Colorado Life Magazine May-June 2023 by Flagship Publishing

MAY/JUNE 2023

Trinidad Lake State Park

RAD Dirt Fest

West Spanish Peaks Fishers Peak State Park

FEATURES CONTENTS

20 The Milky Way over Colorado

In this stunning photo essay, photographers venture into some of the most remote parts of Colorado to capture beautiful nighttime landscapes beneath the starry canopy of the Milky Way.

By Matt Masich

36 Colorado Creative Corridor

A 331-mile trail traverses some of the prettiest parts of the Rocky Mountains with stops in five mountain towns filled with artists, public artwork and galleries.

Story by Matt Masich

Photographs by Joshua Hardin

44 Weminuche Wilderness

Encompassing a vast tract of the San Juan Mountains three quarters the size of Rhode Island, the Weminuche Wilderness Area offers vistas of unspoiled grandeur.

By Will Berger

50 Burlington’s Old Town Museum

The past comes to life in dramatic fashion at a recreated frontier village, where gunslinging cowboys shoot it out in Wild West fashion each summer in Burlington.

Story by Tom Hess

Photographs by Joshua Hardin

Weminuche Wilderness, p 44

Colorado Creative Corridor, p 36

Burlington’s Old Town Museum, p 50

With the Milky Way above, a mountain biker rides over Independence Pass. Story begins on page 20.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRANDON HUTTENLOCHER

IN EVERY ISSUE

Rangely, p 68

Steamboat Springs, p 65

Loveland Pass, p 20

Carbondale, p 36 Rifle, p 60

Aspen, p 22

Paonia, p 36

Ridgway, p 36

Ouray, p 26

Allenspark, p 23

Denver, p 58

Leadville, p 12

Crested Butte, p 36

Salida, p 36

Creede, p 14

Pagosa Springs, p 28

Durango, p 59

Burlington, p 50

La Junta, p 16

Great Sand Dunes National Park, p 26

San Luis, p 13

Artist paints all Colorado 14ers, Creede Repertory Theatre brings top talent to a tiny town, Colorado’s oldest business stays in business and brothers sing of Colorado history.

Colorado Trivia

Test your knowledge of Colorado plants and trees.

Recipes take dessert to the next level with chocolate chips.

48 Poetry

Poets from across the state celebrate the verdant glory of Colorado gardens and the joy of those who tend them.

58 Go. See. Do.

A statewide roundup of local events includes a Juneteenth celebration in Denver, a whitewater boating festival in Durango and a rodeo and community gathering in Rifle.

64 Colorado Camping

Stagecoach State Park is a great spot to camp along a bygone stagecoach route near Steamboat Springs.

68 Hometown, Colorado

In a new recurring feature on small Colorado communities, a local guide gives a close-up look at everything that makes the Western Slope town of Rangely a special place to live.

Above, from left: Joshua Hardin, Danelle McCollum, Joshua Hardin.

Previous page: Brandon Huttenlocher, Joshua Hardin, Joshua Hardin Map

Southern Ute Museum

Hands-on Exhibits, Programs

SunUte Community Center

Climbing Wall, Skateboard Park, Pools, Fitness Room

Sky Ute Fairgrounds

Rodeos, Powwows, Concerts

Lake Capote Recreation Area

Fishing, Camping

Sky Ute Casino Resort

Bowling, Putt-Putt, Restaurants

MAY/JUNE 2023

Volume 12, Number 3

Publisher & Executive Editor

Chris Amundson

Associate Publisher Angela Amundson

Editor Matt Masich

Photo Editors

Joshua Hardin, Amber Kissen

Design

Karlie Pape, Julia Bohan

Advertising Sales

Marilyn Koponen

Subscriptions

Lea Kayton, Katie Evans, Janice Sudbeck

Colorado Life Magazine

PO Box 270130

Fort Collins, CO 80527 970-480-0148

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Here in the Milky Way

IFIRST WENT CAMPING in Rocky Mountain National Park at 10 years old, when my friend Charlie’s dad took a whole gaggle of us youngsters up from Denver to experience summer in the mountains. I honestly don’t remember what activities we did during the daytime – I mainly remember the wonder of looking up at the sky at night.

I have always been a city dweller, so I had no concept of just how awe-inspiringly bright the stars could be when removed from urban light pollution. What I remember most vividly is Charlie’s dad pointing out the cloudy streak running across the middle of the sky – the Milky Way.

While I had known our planet is part of a galaxy known as the Milky Way, it had never even occurred to me that we could actually see it from Earth. I found it thrilling, if a bit unnerving, to be made so viscerally aware that we’re all floating in space.

That feeling returns to me when I look at the images in our page 20 photo essay. The photos come from many places across Colorado that are far enough away from big-city lights that the stars shine through in their full glory.

Those more rural and remote places in Colorado are the subject of a new recurring feature that we’re introducing in this issue. We call it “Hometown, Colorado.” The idea is to shine a spotlight on the small towns that lie beyond the interstates, outside the regular traveling radius of most Coloradans – in other words, the kind of places where you can see the Milky Way at night. To best convey the life of these small towns, we rely on longtime locals to tell the story.

In our first installment of “Hometown, Colorado” on page 68, we feature the community of Rangely, situated on the Western Slope near Dinosaur National Monument. As told by Rangely resident Emma Baker, the town is steeped in history. People still tell stories of the outlaw Butch Cassidy riding through the area, where the people warmly received him as a sort of Robin Hood figure. Today, Rangely is a hub for outdoor activities, from exploring off-highway-vehicle trails to rafting on the White River.

Even though we’ve created a new section dedicated to small towns, Colorado Life remains committed to exploring the state’s smaller communities throughout the magazine. In this issue, we have the page 36 feature on the Colorado Creative Corridor, a road trip through the artistically inclined mountain towns of Carbondale, Crested Butte, Paonia, Ridgway and Salida. And on page 50, we venture near the Kansas border to Burlington, where staged Wild West gunfights are a regular summer occurrence at the Old Town Museum.

