Month: July 2000

Zen and the Art of Pack-Burro Racing

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Column by Hal Walter

Pack-burro racing – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

The thin air smelled of stone and snow, the sun came through it and lay warm on her hands and face without warming the air itself. Up, up, up. There was no top to this pass. — Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

A COUPLE of weeks before the World Championship Pack-Burro Race in Fairplay, I’ll sometimes park at a place known as “The Resurrection,” named for a mine near timberline at the base of Mosquito Pass above Leadville. From here I can cover the top sections of both the Fairplay and Leadville courses in one last, long workout before these races, which combines long-distance running, mountaineering and equine handling skills.

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The 10 worst roads in Central Colorado

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Article by Dave McCullough

Photos by Roy Joseph and Scott McCullough

Back roads – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

A ROAD IS AN OPEN ROUTE or public way for the passage of vehicles, persons, and animals. To separate the many roads or two-tracks in the Central Colorado mountains into the worst category requires some clarification of “worst road.” In general, the worst roads are still capable of transporting people in a vehicle along a public way.

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Keeping up is hard to do

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Essay by Martha Quillen

Politics and modern life – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

LOOKING BACK at the letters I’ve written in the past year, it occurs to me that I haven’t said much about local politics. Instead, I’ve written about the Holocaust, the logic (or lack thereof) of arguments, postmodern reality, the history of millenialism, the origin of various holidays…

Although I’ve frequently related those topics to local issues — a necessity, since I haven’t really gone anywhere else in the past year — I’ve seldom focused on local concerns. I wrote a letter about the new Salida plan, and a little bit about a proposed golf course, but that’s about it.

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An economy based on the youcant

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Letter from Slim Wolfe

Economics – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

An economy based on the youcant

Martha and Ed,

I am grateful for those sharp minds who founded our nation. Yet I wonder that our economy came to be based on dollars, when it might be based on yucant. Currency, same root as current, indicates flow between people. The most basic flow is plainly the yucant. The more people, the more yucants, as in yucant park there. The less dollars, the more yucants, as in yucant afford that, but the converse is also undeniable: the more dollars, the more structures people will build, and yucant walk through a wall, or yucant fight that new regulation.

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Toll gates on the Front Range

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Letter from Roger Williams

User fees (June 2000) – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Toll Gates on the Front Range

Editors:

About those public-land user fees:

Brainard Lake in Indian Peaks Wilderness, Arapahoe/Roosevelt National Forest near Ward, also charges admission, or did a few years ago when I went up there with a friend and was surprised to encounter a toll gate.

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Thanks for the compliment

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Letter from Kenneth Jessen Colorado Central – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine Thanks for the compliment Editors: Colorado Central offers an excellent blend between contemporary issues and historical articles. It is difficult to plot a course for the future of the mountain regions of Colorado without knowing where you have been, yet at the …

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Prescription for a fire

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Sidebar by Chas S. Clifton

Wildfire – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

When a planned 600-acre prescribed burn at Bandelier National Monument exploded into a huge wildfire in May 2000 that burned homes and other buildings in Los Alamos, N.M., many people probably wondered how a fire is “prescribed.”

Typically, fires are started to “reduce fuel load” — in other words, to clear overgrown trees and brush before they burn on their own — or to improve wildlife habitat.

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Protecting your home against forest fires

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Sidebar by Chas S. Clifton

Wildfire – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Many Colorado Central readers live in what is called the “urban interface” — in other words, right up against the trees. Many of the homes that burned in the canyons of Los Angeles, in the Oakland Hills fire a decade ago, in the Black Tiger fire outside Boulder more recently, and in Los Alamos this spring, were similarly situated. Whether the fire nearing your home started from lightning, a campfire, or a forester’s drip torch, the end result might be the same — a sooty foundation and a pile of ashes.

