Brief by Central Staff
Real Estate – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Old property descriptions aren’t always accurate, as one Rob Brownlee discovered.
He bought some land that was supposed to be next to the Como Cemetery in South Park. A survey revealed that he’d actually bought into 5.5 acres of the 112-year-old cemetery, including occupied graves.
Brief by Central Staff
Salida – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
The millennium should arrive in Salida with a bang — the Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce has arranged for $5,000 worth of fireworks to be detonated on Tenderfoot Hill as 1999 draws to a close.
But even with the arrival of a new millennium (or century, or decade, or year), some familiar difficulties remain: time and money.
The money part is that “we need contributions to help defray the cost of the fireworks,” according to Anita Northwood, executive director at the chamber.
Brief by Central Staff
Weather – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
On account of the warm, dry weather, Smokey Bear hasn’t gone into hibernation yet.
Instead, fire restrictions were imposed Nov. 12 on eight Colorado counties by state and federal land managers, along with local sheriffs. In essence, all outdoor fires were banned, except those in developed campsites. Outdoor smoking was restricted to “an area at least 3 feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material.”
Comic Strip by Clint Driscoll and Laura Ravenwood
Mountain Life – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Essay by Dana C. Jennings
School violence – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
I AM AS DISTURBED as the next person about the deadly mixture of guns and schools that has spilled across America in recent years. But I also know firsthand the violent feelings children can get when they are bullied and pushed around. I remember well the day in 1938 when I took a gun to school in the rural town of Cassoday, Kansas.
Column by Hal Walter
Rural Life – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN IT COMES TO FENCING, there are two standing jokes in the West.
One is about a greenhorn who can’t figure out who “Bob Wahrr” is. The other is about the urban refugee who calls a rancher to complain about the cows grazing his unfenced property.
Recently my friend Patrick was dealt the punchline on both. His property had become overrun with cows of unknown ownership due to a section of downed fence that had been obliterated by a flashflood during the previous summer.
Sidebar by Catherine Lutz
Snowslides – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Mining lore by its very nature must have some element of exaggeration, embellishment, or outright lying. Which of the following stories are completely true? Nobody really knows.
When an avalanche hit the Magna Charta Tunnel in 1884, two men were working in the blacksmith shop. Legend has it that one of the men was shot out of the shop like a cannonball, hurtling through a partition and landing fifty feet down the mountainside in a snow bank, unhurt.
Sidebar by Catherine Lutz
Mountain Lore – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Two prospectors came to Tomichi Valley long before there was any settlement, in the early 1860s. Legend has it that they found up to a pound of gold per man per day. But they were greedy, and stayed in the valley too long that season. Trying to return home as winter set in, they disappeared.
Article by Catherine Lutz
Mountain life – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
FRANK CULBERTSON hauls the last armful of wood from his backyard to the old stable that he uses as a woodshed. After making sure the twelve cords stored so far are neatly arranged, he takes off his work gloves and wipes his sweaty brow. On his way out of the stable, Frank checks on the inverter — the brain of his homemade hydroelectric system — to make sure it’s properly producing usable power for his home.
Brief by Central Staff
Local book – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Fairplay poet Laurie Wagner Buyer was in deepest Montana 25 years ago, spending her first Christmas away from her family. She had no money for gifts, and sent them a story: Little Dancing Fawn.
In 1997, her father lay dying at the Prospect Home Care and Hospice in Woodland Park. She asked if there was anything he wanted her to do. “Publish Little Dancing Fawn,” he said.
Dog Training – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dogs Deserve Dialogue – Rover should hang on your words, not your leash
by Judy Moore
Published in 1999 by Tyke Publishing
ISBN 0967286808
Review by Ed Quillen
Avalanches – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Living (and dying) in Avalanche Country
by John Marshall and Jerry Roberts
Published in 1993 by Simpler Way Book Co.
ISBN 0963202804
Article by Marcia Darnell
Local artists – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S PRODUCTION DAY at Crestone Candles, which today is housed in the kitchen of Susannah Ortego’s home in Moffat. Water is bubbling, wax is melting, candles are cooling, and the proprietor is wielding a propane torch. It’s cottage industry at its San Luis Valley best.
“I love making candles,” says Ortego. “It came to me, truly as a gift, out of the blue fifteen years ago. I had no prior knowledge or expertise or interest, for that matter, in candles.”
Letter from Monika Griesenbeck
Salida politics – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed and Martha,
Your thoughts on Salida’s government in your last issue were pretty much on the mark with one exception — OK, a few exceptions. The first one being that not all members of the city council folded all of the time.
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Colorado Central – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I’ve been meaning to thank Ed for those good guffaws I got when reading his description of the New West. Crestone is my favorite area for observing the courtship and nesting of Noveaurichicus occidentalis. They complain about gawkers, but you can placate them by tossing out a few mantras and asking (humbly) for directions to the Temple. Back East where I was raised, these critters nested in penthouses (later condos) and it wasn’t so easy to learn their habits; so it’s been a revelation. As I recall, those Eastern birds had more brains, but East and West alike are notable for their ability to thrive on a diet of flattery, preening, deceit and child-support. Western males like to coerce younger males into stacking strawbales, using mind-altering substances as bribes, but on the whole the short-haired redneck (Ranchicus occidentalis) seems to demonstrate more overall ability and cunning. Note their different tactic for straw.