Whether you travel to Colorado’s big cities or small towns this summer, I hope you appreciate how wonderful it is that we have both to explore and enjoy.

Matt Masich Editor editor@coloradolifemag.com

MAILBOX

‘Five States’ are great I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your article on “The Five States of Colorado” (March/April 2023). Nice job. Sometimes the more rural areas don’t get their due. Having grown up on the Eastern Plains, I’ve enjoyed that. But, having traveled virtually every area of Colorado, one must agree with your recognition that there really are five separate states.

A few years ago, I spent 12 days shadowing a farming family in Cheyenne County as they harvested their wheat crop. The image on the March/April 2023 cover of Colorado Life reminded me of a similar image I was able to capture after three years on the hunt to get the right composition and lighting to show the old vs. the new windmill. Keep up the good work, and I’ll continue enjoying your publications.

Dan Esarey Chesterfield, Missouri

Joy and inspiration

I thoroughly enjoyed reading our March/ April 2023 issue of Colorado Life. The photography is beautiful, varied, interesting and in a sufficient quantity. The articles are uplifting, interesting and informative. The magazine is cohesive and very appealing to look at on each page.

My wife had renewed our subscription for two years, and I am grateful she did. And we are going to buy four copies off the shelf at King Soopers to give to neighbors (all from out-of-state and one from Ukraine) and a family member.

The beautiful photography is what stood out the most to us – the view from La Veta Pass, the sandhill cranes, elk in valley in Rocky Mountain National Park, the mother fox and several other outstanding pictures. Thank you so much for all the work that went into making this such a pure joy, and even a real inspiration, to look at and read. We love what you all do. Thanks for including a picture of our house in the aerial view of Highlands Ranch (“Five States of Colorado”) and for promoting the idea of a unified state as the ideal we should all work for.

David Cosson Highlands Ranch

Another legacy of the 10th

I enjoyed reading the story about the 10th Mountain Division (January/February 2023), as I do all your stories. You may be interested in a side story about the 10th. When Camp Hale was decommissioned, the original gymnasium was moved, by an airlift I believe, and is now being used a barn and also an event center on the McCabe Ranch in Old Snowmass. There is a plaque designating it as being on the National Registry of Historic Places. Our daughter was married there years ago, and the ranch manager is my nephew. It may make an interesting Sluice Box article. Love the magazine – keep up the good work.

Rick Day Johnstown

Ads are part of the story

Once again, the January/February 2023 issue is another excellent Colorado Life You challenged your readers to let you know how we read each new issue. I have never stopped to think about “how” I read the magazine – so here’s how it goes. The postman hands me the mail, I sort it out, seeing Colorado Life, I make a cup of tea, sit down, take Colorado Life in my left hand, open it to the back cover and take a quick glance at each page from back to front until I get to your comments on “From the Editorial Team,” and I read that first. I then quickly go through page by page, front to back, noting which articles I want to read first, particularly looking for ones about the history of Colorado.

I then have to set the magazine aside for some free time, but I usually have the entire magazine read within the first couple of days.

The thing that really amazed me when I was thinking about how I read each issue of Colorado Life is that it is the only publication I have ever read in my life –and there have been many – that I actually read the ads. And I read each and every one of them. The ads are always colorful, concise, informative, enticing and add to the narrative of the magazine. Until now I hadn’t thought about the fact that I have always accepted your ads as part of the articles in each magazine.

Joan Fields Brighton

What poetry should be

I’m generally not a big fan of the poetry in the magazine, but the poem “Colorado” by Leo Lohman in the January/ February 2023 issue evoked what poetry is supposed to do: present a picture that you can feel. Well done to Mr. Lohman, and thanks.

Bob Nau Golden

Colorado dreamin’

As winter bears down on us here, we are so looking forward to returning to Colorado in the spring. While we love the snow and the terrific ski resort towns, we are absolutely enamored with the smaller, less “touristy” destinations. We always

start off in Estes Park and stay at Romantic RiverSong Inn and venture down the Peak to Peak Highway, stopping along the way in many of the smaller towns. We love Nederland and actually stopped at an overlook to see the site of the famous recording studio Caribou Ranch.

After many visits off road to historic mining communities like Nevadaville, we end up in Alice to view the glacier. The views are incredible. After a night in Georgetown, we’re off to Breckenridge and a drive through Boreas Pass. Next day is Leadville and more mining towns like Alma and Fairplay. We love the great B&Bs we find along the way and love not having any plans. The views, the wildlife and especially the people are incomparable to anywhere we’ve ever been. We’re looking forward to this spring – Colorado rules!

Donn Seidholz Omaha, Nebraska

We don’t shrink

I have been subscribing to your very special magazine since 2019 and enjoying every issue from cover to cover. And I must admit that with the busy-ness of life, I don’t sit down to read the latest issue. I read every issue from the earliest issue I have to the most current issue I have received, therefore I am currently catching up by reading and enjoying the May/June 2022 issue. And I recently started a gift subscription for a dear friend who lives across town. She told me after reading the first issue she got in the mail that she is already addicted and looks forward to receiving a year’s worth of Colorado Life

The main reason I am writing is to say thank you for not downsizing Colorado Life. The size of 8-1/2 by 11 inches is perfect for a magazine such as yours. To

print all the photographs and articles in a smaller size magazine would be a discredit to the enjoyment they provide. There are two magazines that I subscribe to that started to make their issues smaller, and I hated that. In fact, one of the magazines has just sent out their last issue and is no longer in business. So keep on producing top-quality articles, stories and excellent photographs about our state of Colorful Colorado in all its glory.

Susan Smiley Westcliffe

Keeping the connection

Thank you for keeping Colorado alive in my heart! I was born and raised in Denver, and my dad took our family all over the state. I got married and moved away in 1990. I absolutely love every single Colorado Life issue I receive. You help bring back wonderful memories and make me so thankful for being raised in Colorful Colorado. Your calendar is the only calendar I will ever hang in my house.