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Orange Flags of Flame: Prescribed burns in the Wet Mountains

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Article and photos by Chas S. Clifton

Wildfire – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

DESERTED MUCH OF THE TIME, the old Wetmore school’s parking lot was filled one night in October 1999. The big basement room — the lunchroom in former days before consolidation with the Florence school district — was packed with eastern Custer County residents, and volunteers were carrying in more folding chairs from the storerooms.

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Clyde Tullis: Mudlarking in Salida

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Article by Ed Quillen

Photos courtesy Clyde Tullis

Local artists – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine –

IF FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER, then “mudlark” isn’t quite the brand name that would emerge from a corporate marketing consultant. But it’s the name that potter Clyde Tullis uses for his Salida studio, and he has his reasons.

“Mudlark fits in a lot of ways,” he says. “We potters often call our clay ‘mud,’ and this whole business is a sort of ‘lark’ to avoid holding a day job, so the shop is indeed a ‘mud lark.'”

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Hot, dry, windy — and dangerous

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Brief by Central Staff

Climate – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

It’s dry. How dry? The June 1 snowpack report from the National Resources Conservation Service put Colorado’s snowpack at only 14% of average, the lowest since they started keeping records.

That’s partly because last winter had below-normal snowfall, a

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Look, up in the sky

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Brief by Central Staff

UFOs – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Look, up in the sky

We had hoped that the San Luis Valley had a regional monopoly on mysterious supernal objects, but now the south side of South Park has a sighting.

Late at night on May 23, several residents in and near Lake George saw a fireball streak across the sky, and some said it appeared to crash in the area.

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We interrupt your regular summer programming

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Brief by Central Staff

Local Politics – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Okay, it’s summer, and you’d rather dig postholes than pay attention to politics. We understand, but we’ve got to do our job.

There’s no U.S. Senate race in Colorado this year, and the only statewide office contest is for secretary of state, to fill out the term of Vicki Buckley, who died in 1999, early in her second term.

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By our Zips do they know us

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Brief by Central Staff

Demographics – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

In the June edition, we learned about the relationship between crime risks and postal Zip codes (when introduced in 1963, ZIP was an acronym for “Zone Improvement Plan” — some of us are old enough to remember postal zones in big cities, like “New York 17, N.Y.”)

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Briefs from the San Luis Valley

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Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

Nonstop Flights?

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed legislation that could make it impossible to sue to stop low-level military fly-overs. An environmental group in California is suing, with other organizations, to stop the training flights, calling for an assessment of their impact on people and wildlife.

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There’s no such thing as a “Town Marshall”

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Brief by Central Staff

Orthography – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

On occasion, we have pointed out typographic and related errors in area publications. We just found another one, minor but common and annoying, in the 2000 Custer County Visitors’ Guide.

It had a short item about the old stone Westcliffe jail behind the Jones Theater, and “The Marshall at that time …”

To be fair, we should mention when it’s done right: the Wet Mountain Tribune spells “marshal” the proper way, with only one l.

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The browning of the American farm

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Essay by Devon Peña

Agriculture – July 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine

WHILE THE ANGLO FAMILY FARMER continues to disappear at an alarming rate, the number of Latino farmers has rapidly increased — from 17,476 in 1987 to close to 30,000 in 1997, according to agricultural census data. This number is expected to increase to 40,000 by 2007, and doesn’t include the thousands of uncounted Latino farmers who do not fit the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s conventional definition of commercial farms.

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Western Water Report: 14 July 2000

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COLORADO UPDATES ITS BASIC SURFACE WATER QUALITY STANDARDS

In a marathon two-day rulemaking hearing, the Colorado Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) reviewed and revised its Basic Classifications and Standards for Surface Water. There were some significant improvements and some relaxation of current levels of protection. The areas of improvement were in pathogen limits and anti-degradation review. Secondary drinking water standards for manganese, sulfate and iron were relaxed. A decision on new mixing zone limits was postponed to allow for more input from a working group on this topic.

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