Column by Hal Walter
Agriculture – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
I’D NEVER BOUGHT A BULL, but there I was, standing in a pen of 11 yearling Red Angus at Smith Land and Cattle near Fort Garland, trying to choose one out of the crowd.
After looking over all the red bulls carefully, three of them stood out. They wore eartags 3R, 34R and 51R.
Column by John Mattingly
Water – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
WATER! WATER!
IN THE SAN LUIS VALLEY, yelling WATER! is almost like yelling FIRE! in a crowded theater. Valley people have a history of getting excited when there is talk of exporting Valley water to Colorado’s Front Range, or worse, to Las Vegas and California.
Article by Jennifer Dempsey
Recreation – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN I DROPPED OUT of Queen’s University to join the Belfast Community Circus, I wasn’t being rebellious, I was accepting a different assignment.
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Colorado Central – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
It’s time for a shot across George Sibley’s bow: Give us some grounds for your insinuation that Europeans are lacking in creativity, sir, or retract your slander.
Letter from Asa Watcher
Wildlife – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Saguache Mosquito Hunt may be reinstated by DOW since numbers are up in ’07
Dear Ed;
With an almost back-to-normal amount of rain up here on the Saguache this spring, the Division of Wildlife is reconsidering its ban on mosquito hunting this coming winter. Get ready, guys, it might be time to make a place over the mantel for that big mosquito buck mount I know you’ve been wanting this for too long now.
Letter from Kenneth Jessen
Transportation – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I was fascinated by the July edition covering the history of railroads in south-central Colorado. Otto Perry’s 1952 photograph taken of a Rio Grande passenger train clearly shows the dual gauge used in the Salida yards to accommodate both standard and narrow gauge trains. Colorado was lucky in that it had to contend with only two gauges. Granted, there was an extensive two-foot tram system in the Central City-Black Hawk area, but it did not complicate matters in other parts of the state.
Letter from Roger Williams
Transportation – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Not only has the “Ark Valley” lost all its trains, it has also lost its bus service. When I first visited it in 1973, passenger trains were long gone; but Continental Trailways still served the Valley, from Leadville to Buena Vista. With no car and I didn’t drive, I made the most of it, to bag 14ers and even, later, make a memorable hike from Buena Vista over the mountains to Aspen via Trailways to Buena Vista, then a van or hitch from Aspen to Glenwood Springs and the then Rio Grande Zephyr back to Denver.
Letter from Ted Foureagles
Horse Slaughter – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The essay in your June edition “They shoot horses don’t they? No, they don’t” by Sharon O’Toole is a welcome eye-opener, with perhaps some points unaddressed.
Letter from George Chandler
Horse Slaughter – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
In her article about horse slaughter [June 2007] Sharon O’Toole has some very valid points about the waste of valuable horse meat and the existing regulations about humane handling of the horses at the slaughter house.
Review by Ed Quillen
Guidebook – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Colorado Trails – South-Central Region
by Peter Massey and Jeanne Wilson
Published in 2006 by Adler Publishing
ISBN: 1930193297
Review by Chris Dickey
Guidebooks – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Timber, Talus, and Tundra
by Mary Anne Tarr
Second Edition
Published in 2007 by Uncompahgre Books
ISBN 0-965-0-84213
Review by Lynda La Rocca
Poetry – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Open Range – Poetry of the Reimagined West
Edited by Laurie Wagner Buyer & W.C. Jameson
Published in 2007 by Ghost Road Press
ISBN 0-9789456-6-2
Column by George Sibley
Medicine – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL HOT DAY here — what some would call droughty — as I try to weed around a few semi-coherent thoughts that seem to be growing like the stuff in the garden these days.
Article by John Orr
Water – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Arkansas River Basin Roundtable
The July meeting of the Arkansas River Basin Roundtable was held in Poncha Springs. The meeting, normally held in Pueblo, was moved to increase attendance from and better represent the upper basin. The Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act set up roundtables for each of the major river basins in Colorado (with one extra for the Metro Denver area).