Suzi Monteith Defiance, Ohio

Friend from the South

I just wanted to send a note of praise for your excellent publication. We live in Douglasville, Georgia, and are generously gifted a subscription by a dear cousin living in Loveland. Each issue is full of interesting articles and awesome photography. We look forward to planning future trips to places mentioned in your stories. Thank you for your tremendous dedication to showcasing your wonderful state.

Ed Lester Douglasville, Georgia

SEND US YOUR LETTERS

We can’t wait to receive more correspondence from our readers! Send us your letters and emails by June 15 to be published in the July/August 2023 issue. One lucky reader selected at random will receive a free 1-year subscription renewal. This issue’s winner is Bob Nau of Golden. Email editor@coloradolifemag.com or write by mail to PO Box 270130, Fort Collins, CO 80527. Thanks for reading and subscribing!

SLUICE BOX

NUGGETS AND OBSERVATIONS ABOUT LIFE IN COLORADO

Artist tackles Colorado 14ers with paint and ink

by TOM HESS

Within Colorado’s boundaries rise 53, 54 or 58 peaks with summits above 14,000 feet, depending on who’s doing the counting. Artist Marley Seifert counts 54 of them; she’s hiked some but has painted them all. She can see the state’s two tallest – Mt. Elbert (14,440 feet) and Mt. Massive (14,427 feet) – from Leadville, her hometown for the past six years.

Seifert creates her 14er paintings using ink and bright watercolors, the mountains

lined like a topographic map and some with the skies swirling like Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.”

Her original series of Colorado 14ers is on display at The PAD, a hotel and hostel in Silverthorne. The series is available for sale – $3,000 – but she also offers an affordable poster of the series. Other online offerings include a painting of Mt. Evans that includes a splash of green watercolor in the sky, a color that she liked because of how it interacted with her blues. The

green looks like the aurora borealis, or an alien invasion.

Seifert grew up doodling in the backyard of her home in Cañon City, where she spent her first 18 years. She sold her doodles to high school friends, and she won her high school’s art contest. After graduation, she moved to Leadville to attend Colorado Mountain College and major in outdoor recreation. She had aimed to be a stand-up paddleboarding guide but decided instead to keep her feet firmly on the ground.

Leadville artist Marley Seifert shows off a poster with her paintings of all 54 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet. She used reference photos to paint some of the mountains, but for others, she based her imagery off the view when she climbed the peaks.

Marley Seifert (both)

Fourteeners have always been just outside her back door, and with each step, they rewarded her hikes.

“There’s much to explore,” Seifert said, “huge fields of wildflowers, columbines, hidden lakes, old mining claims.”

She’s climbed 15 of the 54 peaks she’s painted, and she plans to hike at least 25 more – all but the “gnarly” ones that require ropes to ascend – because experiencing the summits is far more revealing than looking up reference images to paint them.

Seifert’s hike up La Plata Peak – Colorado’s fifth highest mountain at 14,343 feet, about 22 miles northwest of Buena Vista in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness – deepened her appreciation of the views that La Plata Peak offers.

“La Plata is one of the most beautiful summits – the views around it, the mountains next to it,” Seifert said. “I had to include the little side mountains in my painting. It’s now my signature look to include them.”

Next for Seifert is the hope of designing labels for her favorite Colorado beers. That could take her to new heights.

Colorado’s oldest business gets a new lease on life

by LEAH M. CHARNEY

The R&R Market in San Luis had been in business longer than Colorado had been a state. Established in 1857, the grocery store had been owned and operated by the descendants of Costilla County pioneer Dario Gallegos ever since. But with the eighth generation, Felix and Claudia Romero, nearing retirement and unable to find a family member to take it on, the Romeros listed the store for sale in 2017.

The R&R wasn’t just the state’s oldest grocery store, it was the oldest Colorado business still in continuous operation –and a key resource in a county of about 3,500 people. In 2019, it was named one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places, where the listing noted, “Its closure as a business would not only end an important part of history in the state, but it would deprive this small, isolated community of its source of healthy food.”

Luckily that hasn’t been the case. The business and building were purchased by the Acequia Institute after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the Colorado Health Foundation for its San Luis Food Sovereignty Initiative. The market lives on with a new identity and a new focus as the San Luis Peoples Market.

“Food is part of our medicine philosophy,” said Devon Peña, Acequia Institute founder and president. The project aims to improve health outcomes and lower diabetes rates by increasing access to healthy and local food.

So what’s new a year after the state’s oldest business changed hands?

Renovations were the first step, including expansion of the hardware section, a new meat department and refrigeration coolers and the construction of a community gathering space. A commercial kitchen space is also on deck. And this summer, they hope to begin construction on a greenhouse behind the market to

The San Luis Peoples Market predates Colorado’s 1876 statehood. Eighthgeneration owner Felix Romero recently sold it to a local nonprofit group.

grow their own tomatoes, cilantro, brassicas and more.

All of this is happening without taking on debt; every update has been grantfunded thus far, which enables the group to also focus attention on workforce training to prepare successor generations. After all, this business has a legacy to uphold.

Joshua Hardin (both)

Creede Repertory Theatre brings top talent to tiny town

by LEAH M. CHARNEY

The town of Creede’s Main Street has most of the things you’d expect to see on a small mountain town Main Street, including a grocery store, hardware store and cute gift shops. But there’s something different about Creede – unlike most towns of just 400 year-round residents, its Main Street is also home to a nationally known, award-winning theater company.

The Creede Repertory Theatre has been a hub of the community for more than a half century. It started in 1966, when Creede’s Jaycees sent letters to dozens of universities seeking students to run a summer-stock theater in the defunct opera house. Their dream was to help the only incorporated municipality in Mineral County transition from silver mining to tourist destination.

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Actors perform in a production of Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood at the Creede Repertory Theatre, a mainstay of the San Juan Mountains town since 1966.

