by Ellot Jackson

When I moved to Colorado from Chicago over ten years ago, there were many things about the city that I found myself delighted to be leaving behind: traffic, crime and wild extremes of climate among them. However, the one thing I found myself indubitably missing – and craving – was its music scene: specifically, its Celtic (Scottish and Irish) music scene. Chicago was home to some of the best Celtic musicians on the planet, and it seemed like there were sessions and concerts almost every night of the week. In addition, there was always the chance to take lessons in any instrument, from harp to fiddle to accordion to bagpipes, from some of these musicians, either privately or through venerable institutions like the Old Town School of Folk Music or the Irish Heritage Center. Read the rest of this article

by Mark Kneeskern

(Editor’s note: We introduced Mark in our August issue and invited him to contribute writings from the road as he currently uses his thumb as his primary mode of transportation.)

Almost cut my hair …
I amble to the roadside and it’s the first day of school again. An exciting moment. A nervous moment. Lessons await in the classroom of the world. I’m much older now, not riding the bus, instead traveling in multiple cars with random strangers. I’ve got my best “Back To School” clothes on … a button-up shirt with wild colors and patterns from top to bottom, shorts with deep pockets for my notepads, pens, markers and digital camera. I’m vying for the attention of drivers instead of cute classmates. Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

Most of the local Tea Party leadership was sitting on a bench in front of a local coffeeshop as I came out from a meeting, right by the bike rack where my trusty rusty bike waited patiently. Three of them – call them Tom, Dick and Harry, names changed to protect – whatever. I know two of them by name and vice versa, although we’ve never talked much. But as I grabbed my bike and kicked up the stand, saying something polite seemed to be in order. Rather than the weather, I decided to try flattery.

“Wow,” I said, “seeing the three of you here like this makes me think the government should fear for its future.” Read the rest of this article

by Bill Hatcher

I mean, how hard could it be? You take some seeds, you put them in the ground, add a little water, make sure they get plenty of sun, and voila! Instant veggies for garnishing every meal! Maybe give a few to friends. Maybe even sell some at the local farmer’s market.
That was back in March. And now, well, I guess my little experiment in gardening now looks more like an attempt made by early hunter-gatherers. But thank God there are several intrepid local farmers willing to provide the rest of us poor Neanderthals with some of their sunshine-fresh bounty. Read the rest of this article

by Jennifer Welch

“OK, it’s time,” I say to my husband and my dad. The three of us walk outside to the pen where our three baby goats live. We pull out Mama’s Boy and I look into his sweet, unsuspecting eyes. I think about all the times I swore I would never do this to any animal. Things change, time goes on; all I can do is try to keep up. “Hold him down for me guys …”     Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

After a holiday weekend spent cooking for a house full of visitors from age 10 to 81, I have food on my mind, in particular, ways to lighten the carbon footprint of what we eat. According to Stephen Hopp in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, agriculture consumes about 17 percent of the United States total energy use, second only, Hopp notes, to our gas-guzzling vehicles.

Producing our food is energy-intensive for three main reasons: the distance it is transported from farm to table – an astonishing average of 1,500 miles, how much processed food we eat, and our energy-intensive farming methods, especially synthetic fertilizers. Read the rest of this article

by Susan Bavaria

But Tessie weeks later shared a similar fate
And wound up one night on a Senator’s plate;
With lemon and spices and other things good
Our Tessie from Frantzhurst had now become food.”

from A Tale of Tessie the Trout © Frantzhurst Trout Farm

In the 1930s, the Frantzhurst Rainbow Trout Company of Salida shipped their product fresh in wooden boxes covered with ice by truck and refrigerated railway car. Two million pounds of rainbow trout went annually to clubs, hotels and restaurants from coast to coast who found its “firm white flesh” as good as advertised. The company employed about 30 people and was second only to the Royal Gorge Bridge in attracting tourists to this area. Read the rest of this article

by Hayden Mellsop

“Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.” – Dalai Lama

With these words, the Dalai Lama has once more thrown into doubt and confusion my sense of myself as a compassionate caring human being who happens to enjoy fly fishing. I have spent many years as a guide both here in Colorado, and in my home country of New Zealand. Fly fishing for me is a way for me to relax, make a living, and celebrate the beauty, intricacies and inter connectedness of Mother Nature.

