SHORTLY AFTER MOVING TO SALIDA IN 2001, I began noticing random license plate frames around town embedded with the words “Old Goats.” I soon learned there was an organization founded in Salida for the purpose of helping preserve the Rocky Mountain goat. Members are referred to as “Old Goats.” While hiking a section of the …
By Mike Rosso Back in 1880, a Salida resident named Tom Cooke was searching for horses in the northwest mountains of the San Luis Valley. Instead, he found ore deposits which quickly gained interest from outsiders and within a year, the town of Bonanza City was founded and counted between 1,000 and 1,500 residents by …
By Mike Rosso We reached the end of the construction and finish phase of the house, and all that remained was the final inspection and certificate of occupancy. After a bit of ground leveling by the builder, a dump truck full of gravel was brought in to create a driveway. The builders then came in …
By Mike Rosso The Chalk Cliffs State Trout Rearing Unit sits at the base of majestic Mt. Princeton, near Chalk Creek in Nathrop. Originally a private trout farm, the state of Colorado began operating the facility in 1948 to provide catchable trout to waters throughout the Front Range and Eastern Plains of Colorado. Its stocking …
By Mike Rosso November may seem an odd time to feature a small town nestled in the mountains for this column, but since I recently had a mini-vacation there with my friend Ellen, I thought it would be worth a write-up for readers to put on their lists. When we arrived in Lake City in …
By Mike Rosso Fans of Colorado history and culture should consider making the trip to the town of San Luis, Colorado. The town, which lies about 16 miles south of Fort Garland on Colo. Hwy. 159, at the intersection of Colo. Hwy. 142 is the oldest continuously-occupied town in Colorado. It consists of historic Spanish-style …
By Mike Rosso Here we are, heading into the fifth month of the COVID-19 pandemic and our efforts to “flatten the curve” have been met with only some success. Back in April, I mused that the pandemic could become an opportunity to hit the reset button—this crisis might be used for the betterment of society. …
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 …
By Mike Rosso Those who’d like to travel, but continue to social-distance—with an added dose of tranquility and spirituality—should consider a trip to the San Juan Catholic Spiritual Center near La Garita in the San Luis Valley. The center consists of the Capilla de San Juan Bautista (Church of Saint John the Baptist), the San …
By Mike Rosso Tucked away in her home studio in Buena Vista, Evelyn Gottschall Baker is quietly creating world-class glass art. Primarily focusing on a technique called “Patè de Verre” (paste of glass), Baker brings realism and detail into her art and uses both traditional and non-traditional casting and mold techniques to create sculptures which …
By Mike Rosso May is my favorite month in Colorado. The creeks and rivers begin to swell. The trees are blooming and leaf outing and we can finally open our windows and let the fresh air in. Plus, no more messing about with kindling and ash. The temperature in my home naturally hovers between 66-68 …
By Mike Rosso We are currently experiencing the “shoulder season” here in Salida. The ski area closed this past weekend after record amounts of snow and visitors. I’ve not spoken to many downtown business owners about how the season went, but winter does have a way of separating the “wheat from the chaff” as we’ve …
By Mike Rosso In the first installment of this series, we had just completed the dirt work for the new house, and were now ready for the foundation, stem wall and floor. The first step was to form and pour concrete around the rebar in the footings. The footings equalize the load of snow and …
By Mike Rosso Colorado Central readers looking for a true Western experience, need go no further than the town of Westcliffe, in the Wet Mountain Valley and take a seat at the historic Jones Theater. Whether its a film, theater performance or concert, there are few venues in the region that capture the small town, …
By Mike Rosso The San Luis Valley is known for its agricultural products, among them potatoes. So it was only a matter of time before somebody came up with the idea to use this abundant, tuberous crop and distill it into a spirit beverage. The result is Wood’s San Luis Valley Colorado Potato Vodka, distilled …
By Mike Rosso Directed by Bunee Tomlinson, 2019 When I first saw Bill and Bonnie Hearne perform at the former Durango nightclub, Farquahrts, in the 1980s, I decided should I ever get married, I would hire them to play the reception. Their mix of folk ballads, country classics and straight-ahead rock and roll had an …
By Mike Rosso In the previous installment of this series, the drywall had been hung, finished, primed and painted. While this was happening, the stucco crew came back and did the exterior finish coat. At this point, the exterior is finished; doors and windows are hung and the exterior lights have been installed. Inside, Kenny …
By Mike Rosso Now that the house has been insulated, the next step is drywall. This is a very exciting step as you truly get the best sense of what the finished rooms look like, and also get an idea of how natural and artificial light reflects around the interior. Drywall is also know by …
By Mike Rosso It occurred to me only this morning that the previous issue of Colorado Central marked my 10th anniversary of purchasing this magazine from Ed and Martha Quillen. I took the helm in March 2009, making this my 111th issue! I’m trying to wrap my head around that fact but wanted to take …
