Month: March 2011

New Status for the Historic Matchless Mine in Leadville

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tabor, cabin

by Faye Golson

Editor’s note: Salida resident Faye Golson describes her efforts to place the famous Matchless Mine on the National Register of Historic Places.

The letter came in the mail not as a complete surprise. Return address – Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Denver, CO. “We are pleased to announce the listing of the Matchless Mine on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties. The official designation took place on December 28, 2010 …” The Matchless Mine had been a two-year project for me. This included first working as a team member on the Historic Structures Assessment to determine the condition of the buildings and structures and then preparing the National Register Nomination for the property.

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Winter calves

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by Hal Walter

When I started out with cattle, everything I knew about them was stated on the biggest check I’ve ever written for nine cows and five calves. That was in 2005 and I guess I’ve learned a few things about bovines since.

We’re in what is known as the “backyard beef” business, and do things a little differently than larger producers. We’re basically raising natural meat for ourselves, friends and family. This way we can make sure our animals are raised humanely and are not fed unnatural things, which as far as I’m concerned is anything other than grass or hay.

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From the Editor

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By Mike Rosso

February 2011 was a tough month for dictators – and journalists.

While covering the uprisings in Northern Africa, many journalists were abducted, arrested, beaten and in some cases, lost their lives.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper was roughed up on the Egyptian streets by Hosni Mubarek’s thugs. Worse was the vicious assault on Lara Logan, the veteran correspondent for CBS News. In an age when the entire field of journalism is under attack, is it any wonder that one of the first things that occurred during the recent uprisings was the shutting down of the internet and the intimidation of reporters?

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Down on the Ground in My Backyard

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By George Sibley

Over here in the Upper Gunnison valley, we have a problem – one that not everyone in central Colorado would call a problem. Leadville, for example, would probably love to have our problem: a mining company with a bunch of money wants to develop a molybdenum mine on Mt. Emmons, the mountain that presides benignly over the town of Crested Butte.

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Book Review

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The Gospel of Progressivism – Moral Reform and Labor War in Colorado, 1900-1930

By R. Todd Laugen

University Press of Colorado

ISBN 978-60732-052-4

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

Fans of the Old West tend to forget that Colorado burgeoned in scarcely a half century from a mostly wide-open frontier territory to a state replete with land grant settlers, cowboys and cattle barons, homesteaders, railroads, mining booms and busts, industries, labor wars, cities, merchant princes, and, predictably, political parties. In this welter of competing interests, defenders of humanitarian concerns and moral rectitude looked out and saw that their state not only could, but should, be improved. Such reformers called (and often still call) themselves “progressives,” the staunch descendants of agitators for abolition, temperance, and suffrage, who were ready to take on other battles like child welfare, minimum wage, women’s working conditions, and political party corruption.

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A Farmer Far Afield – Tat for Tit

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By John Mattingly

Most of what I know about farming I learned from other farmers, and many who influenced me the most never spoke to me. Unlike most other professions, a farmer’s work is out in plain sight. A farmer’s roof is the sky; open air his workplace. Some farmers will try to make their crops look good next to the road by making an extra fertilizer or cultivating pass, but another farmer can detect these venial deceptions.

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STATE HOUSE UPDATE

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by Candice Geier

Now that the lame duck session is over and legislation is back in session, amendments are filling the house and senate floors quickly. Included in the bills are immigration reform laws, state funding, constitutional protection, education funding, job protection, tax spending transparency, consumer protection and unbiased hiring practices.

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The Future of Solar Energy?

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By Mike Rosso

High on a ridgetop south of Salida sits the possible future of solar energy generation.

In May 2010 the SolFocus Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) system, the first of its kind in Colorado, began generating electricity from the sun on property owned by Salidans Michael and Joyce Ferree.

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A Bittersweet Miracle

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By Susan Tweit

My Mom, Joan Cannon Tweit, the California girl who grew up hiking and camping with her father, who had such perfect pitch that her high school choir director used her voice instead of a tuning fork to start concerts, who met my Dad in college at Berkeley and was married to him for almost 59 years, who earned a master’s degree in library science and worked as a school librarian despite being legally blind, who fought all forms of injustice, who prized birdsong, wildflowers and mountains almost as much as chocolate, and who passed her passions to my brother and me, died at dawn on a recent Thursday.

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Q&A with San Luis Valley Musician Don Richmond

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Don Richmond has been performing in the Colorado-New Mexico area since about 1970. He has released six solo recording projects and has played with a number of bands including Tumbleweed and The Rifters. He has composed and recorded musical soundtracks for three documentary films seen nationally and internationally.

Don also owns and runs a recording studio in Alamosa, Howlin’ Dog Recording and is the author of a book, “Getting Your Music Past the Fear.” His most recent CD is called “Like Lazarus.”

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The End of One Maddening Era; The Beginning of Another

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By Martha Quillen

Americans are mad. (or at least they talk about politics as if they’re mad). But what are they mad about? The recession? Foreclosures? Taxes? Bail-outs? The deficit? All of the above? Or none?

Are we mad because pols and pundits deliberately fuel our fear and rage to further their own narrow interests? Or is it because we believe in anger – as an inspiration, a tool, a catalyst, and an incentive?

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Regional Restaurant Review

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by Suzy Patterson

Barry’s Den Café
27077 US Hwy. 50
Texas Creek, CO
(719) 275-3275

Need a great excuse to visit Texas Creek, Colorado?

Two words: “Barry’s Den.”

This unassuming little roadside café pretty much is Texas Creek. You’ll find it about midway between Salida and Cañon City on U.S. 50 at the junction of Hwy. 69. There’s not much else there except a couple of defunct gas pumps, a rafting and ATV tour operation, a herd of bighorn sheep hangin’ around and the Arkansas River flowing by. But the Barry family’s signature “Howlin’ Good Cookin’” definitely has put Texas Creek on the map.

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Modern Mayberry in Downtown Buena Vista?

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By Jennifer Dempsey

When John Grove and Shawn Woodrum took over the State Highway building at 402 Main Street in Buena Vista a year and a half ago, they weren’t exactly sure what the 5,000 square foot warehouse would become.

“We’ve just basically done it by the seat of our pants,” said Grove, 45. “If we had had a business plan it would have changed every other month. We knew we wanted a place that would cater to all walks of life. We wanted this to be a big umbrella that includes everybody in the community, like a modern Mayberry.”

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REGIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP (and other items of interest)

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Student Bottle Bill Defeated

DENVER – Students at the Crest Academy in Salida wanted to do something about the amount of beverage containers that end up on roadsides and in landfills. They decided to approach State Rep. Dan Pabon (D-Denver) and Sen. Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass Village) about introducing a state bill requiring a $.05 deposit on all glass and plastic bottles in the state.

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News from the San Luis Valley

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by Patty LaTaille

Show Us the $

Formal notice has been sent to Tessera that its solar project application is suspended until the terms of the escrow agreement with Saguache County are met. The agreement with Tessera includes maintaining a $15,000 escrow account to cover expenses incurred by the county to process the application. To move its application forward, Tessera is required to pay for those expenses and keep a positive balance in the escrow account. The company needs to add to the account, as there are several expenses outstanding.

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