Of the many aspects that keep me coming back to the river, rod in hand to ‘try my luck’ as the saying goes, the principal one is that you never know from day to day how the fish will respond to your advances. This serves as a constant reminder that despite the fact that we can read all the books, espouse all the theories and buy all the gear, ultimately we are interacting with and delving into rhythms and cycles of nature of which we have scant knowledge, and that is the way it should be. Read the rest of this article

by Abby Quillen

I grew up in Central Colorado, and most weekends my family piled into a canary-yellow 1975 Chevy pickup and pitched down rutted-out, rock-strewn roads to hike, explore, or cross-country ski at places with names like Mosquito Pass, Missouri Gulch, and Cochetopa Creek.

By the time my sister and I were 18, we’d both sucked in the thin air on top of a 14,000 foot mountain, run across high-mountain meadows, visited too many ghost towns to list, waded barefoot in ice-cold streams, and spent countless nights sleeping with only a tent and a sleeping bag between our bodies and the hard, cold ground. Read the rest of this article

by Mel Strawn

Nets, like webs, are linear systems or networks. Jude Silva’s net drawings completely, evenly and elegantly span rectangles about 13 by 10 inches, filling a 23×15.5” space like patterned gossamer floating within a larger white rectangular world. None, however, are just flat patterns; they are spatial structures tied at nodes, mostly four-way but some with three connecting lines and a few with more. In nature, cracks in drying mud or fractured rock or other elastic materials, typically finds three-way, 120-degree patterns. Our minds impose different norms – often 90-degree oppositions, which also occur in non-elastic materials under stress, like ceramic crackle patterns. These drawings result from mental constructs, not depictions of stress patterns. Each drawing is animated in a different way and dances to its own special tune. A few suggest larger geometric or architectural ambitions. Most, and for me the more interesting, find less geometric rhythms and tensions like Number 15, reproduced here (and part of this month’s cover image). Number 11, also shown here, is more austere, sans color, and offers another of the wide variety of spatial effects shown in the whole series. Read the rest of this article

by Luke Mehall

It started with a professor lost in the mountains of the Gunnison backcountry in the 1960s and it’s grown to be the top college-based mountain rescue team in the United States.

“We don’t have an exact record of when the team started, but the story is that a professor was lost in the mountains and a group of students and teachers banded together to find him,” Chip Lamar, team leader of the Western State College (WSC) Mountain Rescue Team said. “These types of searches continued to happen and then the team got involved in more technical, rock climbing rescues.” Read the rest of this article

by Laurel McHargue

“Left foot. Right foot. Feet. Feet. Feet. Oh how many feet you meet.” How would Dr. Seuss have known just how I was feeling as I placed one foot before the other, oftentimes only with inches of separation, as I trudged my way to the top of my first 14er? Living with my super-human husband for the past 26 years has made me realize that it’s okay to say, “Not today, Schnookums,” to any number of adventures he might conjure, but I had promised myself that I would make it to the top of at least one 14er before summer became a memory. I didn’t have to prove anything to Superman, but I constantly find it necessary to prove things to myself, and I didn’t want to be a 14er virgin any longer. Read the rest of this article

A landmark building in historic downtown Salida is in imminent danger of demolition unless drastic steps are taken to save it.
The building, known locally as the Unique Theater was built in 1889 to replace the original Salida Opera House which was destroyed by fire. The Opera House was part of the “Silver Circuit” which helped bring high quality shows, theatricals and operas across the nation. Read the rest of this article

By Mike Rosso and Elliot Jackson

It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon at “The Vic,” or the Victoria Tavern, in Salida – early for barflies, although there are a few of them buzzing quietly over their beers and shots. It’s quiet, mellow, but the atmosphere is about to change. By twos and threes, calling greetings to the owner, the patrons and each other, a group of about ten guys and attendant entourage come sauntering into the bar with the breezy assurance of favored sons – which, it could be argued, they are. Probably no other group of musicians has played the Vic as much as the Lazy Alien Blues Band – going on for thirty years, if some of the lies can be believed. Deke, J.N., Denny, Ernie, Jimmy, Chris – as they cluster around the pool table, invoking a pose from a long-bygone photo shoot, a voice suddenly rises in song:

Going to the hot tub and we’re … gonna get laid …

We recognize the tune: isn’t that “Chapel of Love”?

