Month: July 2003

The future of pack-burro racing will come from its roots

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Column by Hal Walter

Pack-Burro Racing – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

It was late June and snow banks still lingered in the trees and along the stream bank. The young burro peered into the high mountain stream, then snorted, turned his neck, and yanked me back through the water. This was not the first time I had been in the creek. In fact my feet were pretty much numb. Around and around we went. I pushed. I pulled. And finally I managed to get one of his hooves into the edge of the water. The burro thought about it for a couple of seconds. Then with a great leap he launched himself over the full width of the stream, nearly snatching me out of my wet shoes. I swore this was the last one of these critters I would ever train. But then I’ve lied to myself numerous times and not just about jackasses. Besides, what sort of life would it be if I couldn’t reserve the right to change my mind at any time?

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An overworked word

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Letter from Slim Wolfe

Columbia Point – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Recently reported in the Crestone Eagle, Saguache County: Administrator McIntosh was pleased to have been consulted before a lesser Carson Peak was renamed in honor of the late lamented spaceship. No one consulted me, or I might have told them that the greatest potential of the space program is that it may attract the notice of something out there which will swiftly knock some sense into our dense skulls and inflated egos.

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Where is Central Colorado?

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Letter from Roger Henn

Geography – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Quillens:

Nine years ago you may have set out to redefine “Central Colorado.” But the lines you seem to have established are weird.

You include Alamosa, etc., towns which are further south than Montrose, which you do not include. You include Creede but not Lake City (further North and closer to Central) or Silverton.

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Why I choose the Internet for news

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Letter from Dan Bishop

Media – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Do you know who Major Charmaine Means is? Every American should recognize her name and know what she did. Yet only the Wall Street Journal dared tell her story. As far as I know, FoxNews didn’t. MSNBC didn’t. ABC and CBS didn’t. Yet Major Charmaine Means is a true American hero, a Patriot First Class. I read about her courageous action on www.commondreams.org. She deserves a medal. I’ll explain why shortly.

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Use barbless hooks

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Letter from Richard D. Stacy

Wildlife – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I enjoyed, and agree with, the article on catch-and-release fishing by Alan Kesselheim [in the June edition]. In the past, I have fished with barbless hooks, which I believe are much less traumatic for the trout when caught and released, although they (the hooks, not the trout) require a certain skill to use. Perhaps the use of barbless hooks should be mandated on all catch-and-release trout waters.

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Do it the American way

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Letter from Edward H. Hawkins

Politics – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

I have an answer for T.L. Livermore of Gunnison with respect to his rant “A message for the CO GOP” which appeared in your June 2003 edition, complaining about the way the GOP redistricted.

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Another blip along the way

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Letter from Charlie Green

Cynicism – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Editors:

Most of this letter is in response to Slim Wolfe’s letter in the June issue.

His letter oozed cynicism and defeatist prose. While the current epoch seems like a runaway roller coaster, it really isn’t much different from other historical periods. The biggest difference is that our rate of change is so much faster (and our weapons so much stronger). The Roman Empire lasted for centuries, largely due to the time it took to get anything done on that scale in those days. The “great” empires of history — Charlemagne, Ottoman, Portuguese (remember them?), British, etc. — have lasted for shorter and shorter periods of time as technology advances.

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The persistent power of myth

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Essay by Martha Quillen

Western Life – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

RECENTLY, I READ A “Writers on the Range” syndicate piece about destructive weeds by Paul Larmer, executive director of High Country News. Paul is always a clear and interesting writer, but since we included plenty about plants in our May issue, I chose another “Range” piece.

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Search commences for a fatal flaw in the Big Straw

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Article by Ellen Miller

Water – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE FIRST PUBLIC PEEK at the so-called Big Straw attracted relatively little attention considering the historic hostility that greets Front Range efforts to get its thirsty hands on Western Slope water.

Only about 80 people, most of them affiliated in some fashion with water entities, turned out June 9 at Mesa State College in Grand Junction to see various “conceptual” drawings and maps prepared by consultants who couldn’t be hired until the Legislature approved $500,000 in funding.

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Money flows faster than water in Colorado

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Column by George Sibley

Water – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

I SHOULD PROBABLY consider myself lucky. As the coördinator of Western State College’s summer Water Workshop (July 23-25 this year), I get paid a big chunk of my income to think about water. That probably puts me in the lucky 25 percent of the state’s population; the other 75 percent of you have to think about water on your own time.

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Mountain Music comes to our mountains

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Article by Bill Hays

Music – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

WHILE IT’S OFTEN CALLED mountain music, the mountains in question are the Appalachians, not the Rockies. Nevertheless, the music better known as bluegrass will be making a high-profile appearance in Central Colorado this month at the inaugural High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival, July 11-13, in Westcliffe.

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St. Elmo legacy faces a variety of threats

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Article by Clint Driscoll

Historic preservation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

THE POTENTIAL for destruction of historically important districts and structures exists all over Central Colorado, and emotions run deep when a proposed or real action threatens such buildings or areas. As Stella Hosmer Bailey wrote in her 1985 history, The Charisma of Chalk Creek:

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Preservation vs. Reclamation in Leadville

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Article by Allen Best

Historic preservation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR A LARGE PART of the 1980s and 1990s, Leadville was bickering with the Environmental Protection Agency in a dispute faintly similar to the one now involving Camp Hale.

