Letter from Phil Doe
Politics – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Here are some suggestions for the 2007 session of the Colorado General Assembly:
2007 January
Yule Tree is spiritual renewal
Column by Hal Walter
Mountain Life – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
PERHAPS THE ONLY THING I really like about the holidays is cutting a tree and decorating it to brighten up the darkest nights of the season. But I like almost everything about this Yule tradition.
A Cautionary Tale from Saguache
Sidebar by Marcia Darnell
Main Street – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
During the last ten years, Saguache’s fortunes have waxed and waned. Businesses have opened, and shut. Sometimes merchants seem thoroughly discouraged, but occasionally there’s a real sense of optimism in the community, and everyone seems convinced that things are about to turn around….
Lake City likes Main Street
Sidebar by Marcia Darnell
Main Street – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Lake City likes Main Street
Another small town in Central Colorado is on the Main Street wagon, and happy about it. Lake City, population 400, joined Main Street in February, 2005.
“It’s a great program,” says Executive Director Marcia Connell, “especially for a small town like Lake City.”
What is Main Street program?
Sidebar by Marcia Darnell
Main Street – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
It’s been around since the 1970’s, but it’s still somewhat obscure. The National Trust Main Street Center is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The program aims to revitalize commercial downtown areas in cities and towns where malls, big box stores and economic hardship have left the main drag looking like a ghost town.
Monte Vista turns to Main Street for revitalization
Article by Marcia Darnell
Downtowns – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
IT’S AN UNUSUAL PATH, from making pottery and being a merchant in Taos to directing revitalization in Monte Vista, but Lynn FitzGerald has made that journey with grace and determination.
Power from the People
Column by George Sibley
Electrical Generation – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN IS THE 21st century going to begin? And how? In this time of global warming, peaking oil production, and other interesting large-scale situations– a time when it is clear that large-scale changes are going to happen, like it or not– one wonders when and how these changes are going to start happening, and whether we will be trying to guide and control them or will just let them happen to us.
Lesser of two weevils in the 2006 election
Letter from Slim Wolfe
Politics – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Lessers of two election weevils: Why not earmark some of that animal shelter funding for a birth control campaign? Why levy the entire county for the negligence of a few animal owners, unless we’re in line with conservatives whose notion of acceptable contraception seems to be a fourteen-year-old male?
Suggestions for the 2007 session of our legislature
Letter from Phil Doe
Politics – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Here are some suggestions for the 2007 session of the Colorado General Assembly:
A growth-control measure
Letter from Laird Campbell
Geography – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
The Colorado map shows that Chaffee County has more 14,000-foot mountains than any other county in Colorado and probably more than anywhere else in the United States. From north to south they are: La Plata Peak, Huron Peak, Mt. Belford, Mt. Oxford, Missouri Mt., Mt. Harvard, Mt. Columbia, Mt. Yale, Mt. Princeton, Mt. Antero, Tabeguache Mt. and Mt. Shavano.
Promotion from 100 years ago
Letter from David Delling
Local Lore – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Colorado Central:
I recently came across an 1897 promotional flyer concerning Salida. I am enclosing a copy which I think might be of interest to you. Toss it or use it any way you like. I’m a long-time subscriber and always enjoy Colorado Central.
The A in ASC is for Adams, not for Alamosa
Letter from Mary Walsh
ASC – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed or Martha –
I’ve noticed in the past couple issues under Regional Attractions that you have Adams State College listed as Alamosa State College. I’m sure it’s just a trick to see if anyone is paying attention (ha!).
Salida should practice what it preaches
Letter from F. R. Pamp
Shop at Home – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed:
As a self-employed person who is trying to earn a living in Chaffee County, I read with interest your “Letter From the Editors, Where We Shop,” in the December issue. I was moved to comment by a recent event which could be filed under the general heading of “Do as I say, not as I do.”
A rough transition lies ahead for the U.S.
Letter from Marianne Dugan
Politics – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Sir or Madam:
OK, so the Democrats won, more or less. What the public said, loud and clear, is that they don’t like the direction in which we’re going. Some voted on corruption, some on the war in Iraq, a few, we hope, even voted on whether the President of the U.S. can anoint himself king. But on past performance a Democratic congress isn’t likely to come up with new directions.
Organic: Method, Movement, or mere marketing tool?
Column by John Mattingly
Agriculture – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
ORGANIC: Method, Movement, Or Mere Marketing Tool?
“Are you an organic farmer?”
I’ve been asked this question many times in the 40 years I’ve farmed. In the ’70s it was asked by pilgrims of Rodale, The Whole Earth Catalog, and Sir Albert Howard — seeking a source for home-grown vegetables, or feed for small livestock. In the ’80s the question subsided (perhaps overshadowed by a growing concern for fat) while Reagan’s agriculture department, and others in the food industry, denounced organic farming as a hippie fad that could never feed our great and growing nation. As if to confirm this condemnation, most organic produce looked substandard on the shelf, and was presented without finesse. Around this time, products labeled Natural began to appear, but an examination of the content labels usually read like the same stew of ingredients in conventional (presumably unnatural) foods.
Favorites
Review by Martha Quillen
Books – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
IN THE CATEGORY OF From, For, and About Central Colorado, I highly recommend four memoirs: One Man’s West by David Lavender; Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus; and two books by Anne Ellis, Life of an Ordinary Woman and Plain Anne Ellis: More about the Life of an Ordinary Woman. They’re all fun, informative, readable and give the reader a vivid portrait of what life used to be like here.