Read the rest of this article

Part 7: An “afternoon interlude”with Baby Doe

by Francisco A. Rios

Note: This is the last in a series of letters chosen from hundreds from the Tabor Collection at the Colorado Historical Society and cataloged by Dr. Rios, a retired professor from the University of Colorado at Denver.

An exchange of letters in the summer of 1951 between Edgar C. McMechan, Curator of the Colorado History Museum, and Mr. Deck Wilmoth of Tulsa, Oklahoma, induced the latter to write a delightful narrative of an afternoon spent in the company of Mrs. Tabor in the late years of her life. In the same letter he discusses a snap shot that he had taken of Mrs. Tabor in the late winter of 1933 and one photograph of him and Mrs. Tabor together. Mr. Deck wonders if the pictures “have any historical value.”

Read the rest of this article

This story is an excerpt from Hal Walter’s forthcoming book, “Wild Burro Tales.” The book includes pen-and-ink sketches by Westcliffe artist Lorie Merfeld-Batson, and should be available in May through local booksellers and amazon.com. Check out www.hardscrabbletimes.com for news about the book’s release.

Early day prospectors combed the West looking to strike it rich. I would venture many also were searching for something other than monetary reward — intangible things like freedom, independence, and a close bond with the land. Matching strides with these adventurers were trusty pack burros carrying their gear and food, and providing invaluable companionship. Read the rest of this article

by Mike Rosso

Area fans of quality chamber music need not journey to the big city to hear consummate performances by world-class musicians. They can be found right here in Central Colorado, thanks to the efforts of pianist Jo Boatright and her husband Harvey of Buena Vista, along with a dedicated board of directors who make up the Walden Chamber Music Society (WCMS).

A Colorado native herself, Jo and Harvey Boatright retired to this area from Texas where he was a flutist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) for forty years and she was the co-founder and artistic director of the modern music ensemble, Voices of Change, a Grammy-nominated group who presented concerts of chamber music written by living composers. Read the rest of this article

Leadville Deputy Charged After Jailing Fire Captain

LEADVILLE -A Leadville sheriff’s deputy was charged with three crimes stemming from his earlier arrest of a Leadville fire captain who had been treating a victim of an emergency call.

On March 27 Fire Capt. Dan Dailey responded to an emergency call at the sheriff’s office in regard to a woman there with a neck injury. Deputies Steven James and Arin Hart ordered him and another firefighter to leave and when Dailey refused, he was handcuffed and thrown in jail. Read the rest of this article

Craig Childs is a writer who focuses on natural sciences, archaeology, and mind-blowing journeys into the wilderness. He has published more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on nature, science, and adventure. He is a commentator for National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Outside and Orion. His subjects range from pre-Columbian archaeology to U.S. border issues to the last free-flowing rivers of Tibet.

We caught up with Craig last month while he was between adventures. Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

In April, Richard and I traveled from a spring blizzard that buried our valley under almost a foot of wet snow to sun-warmed red sandstone cliffs dotted with wildflowers in far western Colorado’s remote canyon country.

In between trips, we were home for just long enough to do the laundry, re-pack the car, and water the kitchen garden. By the time we headed west on Highway 50 for distant Nucla and Naturita, I felt a bit dizzy from the abrupt change in worlds. Read the rest of this article

by Ed Quillen

Martha tells me that people have come up to her at work and whispered something like “I saw Ed at the hospital. Is he okay?”

I don’t know why they don’t just ask me that, because when I lost some weight a few years ago, I got many inquiries along the lines of “Are you all right?” In general, I was, and I told them so, but perhaps my protestations back then made people reluctant to ask me directly now. Read the rest of this article

by John Mattingly

I caught this headline last month: “Americans Want Less Government, Fewer Services.”

Indeed. A recent poll revealed 68% of U.S. citizens have exhumed Ronald Reagan’s famous claim, “Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.”