When 19-year-old Steve Grossman saw the flyer on a bulletin board at the University of Kansas, he jumped in the car and drove 11 hours straight to check out the opportunity firsthand. That summer, the Creede Repertory Theatre began with a dozen KU students. Creede Rep now has about 100 members.

Actor Christy Brandt joined the company in 1973. Her husband, John Gary Brown, better known as “Brownie,” became the official photographer and documentarian – plus a ticket-seller, set-painter and whatever else was needed – in 1974; the two were married on stage in 1981.

“To put ’74 in perspective, Mandy Patinkin was in the company, and he was just an unknown young actor,” Brown said of the actor who went on to play Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride.

Top talent continues to be attracted to the challenge of performing in two, three or four shows at a time at 9,000-foot elevation. It also makes for an exciting time for the more than 20,000 patrons who come

each season, said John DiAntonio, Creede Rep’s producing artistic director.

Shows start opening in May until finally, by the end of July, eight productions are running multiple times per week between two theater spaces. Some days have as many as four performances until shows begin closing in late August and the theaters go dark in mid-September.

This season’s shows feature fairytale romances like Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella and the sweet World War II love story Dear Jack, Dear Louise. The Royale is an engaging drama inspired by the life of Jack Johnson, the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion.

Two shows are designed for the littlest theater goers, which marks the 21st year Creede Rep has staged kid-specific productions. There’s also the world premiere of Mountain Octopus, a feel-good drama Creede Rep commissioned, which DiAntonio says has “Ted Lasso vibes.” It’s about the quirky characters of a small mountain town. Now where’d they get that idea?

CREEDE REPERTORY THEATRE

McLeod9 Creative (previous), Kate Berry (above)

Bent Brothers take musical look at southeast Colorado history

by MATT MASICH

History was a living part of the present when twin brothers Dan and Jake Yergert were growing up outside La Junta. If the corn wasn’t too high, they could see the reconstructed adobe fur-trading outpost Bent’s Old Fort from their kitchen window. Years later, when the brothers formed a band and put out an album, they would put an image of the fort on the cover.

The original fort’s ruins were still standing when the Yergert family settled in the area in the 1870s. The brothers remember their dad telling how he used to ride his bike on the crumbling fort’s adobe walls before it was rebuilt. As boys, the brothers would beg their parents and grandparents to take them to visit Bent’s Old Fort. When they were in third grade, they did a class project where they portrayed William and Charles Bent, the historical brothers who founded the fort.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that when they chose a name for their country folk music act, the duo billed them-

Bent Brothers (all)

selves as the Bent Brothers; Dan adopted the stage name William Bent, and Jake became Charles Bent. Local history figures prominently in their songwriting.

“Death Special” is about the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, in which the Colorado National Guard shot at a tent camp of striking mine workers near Trinidad, setting it ablaze and claiming the lives of women and children. “Powder and Lead” is about the Sand Creek Massacre, where U.S. soldiers killed more than 200 peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho people near present-day Eads. The brothers’ music remembers forgotten history while honoring their native region of Colorado.

“People mythologize the South and the Southeast,” Jake said. “There’s a thousand country songs about Georgia or Texas, but I feel like nobody’s singing about eastern Colorado or southern Colorado. We wanted to crystalize the Arkansas Valley in a way.”

Other songs include “Meet Me at the Arkansas Valley Fair,” about the big annual event in Rocky Ford, and “Leavin’

Sugar City,” about the small town their grandparents called home.

The Bent Brothers are now located in Denver, but they always return to their La Junta roots for inspiration.

“It’s cool to look at the John Martin Reservoir and be able to say, ‘My great-grandpa helped build that,’” Jake said.

La Junta natives Dan and Jake Yergert perform as the Bent Brothers, an homage to the founders of frontier fur-trading outpost Bent’s Old Fort.

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Test your knowledge of plant life in Colorado.

BY BEN KITCHEN

1 Rocky Mountain National Park contains 15 varieties of what tree in the genus Salix? Types of this tree found in the state include peachleaf, laurel and weeping.

2 Colorado is home to several different types of what beautiful wildflower, including the silvery and Nebraska varieties? It might be attractive, but it has been known to poison sheep – no word on what it does to wolves, though.

3 Located roughly between 6,000 and 9,500 feet above sea level, one can find Ponderosa pines filling forests described by what seven-letter adjective? As the name suggests, this variety of forest is typically found on mountains.

5 Some species of wildflower are hardy enough to survive in the alpine zone, starting about 11,500 feet above sea level. One example is the narcissus variety of what flower that also lends its name to a sea creature?

l d

4 Colorado is home to several species of prickly pear, including the plains and tulip varieties. The fruits of these plants are sometimes known by what name that comes from Spanish? Coincidentally, it’s also the name of a type of fish.

Angela Moyer

Joshua Hardin

MULTIPLE CHOICE

On the plains of eastern Colorado, you can find what species of grass, so named because it was commonly eaten by a certain animal?

a. Buffalo grass

b. Cattle grass

c. Horse grass

The plant Ephedra viridis, a toxic plant that has been used historically as a stimulant, can be found in western Colorado. It’s more commonly known as the “tea” of what religious group?

a. Catholics

b. Mormons

c. Presbyterians

8 Which of the following is not an official state symbol of Colorado?

a. Claret cup cactus

b. Piñon pine

c. Colorado blue columbine

Just a few miles northeast of Four Corners, you can find one of Colorado’s nine national monuments, a “House” that gets its name from the prevalence of what plant?

a. Cactus

b. Sagebrush

c. Yucca

10 The following three plants are all found in Colorado, and all three produce fruit. Of them, which one has fruit that is poisonous to humans and should not be consumed?

a. Chokecherry

b. Red baneberry

c. Three-leaf sumac

TRUE OR FALSE

Colorado is home to Pando, a grove of genetically identical quaking aspen that is recognized as the heaviest living organism on Earth.

Despite being found through out the state, tumbleweeds are not native to Colorado. The plant is actually called Russian thistle, and it was unintentionally brought to the US in the 1870s.

