Colorado Central Articles From — October 2007

Column by Hal Walter

Outdoors – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

IN THE YEARS B.C (before child) we always made a point of getting out for a pack trip with our burros at least once each summer. Usually we chose the cloudless days of late August or September to avoid the monsoon season and certain associated discomforts — like wet socks and lightning strikes. Read the rest of this article

Column by John Mattingly

Agriculture – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

About a year ago, a bovine-born strain of bacteria, E coli 0157, traced to bagged spinach proved the culprit that killed an 81-year-old woman and young child, caused the clearing of shelves nationwide of the bagged spinach, wholesale destruction of growing spinach fields, and media specials blaming the Food and Drug Administration for not doing its job, backed by tear-jerking testimonials from the spinach victims. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Colorado Central – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado Central:

Do Colorado Central’s paid writers think twice knowing that Slim is parked to the side and over the next little rise with his nonsense detector aimed at oncoming verbiage? Read the rest of this article

Letter from Gerald Hitt

History – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hello, you two:

This is about “Where was the Home on the Range?” in your September edition.

I have enclosed a copy of “The Western Home,” from 1871. The credit goes to a poem by a Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas. Your article did mention the same version in the Smith County Register in 1873, but since poems normally precede songs, I believe Mr. Higley’s poem predates all the other versions in your article. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Keith Baker

Transportation – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed & Martha,

I am happy to see someone else speculating about the possibilities our unused railroad offers the region (the thoughtful letter “Putting Tennessee Pass Back Into Service,” September Colorado Central). Read the rest of this article

Letter from Roger Fenton

Modern Life – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

The other day I set out on a simple task: Obtain a Colorado state fishing license. In my little town, the grocery store performs that public service. The clerk ran my driver’s license, first issued to me in 1960, through a machine, and I reached for my wallet to fork over $26. But then she turned to me and asked, “What’s your Social Security Number?” Being the nice guy that I am, plus the fact that in a small town we all know each other, I easily deflected my first impulse to reply “None of your damn business.” Instead, I suggested entering my driver’s license number in its place. I really did not think we needed to involve the Federal Government in my effort to hook a brookie. No good. No SSN, no license. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Doug Holdread

Pinon Canyon – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Editor:

There’s a range war raging in southeastern Colorado. It’s not between cowboys and sod busters. It’s a clash between a ranching culture that has worked the fragile short grass prairies for over a century, and a military culture that has a track record for turning large hunks of the earth into toxic wastelands; it’s between traditional agriculture and the military-industrial complex. Read the rest of this article

Essay by George Sibley

Society – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

READING ABOUT the presidential race that the Rover Boys managed to foist off on us a year early (to distract us from their still unfolding dismantling of the American economy and polity), I find myself once more thinking about the people who used to live across the runway here in Gunnison, on the slopes of “W” Mountain just south of town. Read the rest of this article

Americana – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hillside Letters A to Z – A Guide to Hometown Landmarks
by Evelyn Corning
Published in 2007 by Mountain Press
ISBN 0878425330 Read the rest of this article

Ludlow – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West
by Scott Martelle
Published in 2007 by Rutgers University Press
ISBN 978-0-8135-4062-7 Read the rest of this article

Pike – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

“To Spare No Pains” Zebulon Montgomery Pike and his 1806-07 Southwest Expedition
Edited by Tim Blevins, Matt Mayberry, Chris Nicholl, Calvin P. Otto, and Nancy Thaler
Published in 2007 by the Pikes Peak Library District with the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum
ISBN 1567352243 Read the rest of this article

Article by John Orr

Water – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

General Mining Law of 1872

Congress has it’s eyes on a revamp of the General Mining Law of 1872. One of the reasons is the cost of land under the act — $5 per acre with no royalties. Another is that it reduces backcountry access due to closures from mining firms worried about liability claims. The act gives federal officials little leeway to deny mining claims Read the rest of this article

Essay by Martha Quillen

Health Care – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, Colorado State Representative Tom Massey hosted a community meeting at the Salida Senior Citizens Center to get input on what local citizens want and need in a health care system. And to my surprise, it turned out that everybody attending was amenable to some sort of universal, comprehensive, government-run system that cuts out the big insurance companies. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Phil Doe

Water – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Old West Moves East

When I was a boy, my farm town used to put on a show called a greased-pig contest. A young pig would be greased up and set free in a watered down arena. To the delight of townspeople, the local kids would climb inside the arena and attempt to catch the pig, which they would soon learn was smarter, faster, and slicker than they’d ever expected. Read the rest of this article

Article by Jennifer Dempsey

Local Arts – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

AFTER THE PRODUCTION of their first show together as a company in January 2003, Greg West and Shelley Jacobs realized they shared more than a similar taste in theater.

