Column by Hal Walter
Central Colorado – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
SOMETIMES getting out and around is easier said than done. Other chores call. There’s work to be done. And gasoline can be expensive. Then, at other times, it becomes imperative. You can’t get anything done at home, and fuel seems cheaper than a visit to a shrink. During a recent bout of emotional distress, I found myself driving around Central Colorado, taking stock of things.
Essay by John Rosapepe
Politics – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
I LOVE THE BITTERSWEET ENDING of summer. Warm days and cool nights. The hint of color on the tree-clad mountains. The last blackberries ripening on the vine.
That’s the sweet part. The bitter part is the final stretch of the political season. Not only is there ugliness on the campaign trail — with candidates spending millions to cast nasty aspersions on their opponents — but there is the specter of pork barrel politics in Congress, where members try to sneak through special interest legislation before they adjourn.
Essay by Don Olsen
Politics – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
SINCE 1998 is an election year, politicians will soon be returning to their districts here in the West with wonderful news of all the federal bacon … er, funding they have brought home to the various corporate interests … er, constituents who have helped support their election to office.
Letter by Clay Warren
Mountain Life – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
We gotta do our share to keep the industrial complex cookin’ along
Editors:
Thet fellow Ron Baird’s article about Chama reminds me o’ the punch line in that joke where the canary climbs out o’the dung pile and warbles himself right into the cat’s mouth. Keep yore lip buttoned bub, or 10% o’ the front range will move in on the strength o’ yer recommendation.
Letter by Trout Creek Ponderist
Colorado Central – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Keep it up, and more
Greetings to Ed, Martha, and the many other contributors to CC:
There are many of us out here who love to tell kith, kin, etc. of the causes of the ups and downs of life in Central Colorado, but few voices have had as effective an influence as those of you who put that voice in the written form known as Colorado Central. Thank you.
Letter by Matt Hutson
Gentrification – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
The blight of gentrification continues to spread
Editors:
This week the City Council of my hometown of Carbondale passed an open-container ordinance. Where once one could idly sip a beer along Main while watching the occasional car go by, it’s now a crime.
Letter by Lindell Cline
Growth – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Pretending we aren’t here will not solve our problems
To the Editor:
Regarding the welcome and in some cases reasonable August and September discussion on overpopulation, excessive growth, and mining:
Letter by Paul Martz
Mine Pollution – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Summitville needs science, not silver-water scare stories
Editors:
In reply to the call for some perspective in Jeff Stern’s letter in your September edition, I think he’s right, but probably not in the same fashion he had in mind. I’d like to introduce some facts into the discussion about Summitville, not just the anecdotal “evidence” and political opinions contained in his letter.
Article by Clint Driscoll
Local Artists – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN DAN ROHN and his wife, Mary, settled in Salida in 1996, they may have been new residents, but they were familiar with the area. Every August for forty years they camped and fished in Central Colorado: learning the back roads, and finding perfect camp spots, quiet fishing holes and hidden hot springs.
Review by Ed Quillen
Rural Life – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Tough Trails and True Tales
50 Years on a San Luis Valley Ranch
by John M. Woodard
Published in 1998 by the author
Review by Ed Quillen
Ghost Towns – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ghost Towns, Colorado Style – Volume One, Northern Region
by Kenneth Jessen
Published in 1998 by J.V. Publications
ISBN 0961166282
Article by Chris Dickey
Gunnison Water – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE CONTROVERSY over diverting water from the Gunnison Basin to the Front Range has outlasted two District Court rulings and one from the Colorado Supreme Court rulings. Today, the issue seems no closer to being decided than when it first arose more than a decade ago.
The Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District has taken the lead role in opposing transbasin diversion. As a result of this expensive legal battle, the taxpayers of the district are being asked to approve a tax hike.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Colorado Water – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN WE STARTED this magazine in 1994, AWDI had just lost all its court appeals, and it appeared that any story we published on the water wars in the San Luis Valley would be history, rather than journalism.