I spoke with a few agricultural folks about this survey, and they agreed, pretty much unanimously. No big surprise. As a group, farmers and ranchers have a chronic distrust of government programs and meddling. Especially out here in the West, where we’re all rugged as the Rockies and don’t need no “gotdam gumment” stiffs hangin’ round, right?

Well, maybe. Read the rest of this article

Representation and Rebellion: The Rockefeller Plan at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company: 1914-1942
By Jonathan H. Rees
Published in 2010 by University of Colorado Press
ISBN 978-0-87081-964-3
344 pages, paperback, $34.95

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

The Ludlow Massacre near Trinidad was attracting national outrage in 1914. Leading up to it, labor unrest was widespread, and violent incidents had been escalating, not only at Ludlow but in the coalfields of the whole region. With mine owners pitted against union organizations throughout Colorado in the early 1900s, as well as throughout the nation for decades, public sympathies came down on the side of the workers after Ludlow, with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the largest single stockholder and member of the board of directors of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I), becoming a special target of public anger. Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

Next month – June 7 to be exact – there will be a water-related meeting in Salida that could be kind of historic if there’s a genuine effort to make it so. It’ll be a meeting of the Gunnison Basin Roundtable and the Arkansas Basin Roundtable. The purpose of the meeting is to see whether it’s possible to cut through the B.S. shielding a couple Colorado Water Cliches.

Cliche One: Urban growth just can’t be stopped, so it has to be accommodated.

Cliche Two: There has to be at least half a million acre-feet of Colorado River Water left for Colorado to develop. Read the rest of this article

by Christopher Kolomitz

With a majority of the hot topics finalized, state legislators are eyeing May 12, the scheduled end of the Colorado legislative session. As of the middle of April, more than 100 bills await signature by the governor and close to 600 bills had been introduced into the house and senate. Read the rest of this article

by Marcia Darnell

Can’t Fight City Hall

A coalition of Alamosa residents was unsuccessful in convincing the city Council not to build a new city hall/library/firehouse complex. The council voted to move forward with the bidding/building process. The anti group was successful at garnering enough signatures on a petition to force a vote. The issue of funding the new complex will be on the primary ballot this summer. Read the rest of this article

The original Del Norte rail depot was a wooden structure built in 1881 to service the freight being generated in the Summitville mining district. It was replaced in 1911 by the depot shown above which was used until 1970 when it was taken over for town government offices. Photo by Mike Rosso Read the rest of this article

by Alan Robinson- Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board member

Concern for preserving “heritage resources” (the collective natural, cultural, historic and scenic features which define an area’s sense of place) in Chaffee County took a front seat in 2004 when its county commissioners ambitiously declared the whole county a heritage area. They also appointed an 11-member Advisory Board representing public land managers, historical societies, towns, ranchers, local nature associations and the general public, and charged us not only with identifying heritage, but with educating our fellow citizens about its value in social, ecological and economic terms, and with planning how heritage can be managed to preserve and perpetuate those values. Board members volunteer their services but, recognizing future administrative and technical services, the commissioners also appointed non-profit Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA, www.garna.org) and its director as the board’s executive arm. Read the rest of this article

by Jennifer Dempsey

In November 2009 evangelical preacher Ted Haggard resigned his leadership position with the New Life Church in Colorado Springs as well as his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after allegations of solicitation of a male prostitute and use of crystal meth were made public.

His wife Gayle has just released a book, “Why I Stayed,” concerning the events of the past three years and why she chose to remain with her husband.

Writer Jennifer Dempsey, who conducted this interview says, “When I spotted Ted Haggard at a grocery store in Westcliffe last November I thought, ‘Hey, isn’t that’s the right wing mega-preacher from Colorado Springs who had the drug and gay-escort scandal? What a hypocrite.’ Then I spoke to him. Then I read his wife’s book. Today my notion of Ted Haggard and his wife Gayle are completely different.” Read the rest of this article

by Susan Tweit

Driving across the San Luis Valley recently, Richard and I spotted groups of sandhill cranes probing the stubble of harvested fields for seeds and insects. Standing four feet tall, with wide gray wings, long, skinny legs, and necks outstretched, these birds are unmistakable.

