Colorado Central Articles From — January 2011

By John Mattingly

We had a crazy Uncle Bob in our family. He wasn’t clinically crazy, he was just odd. My mom said he turned “funny” when he was born and never straightened out. He visited us at Christmas for many years when I was a kid. I actually thought Bob was pretty cool. He could rile my parents in ways I couldn’t.

One time Bob declared at the dinner table that he was coming out as an atheist. My mom, who could swordplay with the best of them in conversation, quickly informed those of us at the table that Bob wasn’t really an atheist, he just didn’t like to go to church.

To which Bob said something like, “Whaddaya you mean, I love churches,” and my mom shot back, stabbing him with her eyes, “Yeah, from the outside.” Read the rest of this article

by Judy Suchan

Two aggressive railroads, hastily built forts, a cannon commandeered by the legendary ‘Bat’ Masterson, gunfire, and a legal battle that raged in the courts for almost two years. This was the little known Royal Gorge War, an event that helped shape Colorado’s, as well as the nation’s transportation system.

In the late 1870s, miners converged on the Arkansas River Valley of Southern Colorado in the search for silver and lead. Feverish mining in the area led to the town of Leadville and attracted the attention of two railroads, the Denver & Rio Grande (D&RG) and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. Read the rest of this article

by Olivia Lowe

It was a struggle for him, my family, and me. I think most of us were ready and had prepared ourselves, but not me.

My grandpa had six children, a farm clustered with exotic giraffes and tigers, a superlative life, and many talents. In fact, he still holds the record for the longest intercepted pass for a touchdown when he played for the Wisconsin Badgers. He also owned 7,000 acres of horse and laughter grazed land north of Cotopaxi.

He was in college when he received five letters asking him to try out for the “cheese-head” Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, and the Los Angeles Rams. Reasonably, he declined due to the fact that they didn’t pay as well back then and it was a totally different sport. Read the rest of this article

By George Sibley

At the coffee shop a few months back, one of the local Tea Partiers slapped a petition down on my table: “We want all government officials to adhere to the Constitution of the United States.”

Well – what’s to disagree with there? I signed it. But I was left with the uneasy feeling that I should have asked some questions first. Like, which government officials do you think are not adhering to the Constitution? What do you mean by “adhere”? Et cetera.

To the best of my knowledge that petition never went anywhere, but a month later, the same guy was petitioning to recall all of our County Commissioners – for, among other sins, not adhering to the Constitution. I didn’t sign that one. Read the rest of this article

Some Steamy Issues

NATHROP – The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to issue a lease for geothermal development near Mount Princeton to 3E Geothermal.

The bureau received 16 letters of protest from residents and landowners in the vicinity of the proposed lease whose concerns focused mainly on fears of water contamination. Read the rest of this article

by Jan MacKell

“The ancient card faces painted on the layout were doubtless faded and worn but to my boyish eyes they glowed like a church’s stained-glass window … (Gaye) started drawing the cards one by one from the battered old silver box. As he drew, I could see his lips move and knew he was making bets for imaginary customers. Deftly he slapped stacks of chips – we always called them checks – on certain cards of the layout.”

So did Nugget, the main character in Conrad Richter’s book Tacey Cromwell, describe how his brother practiced so he could get a job dealing Faro during the late 1800s. In the old west Faro was more popular than Poker, so chosen because it was amazingly easy to play. Nary a saloon in the West was without it, and several well known figures of the time – Soapy Smith and Doc Holliday among them – made their riches by banking the game. Read the rest of this article

by Ed Quillen

Never have I been much of a joiner, but I do belong to the Salida Business Alliance and just got re-elected as its secretary. The SBA puts on the Parade of Lights on the night after Thanksgiving and organizes the community Independence Day celebration.

I didn’t join out of some burning desire to serve the community. When we ran this magazine, I sold ads. That meant connecting with local enterprises – “networking” if you will – and the easiest way to meet people is to join an organization. Read the rest of this article

“Is that Ed?”

Several readers commented about the photo on the cover of last month’s issue, wondering if Ed Quillen had somehow been magically transported into the past to play the role of Santa among a group of Salida youngsters.

