Column by Hal Walter
Cuisine – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT WAS BROUGHT to my attention recently that our household might be spending too much on food. This is astounding since we live 15 miles from the nearest groceries, and nearly 50 miles from what could be considered a serious supermarket.
Column by George Sibley
Mountain Life – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
THIS MONTH I’m following up on last month’s musings on George Santayana’s suggestion that civilization might be taken as a purely descriptive term rather than a eulogistic one which may “simply indicate the possession of instruments, material and social, for accomplishing all sorts of things, whether those things were worth accomplishing or not.”
Article by Ed Quillen
History – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN WE LEFT Zebulon Montgomery Pike on Feb. 28, 1807, he had just departed from Colorado. He and six privates were in the company of Spanish soldiers who were escorting him to the provincial capital of Santa Fé from his stockade southwest of Alamosa in the San Luis Valley.
Review by Ed Quillen
Geology – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ancient Denvers – Scenes from the Past 300 Million Years of the Colorado Front Range
by Kirk R. Johnson and Robert G. Raynolds
Paintings by Jan Vriesen, Donna Braginetz, and Gary Staab
Published in 2006 by Fulcrum with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science
ISBN 1-55591-554-X
Review by Ed Quillen
Zebulon Pike – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Zebulon Montgomery Pike’s – Great Western Adventure 1806-07
by Jack Kyle Cooper
Illustrated by Jon MacManus
Published in 2007 by Clausen Books
ISBN 0978704614
Review by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Lady Liberty Lied – A Voice for the Victims of the Invasion of Iraq – This includes YOU!
Poetry and Art by Laura Knelange
Copyright 2006 by Laura Knelange
No ISBN
POETRY CAN SOMETIMES be so topical that it loses a crucial component of what helps to make it poetry: universality.
As Laura Knelange writes in the foreword to her chapbook, “The intention of my poetry and artwork is to bring awareness and education to the illegal invasion of Iraq and its horrifying aftermath.”
Review by Columbine Quillen
Tourism – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Brave New West – Morphing Moab at the Speed of Greed
by Jim Stiles
Published in 2007 by the University of Arizona Press
ISBN 0816524742
Brief by Central Staff
Colorado Central – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Honored Poet
Lynda La Rocca of Twin Lakes, a frequent contributor to these pages, has won a couple of prizes for her poetry. Her poem “Runs with Scissors” won the third-place prize in the Wyoming state poetry contest, and her “Christmas Eve” received second honorable mention. She also won second place in the Pennsylvania contest for environmental poems with “In the Everywhere.”
Essay by Martha Quillen
Modern Life – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
“Oh, we’ve got trouble…. Right here in River City.”
It was 1962, and Robert Preston filled the big screen, strutting down Main Street, leading a parade of enthusiastic small-town folk, who were convinced that they had trouble. “Oh yes, we’ve got trouble….”
Column by John Mattingly
Agriculture – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
BETWEEN THANKSGIVING and Valentine’s Day, I do as little as possible on the farm. After many winters of plugging in block heaters and magnetic transmission heaters to fire up tractors to load hay or grain, I decided there was an economic and emotional benefit to hibernation. Both I and the machines groaned and staggered when commanded into action in the sub- zero temperatures of the San Luis Valley. I didn’t even blade or shovel snow unless it had us totally locked in. I simply packed the freezer with elk, tossed in vegetables from the garden, hung a bag of apples and oranges in the cellar, and made sure there were a couple of quarts of vodka in the cabinet over the sink. OK, maybe it was more like three quarts of vodka. But it was Colorado vodka. It took several years, but people eventually learned I was not going to start a tractor to load hay during this time period. I was out of it — or, more precisely, I was into winter.
Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
While Sparrows looks forward to its seventh successful year, another popular poetry festival, Poetry on a Platter, is no more.
Also inaugurated in 2001, PoP, as it was known to its fans, was a “traveling poetry tour” that celebrated National Poetry Month in April by bringing regionally and nationally known poets to rural communities for a series of free workshops, readings, open mike events, and special school programs.
Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
You could send a “chirp” or donation to Sparrows. Since last year, Sparrows has been under the umbrella of ArtWorks. For the Heart of the Rockies, an organization established “to support and build on the area’s unique and rich art community.”
Article by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
YOU COULD CALL THEM WARRIORS. But their weapons are words, and they’ll be waging poetry at Sparrows, Colorado’s annual performance poetry festival.
When Sparrows takes wing again March 1-4, it will unite poets, musicians, and dancers from throughout Colorado and the West in a series of poetry-related workshops, evening performances, and public “open-mike” sessions sure to appeal to anyone who loves language, both the written and (especially) the spoken varieties.
Article by Kenneth Jessen
History – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
0N A CLEAR SEPTEMBER night in 1967, a flying saucer descended in the San Luis Valley, and according to some residents, this was almost a daily occurrence then. This spaceship had the traditional (for a flying saucer) pulsating red, green, and white lights, and landed on the King Ranch about twenty miles northeast of Alamosa. The curious aliens wanted to examine a horse and they picked Snippy.
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Modern Life – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The United States may be one of the only industrialized nations not to provide all citizens with health care, but here in the supposedly backward San Luis Valley the common peasants have put together their own single-payer-plan: You simply set out collection jars with a notice and a photo of your needy friend or relation and hope your neighbors will put in a few spare singles.
Letter from Fabien Farkel, Jr.
