Column by Hal Walter
Environment – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IF THERE’S ANYTHING I learned from my stint in Leadville as editor of the weekly newspaper there in 1989, it’s the smell of lead carbonates and the smell of something fishy. Now I live in Custer County, where public officials have told us that lead concentrations ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 parts per million on public roads are no big deal. The stench is strangely familiar.
Essay by Gretchen Biggs
Vail – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Arson Isn’t All That’s Wrong On Vail Mountain
by Gretchen Biggs
FIRES SET BY ARSONISTS atop Colorado’s Vail Mountain have unleashed a storm of condemnation, a media feeding frenzy, and a no-holds-barred federal investigation.
But the powerful public outrage provoked by the arson has obscured more important events occurring on the backside of Vail Mountain. To my way of thinking, there was just as much to be outraged about before the arson.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Vail Arson – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT APPEARS that I know many people who have severe attitude problems when it comes to Vail Resorts, a big company along the Interstate 70 Sacrifice Zone which employs many Central Colorado residents at low pay and minimal benefits.
Vail is also posed to expand into a relatively undeveloped area, and that show will go on despite a fire early in the morning of Oct. 19 which destroyed a ski-patrol lodge and a restaurant while damaging the top terminals of several ski lifts.
Review by Lynda La Rocca
Books – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Some Personal Favorites
by Lynda La Rocca
“Those were the days, my friend,” you can almost hear Banana Rose sigh as she spoons brown rice and tofu into her mouth.
The title character of Natalie Goldberg’s first — and fabulous — novel joins a commune in Taos, New Mexico, in the mid-1970s to search for her muse as a painter and her place in the world.
Review by Clint Driscoll
Western America – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
An Empire Wilderness: Travels into America’s Future
by Robert D. Kaplan
ISBN: 0-679-45190-0
Review by Ed Quillen
Local History – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Mining Camps Speak – A New Way to Explore the Ghost Towns of the American West
by Beth and Bill Sagstetter
Published in 1998 by Benchmark Publishing of Colorado
ISBN: 0-9645824-1-4
Review by Allen Best
Winter – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
A Colorado Winter – Photography by John Fielder
Essays by M. John Fayhee
Westcliffe Publishers
Englewood, Colorado
ISBN: 1-56579-289-0
Letter by Paul Martz
Geology – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine –
Where does the water go?
Editors:
After reading both parts of the article on water in the San Luis Valley, one significant question remains unanswered: Does the artesian aquifer (lower one) drain anywhere? The reason that knowing this is significant is because if it does — say south to the head of the Rio Grande gorge — then recharge has been occurring constantly from the already adjudicated surface waters. If the “missing” or unaccounted for million acre feet has been leaving via gravity, then obviously any pumping from that formation will withdraw additional water from the annual runoff budget.
Letter by Jim Ludwig
Local Lore – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Bats, the old Pioneer Club, and much, much more
Ed and Martha:
I found your November issue, with the exception of one piece of correspondence, to be the best that I have seen. The choice of subjects, the book reviews and regional comments were excellent. I realize that I may not be your mainstream reader, but thanks for a great issue.
Letter by Clint Driscoll
Growth – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Boomtown Blues is another good book about our changes
Dear Ed,
Thanks for the review of Peter Decker’s Old Fences, New Neighbors. The book is a bit pricey, even with First Street’s discount, but worth it for the quotes which can be pulled from it. You are quite right, Decker has a sharp eye and a sympathetic view of the close-knit society which existed around Ridgway before the big land rush in the ’80s and ’90s destroyed it. The same situation exists throughout the state and his observations can apply as much to Custer or Chaffee County as to Ouray County.
Letter by John Walker
Zoning – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Those who complain loudest about all the regulations are often those who make the regulations necessary
Editors:
That every American has a birthright to express an opinion regardless of the facts was again evidenced in Jan Evans’s October lament over Frémont County zoning.
This system of zoning was arrived at following lengthy public review and input — an inexact process loosely termed democracy that does not number simplicity among its virtues. “Nonconforming” uses, which Ms. Evans presents as proof of poor zoning typically represent pre-existing uses “grandfathered” in at the time zoning was adopted. I think most would agree that this is a reasonable outcome and better than forcing a business to relocate.