The flower Berlandiera lyrata can be found around Colorado Springs. Because of its smell, it’s also known as the chocolate flower.

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Indoor and outdoor plants lavender bundles • wreaths dried ower arrangements

It’s been a tradition since 1964 to install a Christmas tree outside of the U.S. Capitol. Four of these trees have come from Colorado, such as an Engelmann spruce from Routt National Forest in 1990 and a Colorado blue spruce from Pike National Forest in 2000.

No peeking, answers on page 66.

While fireweed might be pretty, be careful – it can cause liver damage if eaten. It actually gets its name from the burning sensation it causes when consumed.

Reunions,

Larry Ditto/Alamy

The Milky Way reflects in Pass Lake at Loveland Pass.

Ellen Nelson

Landscapes take on a new sense of wonder when photographed beneath a celestial canopy

by MATT MASICH

WE LIVE ON a giant hunk of rock floating through outer space. While we all know this is true, it can be difficult to make the concept feel real. It feels plenty real, however, when we venture into the dark night, far from city lights. There, gazing up at a pitch-black sky bejeweled with uncountable twinkling stars, it is easy to believe we are part of a vast galaxy of 100 billion stars – itself one of billions or even trillions of galaxies in the universe.

And when it gets dark enough, we can see the very galaxy we call home, the Milky Way, which appears as a luminous cloud streaking across the night sky. This cloud is actually made up of stars too faint to see individually. The galaxy is shaped like a spiraling disc, and because our solar system is part of it, we view the disc from the edge, making it look like a relatively straight line.

We can best see the Milky Way in Colorado from April through October. Whenever there’s no moon during those months, one can safely assume Tim Kathka and Bill Knoll will be out in the middle of the night photographing the Milky Way. Their nocturnal photo expeditions have taken them across the state, from the Great Sand Dunes, to ghost towns, to Rocky Mountain National Park. Kathka and Knoll don’t just photograph the Milky Way – they photograph it in context with Colorado landscapes.

“We’re always trying to get some interesting foreground into the picture,” Kathka said. “Otherwise, it’s just another picture of the sky.”

One of their favorite spots to capture the Milky Way is near Allenspark at St. Catherine of Siena Chapel at Camp St. Malo, better known as the Chapel on the Rock. The pair has photographed here a half dozen times, with the Milky Way rising from different parts of the horizon depending on the time of year.

Knoll’s four-wheel-drive truck allows them to get to some very remote places

A mountain biker rides at the top of Independence Pass outside Aspen. A meteor shower falls above Meyer–Womble Observatory on Mount Evans. The Milky Way appears over the Chapel on the Rock near Allenspark.

Brandon Huttenlocher (previous), Jason Hatfield (top), William Knoll & Tim Kathka (bottom)

MILKY WAY SKIES

The Milky Way arcs over the volcanic ash of Wheeler Geologic Area near Creede.

Jason Hatfield

with exceptionally dark skies that allow the Milky Way to come into clearer focus. At the 19th century Saints John Mine near Montezuma, they drove up in the light of day to scout out the terrain, then went back at 1 a.m. to photograph the Milky Way with the mine’s abandoned silver mill.

The key to getting the best Milky Way shots is to leave the camera’s shutter open for a long exposure to capture as much starlight as possible.

“When you take a camera out and record the sky for 10 to 15 seconds, you see the individual stars with much greater detail than you see with your naked eye,” Kathka said.

Leave the shutter open for longer 15 seconds, he said, and Earth’s rotation will start turning the stars into streaky lines on the final image. Because the exposures are so long, it is essential to use a tripod and a remote shutter release cable to avoid shaking the camera. Any decent digital camera should be able to photograph the Milky Way – it can even be done with some of the newer iPhone models.

But all the camera equipment in the world won’t help if the sky is overcast or filled with light pollution. When determining where to go on their next photo shoot, Kathka and Knoll watch the weather forecast and consult the website cleardarksky.com, which gives predictions of how clear and dark the sky will be in a given location in the days ahead.

Though some might wonder if the pair of astronomical photographers would tire of shooting the same subject over and over, Knoll says that isn’t the case at all: The Colorado scenery below the Milky Way is always different, and the galaxy itself always appears in a different place in the sky. “It’s interesting and intriguing,” Knoll said, “to see what we’re going to see next time.”

And the sense of wonder one gets looking at the night sky while visiting some of the most beautiful places in Colorado is enough to keep anyone hooked.

The abandoned Yankee Girl Mine still stands between Ouray and Silverton. Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an excellent dark-sky site.

Chris Eaton (top), Glenn Randall (bottom)

A water-filled pothole on a cliff rim reflects the night sky at Colorado National Monument.

Chris Eaton

Exploring this vast, remote tract of the San Juan Mountains reveals vistas of unspoiled grandeur

by WILL BERGER

The sun rises on South Sunlight Lake in the Weminuche Wilderness Area.

Glenn Randall

WILD IS THE WEMINUCHE –it’s as simple as that. Encompassing 499,777 acres, or three quarters the size of Rhode Island, the Weminuche Wilderness Area is the largest wilderness area in Colorado. Covering a broad swath north of Durango and Pagosa Springs, the Weminuche also boasts three 14,000-foot peaks and a staggering 106 13,000-foot peaks. Filled with everything from low valleys to high tundra, and populated by animals from deer to mountain goats, the Weminuche is one of the last remote areas in Colorado. You can spend days without seeing a soul – that is, if you don’t count the mountain goats who invade camp.

To understand why the Weminuche is so remote and rugged, you need to dig into the geology. Around 70 million years ago a geologic uplift began, building what we now know as the Rocky Mountains. Imagine geologic forces pushing a dome, 100 miles wide, up over 14,000 feet. Following this uplift came volcanic activity. Around 30 million years ago, part of the San Juan Mountains, including the Weminuche Wilderness, became a stratovolcano.