Politics – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
To the Central:
I cannot mention the “name” of the person responsible for what I am about to tell you. But he “has been” known to spit-shine Hugo Chavez’s combat-booties with his shouts. This low-down, scrawny varmint was sewing blank bedsheets together for Salida’s scenic Riverside Park. He and other foaming mad Trotskyites were going to spread their lily-white mega-sheet over the park’s hallowed soil, import 150 homeless folk from Denver, and have all of ’em get jay-bird naked while the pious disciples of pure Presleyterianism poureth gallons of sacred Mazola oil over their birthday suits! Yea, verily, boys and girls, a Squirm-in.
Letter from Clay Warren
Wildlife – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Ordinarilly I wouldn’t a paid a bit o’ heed to any bear story told by a cop. However, as soon as ah see’d thet the government was doin’ hits best to discredit not one, but two actual qualified observers, ah knew in an instant what was goin’ on here: we’re talking Coverup! Ah’m jist suprised thet them two hunters wasn’t accused o’ mistaken a sow and two half growed cubs at 60 yards fer a weather balloon. Ah mean two guys with thet kind o’ combined experience around bears? Why hell, if they can’t tell the difference between a black and a grizz, they’d already be in jail for poachin’ an thet’s a fact.
Letter from Brian Stewart
Politics – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Martha and Ed,
I enjoy your magazine in its entirety for content, delivery, humor, and seriousness.
You have a fine insight for subjects and choose your contributors well. Please continue with your attention to the water issues for our area.
Letter from Joan C. Wilson
Politics – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ms. Quillen,
I was sent a copy of your magazine by a friend in Buena Vista — just to show typical goings-on in your part of the country. It also contained one of the best summings-up of the Iraq situation I’ve read in a long time. Your writing is so clear and down-to-earth — and your sentiments so sympathetic! I feel as if I should order ump-thousand copies and send them to everyone…. Seriously, it should be reprinted in the nationals. I mean to send a copy to the Guardian Weekly (London UK) anyway.
Letter from Roger Williams
Mountain Life – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Lots to comment on in this interesting [January 2007] issue. For a start, where was that cover picture taken? (A bison, grazing below a snowcapped range, with not a sign of human activity). The Zapata Ranch, near Great Sand Dunes?
Brief by Allen Best
Commerce – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Crested Butte Town Council has withdrawn its ban of new real estate and other offices on the ground floor of the Elk Avenue business district. The council adopted the ban in August, but in response to opposition had allowed existing uses to be grandfathered. Faced with a special election initiated by citizens, the council backed away entirely, reports the Crested Butte News.
Brief by Central Staff
Time – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
We often joke that there’s a Central Colorado Standard Time: Clocks and calendars be damned, things happen when they happen.
However, the rest of the world operates on standard time, and there are some changes this year. Previously, we shifted from Mountain Standard Time to Mountain Daylight Time on the first Sunday in April. Technically, the official clock changed from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. in the wee hours.
Brief by Ed Quillen
Regional news – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Cold, Wind, and Snow
For years there’s been talk of how “if we just got a good old-fashioned hard mountain winter, it will chase out all the lightweights.”
We don’t know about the lightweights, but the winter sure arrived. On Feb. 2, the magazine management walked the five blocks from Central World Headquarters to the KHEN studios and saw, for the first time in their 28 years here, ground blizzards in downtown Salida, as if South Park had moved in for a spell.
Brief by Allen Best
Altitude – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Last fall, the Rolling Stones were scheduled to play in Mexico City, which has an elevation of 7,342 feet. Worried a bit about the thin, polluted air there, the band turned to Telluride’s Peter Hackett, one of the world’s premiere authorities on high-altitude medicine and physiology.
Brief by Central Staff
Geography – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
There’s a proposal afoot to christen a heretofore nameless peak in Sagauche County; the suggested name is Mt. Kiamia. A more informative way to spell it would be Mt. KIA/MIA, as the idea is to honor American soldiers who were either Killed In Action or Missing In Action.
Brief by Central Staff
Transportation – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
It’s been a long time — perhaps the standard-gauging of the Monarch Quarry line in 1956 — since there’s been any railroad construction in this part of the world.
But Permian Basin Railways is looking into some construction. It has hired an engineering firm to examine the possibility of building a 17-mile branch line from South Fork to the summit of Wolf Creek Pass.
Brief by Allen Best
Altitude – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The stakes are rising, so to speak, in the argument about who has the highest town in the United States. So are tempers.
For many years, the dispute was between Alma and Leadville, two old mining towns located on opposite sides of Colorado’s Mosquito Range. Leadville has an elevation of 10,182 feet on its main street, Harrison Avenue, but city employees several years ago began using the municipal water tower, elevation 10,430 feet. Alma responded by establishing an elevation, 10,578 feet, between its post office and water tank.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Animal Valley
The Alamosa deer hunt is drawing fire from every direction. The town granted hunting permits to 15 individuals who qualified by shooting five arrows into a 9-inch target from 30 yards, or hit said target with a shotgun blast from 75 yards. As of press time, there were five confirmed kills, according to city manager Nathan Cherpeski.
Brief by Central Staff
Colorado Central – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Colorado Central is now a teenager; the first edition came out 13 years ago, and was dated March 1994.
Essay by Michael S. Smith
Politics – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
I RECENTLY FILLED OUT A SURVEY from an environmental group but got stumped by the question about my political affiliation. The right of the scale was labeled “conservative” and the left side was “radical.”
REPORT SAYS SOUTHWEST’S DROUGHT IS NORMAL, AND WILL CONTINUE
A group of scientists from the Southwest compiled all of the research regarding the drought in the region into one report and presented their finding in Las Vegas, and the report says that the region’s drought isn’t unusual and is expected to continue, so people need to prepare to deal with increased strains on water supplies. New York Times; Feb. 22