Letter from Dar Sharp
Mobile homes – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hello Quillens:
The Dewey Linze article [p. 2, October 1999] struck a chord. I am a closet trailer court dweller. I grew up in trailer houses because Dad was working on most of the dams along the Columbia River. Like gypsies we would travel from job to job, often keeping the same neighbors from Trailer Park to Trailer Park. We always owned our home. Wasn’t much but it was ours. When I left home the first thing I did was buy a small trailer and park it next to the college I was attending. I have never rented and I’m proud of that. When you rent you are just paying someone else’s mortgage.
Article by George Sibley
Gunnison Water – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
An Embarrassment of Riches
WHEN THE DISTRICT JUDGE decreed for the second time in 1998 that there was not enough water in the Upper Gunnison valley for the Union Park reservoir and diversion to the Front Range, the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District Board was relieved. But they had no time to relax, because staring them in the face was a diligence hearing on the long-dormant Upper Gunnison Project.
Sidebar by Central Staff
Gunnison water – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
For those who don’t remember the tale, Gordias was a Phrygian king who secured a wagon to a pole with such an intricate knot that it seemed no one could untie it — until Zeus declared that whoever unraveled the Gordian knot would one day reign over a vast empire.
Sidebar by Central Staff
Gunnison Water – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Last month, we began the saga of water development in the Upper Gunnison River valley — from the main stem of the Gunnison River down through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison (which became a National Park in late October). This story of water details a history of ever-mounting complexity — as thread upon thread of legal, political and economic maneuvers have been woven into an ever more unwieldy knot.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Western Life – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE CODE OF THE WEST is one of those phrases that has popped up frequently in recent years. In early November, it was the theme of the annual Headwaters Conference at Western State College in Gunnison. A couple of years ago, several Colorado counties adopted a statement of policy about rural life that they called “The Code of the West,” and we even published one that Montrose County didn’t adopt. At the moment, the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado in Boulder is collecting information for a handbook that might explain “The Code of the West” to new arrivals when it is published next year.
Brief by Central Staff
Cartography – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Don’t believe everything you find to read in a motel room.
We’re not talking about those Gideon Bibles, but about a slick full-color 64-page tourist guide called Western Colorado: The Spirit of Adventure, which we found in a Gunnison motel room last summer.
Since it’s for “Western Colorado,” we can understand why the map might omit the names of Central Colorado spots on the eastern slope like Leadville, Salida, an
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine –
The major threat to wildlife habitat in Colorado is the ATV — the All Terrain Vehicle. That’s what Bob Caskey, regional wildlife manager, told the Park County Commissioners on Nov. 4.
It isn’t the ruts they leave, so much as “They’re carrying weed seeds up … creating a lot of resource and environmental damage.”
Brief by Central Staff
Salida – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Salida got on another list, one that presented 24 of “The West’s Best Cities” in the November edition of Sunset Magazine.
Other listed cities ranged from famous spots like Missoula, Boulder, and Portland to another old railroad town, Evanston, Wyo.
The Salida article was written by John Villani, who’s written about Salida before in The 100 Best Art Towns in America.
Brief by Central Staff
Local politics – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chaffee County’s property owners are fairly diligent about paying their property taxes. We know that because the annual list of delinquent property taxes, which the law requires to be published in a local newspaper, was only one page long.
Around Central Colorado, Park County had the longest list — just over 15 tabloid newspaper pages of owner names, property descriptions, and taxes owed. Next was Saguache County, with 11+ pages. Lake County had nearly 6 pages, and Custer County had 2.
Brief by Central Staff
Politics – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
from Capitol Hill Blue (a Republican newsletter in Washington) Oct. 16, 1999:
“Throughout the corridor of Western states bordering the Rocky Mountains and stretching from Canada to Mexico, there is a feeling of standing on high ground. … Gradually over the past decade, this region, once known for its politics of peace and environmentalism and sprinkled with independent though left-leaning leaders, has become America’s new conservative heartland.
Brief by Central Staff
Prisons – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Prison walls do not keep inmates from practicing their faith — the Colorado Department of Corrections identifies 53 different religions inside state facilities, and attempts to accommodate them as best it can while maintaining order and security.
The 1,289 inmates at the Buena Vista Correction Facility fall into six groups. Most are Protestant, followed by Roman Catholic and Islam.
Brief by Central Staff
Tourism – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Independence Pass, which connects Leadville to Aspen via Balltown and Twin Lakes, is the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in the United States at 12,095 feet.
The road, also known as Colo. 82, is a popular tourist route that puts people and money into the town of Twin Lakes when it’s open — generally from Memorial Day to the first part of October. It hasn’t been kept open in the winter since 1886, because the railroad reached Aspen the next year.
Brief by Central Staff
Politics – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
If there was any consistent theme to this year’s election hereabouts, it was “don’t raise our taxes.”
Custer County voters turned down a $6.9 million school bond in this year’s election by a 60-40 margin. A tax increase for the library failed by a narrower margin, losing by just 34 votes.
In Saguache, a proposal to raise the town’s sales tax by one cent on the dollar was defeated 98-88.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – December 1999 – Colorado Central Magazine
Political Protest or Personal Grudge?
Someone stole a pickup belonging to a Rio Grande County Sheriff’s deputy and pushed it off a 250-foot cliff into Burro Creek. Deputy Glen Loveland’s ’97 truck was totaled.
