Michael Haynes’ studio is near the base of Mount Shavano just outside Salida. He majored in art at Auburn University and completed his training there in 1977. His paintings have won numerous awards including the Addys, the Communications Arts Show in Los Angeles and The Society of Illustrators Show in New York.
2013 December
The Natural World
By Tina Mitchell
The alarm buzzer slices through the darkness – 5:15 on a mid-December morning. Take a quick shower, pull on layer after layer of warm clothes, gulp down some breakfast and head out by 6:30. At U.S. Hwy. 50, we point ourselves west to Salida. Along the 18-mile drive, the Arkansas River and Bighorn Sheep Canyon slowly emerge in the pre-dawn light. Off to the annual Salida Christmas Bird Count!
The Box Canyon Mine
By Ron Sering
The steep hill at the mouth of Box Canyon across from the Wellsville bridge, just off U.S. Hwy. 50 east of Salida is a hard landmark to miss. Just below the summit is a massive hole that when the light is right, appears to be barred shut by some sort of fence.
Exploring seemed like a good idea until about halfway up, when the scrub brush hillside gave way to fields of sharp and loose scree. They were tailings, it turned out, a product of the mining activity that took place off and on over a 70-year period.
Searching the Night Sky
By Christopher Kolomitz
Mankind has always found the night sky intriguing, and a base foundation of science is centered there. The movement of sun, moon, earth and other planets is especially visible here in Central Colorado, where low population, low humidity and nearly 300 totally cloudless nights create perfect viewing conditions.
The crisp air and silence of a deep winter’s night can leave a person literally breathless. Tilt your head to the heavens and the awe becomes even greater when the Milky Way shines like a ribbon across the sky. Summer camp trips into the woods often become dotted with recollections of meteors, full moon adventures and philosophical starry night discussions.
Q & A with Gunnison Athlete David Wiens
Western State Colorado University graduate and Gunnison resident David Wiens has won two World Cup Mountain Bike races, two U.S. Mountain Bike National Championships and six consecutive Leadville 100 races. In 2000, he was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, three years after his wife Susan DeMattei’s induction. This year, WSCU has hired …
From the Editor – Deeper
by Mike Rosso It was a packed house in the back room of the Victoria Tavern one Sunday night earlier this month. The occasion was a launch party for “Deeper into the Heart of the Rockies,” a collection of Ed Quillen columns compiled by his daughter Abby. Many of our regular contributors were on hand …
A Harvest Beyond Words
by Hal Walter It has become a tradition of sorts each fall for my son Harrison and me to travel down to Larga Vista Ranch, owned by my friends Doug and Kim Wiley, east of Pueblo. We pick late-season produce, mostly sweet peppers, but also Pueblo chiles, watermelons and squash, just before the first hard …
On the Ground – Down on the Ground with Winters
by George Sibley I’m writing on the first real day of winter over here in Gunnison – just a couple inches of snow so far (more supposed to come), but it feels and looks like winter. Upvalley, in Crested Butte, up in the mountains, it is probably still snowing hard – I hope so anyway. …
Quillen’s Corner – History Isn’t What it Used to Be
by Martha Quillen It’s no mystery why the story of the first Thanksgiving became an inspirational legend. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in December of 1620 (393 years ago this month) and stayed aboard the Mayflower, where they died by the dozens. They were sick and discouraged until March, when an English-speaking native hailed them, …
A Farmer Far Afield – The Staff of Life, II
by John Mattingly Henry Miller’s 1945 essay, The Staff of Life, opened this way: “BREAD: PRIME SYMBOL. Try and find a good loaf. You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without once tasting a piece of good bread. Americans don’t care about good bread. They are dying of inanition, but they go on eating …
Restaurant Review – Sherpa Cafe
By Mike Rosso Sherpa Café 325 E. Tomichi Ave. Gunnison, CO 81230 (970) 641-7480 sherpacafegunnison.com Open seven days a week A few years back, in my Durango days, I had a roommate from Nepal named Bindeshar. He owned a Himalayan gift shop downtown but hoped to someday open a restaurant there. Often, he would try …
Places – Indian Head Rock
by Mike Rosso Along the Quartz Creek Valley, between Parlin and Ohio City in Gunnison County, just off County Road 76, is a large rock formation that resembles a Native American profile. Members of the Ute Tribe were thought to be the first to travel along Quartz Creek, eventually followed by ranchers, miners, and then …
Water Update
by John Orr Preston Frank Kaess Moves on to Greener Pastures Mr. Kaess passed on Nov. 6, 2013 in La Junta. Born in Rocky Ford, Kaess never ranged far from the Arkansas River and its tributaries, and in particular, Salida, where he graduated from high school in 1948 and married his wife, Patricia, in 1950. …
A Hunt Gone Bad
by Robb Cadwell It was the first day of the season, and two high school buddies hiked up to the top of a rock with a good view to glass the small high flats below them. In his fifties and long past high school age, Ben had been hunting the area for 30 years. He …
Book Review – Between Urban and Wild: Reflections from Colorado
Between Urban and Wild: Reflections from Colorado By Andrea M. Jones University of Iowa Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-1-60938-187-5 $22.50, 196pp. Reviewed by Eduardo Rey Brummel I first opened this collection of essays after placing my order at Telluride’s Brown Dog, and was who-knows-how-many pages immersed in it before noticing that my pizza had arrived and …
Dispatch from the Edge
by Peter Anderson In October of 1960, I saw Nikita Kruschev ride by in an open car, waving to a hostile crowd of onlookers. Kruschev, the leader of the Russian Communist Party, was on his way to a Long Island estate where Russian diplomats from the UN occasionally stayed. I remember him as a portly, …
The Cleora Cemetery
By Fay Golson for The Chaffee County Heritage Area Advisory Board The Cleora Cemetery is the sixth property featured from the Chaffee County Historic Resources Survey that was completed this summer. The town of Cleora has a concise history that spans a two-year period from 1878 to 1880. It was born of high aspirations, none …
News from the San Luis Valley
Polston Property Annexed Alamosa city councilors annexed the controversial Polston school property in a unanimous vote, according to the Valley Courier. A group of Alamosa citizens had attempted to purchase the fertile piece of land to create the Rio Grande Healthy Living Park (RGHLP) with botanical gardens, a commercial kitchen and a production greenhouse as …
REGIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP (and other items of interest)
by Christopher Kolomitz Monarch Finish in the Works for Pro Bike Race A stage finish on Monarch Pass, with a start in Gunnison, is part of the 2014 USA Pro Challenge course next August. Mt. Crested Butte will be the location for a stage finish as well. The host communities were announced in early November, …
A Harvest Beyond Words
By Hal Walter
It has become a tradition of sorts each fall for my son Harrison and me to travel down to Larga Vista Ranch, owned by my friends Doug and Kim Wiley, east of Pueblo. We pick late-season produce, mostly sweet peppers, but also Pueblo chiles, watermelons and squash, just before the first hard frost arrives. After this, Doug turns his free-roaming hogs into the fields to clean up the destruction in the path of the oncoming cold season.