Letter by Slim Wolfe
SLV Water – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
It isn’t only Boyce’s greed that leads to Water Wars
Editors:
So bully for Quillen smoking Boyce’s cigars. Haven’t I passed the hookah myself with a farmer or two? Farmers and ranchers at least earn our respect for hard work and earthiness. What irritates about selling water is the brazen ease of getting rich without sweat.
Letter by Jeanne Englert
Identity – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
One use discovered for a long-expired driver’s license
Dear Ed and Martha:
Your readers may appreciate an update on my identity crisis (November, 1998). After hearing the story of what I went through to get my signature notarized, an old friend’s daughters got on her case. Non-drivers each one, but the girls have state ID cards, whereas their mom was still getting by using a driver’s license that had been expired for ten years. (Her bank knows her; she’s pretty much a cash-and-carry gal — the bank cashes her paycheck; she carries her groceries on the bus.)
Article by Paul Martz
Geology – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
HOT SPRINGS, as simple as they may seem on the surface, have a wide variety of mechanisms that drive them from the crust of the earth.
The most common type of hot spring in Central Colorado, or for that matter worldwide, is caused by hot rock, sometimes even melted rock, at a depth where it heats ground water and drives it back to the surface. The greater the amount of heating, the more rapidly the water rises to the surface.
Article by Marcia Darnell
Local Attractions – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
GLEAMING WHITE TILE, hot mineral water and a sweeping view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. These are the hallmarks of Mineral Hot Springs Spa, where visitors can soak, sweat, sun, and relax in an atmosphere reminiscent of a Roman bath.
Poem by Martha Quillen
Holiday – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the towns
Parents had adopted grim holiday frowns
For their half-finished projects did in no way resemble
The various items they were trying to assemble.
Article by Nancy Ward
Local Artist – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
SEAN GUERRERO’S artistic creations are larger than life.
It might be said they “litter” the countryside from coast to coast, since they’re made from articles discarded by civilization as it embraces newer things. But Guerrero’s art definitely is not “garbage.” Guerrero recycles chrome bumpers and other unwanted metals from vintage cars parked and long-forgotten in pastures, back alleys and junkyards in the Southwest and Midwest, and turns them into sculptures too large to be hidden away in exquisite homes or exclusive galleries.
Article by George Sibley
Shamanism – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Santa Claus and the Reindeer Connection
Even for a child, Santa Claus requires a pretty major suspension of disbelief. A fat little man dressed in red and white is okay. Hitting every house in the world in a single night is okay. But flying through the skies in a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer? And then landing on the roof and coming down the chimney? Why not just use the door?
Article by George Sibley
Livestock – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
THIS STARTED OUT to be a story about reindeer, for the satisfaction of my own curiosity. As often happens, it turned into something else, and something more.
For the last couple of years, driving east from Gunnison on Highway 50, I’ve been noticing exotic-looking animals off to the south, just east of Doyleville. Not deer, which are common along that whole stretch of road, but what looked like … eight tiny reindeer, or maybe a dozen or so?
Poem by Laurie Wagner Buyer
Personal – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Until I Run Out of Thread
Like an old coat
I’ve outgrown you
stretched in a different direction
Brief by Central Staff
Local Literature – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Fairplay poet Laurie Wagner Buyer receives national recognition
Laurie Wagner Buyer of Fairplay, whose prose has graced our pages on several occasions, is also a poet — and one of the best in the United States as determined by Writer’s Digest magazine.
Her poem, “Until I Run Out of Thread,” took first place in the Non-Rhyming Poem category of the 1998 Writer’s Digest competition.
Brief by Central Staff
Local Politics – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Our turn to spin about the ’98 election
The only candidate we meant to endorse in the last edition, but didn’t get around to writing up, was Carl Miller. He’s a conservative Democrat and state representative for District 61, which had new boundaries this time that comprised part of the San Luis Valley.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Water Safety
Proposed amendments 15 and 16, aimed at siphoning off Valley water for sale to thirsty cities, went down in flames on election day. The initiatives were voted down 76 percent to 24 percent.
