Column by Hal Walter
Outdoors – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN THE YEARS B.C (before child) we always made a point of getting out for a pack trip with our burros at least once each summer. Usually we chose the cloudless days of late August or September to avoid the monsoon season and certain associated discomforts — like wet socks and lightning strikes.
Column by John Mattingly
Agriculture – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
About a year ago, a bovine-born strain of bacteria, E coli 0157, traced to bagged spinach proved the culprit that killed an 81-year-old woman and young child, caused the clearing of shelves nationwide of the bagged spinach, wholesale destruction of growing spinach fields, and media specials blaming the Food and Drug Administration for not doing its job, backed by tear-jerking testimonials from the spinach victims.
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Colorado Central – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Colorado Central:
Do Colorado Central’s paid writers think twice knowing that Slim is parked to the side and over the next little rise with his nonsense detector aimed at oncoming verbiage?
Letter from Gerald Hitt
History – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hello, you two:
This is about “Where was the Home on the Range?” in your September edition.
I have enclosed a copy of “The Western Home,” from 1871. The credit goes to a poem by a Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas. Your article did mention the same version in the Smith County Register in 1873, but since poems normally precede songs, I believe Mr. Higley’s poem predates all the other versions in your article.
Letter from Keith Baker
Transportation – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed & Martha,
I am happy to see someone else speculating about the possibilities our unused railroad offers the region (the thoughtful letter “Putting Tennessee Pass Back Into Service,” September Colorado Central).
Letter from Roger Fenton
Modern Life – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The other day I set out on a simple task: Obtain a Colorado state fishing license. In my little town, the grocery store performs that public service. The clerk ran my driver’s license, first issued to me in 1960, through a machine, and I reached for my wallet to fork over $26. But then she turned to me and asked, “What’s your Social Security Number?” Being the nice guy that I am, plus the fact that in a small town we all know each other, I easily deflected my first impulse to reply “None of your damn business.” Instead, I suggested entering my driver’s license number in its place. I really did not think we needed to involve the Federal Government in my effort to hook a brookie. No good. No SSN, no license.
Letter from Doug Holdread
Pinon Canyon – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Editor:
There’s a range war raging in southeastern Colorado. It’s not between cowboys and sod busters. It’s a clash between a ranching culture that has worked the fragile short grass prairies for over a century, and a military culture that has a track record for turning large hunks of the earth into toxic wastelands; it’s between traditional agriculture and the military-industrial complex.
Essay by George Sibley
Society – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
READING ABOUT the presidential race that the Rover Boys managed to foist off on us a year early (to distract us from their still unfolding dismantling of the American economy and polity), I find myself once more thinking about the people who used to live across the runway here in Gunnison, on the slopes of “W” Mountain just south of town.
Review by Ed Quillen
Americana – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hillside Letters A to Z – A Guide to Hometown Landmarks
by Evelyn Corning
Published in 2007 by Mountain Press
ISBN 0878425330
Review by Allen Best
Ludlow – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West
by Scott Martelle
Published in 2007 by Rutgers University Press
ISBN 978-0-8135-4062-7
Review by Ed Quillen
Pike – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
“To Spare No Pains” Zebulon Montgomery Pike and his 1806-07 Southwest Expedition
Edited by Tim Blevins, Matt Mayberry, Chris Nicholl, Calvin P. Otto, and Nancy Thaler
Published in 2007 by the Pikes Peak Library District with the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum
ISBN 1567352243
Article by John Orr
Water – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
General Mining Law of 1872
Congress has it’s eyes on a revamp of the General Mining Law of 1872. One of the reasons is the cost of land under the act — $5 per acre with no royalties. Another is that it reduces backcountry access due to closures from mining firms worried about liability claims. The act gives federal officials little leeway to deny mining claims
Essay by Martha Quillen
Health Care – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, Colorado State Representative Tom Massey hosted a community meeting at the Salida Senior Citizens Center to get input on what local citizens want and need in a health care system. And to my surprise, it turned out that everybody attending was amenable to some sort of universal, comprehensive, government-run system that cuts out the big insurance companies.
Essay by Phil Doe
Water – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Old West Moves East
When I was a boy, my farm town used to put on a show called a greased-pig contest. A young pig would be greased up and set free in a watered down arena. To the delight of townspeople, the local kids would climb inside the arena and attempt to catch the pig, which they would soon learn was smarter, faster, and slicker than they’d ever expected.