We watched, from a distance but with interest, as Gary Boyce began re-assembling the old 100,000-acre Baca land grant, and then in the spring of 1996, we got word of a meeting near Crestone where he would explain his plans.
Article by Ed Quillen
San Luis Valley Water – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
WITH ONLY TRIVIAL EXCEPTIONS, no rivers flow into Colorado. But despite the best efforts of generations of developers, attorneys, and engineers, water does flow out of Colorado — by national and international law. It has to, under various “river compacts.”
In general, each state is responsible for its own water policy in the American federal system. But Colorado is in a position to use up all the water in the Arkansas River before it reaches Kansas.
Sidebar by Ed Quillen
San Luis Valley Water – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
A Quick Estimate of a Water Budget for the Closed Basin
The surface of the Closed Basin — 2,940 square miles — gets about 7 inches of precipitation a year. The flanking mountains — Sangres, La Garita Hills, San Juans — are much wetter, getting 15 to 45 inches, mostly as snow.
Now we again indulge in gross oversimplification, and simple arithmetic produces 1,097,000 annual acre-feet of water that lands directly on the Closed Basin.
Article by Ed Quillen
San Luis Valley Water – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTION, Colorado voters will determine the fate of several ballot initiatives. Most reflect current social and political contentions that extend beyond the state’s borders: partial-birth abortion, parental notification for abortions, term limits, medical marijuana, and tax credits for private schooling.
Essay by Lynda La Rocca
Mountain Life – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
AH, THE JOYS OF LIVING on a major thoroughfare during tourist season in the scenic Upper Arkansas Valley of Central Colorado.
Every summer for the past 16 years, my husband Steve and I have encountered visitors who pull their cars onto the road shoulder just long enough to shout the universal question, “How do we get to Aspen?”
Brief by Betsy Marston
Heard around the West – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Electroshock
You’re in a car when a thunderstorm boils out of the West and rain pelts down. What do you do? Nothing, of course, since the National Lightning Safety Institute says cars are one of the safest places to be during lightning strikes relatively speaking.
Two teenagers in a ’92 Subaru near Jackson, Wyo., found that their car’s antenna attracted a lightning bolt, which struck with a huge boom, recalled Krista Bristol, 16. “Everything went black, and then it went white, and neither of us could hear for about five minutes,” she said. As for the car, the Jackson Hole Guide reports that it stopped dead and its antenna melted into the window. But the experts may be right: Though tingling and awed, Bristol and 14-year-old Renee McKinley emerged unscathed.
Brief by Central Staff
Art Scene – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Elevated Reputation
Salida apparently made it into the Aug. 14 edition of the Wall Street Journal. We say “apparently” because the one mentioned in that newspaper was at an elevation of 8,000 feet, whereas the one we know has an elevation of 7,033 feet.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
And in This Corner …
The opposition is organizing. Citizens for Colorado Water received its first major contribution, $100,000. The non-profit group says its goal is to disseminate “fair and accurate information on ballot initiatives concerning water-related issues.”
The ballot initiatives slated for November are seen by many as an attempt to export area water and turn the San Luis Valley into another Sahara. A farmer at the group’s first rally likened the initiatives to a case of potato blight, in terms of economic impact.
Brief by Central Staff
Language – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Looking for a lot in Large Luggage Rack Estates?
A reader drove past the Baca Grande development near Crestone and wondered what the name meant in English. The “grande” part was easy — it means “big.”
But “baca” isn’t so simple. The Signet New World Diccionario Español/Inglés defines it as “top of a bus, stagecoach, etc., covered with canvas or leather, used for passengers or baggage,” and another dictionary says “luggage rack.”
Essay by Dave Gowdey
Growth – October 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Urban immigration is another name for cutural genocide
THIS YEAR, for the first time since Arizona was settled, hunting will not be allowed in the Walnut Canyon area around Flagstaff. The wealthy new inhabitants of the area, from Southern California mostly, don’t favor hunting.