Roughly 28 million years ago, the dome

erupted in what we know as the La Garita Caldera eruption – one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the planet’s history. The dome was splintered, and jagged peaks remained. What we see now is the leftover mountains that have been shaped, twisted and turned by millions of years of erosion. Now you see glacially shaped valleys with

A backpacker tends to a campfire in the Weminuche Wilderness Area. A marmot scampers among the rocks and king’s crown wildflowers. Pigeon and Turret peaks reflect in an alpine lake at sunset on the eastern side of the wilderness area.

Brandon Huttenlocher (above), MaryAnne Nelson (below), Tad Bowman (next page)

beautiful peaks towering over them and rivers twisting and turning in the lowlands. The federal designation as a wilderness area protects the land of the Weminuche and helps keep it remote and wild.

There are several ways to explore the Weminuche, which is pronounced “WEM-in-nooch” and named after a band of the Ute tribe. Many opt for hiking into Chicago Basin. With three 14ers soaring above the basin, it makes for an ideal base camp to bag all three 14ers in one trip. However, because of the craze of climbing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, this basin has become a hot spot for humans.

If you plan to make the 16-mile trek into the basin, it will be well worth it. Twin lakes, mountain goats and views all the way to New Mexico will make this a very special trip. There are two popular ways to hike into Chicago Basin: via Purgatory Flats or Enlich Mesa.

From the Purgatory Flats trailhead, you hike down to the Animas River and follow it upstream to Needleton, where you start your ascent into Chicago Basin. The Purgatory Flats route remains under tree line into the basin. The Enlich Mesa route is 80 percent above tree line. It starts at the end of a 12-mile four-wheel-drive route and traverses Enlich and Silver Mesa until

Mountain goats thrive on the steep and rocky terrain of Chicago Basin. Columbines, Colorado’s state flower, grow in abundance in Vestal Basin. A hiker crosses Cunningham Creek on Highland Mary Lakes Trail #606. Jason Hatfield (above), Glenn

dropping into Chicago Basin.

Chicago Basin is a mere sliver of the Weminuche. With the wilderness so expansive, there are endless other places to explore. From day hikes to multiweek expeditions, you can spend a lifetime exploring the Weminuche and never see everything. To get off the beaten path, look towards the Kodiak High Route. This is a traverse from Vallecito Reservoir to Silverton that climbs over three 13,000-foot passes and travels through Sunlight, Ruby and Vestal basins. Each basin provides its own towering peaks to climb – and “climb” is the operative word, not “hike.”

The Weminuche is steep and rugged. If you get hurt, it will take hours, even days, for help to come. A less technical option is hiking or backpacking into Emerald Lake, a much shorter hike than Chicago Basin or the Kodiak High Route, but the views still give you chills. Essentially, the

Randall (below), Bret Edge (next page)

Weminuche is a “make your own adventure”-type wilderness area. There are micro-trails into nearly every basin; if you have the will to get somewhere, you probably can. And the more remote you go, the fewer people will be there.

You can still be wild for the Weminuche without the long, multiday hikes. Day hike potential is expansive. The entire wilderness area is surrounded by various roads. In some cases, you can drive nearly to the wilderness area border and hike for as long as you see fit. Keep in mind, because of the mania for hiking in the outdoors that blossomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, these places were hit hard with human traffic. The people who call this place home want to protect these wild lands. Visitors need to treat the land with respect and limit their impact.

Still today, there are people who live in and rely on the Weminuche. Ranchers use the Weminuche Wilderness Area for high grazing in the summer. As you are traveling through the mountains, it is not uncommon to run into shepherds with 2,000 head of sheep. Ranchers will hire shepherds from Peru and Argentina to run their herds high in the mountains. It feels as if you are transported into the Andes of South America. These shepherds

spend months in the Weminuche watching over their herds. You can be hiking for hours without seeing another person, then break over a ridge and suddenly be in a traffic jam of sheep.

The Weminuche Wilderness is a vast network of protected wild land. In some ways, it is a lucky thing that it has been designated as a wilderness area and not a national park, as that designation would draw thousands more visitors, increasing the human impact on the land and decreasing the opportunities for stillness and solitude. The high peaks, alpine lakes and vast tundra make the Weminuche one of the most unspoiled stretches of mountains in Colorado. Hard to get to, steep, challenging and rugged – wild is the Weminuche. We can only strive keep it that way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Durango-based writer Will Berger was born and raised on the outskirts of the Weminuche Wilderness. From fishing trips at a young age to climbing and skiing countless 13ers starting when he was a teen, he has been exploring in the Weminuche for nearly his entire life.

West Theme Park with Live Stage Show and Chuckwagon Supper

Shops and Ticket Booth opens at 4:30pm Supper is at 6:30pm

Open Memorial Day Weekend through the end of Sept. Reservations Required

Carolyn Dilz celebrates on the summit of 14,082-foot Windom Peak in Chicago Basin after successfully summiting several other peaks in the basin. Brandon Huttenlocher

The

Colorado Creative Corridor is an eclectic, high-country journey through five small art towns

story by MATT MASICH photographs by JOSHUA HARDIN

Art lies along a walking trail at Rio Grand ARTway in Carbondale. Bunnie Reiss’ mural adorns Carbondale’s 4th Street Plaza.

The Colorado Creative Corridor takes travelers along 331 miles of some of the prettiest parts of the Rocky Mountains while simultaneously leading them to five of the most creative towns in Colorado.

This route designated by the state of Colorado connects Carbondale, Crested Butte, Paonia, Ridgway and Salida. Each town has great natural beauty complemented by a unique artistic character, complete with galleries and public art. We invite you to explore the art and culture that awaits at every stop.

Crested Butte

CRESTED BUTTE IS KNOWN in the winter for its ski resort and in the summer as the wildflower capital of Colorado, but it is a year-round arts destination. The town’s hub of creative endeavor is the Center for the Arts, housed in a $20 million facility that opened in 2019.

The Center for the Arts focuses on the performing, visual, literary and culinary arts. The center’s state-of-the-art Steddy Theater hosts everything from rock concerts, to classical music, to lectures, along with live theater performances. The on-site Kinder Padon Gallery has exhibitions of visual art that rotate monthly.

