Month: April 1997

Waiting for Spring: The Struggle

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Column by Hal Walter

Cabin Fever – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

This winter I’ve been half-jokingly referring to my life in the Wet Mountains as “The Struggle.” I coined the term one starry bone-chilling night after arriving home from a part-time newspaper gig after 1 a.m., only to have to trudge through the snow and ice to deal with an inside room temperature that was barely above freezing, and hungry jackasses that were loudly alleging negligence. This late-night survival drill clearly identified three necessary-for-life commodities that make “The Struggle” for real — firewood, hay, and money.

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Salida’s history seems to be slipping away

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Essay by Martha Quillen

Salida – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Lately, I’ve been sitting up reading Under the Angel of Shavano by George G. Everett and Dr. Wendell F. Hutchinson. It’s a history of the Salida area with information on ranching, railroading, stagecoaches, murders, business, and Indians, plus many first-person pioneer narratives.

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Arrangements of Motion: Barbara Baker

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Article by Columbine Quillen

Local arts – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Barbara Baker was born in Central Colorado, but left our region at the age of three. Although born in Fairplay, Baker studied ballet in London and modern dance in New York City, and she danced professionally in both Chicago and New York.

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The Western Frontier and La Frontera del Norte

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Article by George Sibley

Changing West – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

I had my first personal encounter with la frontera del norte back in the early 1980s when I was running the saw at a small mill up on Black Mesa, between Gunnison and Crawford. The mill owner brought “a wetback” to the mill one morning — his terminology (he never made much of a point of political correctness). He had contracted for this man’s services with a coyote who’d brought in a truckload of Mexicans the night before.

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They might be descended from Guadalcanal stowaways

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Letter from Paul Martz

Saguache mosquitoes – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I don’t know but what this Saguache mosquito business is starting to get out of hand. However, since everyone else has his own theory on the subject and there certainly seems to be more unanimity on skeeters than on, say, flying saucers, I’ll put in my two bits worth as well.

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Go low enough, and an elk can turn into a deer

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Letter from Clay Warren

Wildlife – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

After I got all over my indignation at Riff Fenton’s ploy to sucker them Insect Rights protesters into paying a winter visit to the San Luis Valley, I settled down and finished Allen Best’s article about the many misconceptions of some of our seasonal visitors.

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The real reason for those bloodless carcasses

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Letter from William “buck” Winters

Saguache mosquitos – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Editor:

I’m hurt. I’m really, truly hurt. Here I’ve been working tirelessly all these years to improve the general size and health of Saguache County mosquitoes as part of my clandestine anti-growth, anti-tourist effort — and now folks are wanting to shoot ’em!

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Minturn offers site for Bronco stadium

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Brief by Allen Best

Colorado politics – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Minturn offers solution to Broncos’ search for a new stadium

Pat Bowlen’s got a problem, although admittedly a problem lots of people would love to have.

He has a football team, the Denver Broncos, and he says that to make ends meet he needs a new stadium, one with more luxury boxes and other revenue enhancers. He’s been dickering with the City of Denver and other governments around Denver, and so far no solutions are evident.

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Nobody came to get Club 20’s cowpie award

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Brief by Ellen Miller

Colorado politics – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Club 20 isn’t an exclusive bístro. A good brief description is that the organization serves as a chamber of commerce for Colorado’s Western Slope, plus Lake County.

It hasn’t been that long since environmentalists were about as welcome at Club 20 as Hillary Clinton at a cigar club. Or that Club 20 salivated at the prospect of big multinationals opening shop on the Western Slope.

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Can’t they find the time to read the laws they write?

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Brief by Central Staff

State legislature – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

If they don’t have time to read the bills, How do they find time to pass all those laws?

In February, our state House of Representatives passed a bill that would eliminate Colorado’s Basic Literacy Act. But it was a mistake; they didn’t mean to do it.

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In Westcliffe, two’s company, but three’s a gang

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Brief by Central Staff

School rules – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Two’s company, three’s a gang

Parents shopping for a “gang-free” school district might want to look at Westcliffe, where they’ve got some strict rules.

For one, no more than two sixth-graders can be together on the playground during recess, unless they’re playing an organized sport.

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Our Holy Highways

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Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Our Holy Highways

After a spate of TV-sweeps sensations, the Vail/Beaver Creek Times assured its readers that the pits marked by orange cones on U.S. 24 in Minturn were not asteroid craters.

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Winners and Losers in the Wal-Mart Supercenter Sweepstakes

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Brief by Central Staff

Commerce – April 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine

Wal-Mart already gets about 25¢ from every retail dollar spent in Salida, and it stands to increase that share soon when it opens its new 24-hour 7-day superstore now under construction.

Kenneth E. Stone, a professor of economics at Iowa State University in Ames, has been studying the effects of Wal-Mart Supercenters in Texas, the state which has more than any other.

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