by Colorado Central Staff

The year was 1895 and the city of Leadville had fallen on hard times. Since 1881, production had declined at its largest and most profitable mines. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, first enacted to increase the amount of silver the government was required to purchase every month, had a crippling effect on the local economy. By 1895 the population had dwindled to 14,477 residents from nearly 40,000 only two years previous. Read the rest of this article

by Michael J. Perullo

Just after Christmas 2006, I decided to drive my 1990 Nissan Stanza from Atlanta to Silver Cliff, Colorado to stay in my cabin over New Years’ Eve. What a trip this turned out to be! I love to travel by car or Jeep, and this road trip was to be my 169th since 1991 when I first moved to Atlanta. Usually, I make an overnight stop between Georgia and Colorado in Yukon, Oklahoma, staying in a cheap motel and having some local Mexican food after this first 871 mile leg of the journey I’ve made many times. Read the rest of this article

by Mike Rosso

What began in the 1970s as a review and evaluation for wilderness designation has become a jumble of information and falsehoods – involving politicians, off-highway vehicle enthusiasts, wilderness proponents and the National Rifle Association.

If designated, the proposed Browns Canyon Wilderness Area in central Chaffee County would be one of the lowest elevation wilderness areas in Colorado and one of the few actual wilderness areas combining both U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as well Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. Read the rest of this article

By Susan Tweit
November 2009

It’s official: my husband, Richard, is missing a marble. Or at least a marble-sized tumor.

A week and a half ago, his neurosurgery team removed a purple tumor the size of a large marble from the right temporal lobe of his brain. They reported that they’d gotten the whole thing, it stayed intact, and that it was small and well-defined. Read the rest of this article

by Dennis Hinkamp

My collection of silly buttons from the Burning Man festival in Nevada includes one that says, “Burning Man was better last year.” The irony, of course, is that this button is given out every year, and every year thousands of people keep coming back.

If you’ve ever been part of an annual event that lasted more than five years, you’re probably familiar with its evolution. Events generally go through a cycle of being original and innovative, then progress to bigger and better, tapering off at last into predictable. Everything from Mardi Gras to your Uncle Larry’s Fried Frog Leg Festival goes through this process. Too many years together working on anything leads to discontent — just look at the divorce rate. Read the rest of this article

by Hal Walter

Out for a run one afternoon in October, I was negotiating a burro down a steep trail that cuts from one cul-de-sac to another in a nearby subdivision. Downhill and to my right I saw a doe deer literally flopping down the hill through the trees. The animal appeared unable to gain its balance or to stand up.

I stopped and watched as the deer came to a rest, then I tied my burro to a tree and walked down to get a closer look. The doe flopped over a couple more times then lay still. I looked her over as closely as possible. I could see no broken legs or apparent gunshot wounds — which was my first guess since the first big game rifle season had opened the previous day. Read the rest of this article

Produced by Lynn Gillespie
Directed by Jay Canode
2009- The Living Farm & The Locavore Movie

Reviewed by CC Staff

“Once upon a time, all human beings were locavores, and everything we ate was a gift of the Earth. To have something to devour is a blessing – let’s not forget it.” – Jessica Prentice

With this quote begins the film Locavore, produced and filmed primarily in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, home to some of the best peaches, apples and other produce in the state if not the country. Read the rest of this article

by  John Mattingly

If you’re like me, you’ve been trying to quit farming for at least ten years. Only when people point this out to you do you try to explain.

OK, so here goes. . . Read the rest of this article

by Eugene Buchanan
Published in 2007 by Fulcrum
ISBN 978-1-55591-608-4

Reviewed by Ed Quillen

In the summer of 1993, Eugene Buchanan and three fellow American floaters arrived at the Moscow airport, where they were supposed to meet André to run the Kalar River in Siberia. Except André was in Turkey with no firm return date, but he’d told his friend Boris, part of a Latvian river-running team, and Boris wanted them to join a trip down the rapids of the Bashkaus River, also in Siberia. Read the rest of this article

by Sue Snively

She exudes personality, showing kindness in her eyes, determination in the set of her jaw and subtle humor in the “almost” half smile on her lips. There is wisdom coming from the overall expression on her rugged and wrinkled face. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but the elegance of this lady with her dangling earrings and her creased and folded hat makes for a very attractive portrait. It is a portrait of what it means to grow old gracefully, accepting the wrinkles, the gray, and other affirmatives of the later stage of life. Read the rest of this article

by Celeste Labadie

It’s a conspiracy,
someone said,
but I’ve done this myself.
I’m collecting things.
Drowning in stuff.
Clinging to memories while
packing and repacking what
I’ll surely leave behind
when the big whatever
has its way with this corporeal sensibility. Read the rest of this article