The Center organizes arts-related events throughout the year. The Mountain Words Literary Festival, May 25-28, starts off as with a residency for five authors who spend the month in Crested Butte; the authors then present their work at the festival, joined by other celebrated writers who also read and discuss their work.

On Mondays in summer, starting June 19, the center presents the Alpenglow free

concert series in the adjacent Town Park. The Center’s biggest annual fundraiser is the Crested Butte Wine & Food Festival, July 19-23, which features seminars, tasting events and winemaker dinners.

The Crested Butte Arts Festival celebrated its 50th year last year. This year’s event, Aug. 4-6, features a juried show of 150 artists from 12 artistic mediums, along with live music, children’s art activities and a food vendor courtyard.

Four times a season, the art galleries of Crested Butte stay open for an art walk. Much of the most popular artwork portrays the beautiful mountain landscapes surrounding Crested Butte. Oh Be Joyful Gallery features the work of 48 artists, Managing Director Tracy Schwartz said.

“It used to be just landscapes,” she said. “Now we’re definitely landscape-focused, but we have a lot more contemporary pieces.”

Paonia sculptor Sean Guerrero made the chrome horse for the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte. Tracy Schwartz shows off some of the paintings at Crested Butte’s Oh Be Joyful Gallery.

Salida

NESTLED BETWEEN the Sangre de Cristo and Sawatch mountains, Salida lies along the banks of the Arkansas River, whose stretch in this area is famed for its whitewater rafting. It’s natural that outdoorsy people should be drawn here, but the town is also a magnet for the creatively inclined.

Painter Linda Frances first came to Salida more than 20 years ago, when she was looking for a new place to call home. She was visiting places listed in a book called The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America, which included Salida.

“I traveled out here to visit some of the towns in that book,” Frances said. “When I got to Salida, I didn’t need to look any further.”

Frances now owns Four Winds Gallery, where she shows her mostly abstract paintings. There’s a camaraderie among local gallery owners. They know what kind of art each other has and often refer customers to other galleries they think they will have what they’re looking for.

Just down F Street from Four Winds is Michael Clark Gallery and Studio, where Clark works on his landscape paintings when he isn’t talking with customers. Many of the scenes he paints come from the mountains and river within 20 minutes’

drive of his studio. His favorite locale might be the aspen groves on Mount Shavano, the big 14er overlooking Salida.

On the second Thursday of each month, a new local artist is featured in a gallery in the lobby of the SteamPlant Event Center, which serves as a community gathering place for many events, including live music and film. The center, which started out in 1887 as an actual steam-powered electric plant, is operated by the Salida Arts and Culture Department. On Thursdays, June through August, the department puts on free concerts two blocks east of the SteamPlant in Riverside Park.

Painter Linda Frances owns Salida’s Four Winds Gallery, where she sells her work. Curtis Killorn painted the mural on the historic Twitchell Building in Salida.

Paonia

SURROUNDED BY THE FARMS, orchards and vineyards of the North Fork Valley, Paonia abounds with farm-to-table options. The town’s creative spirit is on display on the final Friday of each month, when the downtown galleries welcome visitors at special receptions.

Painter Shannon Richardson shows her work at the Looking Glass Gallery, which doubles as her studio. Her whimsical paintings are a bit fantastic and surreal but have a strong narrative element that is rooted in personal storytelling.

Down Grand Avenue from the Looking Glass are a collection of galleries and creatively oriented shops. Cirque Boutique has a wide selection of handmade, artist-produced jewelry, apparel, gifts and home decor. The Refinery is the flagship store of Elizabethan Eco-Fashion, which takes used clothing and remakes them into something new and stylish. At The Fifth House, Heather Jameson handmakes beautiful brooms. And the Lucille

Lucas Gallery has more than 200,000 antique prints.

Nearby, at Horse Cow 57 Warehouse Art Gallery, sculptor Sean Guerrero showcases large sculptures that he has made from old chrome car bumpers. Some of his most impressive pieces are galloping horses whose automotive beginnings are still plainly evident.

The Blue Sage Center for the Arts is a local bastion of art and culture. Events and activities include art classes, comedy nights, cowboy poetry readings, musical performances and more. One of the most unique events is Story Share on May 20.

Story Share begins when interviewers ask locals to tell their story about why they first came to Paonia, and how and why they stayed. Next, writers receive those stories to transform them into works of fiction or creative nonfiction. Artists take the stories and translate them into paintings. The writers read their work and the painters display their art at the Story Share event, where the CU Boulder Playback Theatre troupe also performs their own interpretation of the original stories.

A bald eagle snatches a fish from the water in a mural in Paonia. Artistproduced jewelry is among the popular offerings at Paonia’s Cirque Boutique.

Carbondale

SITUATED AT THE BASE of Mount Sopris, 30 miles west of Aspen, Carbondale has a rich local arts scene. The art isn’t restricted to galleries – the nonprofit Carbondale Arts actively puts out a “call for walls” for local businesses to volunteer their exterior walls for public murals.

Outdoor art is on display on the Rio Grande ARTway, a 1-mile stretch of trail created by the Carbondale Creative District that cuts through town along the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad right of way. The ARTway’s first section is DeRail Park, featuring decorated old railroad equipment. Next is the Latino Folk Art Garden, which has a mosaic table created by the community along with a mural. Finally, there’s the Youth Art Park, to be unveiled this summer, which has a climbing wall and large sculpture.

Carbondale Arts Gallery in the Launchpad features the work of local and regional artists. The biggest event at the gallery each year is the holiday market known as Deck the Walls, where local makers sell their handmade goods.

Carbondale Arts also organizes the annual Mountain Fair, July 28-30, now in its 52nd year. The event in Sopris Park features live entertainment all day long, as well as more than 120 food and art vendors, with a special section dedicated strictly to local artists.

