Column by Hal Walter
Birth – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
BEFORE WE GET STARTED, it must be noted that there is someone watching over my shoulder as I write here in my sunny new office. His editorial comments are fairly numerous and somewhat loud, but at this point are about as intelligible as some publishers for whom I’ve worked. His name is Harrison Jake Walter. As of this writing, he is nearly three weeks old.
Letter from Robert Lawson
Hal Walter – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I enjoy reading the magazine, specifically any articles relating to Colorado history, railroads, mining, and ranching. Also of particular interest to me are Hal Walter’s contributions. You see, my parents built (or had built) the place he owns east of Westcliffe, so I can literally picture his descriptions of the local surroundings. My brother and I have good memories of countless hours exploring that area.
Letter from Doug Brady
Weather – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed,
Since I know you worry about the cultural status of Central Colorado in general, and Chaffee County in particular, below is a copy of the so-called statewide forecast from the National Weather Service in Denver, available at http://cyclone.natnet.du.edu/cofcst.txt. The words “Chaffee,” “Salida,” “Buena Vista,” and even “Granite” (I thought they might not have been updated on the peregrinations of the county seat) are missing.
Letter from Dick Bulinski
Soap – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Regarding “Soap to Savor” in the May edition:
What a refreshing little story of a person who knows what she wants to do, is persistent, and isn’t ashamed of admitting early mistakes — until she finally gets it right.
There is one typo. Saponification was missing an i. I never was a chemist, but I know the word from who knows where.
Review by Martha Quillen
Local History – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Chaffee County – The First 125 Years
by Kay Marnon Danielson
published by GARNA, 2004
ISBN: 0-9670604-3-5
Review by Allen Best
Fire – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Living with Wildfires: Prevention, Preparation, and Recovery
by Janet C. Arrowood
Published in 2003
by Bradford Publishing Co., Denver
ISBN 1-883726-89-1
Review by Martha Quillen
Tabor Saga – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Matchless
by Jane Candia Coleman
published in 2003 by Five Star in conjunction with Golden West Literary Agency
ISBN 0-7862-3803-8
Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
According to the state Division of Wildlife, it is illegal in Colorado to possess most species of native wildlife. It is also … unlawful for any person to release or possess for release any species of wildlife (native or non-native) except as allowed by specific regulations.
Sidebar by Lynda La Rocca
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
The iridescent, jewel-toned hummingbird is North America’s smallest bird; many species are less than four inches in length. But size, as Napoleon might have pointed out, isn’t everything.
Despite their diminutive stature, hummers — particularly the males — are extremely pugnacious creatures who seem to expend more time and energy defending their feeders than they actually do feeding. You don’t even have to watch hummers to know when a territorial battle is raging. Just listen for the chattering chase notes emitted to drive away intruders.
Article by Lynda La Rocca
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
MY HUSBAND STEVE AND I were in the supermarket produce section when we noticed two teenage boys staring at a hummingbird flitting frantically around the ceiling light fixtures. As we watched, the bird fluttered to the greeting-card aisle and flattened itself, wings outspread, against a bright pink “birthday cards” placard.
Column by George Sibley
Western Life – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
A State of the Rockies Report Card?
We aren’t talking about the baseball team here; we’re talking about the Rocky Mountains — all the way out to the edge of California. The report card is a county-by-county annual report on key regional challenges, including demographic growth and decay, natural resource extraction, tourism and recreation, cultural resources, environmental conditions, and a host of other indicators that define the Rocky Mountain region.
Article by Marcia Darnell
Theater – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine –
CREEDE REPERTORY THEATRE opens its 2004 season on June 4 with a blast of laughter, by presenting The Foreigner, by Larry Shue, author of The Nerd, and winner of two Obies and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
In The Foreigner, an Englishman arrives at a fishing lodge in the South, where the locals talk to him as if he can’t understand English. The visitor plays along by inventing his own language. David McClendon of the Denver Center Theater Company will direct.
Article by Brad Goettemoeller
Recreation – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHITEWATER FESTIVALS have always been a celebration of the river — and of those who run the river.
But in recent years the festivals have become more popular and higher profile, and thus they deliver a larger economic impact. As a result, festival organizers have had to become more knowledgeable about industry trends.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Politics – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
ONE OF THESE DAYS, I’ll figure out which America I live in.
For most of my life, I thought that this issue had been settled in the spring of 1865, when various Confederate generals surrendered and urged their soldiers to go home and live as law-abiding citizens of the United States.
Brief by Central Staff
Computers – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Most complaints against Microsoft — at least those that end up in court — allege that the software giant impedes competition by including features “for free” that other companies had been selling. Thus Netscape sued over Micro soft’s Internet Explorer web brow ser, and in Europe, the Real Player folks brought similar action over the Microsoft Media Player.
Brief by Ken Jessen
Rural Politics – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN APRIL, small towns throughout Colorado elected new mayors. Despite the popular image of small towns as harmonious places, these positions can come with some controversy.
For instance, some years back former stripper Koleen Kae Brooks was elected to the office of Georgetown mayor. According to the Rocky Mountain News, she was accused of flashing her ample breasts in a Georgetown bar. She then allegedly staged an assault on herself and was subsequently charged with filing a false police report. Ousted by a recall election, she temporarily hosted a show on KBPI.