They’re also part of this improbable high-desert-and-marsh landscape. Twice a year, some 20,000 sandhill cranes, essentially the entire population that migrates along the Rocky Mountains, descend on the San Luis Valley on their thousand-or-more-mile long migration between nesting grounds as far north as Alberta and wintering habitat as far south as Mexico. Read the rest of this article

by Martha Quillen

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the modern world. When I was in fourth grade we were supposed to write a play about what we wanted to be when we grew up. My group wrote about astronauts meeting Martians for the first time. An interest in space travel was typical then; now dinosaurs are more popular.

In the 1960s, they told us Americans would be the first people to walk on the moon, and ours would be the first generation to see other planets. That was true enough – although seeing Mars at IMAX was a mite disappointing. Read the rest of this article

by Susan Bavaria

Imagine a grand opportunity to pursue your creative craft unencumbered by phone, to-do lists or obligatory conversation for 30 days in a picturesque part of Colorado. Sound ideal? An artist residency makes it possible.

Artist residency programs exist worldwide, offering as much variety as there are interpretations of art. Some enjoy illustrious, historic reputations. Author Willa Cather toiled over Death Comes for the Archbishop at MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Composer Aaron Copeland as well as author Sapphire, who wrote the book that became the movie called Precious, both found inspiration at the Yaddo Artist Colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Read the rest of this article

by Forrest Whitman

COLORAIL Loses on Union Station?

Union Station, the premier rail hub in Colorado, won’t have much room for rail passengers if current plans go through. COLORAIL (Colorado Assn. Of Rail Passengers) has sued over the plan. The COLORAIL claim is that Union Station has become little more than another big real estate development and marginalizes passenger rail and inter city bus routes too. For example the light rail platforms will be far from the main station and future expansion on inter-city rail is out of room. COORAIL is gearing up for a long legal fight. Read the rest of this article

by Marcia Darnell

Outdoor Adventure

Winter fun proved treacherous for three in February. Wayne Brown’s snowboard outing led to his getting lost in Mineral County for three days after a snowstorm. He was found safe and in the process of hiking out. In Conejos County, a couple from New Mexico were also found safe. Donald and Carol Bonney took refuge in a yurt after getting lost while cross-country skiing.

Nature Negotiation

U.S. Rep. John Salazar, perhaps inspired by President Obama’s “let’s have a beer and talk it out” example, hosted a roundtable of 23 participants Feb. 17 over the controversy surrounding the proposed Village at Wolf Creek. No solution was reached, but Salazar vowed to listen to all sides and study the environmental review before deciding whether to sponsor the land-swap legislation. Read the rest of this article

“Right to Float” Bill Hits Snags

DENVER – Colorado House Bill 1188, the “River Outfitters Viability Act,” was abandoned by the state senate and will be sent to the Colorado Water Congress for evaluation.

The legislation, proposed by Rep. Kathleen Curry, was designed to protect the boating industry from restrictions sought by a private landowner from Texas along the Taylor River. Read the rest of this article

by Hal Walter

Here in politically regressive Custer County I’ve seen a number of interesting bumper stickers reflecting the general dissatisfaction of the majority so-called conservative crowd. Perhaps the most interesting is one that depicts the old green-and-white Colorado mountain license plate, the artwork that became the basis for a generation of bumpers stickers that said “Native,” “Skier,” etc.

This one simply says “Taxarado.” Read the rest of this article

by John Mattingly

Imagine these two words spoken a thousand years ago, or five hundred, or even a hundred years ago, when most people were so survival-shackled the last thing they wanted was more jobs to be created.

An extreme contrarian might suggest that a 10 percent jobless rate in the U.S. is actually a sign of our success. We’ve reached a state in which one in ten people aren’t working and the nation isn’t falling apart. Not yet, anyway. In fact, this may be the new reality: obsolescence of the human worker. As a species of tool makers, we may have tooled ourselves out of a lot of work. Economists point out that innovation vanquishes certain jobs while creating new ones, but who knows? This time, maybe not. Maybe ten, or even twenty percent of the population won’t have a job. Read the rest of this article

by George Sibley

Recently it became official – globally, there are now more city cousins than country cousins. In other words, more than half of all humans live in large urban concentrations. We central Coloradans are now part of a global minority, which is probably not that much of a surprise here, where our state’s population is closer to three-quarters metropolitan.