This argument in Lake County can partly be described by the adage, “One man’s treasure is another man’s junk.” If not necessarily junk, the EPA saw the mining dumps and tailings piles scattered across the city and adjoining areas as causes of environmental degradation.

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Hut will honor 10th Mountain Division hero

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Sidebar by Allen Best

Camp Hale – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

The 10th Mountain Division Hut Association is buying its 14th backcountry structure, the Belvedere Hut. The hut is to be renamed the Sangree Mitchell Froelicher Hut, after a member of the 10th Mountain Division who died in combat during World War II in Italy.

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The 10th and Camp Hale

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Sidebar by Allen Best

Camp Hale – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

With war clouds gathering over Europe, the U.S. Army in 1940 began making plans for training soldiers in snow and cold-weather warfare.

The first site chosen for the training camp was West Yellowstone, Montana. However, that site was rejected because of potential disturbance to trumpeter swans, a rare species. In Colorado, both Aspen and Wheeler Junction, the latter now known more widely as Copper Mountain, were studied, but rejected because of their remoteness. This was well before Interstate 70, or even much of a predecessor. Eagle Park, located north of Leadville, was selected because it was along a transcontinental railroad.

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A Camp Hale Timeline

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Sidebar by Allen Best

Camp Hale – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

1880: Narrow-gauge railroad from Leadville built across Tennessee Pass and through the valley then called Eagle Park. By 1890, the line had been relaid to standard gauge, and it went through a tunnel under the pass.

1912: Road through Eagle Park becomes part of the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway.

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Preservation vs. restoration at Camp Hale

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Article by Allen Best

Historic preservation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

FOR THE CASUAL TRAVELER between Leadville and Vail, there’s little evidence of what was, during World War II, one of Colorado’s largest cities.

Bunkers, once used for a rifle range, sit a good distance from the highway at Camp Hale, home to the storied 10th Mountain Division. Concrete targets lie among tall grasses like toppled gravestones. At the far end are the crumbling foundations of warehouses. Amidst all this, residing incongruously at an elevation of 9,200 feet, like the bones of some mysteriously beached whale, are the columns of one remaining building.

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Ludlow monument attacked by vandals

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Brief by Central Staff

Labor history – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

The major monument to Colorado’s labor wars has been vandalized, and despite a $5,000 reward, there are no suspects.

The monument sits about a mile west of Interstate 25 in Las Animas County between Walsenburg and Trinidad, and it honors the 18 victims of the Ludlow Massacre. On April 20, 1914, the Colorado National Guard opened fire on a tent colony of striking coal miners and their families — most of them immigrants from southern Europe.

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Colorado State Parks, Inc.?

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Brief by Central Staff

Recreation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

We used to think that parks were places to enjoy the scenery or the outdoors or the like. But that was before we looked at a study of the state park system recently conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a major accounting and consulting firm.

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Heard around the West

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Brief by Betsy Marston

Western Life – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

CALIFORNIA

If you protest acts of violence, does that make you a violent person? The answer is yes, according to the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center. The center warned Oakland police that an anti-war protest planned for the city’s port might turn violent, even though there was no evidence that demonstrators intended to do anything but demonstrate, reports the Oakland Tribune.

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Connecting to the Trail

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Sidebar by Central Staff

Old Spanish Trail – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

The organization which worked the most to get historic designation for the Old Spanish Trail is, of course, the Old Spanish Trail Association, which will now work with the Park Service to mark the route and provide interpretive information along the way.

The association held its annual convention June 21 and 22 at Fort Lewis College in Durango, with a focus on the Ute perspective, along with field trips.

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Old Spanish Trail gets historic designation

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Brief by Central Staff

Historic Trails – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Even though the National Park Service was not in favor of it, the Old Spanish Trail is now a National Historic Trail. The designation bill, pushed by Rep. Scott McInnis and Sen. Ben Campbell (both are Colorado Republicans) passed Congress late last year and was signed on Dec. 4 by President George W. Bush.

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Salida museum opens with new exhibits

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Brief by Central Staff

Salida history – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Salida’s museum has opened for the summer with some new exhibits. The museum, which shares a building with the chamber of commerce at Centennial Park on Highway 50 by the swimming pool, will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Wednesday.

One new exhibit includes robes and other regalia from the local chapter of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order which flourished about 75 years ago.

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Making snow the modern way

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Brief by Allen Best

Climate – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Livestock growers, water districts, and others in the Gunnison area have found religion.

After last year’s drought, they invested $75,000 in a cloud-seeding operation for this past winter. Whether by coincidence or by cause-effect, this past winter produced at least so-so snowstorms. Based on that turnaround, the various organizations are now planning on a bigger, better cloud-seeding operation.

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Making mules the modern way

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Brief by Central Staff

Livestock – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

They’re not making mules the old-fashioned way any more, at least not at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where researchers announced in May that they had cloned a mule.

