807, Capt. Zebulon M. Pike’s small party was spread out for a hundred miles in the dead of winter. Private Patrick Smith and Baronet Vasquez, the interpreter, had been left on Jan. 14 with the horses and some of the gear at the site of present-day Cañon City. The plan was for the others to press southwest and find a route to the Red River, then return for the men, horses, and gear, and follow that route. Read the rest of this article

Letter from John T. Sturtz

Colorado Central – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Regarding Martha Quillen’s “Letter from the Editors” in the January edition:

You mentioned wars you opposed: Viet Nam, Iraq, Gulf War I, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and your ambivalence about Somalia and possible intervention in Darfur and Rwanda. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Modern Life – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I imagine most readers would subscribe to your suggestion to shop locally; we only wish local merchants would give us more encouragement. A drive to Cañon City can save the consumer 30% on a certain jar of Colorado salsa and more than 50% on a pressure-tank for one’s home water system, compared to Salida retail stores. Who among us would not spend two hours behind the wheel to save more than $130? Read the rest of this article

Letter from Dave Clark

Wildlife – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed and Martha,

We just want to tell you how much we enjoy Colorado Central.

It was interesting to read in Hal Walter’s recent article on cutting a Christmas tree about the deer eating all the needles off of the tree he left outside overnight. Apparently pine needles are like candy to deer. We had a couple of ponderosas come down after a heavy wet snow a few years ago. We were amazed that for the next two days our local deer herd stood around the trees happily munching away at the needles until the trees were bare skeletons. The interesting thing is that we never see them eating needles from live trees. We wondered if anyone knew what this was all about.

Happy New Year,

Dave Clark and Linda Rosen

Shawnee, Colo.

Letter from Kathy Mccoy

Colorado Central – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Cactus Jack,

Your January cartoon in Colorado Central is really disappointing, with its apparent reference to the Ward Churchill disaster at University of Colorado. Every profession has an occasional opportunistic impostor, and it’s a cheap shot to accuse the university c Read the rest of this article

Letter from Marty Mitchell

Saguache – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Just read “A Cautionary Tale,” by Marcia Darnell, about the travails of businesses in Saguache in the January edition . Thank you for remembering Saguache is here, but why the heavy focus on the downside of things, without some balancing emphasis on those businesses that are here, and have been here for quite a while? Read the rest of this article

Cactus Jack’s View

Cartoon by Jack Chivvis

Modern Life – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Brief by Martha Quillen

Regional News – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Online Schools Not in Line?

On December 12, a front-page Denver Post article reported that a state audit had found Colorado’s online schools wanting. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Climate – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Last month we passed on the predictions of climate scientists, who said this would be an El Niño year. From December into February, the Pacific Northwest would get hammered, and we would be dry. Our snow would come in March and April. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Modern Life – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

A former Wetmore family was featured in the Dec. 31, 2006, edition of the New York Times, although their old hometown was vaguely described as “a small town in Colorado,” and the mother, Debbie Schwarz, was identified only by her stage name of De’Bella. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Sports – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong had been announced as a competitor at next summer’s Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. That was before the winner of this past year’s Tour de France, Floyd Landis, announced that he, too, would race at Leadville. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

City Hunt

The deer in Alamosa are becoming numerous and fearless, and the city is preparing for war. A controlled hunt is proposed for the Alamosa Ranch and the wilderness area known as Cattails Golf Course. City Manager Nathan Cherpeski said the safety of homeowners in those areas is the top concern, so potential hunters will be screened, skill-tested, and limited in number. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck

Mountain Life – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Politics – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Doug Lamborn, a Republican who now represents Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, won’t be in a position to exercise much influence in an important sector of his district’s economy.

The Fifth is dominated by Colorado Springs and El Paso County, where there are five major military installations, among them Fort Carson and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Modern Times – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Christmas always draws the celebrities to Aspen, and with the celebrities come the photo-snapping paparazzi. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Gail Binkly

Environment – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

I’LL ALWAYS REMEMBER the evening a candidate for local political office, an environmentally minded and intelligent citizen whom I liked and admired, passed me on the highway between Cortez and Mancos. I was traveling somewhere between 60 and 65 mph, my usual cruising speed. He blew by me — passing over a double yellow line — as if I were a slug crawling along the asphalt. Read the rest of this article

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DECIDES NOT TO APPEAL COLORADO WATER RULING

The Interior Department’s decision not to appeal a federal court ruling that overturned a 2003 deal that governed the amount of water flowing through Black Canyon National Park means work can now begin on finding how much water the river needs through the canyon to sustain wildlife and other uses. Denver Rocky Mountain News (AP); Jan. 4 article Read the rest of this article