Colorado Central Articles From — June 2009

by Marcia Darnell

Creede Repertory Theatre (CRT) is celebrating its 44th season with myriad musicals, including two premiere works. Beginning June 5, theater-goers will be treated to an abundance of music. According to Maurice LaMee, CRT’s creative director, all the actors hired this year had to be able to sing as well as act. Read the rest of this article

by John Mattingly

Last month, under the title, A Species Behaving Badly, I concluded. . .

“Few would argue the most unique aspect of the human species is our consciousness, but there is no reason why that consciousness must be contained and energized inside a global bone atop the body of a non-commensul, energy-eating, land-based, brain-bearing, nest-fouling mammal.” Read the rest of this article

(Tips for high-altitude gardeners)

by Suzanne Ward

At long last it is June, the last frost date and time to plant the garden.? Keep an eye on the weather at this time of year, as it can change quickly.? My farmer father always said, “If you don’t like the weather in Colorado, just wait ten minutes.”? Read the rest of this article

Compiled by Mike Rosso

Farm markets in our region are becoming more popular every year as locals strive to buy and consume regional produce and goods. We’ve compiled a guide to most of the markets operating this summer. Eat well, buy local! Read the rest of this article

By: Susan J. Tweit
Illustrations by: Sherrie York
University of Texas Press, March 2009
ISBN: 978-0-0292-71917-0

Reviewed by Eduardo Rey Brummel

Susan Tweit has been a fixture of Salida for over a decade. Her weekly column in Salida’s Mountain Mail, has been a fixture for nearly as long, and she’s graced the pages of Colorado Central, bunches of times. Now, after writing eleven place-based books, Tweit’s most recent book, Walking Nature Home, is her most intimate, and has the most to say about the place we call “home.” Read the rest of this article

By F. Darrell Munsell
Published in 2008 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 978-0-87081-934-6

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

With its inclusion of Ludlow, the scene of southern Colorado’s most deadly labor fight, From Redstone to Ludlow will hardly be mistaken for a tourist’s guide to Pitkin County’s tiny village of Redstone on the Crystal River. Rather, as the subtitle indicates, the text is a hefty study in Colorado labor history, specifically relating to coal mining. But who is the subtitle’s John Cleveland Osgood, a name that seldom appears in Colorado histories, except in advertisements that might lure travelers to Redstone? As author F. Darrell Munsell shows, he was the stubborn, aggressive leader of mining men in Colorado’s coal and coking industries at the turn of the last century. Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

I’m writing in the first week or so of the season of plants here in the Upper Gunnison. Probably old news for you by June, but this morning is the first morning waking up to new leaves on the smaller trees. Yesterday morning, those almost unbelievably green leaflets were still just buds, but yesterday afternoon was “June” all the way, despite being only early May. You could practically hear the buds unfolding. The tall cottonwoods are all still in their reddish-brown catkin stage and won’t go green for a few days yet. The grass has been greening up since the soggy days of late April. The perennial flowers are resurrecting, and the lettuce and spinach and carrots are above ground in the cold frame. Read the rest of this article

by John Orr

Gunnison River flow regime through Black Canyon

Last year, conservationists, irrigators, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, the state of Colorado, along with many other groups and municipalities, sat down and hammered out an agreement to manage flows in the Gunnison River through the Black Canyon. The agreement was the outcome of a 2006 lawsuit by environmental groups to overturn a 2003 back room deal between the Department of Interior and the state of Colorado. The original deal called for minimum flows in the national park of 300 cfs with no consideration for larger flows or shoulder flows to help maintain riparian health or for restoration. As a result of the lawsuit federal Judge Clarence Brimmer threw out the agreement terming it, “nonsensical.” Read the rest of this article

By Marcia Darnell

Here Come da’ Judges

The Supremes came to the Valley for Courts in the Community. The program transported the Colorado Supreme Court to Alamosa High School to hear arguments in a real case before students. The kids had a chance to ask questions of the attorneys involved after the justices adjourned. Read the rest of this article

by La Vercombe Comic

Read the rest of this article

Uranium processing company is at it again

CANON CITY – The Cotter Corporation in Cañon City wants to reopen their troubled plant for the chemical leaching and crushing of 500,000 tons of uranium per year for 25 years beginning in 2014.

The plant, which sits above the Arkansas River on the south side of Cañon City, has been operating on a “stand-down basis” allowing Cotter to retain their operating license despite a 25-year old Environmental Protection Agency ruling ordering the plant to do a Superfund cleanup. That cleanup has been stalled and has had repeated violations over the years. Read the rest of this article

In January 1971, Christo marched up the steps of city hall in Rifle, Colorado and announced that he wanted to stretch a curtain 1200 feet across Rifle Gap, a dramatic opening in the Grand Hogback several miles north of town. The city responded, “Sounds great. When would you like to start?” Read the rest of this article

by Keith Howard

Editors note: Christo’s proposed project for the Arkansas River, Over the River, has generated passionate discussion since its conception and much has been written for and against the project.

We decided to take a look at the career of the controversial artist, his works, and the challenges of displaying public art on such a vast scale. Read the rest of this article

by Mike Rosso

They met in Berkeley, California in the early 1950s. She was an art student at the University of California; he was up from his home in Riverside, California to live with a friend after graduating from two years of art school in Los Angeles, awaiting his inevitable induction into the Army. Read the rest of this article

ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS PUT TO THOMAS JEFFERSON BY THE CITIZENS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF COLORADO.

Colorado Central: Mr. President, you have been quoted as saying, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.”

Could you expand on this and do you believe this to be true in your observations of the 21st century? Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

Anyone who has ever raised kids has had at least one moment of wondering why in the world you wanted to be a parent in the first place and whether it’s possible to survive with your sanity intact, as well as at least one moment when you realize there’s nothing more wonderful than being your kid’s parent. Read the rest of this article

oh i wish i was the captain
out on the arabian sea
get hassled by some locals
uncle sam gonna rescue me
gonna send some big destroyers
and snipers one two three
gonna poach them hapless people’s fish
and get away scot free Read the rest of this article

Quillen’s Corner

by Martha Quillen

Language is a gift, extraordinary and wondrous, but unrestrained speech can be more aggravating than yowling cats. In fact, I suspect that if dogs and cats could talk, we would not regard them as nearly so adorable. Read the rest of this article

We hope you enjoy this current issue of CC. It’s been nicknamed the “art edition” although it is not strictly about art or artists. June is the month Salida celebrates its annual ArtWalk, an opportunity for area artists to show their stuff and shake off the winter doldrums. Now in it’s 17th year, the event features receptions, workshops, music and other activities for locals and visitors alike. Read the rest of this article

The D&RGW Train Depot in Grand Junction was one of the costliest small railroad stations of the West, at $60,000, when it was built, beginning in 1905. Read the rest of this article

by Hal Walter

Westcliffe area residents no longer need to drive far for a selection of inexpensive plastic things made in China. A Family Dollar store opened here in May.

I watched in curiosity for most of the winter as the ground was broken and construction began for the new business. I was intrigued because I had in fact never been inside a Family Dollar. And since I seemed to be doing just fine without anything from there I doubted I’d ever need to set foot in the place. Read the rest of this article