Colorado Central Articles From — July 2008

Brief by Martha Quillen

Regional News – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

River Runs High, Wide and Muddy

Worries about high water ran almost as high as the Arkansas before Salida’s FIBArk festival, which happened June 12 through 15. But the four-day boating event went swimmingly, especially in attendance. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Water – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

We’ve looked at the drawbacks. But perhaps it’s time for Salida residents to consider the possible benefits from exporting mountain spring water from Chaffee County.

Nestlé is a multi-national food products company, and one of its products is Arrowhead bottled water. Nestlé has proposed to take 0.3 cubic feet per second (cfs or cusec) from the Hagen Spring near Nathrop, and haul it to a bottling plant in Denver. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Transportation – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The debate continues about how to best defy Colorado’s mountainous geography between Denver and the mountain resorts. Last winter has brought a spate of new ideas — including some old ideas filched from the discard bin. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any gossip about the Tennessee Pass rail line from Parkdale (west end of the Royal Gorge) to Minturn and beyond. The usual chatter is that increased traffic on the Moffat Route, which runs more or less due west from Denver to Glenwood Springs and beyond, might require the Union Pacific to re-open the Tennessee Pass line to reduce congestion. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Development – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The planning commission for Teton County, Wyo., has recommended that new gated communities be barred. A staff planner says there are anywhere from five to twenty gated communities in Teton County. One of those gated developments, a place called Teton Pines, is the declared primary home of Vice President Dick Cheney. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Town Life – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

It’s illegal to skateboard or bicycle on sidewalks in Salida (that’s true of most municipalities), and it’s also a law that’s hard to enforce (also true of most municipalities).

Getting police to write citations is the “stick” approach, as in “carrot and stick,” and so some of Salida’s downtown merchants are trying the “carrot” approach. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Energy – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The debate about coal and renewable energy sources has been central in several board elections for Colorado’s rural electrical co-ops this summer. Now, two incumbent directors for Gunnison County Electric Association who are standing for re-election are facing challengers who say the co-op has been too flat-footed as it looks at the future. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Development – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Despite being sandwiched in by Vail and Beaver Creek, two of the nation’s glossiest resorts, Minturn still has an element of the grime accumulated from its 90 years as a railroad and mining center. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Development – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Million-dollar house sales now common in Basalt

Despite the slowed economy, a new record has been established in Basalt for real estate with a $3.4 million closing. The Aspen Times says that the 4,184-square- foot house has views, views, views, plus other splendors. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Mining – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

In theory, “in situ leach mining” is a relatively benign way to retrieve minerals from the earth. In practice, though, the proposal has the neighbors in South Park worried.

At issue is an area northeast of Hartsel, where Horizon Nevada Uranium has been staking uranium claims that would be mined by an “in situ” (Latin for “on site” or “in place” ) method. Dozens of holes would be drilled over the mineral deposit; some would be “injection wells” and others “recovery wells.” Read the rest of this article

Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

No Splashing

Splashland, the swimming pool and Alamosa institution, will not open this summer. Years of inadequate maintenance and an embezzling director have left the facility broke and noncompliant with state health codes. Supporters are planning fundraisers to restore the public pool. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Preservation – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Breckenridge has been fiercely protective of the historical integrity of its 19th-century Victorian architecture. But it has had a hard time reconciling that goal with the growing emphasis on energy efficiency and renewable energy in the 21st century. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Central Staff

Tourism – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

If you work around tourists in Central Colorado, you might want to brush up on your high-school German, Spanish, French, or Italian, as merchants tell us that we’re seeing quite a few more foreign tourists this year, most of them from Europe. Read the rest of this article

Essay by Randy Udall

Wildlife – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE COPS SHOT A COUGAR in Chicago this spring. DNA tests suggested the young male may have begun his journey in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 1,000 miles away. If so, he roamed across three big states, looking for love. Read the rest of this article

Brief by Allen Best

Development – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The planning commission for Teton County, Wyo., has recommended that new gated communities be barred. A staff planner says there are anywhere from five to twenty gated communities in Teton County. One of those gated developments, a place called Teton Pines, is the declared primary home of Vice President Dick Cheney. Read the rest of this article

Column by Hal Walter

Agriculture – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

RECENTLY, AFTER BUYING an eighth of a beef from a neighbor, it occurred to me that if the price of fuel drives me to eat poorly, then I might be better off crawling into a hole and pulling the dirt back in over the top.