While we freely admit there is a certain resemblance, Santa is highly unlikely to have been him, as Ed was all of one year old at the time. Also we try to avoid using Photoshop to manipulate images, time, space, physical planes, etc.. Read the rest of this article

We are here to endure the beams of love.,– William Blake

Rays of kindness so intense

one glimpse could melt the thousand-

year ice of a cruel glare instantly, Read the rest of this article

By Hal Walter

“If people let the government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson is surely spinning beneath the Monticello sod over recent Congressional passage of the Food Safety and Modernization Act. You see, Jefferson had the notion that this was to be a nation of small farmers.

Soon the bill will be signed into law. It will affect produce, dairy products, eggs and some processed food, but not meat. Read the rest of this article

father ponderosa

your children are all here

on the pin-wheeled edge

of your shadow

you are the idea of creation

before mountains

watching over this town

from your station

on Methodist Mountain

can i say that you are beautiful? Read the rest of this article

The Malta Schoolhouse, located south of Leadville off U.S. Hwy 24 was built in 1902 after the original schoolhouse, which had been moved to the property from across the highway, burned down. The “second” Malta School operated from 1902 to 1945. Read the rest of this article

By Susan Tweit

Last September, my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Although she was intellectually very much “still here” in her words, her short-term memory became increasingly unreliable and her body began to fail.

Mom was always a cheerful, good-natured sort, but with Alzheimer’s came agitation and apprehension. What seemed to help most was the sound of a familiar and loved voice, and the one she really craved was my voice. Read the rest of this article

Breaking into the Backcountry

By Steven Edwards

University of Nebraska Press, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-8032-2653-1
$16.95, 179pp.

Reviewed by Eduardo Rey Brummel

Just last week I had a brief conversation with a friend regarding the lack of male rites of passage these days. Breaking into the Backcountry is about things explicit and implicit. One of those things is Steve Edwards’ rite of passage.

He writes, “The call came from John Daniel, the contest’s coordinator: I had somehow managed to win the PEN/Northwest Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency, whose prize was a small cash stipend and seven months as caretaker of a backcountry homestead in what John called ‘unparalleled solitude’ along the federally designated Wild and Scenic Rogue River in southwestern Oregon.” Read the rest of this article

by Michael L. Bullock

Personally, I had no problem filling out and returning my family’s 2010 U.S. Census questionnaire – my wife took care of it.

But as a newly unemployed Colorado newspaperman in January of 2010, I took the bait. It was hidden within the pages of the local paper: “Help wanted. 2010 U.S. Census enumerators. Temporary.”

Unassuming John Doe that I am, I trotted over to the American Legion Hall and took the exam. And I passed the test!

At first, anyway. Read the rest of this article

Overgrown by earth

I trust

the wild roses will re-emerge

overwhelm me with their fragrance

and petal pink color

birds nest, bodies pressed,

tongues mingle, hands holding water rest,

then,

in June not July,

in evening not morning,

in lavender sheets not white or green,

in cloudshadow not starlight,

in my bed not yours,

in love

not indecision

we find our place

By Kate Bell, Lake County, CO

Saguache Elections Update

The 2010 general election was conducted following all state and federal statues and rules. The mail-in ballots that were recounted for the clerks and commissioners races produced in the exact same results as the Nov. 5 re-tabulation. The results have been examined and signed off by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office and the Saguache Canvass Board as true and accurate.

The Saguache County Clerk invited a technician from Election Systems & Solutions along with two representatives from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office who reviewed the election processes, reconciled the ballots and researched the data error in the software. Read the rest of this article

by Patty LaTaille

Saguache is boasting a new restaurant in town, with rave reviews from the locals. “It’s a comfortable little diner with good pies,” remarked Valley resident and good friend Chuck Tidd. “You can just hang out; your food will be along when it gets there …”

Walking into the dim, yet cheerful interior, we marveled at the original fir floor, blue-stained beetle-kill pine ceiling, and the age of the building – built in 1888 as the original bar and saloon known as the “Stockman’s Club.” Big wooden tables and a large cozy booth up front, along with a glassed-in bakery case to display all the homemade goodies, made up the rest of the main décor. Read the rest of this article