Fideo sounds like a dance, maybe a Rumba, or the sound when you discover something you’ve lost, like “Eureka!” This simple and satisfying pasta dish is all of the above. Origins unknown, it arrived on the plates and palates of the lost and weary time travelers Donna, Ruth and Jan, originally from Long Island, New York. Now the story really begins. Hungry from their journey to Salida for a high school reunion, the ingredients arrive in the hands of a local gal, ready to cook. Soon the steam was rising from the pan and the smell of the spices piqued the nose. Having been one of those individuals arriving from afar nothing could have smelt or tasted better. Read the rest of this article

by Jackie W. Powell
Photos courtesy of The Salida Library

People say “Soft Salida brick” as if it were one word. Many believe it was sun-dried, like adobe, and therefore not as hard as fired brick. The myth of sun drying is reinforced by photographs such as Figure 1 , showing thousands of bricks lying in the sun. But this was only one of the five steps needed to transform clay into fired bricks: mining, tempering, molding, drying, and firing. Read the rest of this article

by Hal Walter

Late summer has its many emotions here in the Wet Mountains, from the blustery days when you first notice the edges of the aspens turning, to the clear blue days that seem never to end as summer becomes fall. But I know in my bones these days will end.

At some point the summer bugs will come off the windshield with the first heavy frost. Read the rest of this article

by Annie Mueller

Published by the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies, the Colorado Cemetery Directory helps the living trace their family histories. Lake County, Colorado has 33 cemetery entries in the Directory. Of these, 13 are listed as abandoned and 18 have “no record available of custodian/owner.” The oldest in that record is the Leadville City Cemetery, established in 1877, used for only two years and then abandoned. Read the rest of this article

by Ron Flannery

We were motoring up U. S. 50 in the canyon east of Cotopaxi, Colorado. As usual, my dad scanned things beyond the road itself. Suddenly, he said, “Yep, they’re still there.” Not seeing anything but the steep canyon wall on one side and the Arkansas River on the other, I asked, “What’s still there?” Read the rest of this article

(Tips for high-altitude gardeners)

by Suzanne Ward

We have moved into autumn and frost will be visiting our gardens.? It’s not yet time to put it all to rest – there’s still a little more work to be done before winter.

?When frost threatens, it is wise to be prepared.? The first frost is often followed by warmer weather.? Be ready to cover tender, immature crops such as tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, cucumbers and okra with newspaper or blankets.?Covering them at night, combined with the warm autumn days, will allow the produce to come to full maturity. Read the rest of this article

by John Mattingly

I don’t admit this in the mixed company of cattle ranchers, but I used to have goats. Yes, the fact is, I had many goats, such that it was the profits from various goat operations in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s that enabled me to get into the cattle business and expand my farming operation. I owe much to goats, but that’s another story. Suffice it to say I have always had a great fondness for the species. They are clearly among the more intelligent mammals (and I include most politicians in a group that goats could easily challenge), in addition to being a species that helped humans progress, giving them milk, meat and fiber – endowments that ultimately resulted in a larger brain for homo sapiens. Mother never told me, “Be sure to eat your goat meat,” but we all know the rest of the story. Read the rest of this article

Regional restaurant review by Patty LaTaille

Organic Peddler
14475 W. Hwy. 160
Del Norte, CO 81132
(719) 65-Peace

Healthy eaters and vegetarian travelers can now travel through the San Luis Valley with peace of mind and a culinary destination ahead. There exists an oasis of organic food and drinks in the meat and fried potatoes and road trip fare in an unlikely spot – Del Norte. Look for the mustard yellow building and sign for the Organic Peddler and Peace of Art Café right on Highway 160. Read the rest of this article

How did the Collegiate Peaks, the towering mountains that soar above the Upper Arkansas River Valley, get their Ivy League names?

The tradition began in 1869 when members of the first Harvard Mining School class named 14,420-foot Mount Harvard after their institution while on expedition with Josiah Dwight Whitney, professor of geology at Harvard. The same group named the adjacent peak, Mount Yale after Whitney’s alma mater. The class was in Colorado that year to identify the highest point in the contiguous United States and to debunk rumors of an 18,000-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains. Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

If you’re looking for a simple way to teach Colorado nature literacy, search no farther than our state’s official list of symbols. It’s longer than you might expect, and affords an easy way to begin exploring Colorado’s incredible natural diversity.