Essay by Martha Quillen
Modern Life – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
PEOPLE ARE MAD, and they don’t want to take it any more. So they’re fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Darfur; saber-rattling in Iran, Korea and Pakistan; marching against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela; demanding justice in Indonesia; taking back the West Bank; and arguing about religion world-wide.
Article by Allen Best
Wildlife – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
FOR DRIVERS with eyes peeled wide open, the canyon of the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City usually has bighorn sheep. They’re not like the sheep along Interstate 70 near Georgetown, which at times graze nearly to pavement’s edge. But the sheep are there, little patches of white against the morning sun, coming down amid the rocks to the river to drink.
Brief by Allen Best
Forests – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Aspen’s namesake tree is being threatened by a parasite called willow scale.
Brief by Allen Best
Second Homes – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
A simpler phrase has long been needed. They have been called second-home owners and, more commonly if ungrammatically, second homeowners.
In some places they are weekenders, in other places part-timers. For those with residencies fully divided, they can be called splitters.
Brief by Allen Best
Wildlife – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
If Vail’s new wildlife law isn’t a threat to human life, it’s at least a threat to limbs. So says one of the town’s councilmen, Farrow Hitt.
Earlier this year, Hitt voted for the law that mandates bear-proof Dumpsters and other trash containers. But in his duties as the manager of a condominium complex, he sees significant problems.
Brief by Ed Quillen
Local News – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Strange Winds
We get plenty of wind in Central Colorado, but seldom a tornado. However, a funnel cloud was spotted in Custer County on June 29, and it touched down briefly at 3:55 p.m. without causing any damage.
Brief by Central Staff
Recreation – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Deadly summer on the river
Did the Grim Reaper hire on as a guide on the Arkansas River this summer? The statistics point that way, with a record number of fatalities well before the main rafting season ends on Aug. 15.
Brief by Central Staff
Historic Preservation – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The old Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad depot in Buena Vista, now placed in McPhelemy Park, will be restored thanks to grants and donations from the State Historical Fund, the DSP&P Historical Society, Collegiate Peaks Bank, and the town and county.
Brief by Central Staff
Salida – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Mike Rosso, an occasional contributor to these pages, was excited: “I finally got a photo on the cover of a national magazine.”
It was a picture of a golfer to accompany an article in the June 11 edition of U.S. News & World Report about the 10 most affordable retirement towns in the United States.
Brief by Allen Best
Mountain Life – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
It’s been more than three years since Marvin Heemeyer drove a bulldozer from the muffler shop he owned, the driver’s seat concealed in a fortress of concrete and steel, guns protruding, and proceeded to terrorize Granby for the better part of an afternoon.
Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The security system at Central World Headquarters — that is, a mutt named Bodie — was bit by a rattlesnake on July 11 near Cleora. He’d been vaccinated with snakebite anti-venom, and he got to the vet quickly, so he was soon good as new.
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Emu or Albatross?
Alamosa County is feeling a big nip, having to foot the bill to feed a flock of emus. The big birds, more than 50 of them, were abandoned when their owner was evicted, and are now wards of the state. Currently residing at the alligator farm on Colorado 17, the avian critters are munching $900 worth of chow per month. If their owner doesn’t return for them soon, they may be auctioned.
Brief by Central Staff
Local History – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Anza Day, set for Friday, August 24 in Poncha Springs, commemorates the first written account of our part of the world. It is named for Juan Bautista de Anza, governor of the Spanish province of New Mexico, who in late August of 1779 camped at the present site of Poncha Springs with an army of 800 men and 2,400 horses. They were after the Jupe Comanche, who had been raiding the Taos area, and the soldiers were taking a roundabout route to keep the Comanche from fleeing before a battle could be fought.
Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck
Mountain Life – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Essay by Patrick Hannigan
Tourism – August 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
“How far is it to Harts Pass?” a tourist couple once asked me. I told them it was about 20 miles. “How far is it back?” they asked.
That natural selection has not rendered tourists extinct seems a mystery that defies evolution. And if you believe God created tourists, you’ve probably wondered, “What was He or She thinking?”