The foal, named “Idaho Gem,” was born on May 4, and is the first member of the horse family to be cloned.

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Leadville gets more traffic, but not much more commerce

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Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado’s economy is often characterized as “boom and bust,” and water seems to work the same way — “flood and drought,” perhaps.

Last year it was dry. This year, a high snowpack combined with warm weather in late May led to flooding along the Front Range. It also caused water to build up behind a culvert beneath Interstate 70 on Vail Pass.

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Abandonment predicted for Tennessee Pass rails

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Brief by Central Staff

Transportation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Will trains ever run across Tennessee Pass again? Don’t bet on it, according to Mark W. Hemphill, who wrote a long article about the route in the June edition of Trains magazine.

“Since 1997, the rails over Tennessee Pass have rusted,” he wrote, and “In all likelihood, only one train will ever run over it again: the one that will pick up the rails.”

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Around the region

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Brief by Ed Quillen

Regional News – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

“She wore a yellow ribbon …”

Yellow ribbons, symbolizing support for American military forces, are a common sight these days; you see them on poles, fences, gates, doors, cars….

However, the yellow ribbon symbolized something very different in Denver a century ago, according to the book Hell’s Belles, a history of the city’s vice by Clark Secrest (reviewed in our June, 2002, edition):

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Siberian smoke produces local haze

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Brief by Central Staff

Wildfire – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

During the first week of June, the sky was hazy over Central Colorado, which inspired a familiar question: Where’s the fire?

When the sky was hazy last summer, the answers were nearby: Hayman, Missionary Ridge, Iron Mountain, Coal Seam, etc.

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Low water helped brown trout thrive in the Arkansas

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Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado’s long drought — which may or may not be over — may have damaged fishing in most of the state, but it has helped the brown trout in the Arkansas River as it courses through the mountains.

That’s the word from the Colorado Division of Wildlife: “Low, clear stream flows created a bonanza of bugs for the trout to feed on and lack of runoff lengthened their feeding summer, growing larger, healthier, and more fish for anglers to enjoy.”

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Colorado lynx finally get together to make kittens

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Brief by Central Staff

Wildlife – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Colorado’s re-introduced lynx appear to have figured out the facts of life last winter: after several years without breeding, eight kittens were found this spring.

The first kittens were discovered on May 21 in a den beneath an Englemann spruce at 10,600 feet in the San Juan mountains. Another pair was discovered on May 25 in the same area, but at 11,200 feet — the highest lynx den ever found in North America. And on May 25, four kittens were found in a den under a downed log in the San Juans.

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Insurance company tells rural landowners to clean up

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Brief by Central Staff

Wildfire – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

If you don’t clear the brush and trees around your mountain home, you could lose your fire insurance — if you’re currently insured with State Farm, anyway.

In May, the insurance company announced that it planned to conduct inspections on about 21,000 Colorado houses that it insures in areas that are prone to wildfire.

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Briefs from the San Luis Valley

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Brief by Marcia Darnell

San Luis Valley – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hot Issue

Fireworks erupted at a town meeting held by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Opponents of the Patriot Act took issue with Campbell’s support for the measure, which they say encroaches on civil liberties. An argument ensued, then escalated, until Campbell, insisting he was protecting the country from terrorism, ordered the group out of the meeting. Campbell then stated that he had a duty to stand up to people who berate him. Watch for fallout.

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Gimmicks help outfitters in a flat market

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Brief by Central Staff

Recreation – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

The rafting industry sometimes appears to be two industries. One offers “thrilling white-water adventure,” and the other provides “safe family recreation.”

The safe side seems to be coming out ahead in the marketing department, according to a short article in the May 18 edition of the Wall Street Journal.

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Kat Carson gets a new name: Columbia Point

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Brief by Central Staff

Geography – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

A peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range near Crestone has a new name: Columbia Point, to honor the space shuttle that crashed on Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Columbia Point, 13,960 feet, is on the north side of 14,165-foot Kit Carson Peak. It had no formal name before, but was sometimes called “Kat Carson” or “East Summit.”

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There’s no “ette” in Ranch

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Essay by Linda Hasselstrom

Rural life – July 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

LISTEN UP, FOLKS, here’s a vocabulary lesson from a rancher and writer who’s tired of bad writing distorting Western history.

A ranch is not just any patch of rural ground, and the saying, “All hat, no cattle,” is more than a joke. It’s true most ranchers prefer not to reveal the size of their places, but despite differences, a real ranch is measured in hundreds of acres. To populate the plains, the U.S. government offered 160 acres to anyone with guts enough to start an agricultural enterprise.

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Western Water Report: July 2, 2003

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ASPINALL OPERATIONS

Now that the Flow Recommendations for the Aspinall Unit, on the Gunnison River, have been finalized, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to start the scoping process this summer and is looking at 2007 for release of the Draft EIS on Aspinall operations. This process could lead to a Programatic Biological Opinion on depletions in the Gunnison Basin. Operations would be intended to provide for a reasonable and prudent alternative to protect endangered fish from project and non-project depletions. A major issue is whether the EIS will include, in the baseline condition, a pool of water for marketing purposes.

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