A short essay in Newsweek (1/25/2010) tried to celebrate the fact that we are “adding the equivalent of seven New Yorks to the planet every year.” This means the most important locus (sic) for 21st-century innovation – technological, economic, and societal – will be our cities. They present the most promising opportunity to make our planet smarter. Cities bring together the systems by which our world works and include education, transportation, public safety, and health care, among others.” Read the rest of this article

by Francisco A. Rios

Horace Tabor’s Loneliness

Whatever promise the mines in Mexico may hold out to Horace, he pays a terrible price in loneliness, and probably guilt, at being away from his family for months at a time, especially when there is a serious illness at home. The modern device of the telegraph allows for rapid communication, but sometimes it makes his absence from Lizzie all the worse, as he writes on Dec. 4, 1893 from an unstated location. Read the rest of this article

by Patty LaTaille

Time Share Beware.

Okay – so not a timeshare exactly – a “Club Membership” to be precise.

Young, in love, blissful honeymooners, unaware and feeling the buzz from celebratory champagne.

Fresh meat for the El Presidente Intercontinental Club representative sharks. Read the rest of this article

by John Orr

State Representative Curry’s bill: What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been

State Representative Kathleen Curry’s bill, HB 10-1188, was designed to clarify the rights of outfitters on Colorado streams that have been traditionally used for rafting. The original bill meant to allow portages during high water and the right to float certain reaches around the state.

After the state house approved the bill by a margin of 40-25 – on pretty much a party-line vote – opponents dug in and started lobbying the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. They were hoping to keep the bill bottled up in the committee and avoid a floor vote. Read the rest of this article

an essay by Chris Hunt

First there’s the cramped aisle seat on the commuter. Knees aren’t meant to bend that direction. At least not for that long.

Then off the plane and into the airport. The rush. Harried faces counting gate numbers. Life becomes a watch face. Everybody has a smart phone at their ear, and looks of self-importance cross their faces.

Baggage claim is next – we stand around the carousel like a litter of puppies around a single food bowl, waiting nervously. They lost it. I just know it.

Read the rest of this article

Halfway to Heaven
By Mark Obmascik

Published in 2009 by Free Press,
a division of Simon and Schuster
ISBN13: 978-1-4165-6699-1

Reviewed by Martha Quillen

Halfway to Heaven is an adventure travelogue featuring harrowing tales of derring-do and death, along with passages about Colorado history, Colorado places (including Leadville and Salida), Colorado fourteeners, and mountain climbers; all held together with stand-up style comedy.

For me, this combination was not an immediate success. At first, I thought Obmascik’s jokes about marriage, aging, baldness, and parenthood blended with his profile on William Henry Jackson about as well as ice cream and lemonade blend to make a sundae.

Read the rest of this article

by  Aaron Mandelkorn

Damming water to channel through a turbine for energy generation is almost primitive in its simplicity. Yet from a modern electrical generation standpoint, it can be quite efficient at producing clean, renewable electricity on-site. You don’t have to have the Colorado River running through your yard to get electricity from flowing water. In fact, micro-hydroelectricity is a stable, cost effective and efficient form of on-site energy production. Read the rest of this article

Understanding the Penitente Church in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico

by Ruben E. Archuleta

Slowly and methodically the candles on the candelabrum are extinguished one by one as the Hermanos (Brothers) recite their prayers and sing the mournful alabados (Penitente hymns) until the last of the thirteen candles is out leaving the morada (meeting place) in total darkness. Suddenly the pandemonium that ensues with the sounds of rattling chains, the staccato of the matracas (wooden noise makers), banging on tins, and the wailing brings to mind the shaking of the earth, the lightning and thunder, the fear and wailing of the people gathered around the crucifixion … and then darkness as Jesus’ mortal body releases its soul. The Penitente rite known as the tinieblas (darkness), which represents the death of Jesus on the cross, has been practiced every Good Friday evening in the moradas throughout southern Colorado and northern New Mexico for over a century, and possibly longer. Read the rest of this article