“After producing [the play] Shadowbox, we discovered that we did, in fact, share a brain,” said Shelley, associate artistic director of Stage Left, the community theater company she and West founded in 2002. “Somehow with our different backgrounds we have the same frame of reference for what is quality theater and how to get there. My experience is way more from the community and educational institutions and Greg has worked professionally for 20 years and has that prism to look through — in fact, he was part of a Tony Award-winning crew.” Read the rest of this article

Cartoon by Jack Chivvis

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

Brief by Allen Best

Health – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Although adults typically get accustomed to the thinner air found at higher elevations, it’s sometimes a problem with babies Read the rest of this article

Brief by Ed Quillen

Climate – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Seen more sagebrush lately? Do the plants look bigger, too?

That might be a result of the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to a recent study conducted by Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Ed Quillen

Salida – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

While we have no idea just what it takes to be one of America’s “101 Best Outdoor Towns,” we won’t argue that Salida is a pretty good place to live if you like the outdoors, and can handle the mud, dust and dreariness of February, March and April. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Ed Quillen

Local News – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Bear Tales

In some parts of the state, it was drought. In others it was an early frost. Elsewhere a late frost. In all cases, it meant that black bears (which actually come in many hues) were having trouble finding enough to eat in the backcountry. And they need plenty to eat, about 20,000 calories a day, as they prepare for hibernation this fall. So they’ve been pursuing other food sources, like gardens, fruit trees, homes, and trash cans. The result is a large number of bear sightings and problems in Central Colorado. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Language – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

If you’re writing a trend piece for a national magazine, the usual trick is to start small and work out. That is, you focus on one person somewhere, then expand to the big picture.

So it was with Bob Diddlebock, whose “Postcard: Colorado” concerning “What the decline of the ‘devil’s rope’ says about the West” appeared in the Sept. 10 edition of Time. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Outdoors – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Even in mountain towns, where at times it seems you could reach out and grab a few stars, the sky is not nearly the same glittering wealth of stars that Galileo saw. The Milky Way is fast disappearing.

There are, in ski towns and elsewhere, people who feel aggrieved by this diminished night sky. The New Yorker explains that a ranking of dark skies, called the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, has been created. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Lightning – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado has a reputation of getting more lightning than other places. Not true. It is 24th in density of cloud-to-ground lightning, says Steve Hodanish, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service and a lightning specialist. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

History – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

The gambling allowed in Cripple Creek, Black Hawk, and Central City pays off for the whole state — at least when it comes to historic preservation. The State Historical Fund receives 22.4% of gambling tax revenues, about fifteen million dollars a year, and uses the money for grants for historic preservation. Since the tax began in 1993, more than 3,100 projects have received more than $192 million. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Public Health – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

As public health officials plan for the potential spread of avian flu, they continually study the public record from 1918, when in short order Spanish flu killed far more people than all of the horrors of World War I. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Lifestyles – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Although a Ferrari coupe valued at $561,000 and four other cars valued in excess of $200,000 are registered in Pitkin County, Toyota is the most common make of vehicle, reports The Aspen Times after a factoid cruise through public records. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Traffic Tangles

It’s been street hell in Alamosa this summer, for drivers and businesses alike. CDOT has torn up Sixth Street and U.S. 285 for improvements, while the city has revamped other areas in town. There’s been a lot of detours, alley driving and failing businesses as a result. The businesses along Sixth have reported severe dropoffs in revenue during what should have been the busiest time of year. Officials say the results will be worth the sacrifice. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

While the Colorado Division of Wildlife was stocking 264 high-mountain lakes with cutthroat trout fingerlings in August and September, genetic researchers at the University of Colorado announced that the cutthroats appear to be the wrong variety. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

While Aspen and many other mountain towns continue to fret about how to make their garbage less available and hence attractive to bears, Salida resident Julia Litz says she believes she has the solution. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck

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

Essay by Bryce Andrews

Agriculture – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

THROUGH THE END of June last year, we got along fine with the wolves. I was working on a ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, where the wolves ran elk to exhaustion in the high country while yearling cattle fattened on the lower pastures of the ranch. Peaceful coexistence with predators seemed within our grasp, and that was our goal, just to get along. Read the rest of this article

COLORADO COUNTY TAKES ANOTHER RUN AT CREATING WATER DISTRICT

Wells are running dry in a 400-square-mile area of La Plata County, and the county is once again asking residents to vote on the creation of La Plata Archuleta Water District and require residents to pay a special tax to fund construction of a pipeline and water treatment plant to provide a secure water supply to the southern half of the Colorado county. Durango Herald; Sept. 19 Read the rest of this article