Brief by Central Staff
Pack-Burro Racing – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Barbara Dolan wins the Triple Crown of Pack-Burro Racing
Barbara Dolan of Buena Vista won the Triple Crown award from the Colorado Pack-Burro Racing Association at the group’s annual Burro Banquet on October 10 at the Fairplay Hotel.
Brief by Kenneth Jessen
Transportation – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Rolling Next Spring
Passenger trains will once again run through the Royal Gorge from Cañon City to Parkdale and back beginning in May of next year. Plans call for three trips a day, each lasting about two hours. The new Cañon City & Royal Gorge Railroad, carried guests during the weekends of October 17-18 and again October 24-25 to test schedules and public reaction.
Brief by Central Staff
Growth – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Minnesotan claims Californians are converting Coloradans
“Republicans [in California] are doing badly not only because they are alienating immigrants but because their own supporters are becoming emigrants.
Essay by Stephen Lyons
Nature Writing – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN A RECENT COLUMN in the online magazine Salon, Anne Lamont made the following proposal: “Rather than make perfectly good writers crank out new books every few years because they need income and are otherwise unemployable, what if we gave them subsidies NOT to write any more books, like they give to tobacco growers?”
Essay by Mark Matthews
Wildlife – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE BIG BUCK suddenly appears in my headlights like a statue standing in the middle of the two-lane highway. I brake, swerve to the right trying not to go off the road. I think I’m past the deer, then it lowers its head and seems to ram into my right fender on purpose, as if it were fending off a competing stag.
Column by Hal Walter
Wildlife – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT HAD BEEN SEVERAL YEARS since I’d killed a deer. Now the little buck lay dead at my feet, his eyes glassing over and blood running from his neck.
It was a golden autumn evening and I’d been hunting deer and elk in the muzzleloading rifle season. Earlier I’d found a wallow in an aspen glade. The small pond, a depression in the earth where a spring oozed to the surface, was stirred and muddy water was mixing with the clear. A few feet away I found milky droplets from the waterhole splattered on plants.
Sidebar by Marcia Darnell
Mining – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Mining a New Life
Chuck Fairchild is a fourth-generation Creede miner. His greatgrandfather, Charles Fairchild, came to Creede when the boom began, in 1892 and stayed eight years.
The next three generations of Fairchild men lived and mined in Creede until Chuck’s last job in the 1980s. Chuck’s own children are 15, 13 and 11.
Article by Marcia Darnell
Mining – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S FINE TO DO SOMETHING that requires bringing a coat, unless, of course, you forget one. The Creede Underground Mining Museum thoughtfully provides a rack of cold-weather gear for its visitors who didn’t think they’d need a parka.
Open year-round, the museum really is underground, and is a brisk 51°, meaning it’s toasty warm in January and wonderfully frigid in June. About 13,000 people a year take the plunge into its dark, rocky, and utterly authentic atmosphere.
Letter from Clay Warren
October edition – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
October edition was enough to drive a man to drink
Editors:
Man! If ever there was an issue to drive a man to drink! O’course we’re talking ’bout a real lo-cal liquid that is best used for pouring over flag burners and bathing on Saturday nights whether ah need to or not. But ah will say thet the one advantage Tennessee has over Colorado, is a surplus o’aqua. Course hit has a surplus o’ rattlesnakes too, but ah wont bring thet up ’cause ah wouldn’t want to discourage any front rangers from moving there where good land is cheap and real green too.
Letter by Ken Wright
Politics – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Time for Sen. Campbell to switch parties again?
To the editor:
It seems Sen. Ben “Nighthorse” Campbell is offering the American people a Trojan horse. Last month a Senate committee approved a bill to authorize a water project in Montana — a bill onto which our Senator has attached a rider that would approve the Animas-La Plata Project without public involvement.
Letter by Jim Ludwig
water – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Water: Use it, don’t lose it, but use it thoughtfully
To the Editors:
I find your October Colorado Central, devoted to Colorado water, most interesting. Particularly the letter from the Editors, which is an open attempt to really discuss the issues, not a blind partisanship of a single viewpoint. I believe Gunnison would be much better off if they used their money to consider the best way to use the Union Park venture to the best local advantage possible, rather than blind opposition. The same is true of the Closed Basin water proposal. We of the high mountains will suffer forever for the out-of-state power, avidly sought by some, which killed the Two Forks project, an attempt to more efficiently use incompletely developed water rights.