Brief by Betsy Marston
Western Oddities – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
CALIFORNIA
If Arnold Schwarzenegger has his way, gas-powered cars will be terminated in 10-15 years. The media-savvy governor recently drove a hydrogen-powered Toyota to a press conference in Davis, where he championed hydrogen as a replacement for gasoline, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Schwarzenegger, who has played an unstoppable robot from the future, predicted the building of as many as 200 hydrogen-fueling stations — costing a half-million dollars each — along California freeways.
Brief by Central Staff
Climate – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
As Mark Twain didn’t say, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” (Although this is often attributed to Twain, it actually came from Charles Dudley Warner, his collaborator on The Gilded Age.)
Brief by Central Staff
Colorado Central – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ray Schoch, a subscriber and contributor in Loveland (along the Front Range about 50 miles north of Denver), sent us a promotional flier for a “Colorado Central” commemorative rifle, connected to Loveland and the Colorado Central Railroad.
There are some connections to Colorado Central Magazine, although they’re more philosophic than geographic or historic.
Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
ASPEN — The International Mountain Bicycling Associates has released a study that claims that mountain bikes don’t cause any more damage to trails than other uses, including hikers.
Claims that mountain bike wheels cause more damage to trails are “unsubstantiated,” according to IMBA’s Gary Sprung, a Crested Butte resident who conducted the study.
Brief by Allen Best
Pets – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Occasionally, there is good news amid the bad. The bad news occurred April 9 when a 25-year-old man from India, Jigmet Dawa, died in an avalanche in the Sawatch Range southwest of Leadville.
Brief by Central Staff
Colorado Central – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
With this edition, we must bid farewell to a long-time feature, at least in its present form: the On Mountain Time cartoon by Clint Driscoll. He and his wife, Lin, are moving from Buena Vista to Grand Junction, and Clint told us he didn’t think he’d be able to maintain its Continental Divide relevance from the far Western Slope.
Brief by Central Staff
Pack-Burro Racing – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
This year’s pack-burro racing season will start June 26 with an amateur race at Cripple Creek, followed on June 27 with the 12-mile pro race from Victor to Cripple Creek.
There won’t be a Golden race this year, but the three Triple Crown races remain: Fairplay on July 25 (Burro Days), Leadville on Aug. 8 (Boom Days), and Buena Vista (Gold Rush Days) on Aug. 15.
Brief by Central Staff
Population – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Generally, we find the World Almanac a reliable reference source.
Brief by Central Staff
Land Use – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Billionaire media mogul Ted Turner faces a dilemma that many of us might enjoy: picking among money-making ventures.
Among Turner’s holdings are some large ranches in the West; his largest is the 588,000-acre Vermejo Park Ranch. It spreads west from Raton, N.M., and part of it extends north into Colorado on the east side of the San Luis Valley.
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although the rainbow trout is often identified with the Rocky Mountains, it’s actually an import from California. The brown trout, another favorite, comes from Germany. The only trout native to our mountains is the cut-throat, which gets its name from a red streak under its mouth.
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
A group of researchers, most of them with Canadian affiliations, have concluded that it does — and the result is to produce animals less desirable to hunters.
They studied the Colorado state animal, the Bighorn Sheep, in the Alberta province of Canada, and examined data going back to 1971.
It turned out that bighorn males are getting smaller — they weigh less, and their horns don’t grow as large as formerly.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Drought Battle
Farmers in the Monte Vista area are forming a water conservation subdistrict. The participants will budget water use, and plan for the future. If all growers in the designated area agree, the subdistrict will comprise over 7,000 acres of land. The plan must be approved by the Rio Grande Water Conservation District.
Brief by Central Staff
Water – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Glen Canyon Dam and its associated reservoir (a/k/a Lake Powell) are a hard day’s drive from Central Colorado, but water levels there could have a major effect on life hereabouts.
Comic Strip written and drawn by Clint Driscoll
Mountain Life – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Essay by Tim Westby
Wildlife – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE FIRST TIME I stood on the shores of Great Salt Lake, I spotted something pink in the midst of what seemed like a bazillion different species of bobbing waterfowl.
“Are there supposed to be pink flamingos in Utah?” I asked my biologist wife while looking through a pair of binoculars.
“It’s plastic,” she said, handing the binoculars back to me.
Brief by Central Staff
Water – June 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Last year, three streams that start in Central Colorado made it to the list of America’s 10 Most Endangered Rivers. This year, it was nary a one. But some of our rivers, such as the Gunnison, are tributary to the Colorado, which made the top of the 2004 list.
The list is issued annually by American Rivers, a conservation organization founded in 1973, and it is “not a list of the nation’s ‘worst’ or most polluted rivers.” It lists those facing “acute threats rather than chronic conditions.”
WATERSHED SEMINARS
The National Water Health Project has announced free training sessions for watershed groups: 6/11, Developing a Major Donor Program will be at the County Commons Bldg in Frisco; 6/29, Getting Your Community Involved and Utilizing Your Volunteers will be at the Aspinall/Wilson Center on the Western State College campus in Gunnison; 7/14 is a repeat of the Major Donor Program at WSC; 8/12, Advanced Technical Training at WSC; and 9/9, “What would it look like if??” A look at the possible future role and functions of watershed groups will be in Glenwood Springs. <http://www.coloradowater.org/NWHP.htm>