Article by Jennifer Dempsey
Local Arts – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
AFTER THE PRODUCTION of their first show together as a company in January 2003, Greg West and Shelley Jacobs realized they shared more than a similar taste in theater.
“After producing [the play] Shadowbox, we discovered that we did, in fact, share a brain,” said Shelley, associate artistic director of Stage Left, the community theater company she and West founded in 2002. “Somehow with our different backgrounds we have the same frame of reference for what is quality theater and how to get there. My experience is way more from the community and educational institutions and Greg has worked professionally for 20 years and has that prism to look through — in fact, he was part of a Tony Award-winning crew.”
Brief by Allen Best
Health – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although adults typically get accustomed to the thinner air found at higher elevations, it’s sometimes a problem with babies
Brief by Ed Quillen
Climate – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Seen more sagebrush lately? Do the plants look bigger, too?
That might be a result of the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, according to a recent study conducted by Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Brief by Ed Quillen
Salida – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
While we have no idea just what it takes to be one of America’s “101 Best Outdoor Towns,” we won’t argue that Salida is a pretty good place to live if you like the outdoors, and can handle the mud, dust and dreariness of February, March and April.
Brief by Ed Quillen
Local News – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Bear Tales
In some parts of the state, it was drought. In others it was an early frost. Elsewhere a late frost. In all cases, it meant that black bears (which actually come in many hues) were having trouble finding enough to eat in the backcountry. And they need plenty to eat, about 20,000 calories a day, as they prepare for hibernation this fall. So they’ve been pursuing other food sources, like gardens, fruit trees, homes, and trash cans. The result is a large number of bear sightings and problems in Central Colorado.
Brief by Central Staff
Language – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
If you’re writing a trend piece for a national magazine, the usual trick is to start small and work out. That is, you focus on one person somewhere, then expand to the big picture.
So it was with Bob Diddlebock, whose “Postcard: Colorado” concerning “What the decline of the ‘devil’s rope’ says about the West” appeared in the Sept. 10 edition of Time.
Brief by Allen Best
Outdoors – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Even in mountain towns, where at times it seems you could reach out and grab a few stars, the sky is not nearly the same glittering wealth of stars that Galileo saw. The Milky Way is fast disappearing.
There are, in ski towns and elsewhere, people who feel aggrieved by this diminished night sky. The New Yorker explains that a ranking of dark skies, called the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, has been created.
Brief by Allen Best
Lightning – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Colorado has a reputation of getting more lightning than other places. Not true. It is 24th in density of cloud-to-ground lightning, says Steve Hodanish, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service and a lightning specialist.
Brief by Central Staff
History – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The gambling allowed in Cripple Creek, Black Hawk, and Central City pays off for the whole state — at least when it comes to historic preservation. The State Historical Fund receives 22.4% of gambling tax revenues, about fifteen million dollars a year, and uses the money for grants for historic preservation. Since the tax began in 1993, more than 3,100 projects have received more than $192 million.
Brief by Allen Best
Public Health – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
As public health officials plan for the potential spread of avian flu, they continually study the public record from 1918, when in short order Spanish flu killed far more people than all of the horrors of World War I.
Brief by Allen Best
Lifestyles – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although a Ferrari coupe valued at $561,000 and four other cars valued in excess of $200,000 are registered in Pitkin County, Toyota is the most common make of vehicle, reports The Aspen Times after a factoid cruise through public records.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Traffic Tangles
It’s been street hell in Alamosa this summer, for drivers and businesses alike. CDOT has torn up Sixth Street and U.S. 285 for improvements, while the city has revamped other areas in town. There’s been a lot of detours, alley driving and failing businesses as a result. The businesses along Sixth have reported severe dropoffs in revenue during what should have been the busiest time of year. Officials say the results will be worth the sacrifice.
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
While the Colorado Division of Wildlife was stocking 264 high-mountain lakes with cutthroat trout fingerlings in August and September, genetic researchers at the University of Colorado announced that the cutthroats appear to be the wrong variety.
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
While Aspen and many other mountain towns continue to fret about how to make their garbage less available and hence attractive to bears, Salida resident Julia Litz says she believes she has the solution.
Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck
Mountain Life – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Essay by Bryce Andrews
Agriculture – October 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
THROUGH THE END of June last year, we got along fine with the wolves. I was working on a ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, where the wolves ran elk to exhaustion in the high country while yearling cattle fattened on the lower pastures of the ranch. Peaceful coexistence with predators seemed within our grasp, and that was our goal, just to get along.
