By John Cameron When your legs burn, but you are not there yet, you have to keep pedaling. The thought comes at the end of yet another day of biking with Salida in the distance settled down in the valley bottom. A new style of bicycling is emerging and the Arkansas Valley is at the …
By Becki Rupp It was late March when Brian Beaulieu, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Chaffee County, and his board realized that they may not be able to hold their traditional Casino Night fundraiser in Salida in early May. They had five weeks to figure out how to shift gears. Cancelling …
By Kim Grant, Colorado Preservation, Inc. Are there really tunnels under downtown buildings in Colorado’s towns? Where do the open staircase entrances in front of many downtown businesses lead to? What kind of businesses occupied these spaces? To find answers to many of these questions and highlight these unique historic resources, Colorado Preservation Inc. listed …
By Susan Tweit When social-distancing and shelter-in-place became “things” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, I figured I was prepared. As a friend said, “At last, a skill-set I can use!” I’m an introvert and a writer: alone-time is a necessity for me. And I’ve been a widow for nearly a decade, so I’m quite …
By Martha Quillen This year’s Fourth of July celebrations will likely be less boisterous than usual because Americans are ailing. Coronavirus, however, may not be the most serious challenge facing us this year. This spring, President Trump was being his belligerent self, threatening to shut down Congress, blaming Obama for the pandemic, and revoking health …
By George Sibley One of Henry Thoreau’s most intriguing lines, in my mind, was his exhortation: “Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature.” I thought of that one day last week, while following a few public land managers up a gully in an intermittent watershed near Gunnison called Cabin Creek. That quote led, …
By John Mattingly Everybody knows that The Virus will gut-punch parts of the U.S. economy. Regardless of “what might have been,” the sheer cost of dealing with the disease—as it behaves alternately like a glacier and wildfire across the States—will be considerable. To approach “what next,” consider the parable of the $100 bill. A banker …
By Peter Anderson In the dream, I was teaching a class with Wallace Stegner, once known as “the dean of Western writers,” and it wasn’t going well. Standing up in front of the students, I was thumbing through an anthology, trying to locate a poem I wanted to share with them, but the font was …
By Ed Berg Setting out on an early morning walk with Joe Dog, I passed two men on their way toward the F Street parking lot. They were obviously homeless. One was in bad shape, walking slowly with a stick and coughing hard enough that he had to pause to catch his breath. The other …
By Tina Mitchell Among the last species of breeding birds to arrive from their South American wintering grounds, Common Nighthawks zip and zoom through the dusk and dawn skies starting in late May and early June. A nighthawk has a big head with large eyes set on each side; its small bill opens to reveal …
By Mike Rosso Located in the foothills of the Wet Mountains south of Florence, this city-run park offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities. The Newlin Creek Trail, which begins within the park, follows an aged logging road to the remains of an old sawmill. The first half mile begins in a canyon and is …
By Chelsea McNerney-Martinez The UFO Watchtower, on the west side of Colo. Hwy. 17 just north of Hooper, and an hour south of Salida, is a unique trip, camping destination or a must-stop along the way to other San Luis Valley attractions. Judy Messoline, the founder of the Watchtower, along with her partner Stan, who …
By Robert Parker Editor’s note: Renowned Salida artist Mel Strawn passed away on May 17, 2020 at the age of 90. We reached out to local artist and climate activist Robert Parker for his thoughts about this talented and beloved man. Mel Strawn was nationally known as an accomplished non-objective artist and printmaker. He was …
By Kenneth Jessen Halfway up Fairplay’s main street stands a curious monument made of dull gray cement adorned with ore samples from many of the mines in the Fairplay-Alma area. Etched in the cement is the following expression of respect to one particular burro called Prunes. It reads, “Prunes—A burro—1867— 1930. Fairplay, Alma—All Mines In …
By Mike Rosso They say hindsight is 2020. How does that explain this crazy year? Worldwide pandemic, protests, murder hornets … and we’re only halfway through it. We’ve still got a national election scheduled for November and the Colorado monsoon season has yet to hit us. And what about Major League Baseball? Players just voted …