Letter by Slim Wolfe
Local changes – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Old Grouches can follow him in moving to nowhere
Editors of Colorado Central:
Now, Martha Quillen, ain’t no need to be chastened by the State of Rural Missouri. That cranky woman was probably just jealous ’cause here in 20th century Salida we’ve invented color. Just happens I was in rural Missouri in September. They had two colors for houses, white and brick. They’re a hardworking lot of farmers and I hardly blame them if they brook no graffiti (nor any other nonsense from the 20th century, such as off-white or pastel). My impression was I sure wouldn’t want to be a teenager there, ’cause the tighter those repressed grownups try to screw the lid on the jar of adolescent energy, the farther those shards of glass are gonna fly.
Letter by Stanley J. Schmidt
Wildlife – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Good fences make one a good neighor to wildlife
Editors:
The column by Hal Walter in the August issue on Deadly Fences was very informative. I intend to install the Wildlife Friendly Fence that Hal describes when it comes time to install new fence or to re-fence parts of my property north of Cotopaxi.
Letter by Roger Williams
Geography – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
More geographic confusion
Editors:
Regarding geography in your September edition, Flora Satt (p. 6) seems to be a little confused as Henry Thomas “left the Central City gold camp in 1867, and crossed the Divide to investigate the Upper Arkansas Valley…”. Since both these places are on the Eastern Slope, I wonder which divide she is referring to.
Review by Ed Quillen
Growth – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Old Fences, New Neighbors
by Peter R. Decker
Published in 1998 by the University of Arizona Press
ISBN 0-8165-1905-6
Review by Ken Wright
Wildlife – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World
by David Petersen
Published in 1998 by Johnson Books
ISBN 1-55566-224-2
Essay by Martha Quillen
Politics – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
I SPENT THE LAST TWO WEEKS of September rescuing spiders. As soon as it got cold, they started moving in, and I diligently started fishing them out of the kitchen sink and the bathtub.
But at the same time, Ed and I were painting the exterior of a little rental house we own, and there the situation seemed hopeless. Suddenly, spiders were lodging in every crack, and they wholly ignored the wet paint. Though I did my best to flick them away, it was a veritable spider Armageddon.
Article by Lynda La Rocca
Local History – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
“. . . no one who has ever entered the Pioneer … has ever forgotten its bewildering interior…. It is in fact a cosmopolitan establishment in the heart of an infant metropolis, and in point of equipment has no superior.”
Leadville Herald-Democrat, May 1886
FOR MOST OF LEADVILLE’S FIRST 100 YEARS, a man in need of refreshment looked no further than the Pioneer Club.
Essay by Tom Wolf
San Luis Valley Water – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean:
And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war!
Article by Ed Quillen
Water – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE SAN LUIS VALLEY’S continuing water war will appear on the state ballot this year as two ballot issues, and you can expect a propaganda barrage from both sides. Stockman’s Water, according to Gary Boyce, will spend up to $1 million, and its varied opponents, coördinated by Citizens for Colorado Water in Alamosa, hope to have their own million raised by the time you read this.
Article by Charlie Green
Wildlife – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
FOR A CHANGE from the issues which readers of this magazine can disagree over, I’d like to introduce one which we might all unite to support: bats.
Yeah, bats. Bats aren’t just Halloween cutouts; actually, around here, it’s rare to see bats that late in the year. They’ve usually migrated south before then. These are our invisible companions each summer evening. I’ve sat and watched them (on moonlit nights) both in the city and in rural Frémont county.
Article by Allen Best
Community identity – November 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Gunnison Country appears to maintain its balance
The Gunnison Country remains an anomaly among beautiful places of the West. Defined by geography, the broad basin has sky-piercing peaks, wide open spaces, and even a destination ski resort, attributes that usually cause a place to become bombarded by changes and lifestyle clashes. Yet the old order seems to operate in a vaguely comfortable balance with the new order. There is, by most accounts, a strong sense of community.