By Mike Rosso In the previous installment of this column, the interior framing of the new house was getting finished along with the electrical wiring. While this was happening, the first stucco coat was applied to the exterior. I chose a stucco finish for the exterior for a number of reasons. For one, it fits …
By Mike Rosso Last month’s issue contained an article about the National Christmas Tree, which was felled near Silver Creek in Chaffee County in 1962, and shipped to Washington D.C. to be displayed before thousands at a lighting ceremony outside the White House. Since publishing that article, more was learned about the tree and the …
By Mike Rosso The Leadville Mineral Belt Trail (MBT) is a great example of a positive outcome from an EPA Superfund Site. The scenic, paved 11.6-mile loop trail winds safely through the city and the surrounding historic mining district. It was conceived of in 1994, a result of a community effort to help identify natural …
By Mike Rosso For this combined January/February issue, I thought we’d engage in a little wishful thinking. As of this writing (Dec. 29), the Upper Arkansas River Basin is at 108 percent of average snowpack, the Gunnison Basin is at 90 percent and the Upper Rio Grande Basin is at 66 percent of average. My …
By Mike Rosso In the previous installment of this series, the framing of the exterior and interior walls of the new house had begun. The west end, or bedroom wing of the house, has trusses in place with soffit boards installed and sheathing on all walls, and in a staggered pattern on the roof to …
By Mike Rosso What’s a mountain dweller to do when they need to get some sand between their toes? When the nearest ocean is 1,000 miles away? One solution lies close to home in the San Luis Valley. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve sits at the base of the majestic Sangre De Cristo …
By Mike Rosso Deep in a ravine below a Forest Service road on Marshall Pass is a decaying wooden sign dedicated to the first National Christmas Tree harvested from Colorado. The large wooden sign reads: “The White House Christmas Tree for Peace. John F. Kennedy President 1962. The first White House Christmas Tree from Colorado.” …
By Mike Rosso Having had enough “screen time” for one morning, I took a break from magazine production and treated myself to a different type of screen, a movie in an actual theater. Never mind it was an hour’s drive each way to get that experience. (Salida’s only movie theater hasn’t been open for a …
By Mike Rosso In this installment of the house construction, the footers and foundation have been poured and are dry. It’s now time to frame the house. First, a pressure-treated sill plate is installed on top of the concrete. This is a rot resistant barrier between the earth and the rest of the house. Next, …
On October 17, I sat down and watched some of the more compelling television I’ve seen in a while. It wasn’t on Netflix or HBO. It was on YouTube and was a broadcast of the Salida City Council meeting from the previous evening. The meeting began with a public comment period as they always do, …
High atop the Continental Divide, near Monarch Pass, on the eastern margin of the Upper Gunnison Basin, are the prehistoric remains of an intriguing and innovative hunting method employed by ancient tribes. The Monarch Pass Game Drive was an ingenious system of low boulder walls, hunting blinds and ambush pits designed to lure big game …
By Mike Rosso For many years, I’ve driven right past this popular tourist attraction on top of Monarch Pass, but have never stopped in the gift shop or ridden the tram. This morning I took advantage of some relatively clear weather to visit and learn about the Monarch Crest Giftshop and Tramway, the highest commercial …
By Mike Rosso
I just got off the phone with an old friend on the east coast. I told him about how dry it’s been here and he informed me about how much rain they’ve been getting. Apparently all of our June moisture found its way to New Jersey, leaving us high and dry – literally.
By Mike Rosso The old mining town of St. Elmo is a very popular Chaffee County attraction for those seeking a glimpse into Colorado’s past, but there are also several other noteworthy historic sites nearby. First is the Iron City Cemetery. A rather sparse burial ground, there are a few headstones made of granite, but …
By Mike Rosso
Hal Walter’s column this month struck a chord with me. I too worked for both the Pueblo Star-Journal and Chieftain newspapers years ago. I was employed as a photographer and Hal came on board about six months after I left. We finally met in Salida shortly after I moved here in 2001.
By Mike Rosso
Last night I began watching the Netflix series Wild Wild Country, a six-part documentary on the Rajneesh commune in rural Oregon in the early 1980s.
This story has fascinated me since those early days as I had a friend in Durango who fell in love with a member of that cult, began dressing in various shades of red and orange, sold all of his belongings, and moved to Oregon.
By Mike Rosso In recent years, Salida has become known as a bicycling mecca, especially mountain biking. There are 23 miles of trails just within the Salida Mountain Trails system, and that’s not counting such trails as the Colorado and Monarch Crest. Shawn Gillis, owner of Absolute Bikes, had a sense of the potential for …
By Mike Rosso
In January 2017, I left the country and spent almost two weeks exploring parts of Guatemala. Being away from the U.S., as well as being a minority with a very limited knowledge of the local language, is always humbling but very gratifying. I love seeing how folks in other cultures interact and live their lives. I enjoy the sights, the smells, and also hearing random dialog in an unfamiliar tongue. It’s easy to get caught in the bubble of U.S. culture, especially living in a remote and isolated place such as Salida, and sometimes a trip overseas helps to pop that bubble.
