Month: April 1999

Let’s Enjoy Our Dark Nights

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Column by Hal Walter

Light Pollution – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

IT NEVER QUITE MADE SENSE to me why somebody would wish to install a security light.

Sure, I can see how a yard light could be helpful in the winter when I arrive at home late in the evening and need to unload my vehicle, feed my critters and round up some firewood. But the negative aspects of security lights make my Petzl Micro — a small headlamp that runs practically forever on two AA batteries — seem like a much better alternative.

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The Lynx between Unlikely Allies

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Article by Allen Best

Wildlife – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

RESTORATION OF THE LYNX into Colorado has been riddled with ironies, beginning with Gene Byrne.

“They’re back,” he proclaimed as he opened the gate on February 3 to allow the first lynx to lope through the snow south of Creede, on the edge of the San Juan Mountains.

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Big Art from Andy Burns

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Article by Ed Quillen

Art – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

AROUND SALIDA, artist Andy Burns is probably best _known for his portraits. Though often exquisitely detailed, these oil portraits are not delicate miniatures. They’re generally big, bright, and brash — an in-your-face face that can dominate a big wall.

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Fond Leadville Memories

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Letter by Slim Wolfe

Leadville – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Fond Leadville memories

Editors:

Thanks for your comments [in the March edition] on the loss of Leadville as a mining town. I have fond memories of my days as a Leadhead, when Leadville was about to Climax (1980), and the irreverent power of the working class was a joy to behold.

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‘No’ isn’t the right answer to every question

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Letter by Jim Ludwig

Growth – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

`No’ isn’t the right answer to every question of change

Editors:

I beg to differ with Ken Wright. (Just say No)

I, too, am a relative newcomer to Colorado, only forty-nine years ago. But I have been here long enough to have seen the day that he yearns to preserve. To quote Ken, “I say stop it all: Keep the roads a mess, the infrastructure archaic, the water scarce, and the transportation hellish.”

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I can barely wait for Pre-Futurism

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Essay by Martha Quillen

Modern Culture – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

THERE IS NO SUCH THING as objective reality. The “real world” as we know it is merely a social construction. What we believe to be true is determined by our culture, our religion, our myths, our class, our language, our traditions — and the creative and deductive capacity of our brains.

Or at least that’s what various postmodernists would have us believe.

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The Birth and Death of Free Range Radio

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Article by Jane Carpenter

Local Media – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

IMAGINE HAVING a neighbor who loves the blues or music from Africa or some other exotic arena, and that you knew at a certain time once a week you could turn your radio on and hear him share that passion with you. Or maybe you have a favorite collection you’d like to have others hear.

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Those Little Boxes are Summer Homes for Bluebirds

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Article by Laurie Wagner Buyer

Wildlife – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

ONE OF THE LOVELIEST, if not most vocal, harbingers of spring in the high country is the Mountain Bluebird. Every year I marvel when I see the first flitting scrap of brilliant blue flying from fence post to fence post along our county road, or spot one of these tiny announcers of warmer weather perched atop a small pine like an electric blue Christmas ornament.

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‘Central Mountains’ are right where they should be

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Brief by Ed Quillen

Media – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

The `Central Mountains’ Are Right Where They Should Be

If you watch the nightly news on Denver TV stations, you’ll see the weather forecast, where we’ve been wanting them to predict events like “snow in the central and southern mountains.”

But which mountains do they mean?

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Tourism and Community Identity

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Brief by Central Staff

Tourism – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Tourism and Community Identity

Can a town retain its identity after industrial tourism arrives?

A 16-page article in the Winter 1998 edition of Montana: The Magazine of Western History examines Colorado’s Steamboat Springs and its struggles through the years. The article, “Powder Aplenty for Native and Guest Alike: Steamboat Springs, Corporate Control, and the Changing Meaning of Home,” was written by Nevada historian Hal K. Rothman.

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Heard Around the West

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Brief by Betsy Marston

Heard Around the West – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Wild Animal Vengeance

Two stories that tell us things never go quite as planned: In British Columbia, Canada, a man recently shot himself in the leg with a pistol he carried in case he ran into bears. The accident occurred while he was fleeing a black bear and her two cubs, reports the West Kootenai Weekender.

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Split Verdict Returned in Part 1 of Split Trial

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Brief by Ed Quillen

Internet – Mountain Computer Wizards – April 1999

Split Verdict Returned in Part 1 of Split Trial

A six-person jury in Salida returned a split verdict in the first phase of a two-part trial that involved a lawsuit between principals in Mountain Computer Wizards, a regional Internet service provider (chaffee.net).

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Gunnison School’s Aroma Improves

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Brief by Central Staff

Education – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Gunnison School’s Aroma Improves

The great odor mystery in the elementary wing of the new Gunnison Community School may have been solved.

For 18 months, ever since the school opened, a sewage stench has pervaded that wing, even causing illness among some teachers and students.

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San Luis Valley Briefs

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Brief by Marcia Darnell

Around the San Luis Valley – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

Safecracker Wanted

The state veterans center at Homelake, near Monte Vista, is screening applicants for the job of safecracker. A turn-of-the-century, walk-in safe (with a Yale lock) holds historic records and residents’ valuables at the center. The staff lost the combination during a move three years ago, so the word is out: Safecracker wanted.

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Good Gossip Builds Stronger Communities

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Essay by Steve Mandell

Community – April 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine

WE ONCE LEARNED MORE about a town from one good piece of gossip than from a year of polite conversation. Few things revealed more about a town than the last two or three rumors to have made the rounds down Main Street or through the town hall. Gossip exposed our fears, disclosed our prejudices, and generally revealed our collective dark sides. But it also illuminated whatever creativity and imagination existed below the surface.

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