The Landscape of Home, edited by Jeff Lee
Review by Ed Quillen
Mountain West – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Landscape of Home – A Rocky Mountain Land Series Reader
Edited by Jeff Lee
Published in 2006 by Johnson Books
ISBN 1-55566-393-1
War and peace on the home front
Essay by Martha Quillen
Modern Times – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
FROM THE VERY FIRST, the war in Iraq incited division, anger, and accusations. To me, it sounded way too much like Viet Nam era polemics. The rhetoric was hyperbolic, rawly emotional, and furious. Here, we were again: “America, love it or leave it.” “You cowards.” “You warmongers.” “You traitors.” “You murderers.” “Don’t you know that by protesting the war, you’re aiding the enemy?”
Grape Creek Canyon: A brief overview
Sidebar by Gary Ziegler
Local Lore – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Carving a deep groove through the ancient metamorphic rock of the Wet Mountains, Custer County’s Grape Creek gathers the runoff from a multitude of mountain streams flowing down from the nearby Sangre de Cristo Range.
The Pike Expedition in January 1807 and January 2007
Article by Ed Quillen
History – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
WHEN WE LEFT Capt. Zebulon Montgomery Pike and his small band of soldiers on Dec. 31, 1806, they were camped near Spikebuck, between Cotopaxi and Cañon City (long before Spikebuck, Cotopaxi and Cañon City actually existed). Two days earlier, Pike “saw one of a new species of animal on the mountains; ascended to kill him, but did not succeed.”
Vail looking at ban on new wooden shingles
Brief by Allen Best
Wildfire – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The horrors of the 1994 Storm King Fire, in which 14 firefighters died near Glenwood Springs, illustrated not only the dangers to firefighters, but the true cost of insulating mountain homes to the threat of fire dangers. Then, in 2002, a second fire raced across land adjacent to Glenwood Springs, this time gutting houses but taking no lives.
Regional Roundup
Brief by Ed Quillen
Local News – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Money to burn?
When an election is very close, there’s an automatic recount, paid for by the government. In Colorado, the margin is 1/2 of 1% of the highest vote total in the contest. If Candidate A got 1,000 votes, and candidate B got 990, there would be no automatic recount because the difference of 10 votes is more than 1/2 of 1% of A’s 1000 — 5 votes in this example. A candidate can, however, get a recount at his own expense, no matter what the margin.
Briefs from the San Luis Valley
Brief by Marcia Darnell
San Luis Valley – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Hot Time in Creede
It was just like the silver-rush days. A fire broke out in Creede on Dec. 1 and spread quickly through the abutting old buildings. The blaze began in Journeys Cafe on the main drag, spread to the First National Bank next door, and did some damage to the Holy Moses gift shop. No one was hurt, and the volunteer firefighters of Creede and South Fork worked for hours to douse the fire. Creede, being a community of survivors, already plans to rebuild. Meanwhile, the town is open for shopping, food, and fun — as always.
Breckenridge putting money into heritage tourism
Brief by Allen Best
Tourism – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Breckenridge town officials have added $360,000 of funding to their talk about boosting heritage tourism.
Central Colorado wanders all over the political map
Brief by Central Staff
Politics – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
GRANTED, people may be tired of politics at the moment, and we should have looked at the election results in our December edition. But as you may have noticed, the newer the technology, the longer it takes to get results. The Colorado Secretary of State’s office did not issue official election results until Dec. 1 — well after our December edition came out.
Uranium is hot, but at Cotter it’s not
Brief by Central Staff
Energy – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The front-page headline in the most recent edition of Rock Talk, published by the Colorado Geological Survey, proclaims “Uranium — It’s Hot!! And Back by Popular Demand.”
But it’s not so hot in Cañon City, where the Cotter uranium mill remains shut down, and will likely stay that way until uranium prices go even higher.
Aspen arguing again about rail transportation
Brief by Allen Best
Transportation – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Will it be a leap forward to the past in mountain valleys of the West? The “past” in this case is rail-based transportation.
For years, some people have been arguing that train systems similar to those we abandoned decades ago are the answer to growing traffic demands, and the debate is on in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley.
El Niño winter forecast
Brief by Central Staff
Weather – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The weather forecasters say this will be an El Niño winter, which means winter won’t really get here until March.
El Niño means the male child in Spanish, and it’s a term for the baby Jesus and, by extension, Christmas. The weather phenomenon got its name from Peruvian fishermen who noticed the Pacific Ocean was warmer than usual around Christmas.
Eating local hard to practice
Brief by Allen Best
Food – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Environmentalists for several years have been arguing the virtues of consuming food that is grown locally instead of being hauled 1,600 miles -the average distance between producers and consumers in the United States. But a project underway in Durango illustrates just how difficult that concept of think global, eat local can be when applied to fast-growing, high-elevation mountain valleys choked by mountains.
SouthArk Funnies
Comic Strip written and drawn by Monika Griesenbeck
Mountain Life – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Watching with wonder a parliament of snowy owls
Essay by Charles Finn
Wildlife – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
ONE BY ONE as the afternoon shadows stretched across the winter fields north of Pablo, in the Flathead Valley of western Montana, a parliament of snowy owls began to fly up to sit on the neighboring fence posts.
Along the dirt roads circling the fields, cars were pulled over and spotting scopes set up; thermoses of coffee balanced on hoods like ornaments and bird guides felt the familiar ruffle of thumbs. That afternoon I had driven 100 miles to see the owls because I know beauty like this can make you catch your breath. It can break your heart. It can hurt so badly, sting so sweetly, that it becomes addictive.
Western Water Report: January 3, 2007
ARRIVAL OF EL NINO MAY MEAN DRY WINTER FOR COLORADO
Forecasters are predicting a virtual no-show for snow and slightly warmer temperatures across much of Colorado for the next few months. <http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4786240?source=email>