This is a weighty question for someone who chose long ago, when gasoline and food were still relatively cheap, to live 15 miles outside a small town and 50 miles from the closest city, or at least something that approximates one, like Pueblo. Read the rest of this article

Column by John Mattingly

Agriculture – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

BAD CREDIT

When I started farming in 1968, the strategy for buying my first farm involved saving the money, and paying for the farm. Same way with machinery. Cash on the barrelhead. If a farmer approached another farmer who had ground for sale, or walked into an implement dealership asking for credit, chances were that farmer left with nothing but a slightly diminished reputation. In those days, in that community, borrowing betrayed one’s inadequacy, and certainly was not considered clever. Read the rest of this article

Article by Betty Plotz

Local History – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE MYSTIQUE of the Hutchinson Ranch lies in the simple ranching world to which it carries us. To stand in the barnyard of the old homestead is like stepping into another reality. A feeling of peace exudes from the lilac bushes, log buildings, and rippling irrigation ditch. Read the rest of this article

Column by John Orr

Water – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

James Tingle Reservoir

Colorado is blessed with a water supply system that has grown up around the annual snowfall, unlike other states which rely on groundwater or rainfall. Our mountain ranges act as reservoirs during the winter, storing snowfall (most years). Read the rest of this article

Review by Ed Quillen

Forest History – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Arthur Carhart, Wilderness Prophet
by Tom Wolf
Published in 2008 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 0-87981-913-5 Read the rest of this article

Review by Eduardo Rey Brummel

Rural Life – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Coyotes Always Howl at Night: Tales of a 70s rancher’s wife.
Audrey Keen-Hansen
Trafford Publishing, 2006
ISBN: 1-4251-0748-6 Read the rest of this article

Review by Ed Quillen

Local Guides – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Mellow Mountain Trails – 27 Fun Day Hikes in Salida & Buena Vista
by Suzanne Ward and Nathan Ward
Published in 2008 by Ice Mountain Publishing
ISBN 978-0-9748814-3-0 Read the rest of this article

Essay by Ed Quillen

Modern Life – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

FIRST, A BREAK from momentous issues of local, regional, national, international, and galactic import, and instead some family values. At 1:30 p.m. on June 6, Martha and I became grandparents. Our daughter Abby and her husband, Aaron Thomas (who worked at the weekly Chaffee County Times in Buena Vista in 2001-02), are parents of Ezra Quillen Thomas, who was 22 inches long and weighed an even nine pounds on arrival. Mother and child are doing fine. Read the rest of this article

Article by Marcia Darnell

History – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE NEW SAN LUIS VALLEY History Museum is a beautiful building, renovated and remodeled to create the look of a Southwestern home in a downtown business zone. It is, like many other small-town museums in the West, filled with a jumble of items from individual donors. However, most of those items seem to have nothing to do with the history of the Valley or its people. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Slim Wolfe

Mountain Life – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Now entering my 17th year as a Desolation Row desperado, I find myself debating the next moves on the old chessboard of existence. I’m pretty comfortable here despite being too close to the highway and not having a wooded spot to enjoy. But I’ve got a strenuous sort of existence with not much hope of letting up, and now I’m past sixty I wonder when I’ll find the time and energy to keep things rolling along. I’ve also realized that I’m not immune to little annoying injuries which can slow me down just when I need to maintain the pace. Nor do I have a handy son or daughter to bring by an amplified phone, for example, should I suddenly lose most of my hearing — as happened to a friend this month. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Bill Wahl

Colorado Central – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed & Martha;

Let me caution you not to have John Mattingly do your taxes. In his article, “A Farmer Far Afield” in the May issue, he makes a mathematical case for renting being more cost-effective than owning a home. I found a few problems with his analysis. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Charlie Green

Nomenclature – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Ed,

While technically your assessment of the misuse of “steam plant” is correct [in the June edition], the electrical power industry evolved in a different direction. I learned this in my career with Colorado Springs Utilities. Read the rest of this article

Letter from Phil Doe

Water – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

As valuable as I find John Orr’s monthly water updates, I find his discussion of HB 08-1161 far too sanguine. The legislation requires uranium miners to clean up ground water that might become polluted from their operations. Orr states that the citizens of Park County “should feel a little more at ease with the project” since as one of the bill’s sponsors said, “If companies … are true to their word that they can do this without affecting groundwater, they should have no difficulty with this bill.” Read the rest of this article

Article by Dustin Heron Urban

Forests – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

I WAS RECENTLY SNACKING on pine nuts, and the bag in which they were contained read “Pine nuts really do come from trees!” “How enlightening,” I thought to myself. “What if I cared to know what type of tree?” The ingredient list merely read: “pine nuts.” Although the name makes it quite plain that these buttery little vanilla-colored morsels come from pine trees, there are at least 24 commonly occurring members of the genus Pinus in the West and many more across the globe and at least 20 pine species produce nuts good for eating. There was no way for me to easily deduce which species of pine that bag of pine nuts came from, but come autumn, there will be no mistaking where my pine nuts are from: Pinus edulis, the Colorado Piñon. Read the rest of this article

Column by George Sibley

Economic Development – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

WE ALL TALK A LOT about “economic development” over here in the Upper Gunnison, but we can’t seem to agree on what we’re talking about.

Some pretty substantial economic developments have been proposed: a big real estate development for former ranchland just east of Gunnison is seeking annexation to the city; the ski resort owners up the valley near Crested Butte want to do a major ski-slope and real estate expansion onto a new hill; and a mining company wants to put an underground molybdenum mine in the mountain just west of Crested Butte. Read the rest of this article

Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck

Mountain Life – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine Read the rest of this article