This past January found me much closer to home and I’ve been taking advantage of dry weather hikes, a ski pass, and my temporary living situation on 40 wooded acres, twelve miles north of Salida for some R and R. The reason I’ve got temporary digs has to do with an unlikely conversation which took place last March, and has led to big and exciting changes.
It was at a casual gathering at the home of Kirby and Margo Perschbacher when my friend Bebe Plotz brought up the idea of my buying a parcel of land she had for sale just south of Salida. My offhand reply was “I’ll buy your lot if Kirby will build me a house.” Kirby is the owner of Oak Construction, a Chaffee County native, and he and Margo are big supporters of this magazine.
Though the suggestion was made in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner, it seemed providence was shining on us all, and within a month I had a verbal agreement with both Bebe and Kirby to move forward to make the idea a reality. Of course, High Country Bank had a say in whether this was even feasible, given my career as a regional magazine publisher doesn’t put me in very high income bracket, but they looked at the equity in my existing home – purchased in 2004 before Salida’s real estate boom – plus my own credit record and decided I was worth the risk and signed off on a land and construction loan.
Not wanting to take a chance on a fickle economy, I put my town house on the market in September, and had it sold by early December. Getting moved out (not to mention getting out the December issue) proved to be quite demanding after 13 years of habitation, but I’ve been blessed to have been offered to live in my current location by a dear old friend, MA, until late- Spring, when my new house should be completed.
By Mike Rosso
Wow, another year has come and gone and we are now staring down the barrel of the late Twenty-teens.
By Mike Rosso Last month we featured a cover painting by Beatris Burgoin of the Sangre De Cristo mountain range, looking east from the San Luis Valley. This month, we are looking at that very same range, but west, from the Wet Mountain Valley. This was not intentional, but turned out to be a nice …
By Mike Rosso
Over the years, many members of my family have, little by little, settled in Sonoma County, California. That includes my parents, siblings, niece and a few cousins.
By Mike Rosso
Victor, Colorado, is not on the way to anywhere else. To get there requires dedicated purpose.
Those arriving for the first time will discover a time capsule of a town, a place that seems left behind from the modern world, yet still occupied by a hearty citizenry, who seem to prefer living at the proverbial end of the road.
The discovery of gold in the region in 1890 led to the creation of Victor in 1891, the “City of Mines,” along with neighboring Cripple Creek. At its peak around the turn of the century, there were nearly 18,000 residents in Victor and it was once the fourth-largest city in Colorado, but after World War I, the town saw a steep decline due to a labor war, depleted ore and the exodus of miners. The 2010 census has the town at around 397 souls.
In 1985, Victor was designated a national historic district, which led to the arrival of tourists. In 1991 Colorado voters allowed for legalized gambling to occur in certain towns in Colorado and nearby Cripple Creek became one of them, but the residents of Victor opted out, which is one of the reasons the town has maintained its charm and not become an old West facade for casinos like its neighbor to the northwest. Many employees of Cripple Creek’s casinos call Victor home. The Cripple Creek and Victor Mine still operates near town and is the largest current producer of gold in Colorado.
Walking the streets of the town, one is struck by the historic architecture, some of it crumbling, and some in the process of restoration. There is no Starbucks here, but evidence of its mining past is everywhere, in and on the outskirts of town.
By Mike Rosso
In May 2015, we ran our first installment of the Day Tripping column which took us from Salida to Cañon City, over the Oak Creek grade to Westcliffe, down to Cotopaxi and back to Salida along U.S. Hwy. 50.
Earlier this past June, my traveling partner Dan Smith and I chose the opposite direction for our explorations. The original plan was to drive over Marshall Pass to Sargents, where we would hook up with U.S. Hwy. 50 and continue west, but rainstorms in the mountains the previous evening, combined with lingering snow caused us to nix that idea.
By Mike Rosso
I don’t watch network or cable television. Because of this, I don’t have access to the 24/7 news cycle, but am aware that the sheer volume of information flowing from TV, newspapers, magazines and the internet may be rendering some folks numb to the rapid changes occurring all around us.
By Mike Rosso
Last month’s tagline poked fun at the dwindling shoulder seasons in Salida, but a quick walk downtown on a late May afternoon reveals the truth: we are officially on the map. Both in-state and out-of-state plates abound, sidewalks are more crowded, the bays at the local gas station are nearly always full. Trailers loaded down with ATVs, mountain bikes and kayaks speed along Highway 50, headed toward other Colorado destinations.