How many official natural symbols – bird, tree, rock, fish, wildflower, and so on – does Colorado boast?

If you guessed an even dozen, you’re correct. Can you name them? Read the rest of this article

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

Like most readers in Colorado, I have countless books and booklets about the holes in the ground where miners struck it rich or suffered disappointment, but until I read this book, I never knew much about the rusty smelter ruins and grimy slag heaps that remain near those mines. The no-nonsense tome Ores to Metals became a lodestone for me this summer, attracting me to read every page and learn the things about the smelter ruins and slag heaps that have been ignored in the more popular dramas and melodramas about mining. Read the rest of this article

Reviewed by Elliot Jackson

Why, oh why, wonders the Inconstant Reader, do I routinely pass by poetry in my restless forays through my library’s shelves? Is it because I had a rigorous education in my youth, and read so much of it that I just OD’d? Or do I just forget about it? Maybe it’s simple intimidation: a good poem is such a richly-stuffed little nugget that getting through a whole book of poetry feels like downing a plate of baklava all by myself (maybe that’s why, when I do get around to reading poetry, that I love to read it aloud, or hear it read: just like that plate of baklava, a poem seems created to be shared – munched by multiple ears). Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

October 16-18 Western State College will hold its 20th Headwaters Conference in Gunnison – 20 years of open discussion on who and what we are, here in the mountains of central Colorado. It’s a good time to try to revisit the roots of the idea – and to look how it has branched out. Read the rest of this article

by John Orr

It’s been a good water year so far

Streamflow in the Arkansas River kept most everyone happy this summer. The runoff came early and high flows were bolstered by a cool and wet beginning to the season and plenty of transmountain water. The above average boating season lasted well into August. Read the rest of this article

New National Guard Base Planned

ALAMOSA- A new Colorado Army National Guard readiness center and base is in the works for Alamosa.

The facility will house the new Delta Company, 1st of the 157th Infantry Battalion and will also serve as a temporary armory and recruiting station. Read the rest of this article

(and other items of interest)

Tanner Found Guilty

SALIDA – Andrew Tanner, 27 of Salida, was found guilty on nine charges including first degree murder and kidnapping Salida resident James Durgan Sept. 3 in 11th Judicial District Court in Cañon City.

The verdict came after 15 hours of deliberation by a seven man, five woman jury. Read the rest of this article

Built in 1886, this two-story contributing brick building occupies one of Salida’s most eligible corners at 102-104 North F Street. Back then the Salida Weekly Mail wrote of it: “…we admire the push and pluck of Salida. She is coming up out of her ashes. Read the rest of this article

by Marcia Darnell

Adams State College in Alamosa recently unveiled plans for a new sports stadium as well as new dormitories in two recent community meetings presented by ASC president, Dr. David Svaldi.

The centerpiece of the plan is the stadium, a larger, more resplendent facility than the open field and tiered seats the school currently uses. Read the rest of this article

by Mike Rosso

Western State College (WSC) in Gunnison is leading the charge statewide in sustainable building practices in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. The WSC campus is rapidly becoming a model in earth-friendly, energy-efficient building practices and renovation techniques, thanks in no small part to its students, staff, and alumni. Read the rest of this article

I had already penned a piece to go in this spot, even going as far as dropping it in the layout, when Martha Quillen’s column came across my desk.

About halfway through it I realized she was voicing many of the same thoughts I had written except with a bit less cynicism. You see, what had prompted my unpublished tirade was a bumper sticker I had seen that day. It was stuck on an oversized SUV driven by an aging woman in downtown Salida equating liberals with laziness and unhappiness. Although I prefer not to be pigeonholed into all-too-convenient liberal/conservative tags, I certainly cannot side with a group of paranoid, angry folks who consider people like Ann Coulter and Glenn Beck their spokespersons. Read the rest of this article

with Martha Quillen

Conservative pundits and politicians have long rallied their followers by fomenting fury, but you’ve got to wonder if they’re going too far when they start fomenting revolution.

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann often urges revolution, presumably in the metaphorical sense. In March she said, “I want the people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.” Read the rest of this article

The Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Depot in Buena Vista – damaged by fire in 2002 – was donated to Buena Vista Heritage in 2003 and moved to McPhelemy Park where restoration soon began. Most of the exterior work on the depot has since been completed and work on the interior is scheduled to begin soon and to be completed by mid-summer 2010. Read the rest of this article

by Susan Bavaria

Ranging in age from 81 on down, several regional women authors have written books as varied as river stones. Tackling subjects ranging from geology to self-publishing, these six writers exemplify the moxie needed to endure the publishing process and a love for language that creates worthy content. Some have taught students. Some have experienced far-flung adventures in the quest to find a good story. Some are members of the Colorado Authors League. All share a passion for good literature and an innate curiosity about the world we share. Read the rest of this article

by Hal Walter

A friend once suggested I write myself a check for $50,000, $75,000, or something like that, and just tape it to the refrigerator as a payment to myself for this grand lifestyle I’ve chosen.

Perhaps I should just make it an even, cool $1 million. Read the rest of this article

when your throat is lined
with new confessions
blocked by fear
of repercussions Read the rest of this article

(Tips for high-altitude gardeners)

by Suzanne Ward

By this time of year you will have been harvesting your garden produce throughout the summer and hopefully, not too soon nor too late. Harvest timing is learned by experience. It is determined by what tastes best to you. Sample your vegetable produce at various stages of ripeness and you will learn the right harvest time for each vegetable to suit your tastes. Here are some general harvest rules. Read the rest of this article

by John Mattingly

Prior to September, 2001, I thought of home, land. and security as three separate words.  But as patriotic fever has spread through the country, possibly a fourth has presented itself as home and land as one, and from that, a few points of thought.

1. Look both ways.  Soon after we attacked Iraq, we often heard the mantra, “The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.” Then it moved to include the streets of Kabul, and now Karachi. Read the rest of this article

by Sarah E. Moffett

“Climbing at altitude is like hitting your head against a brick wall-it’s great when you stop.” – Chris Darwin

There are things we can’t let go of in life, and then there are things that won’t let go of us. Mount Elbert and I fell into both categories thanks to childhood experiences. Growing up, Leadville was a magical place set in the clouds. Sitting at 10,152 feet and shadowed by the towering Sawatch Range, the temperamental weather, stunning scenery and crisp scents made it a backdrop for dreams, imaginations and uncertainties. It was where anything could happen. So naturally it did. Read the rest of this article

by Mike Rosso

Salida-based musician Bones has put quite a few achievements under his belt over the past 25 years. He has performed in a variety of rock bands from England to Los Angeles and was a member of the popular Afro-beat band Jaka as well as the Grateful Dead tribute band, Shakedown Street. Read the rest of this article

2007-2009
By Ed Berg
Blurb, Inc: May 2009. $14.95

Reviewed by Eduardo Rey Brummel

The San Luis Valley is a distinctly different world. Perhaps the clearest demonstration of the Valley’s unique nature is the thirty-some square miles of sand dunes serving as foyer for the Sangre de Cristos’ western flank. In the same view, you have Lawrence of Arabia sands foregrounding snow-stippled mountains, with Medano Creek pulsing at your ankles. In his book, Sand, Wind, and Light, author Ed Berg begins where we all do – attempting to reconcile the existence of the Great Sand Dunes: Read the rest of this article

by Duane A. Smith
photographs by John L. Ninnemann
Published in 2009 by University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 978-0-8263-4650-6

Reviewed by Ed Quillen

The Sawatch Range is the highest in the Rockies, the Sangre de Cristo Range is the longest, and the Mosquito Range is the richest in overall Colorado mineral production. But it is the San Juan Mountains that provide the quintessential Colorado mining-camp imagery and lore: soaring jagged peaks, frothing streams in narrow gorges, steam-powered narrow-gauge trains, immense old mines in sites apparently accessible only by jaybirds, and Victorian towns in various states of preservation. Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

The Sunday New York Times is always a good place to go for inspirational reading on the seventh day, especially for us communicants at the American Church of Mammon; early in August it carried interesting stories about a couple of Masters of the Universe. Read the rest of this article

Daniel Majok Gai and Isaac Khor Behr were only six years old when civil war broke out in their village in Southern Sudan. Fleeing their home and becoming separated from their families, Daniel and Isaac joined 30,000 other war orphans for a 1,000 mile journey to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Walking barefoot, fighting enemy soldiers, starvation and disease, Daniel, Isaac and the other Sudanese children became known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

The call came on one of those afternoons when life moves so quickly that even though you’re going as fast as you possibly can, you feel like the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass, as if you’re barely keeping up.

“Susan, it’s Jim,” my friend said, and then paused. “I’ve got sad news: Carol Jacobson died yesterday in a rafting accident on the Green River.” Read the rest of this article