The Carbondale Clay Center is popular with Carbondale residents, many of whom sign up for sculpture and pottery classes taught by artists in residence and local potters. The center also has an exhibition gallery with contemporary ceramic art from local and national artists. The center’s retail space is inside a converted Airstream trailer dubbed the Artstream. At the center’s annual “Settings” fundraiser on Sept. 23, local food and drink is served in handmade bowls and cups, which diners get to choose and keep.

Just north of town, the Powers Art Center is a free museum with a comprehensive Jasper Johns collection, plus a current exhibit featuring pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and more.

Elise Hillbrand of the Colorado Clay Center in Carbondale makes a mug out of clay. Pottery by Samantha Oliver and Matt Johnson is displayed outside the center in the Artstream, a converted Airstream trailer that serves as the center’s retail space.

Ridgway

AS A GATEWAY to the rugged San Juan Mountains, Ridgway is a jumping off point for outdoor exploration. The town is also the home of a large number of artists and creators whose work can be seen in galleries downtown.

The work on display ranges from fine art paintings to functional, everyday items like the hand-forged serving utensils created by Jill Rikkers sold at Lotus Root.

“The funny thing about the art scene here is that there are a lot of artists, but I don’t always see them because I’m holed up in my studio,” painter Tammi Brazee said. “We meet each other at art openings.”

She creates paintings that make social commentary using humor as a backdoor to get people to think about their behavior. In one recent series, she compared human nature to the way animals behave in the wild, including a painting of men with antlers fighting for female attention.

Brazee recently showed her work at Ridgway’s 610 Arts Collective, which has a gallery that rotates shows of local and regional artists monthly, as well as a gift shop with smaller works by local artists. The 610 is jointly operated by two nonprofits, Weehawken Creative Arts and the Ridgway Chautauqua Society, the latter of which also runs the Sherbino Theater next door. The theater – sometimes called “Ridgway’s living room” – has regular events where locals gather to hear music, watch film series, listen to authors and more.

A mural adorns a building on Ridgway’s Clinton Street. Artist Tammi Brazee kisses one of her creations, a fancifully colored marmot, at 610 Arts Collective.

On June 25, the two organizations are putting on a special event called the Ridgway Fete de la Musique, which features free musical performances throughout downtown. Musical styles include mariachi, blues, jazz, rock and folk. On Aug. 12-13 is the Ridgway Rendezvous Arts & Crafts Festival, which includes 100 juried vendors in 14 categories, food trucks and live music.

Chocolate chips take desserts to the next level

recipes and photographs by DANELLE McCOLLUM

CHOCOLATE IS DELICIOUS in any form, but there’s something about the chocolate chip that is perfect for recipes. Do a word association game with the phrase “chocolate chip,” and you’ll most likely say “cookie.” Sure enough, we have one cookie recipe, but you’ll also find chocolate chips go great in dishes as diverse as cannoli and bread.

Snack Attack Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are loaded with candy and potato chips. Whether you’re looking for something sweet or salty, these cookies have got you covered.

In large bowl, combine flour, pudding mix, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside. With electric or stand mixer, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and both M&Ms. Fold in potato chips with spoon. Using 1/4 to 1/3 cup dough per cookie, drop dough onto parchment or wax paper lined baking sheets (they can be close together to fit on pan; you will rearrange them for baking). Cover and refrigerate for one hour.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 6 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet, 3 inches apart. Leave remaining dough refrigerated until ready to bake. Press each dough ball down to about 1 inch thick. Press 4-5 Oreo cookie halves into each cookie, along with additional chocolate and potato chips as desired. Bake at 325° for 13-16 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Cool on pans for 5-7 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

cups flour

3.3 oz package instant

white chocolate pudding mix

tsp baking soda

tsp baking powder

cups butter, softened

cup packed brown sugar

cup granulated sugar

eggs

Tbsp vanilla extract

cups chocolate chips

cup peanut M&Ms

cup mini M&Ms

cups ridged potato chips, coarsely crushed

cup mini Oreo cookies, halved

Additional chocolate chips, candy pieces and potato chips, for pressing into tops of cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This decadent chocolate bread is studded with chocolate chips and loaded with fresh zucchini, which adds moisture without affecting the chocolate flavor.

Grease two 8×4-inch loaf pans, or one 9×5-inch pan. In large bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In another large bowl, combine sugars, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture to sugar/butter mixture and stir to combine. Do not overmix.

Fold in grated zucchini and 1 cup chocolate chips. Spread batter in prepared loaf pans and sprinkle remaining chocolate chips over top. Bake at 350° for 40-60 minutes (depending on size) or until inserted knife comes out clean. If necessary, cover with foil during last 10-15 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning.

cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

cups flour

unsweetened cocoa powder

tsp baking soda

tsp salt

cup white sugar

cup brown sugar

eggs

cup butter, melted

tsp vanilla extract

cups chocolate chips, divided

Makes 2 loaves

Chocolate Chip Cannoli Cones

Ice cream cones are a fun and easy substitute for traditional cannoli shells. Be sure not to fill your cones with the cannoli filling until just before serving to keep them from getting soggy.

In medium bowl, whisk together pudding mix and milk until smooth. Let stand 3-5 minutes, or until firm. With electric mixer, beat ricotta, powdered sugar and vanilla extract until smooth. Fold in pudding mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Just before serving, pipe cannoli filling into cones using pastry bag or zip-top bag with the corner cut off.

Place cones upright in tall glass for easier filling. Sprinkle with additional chocolate chips and chopped pistachios, for garnish. Serve immediately.

3.3

15 oz container whole-milk ricotta cheese

cup powdered sugar

tsp vanilla extract

cup mini chocolate chips, plus more for garnish

Tbsp chopped pistachios

What’s in Your Recipe Box?

The editors are interested in featuring your favorite family recipes. Send your recipes (and memories inspired by your recipes) to editor@coloradolifemag.com or mail to Colorado Life, PO Box 270130, Fort Collins, CO 80527.

COLORADO POETRY

OUR STATE THROUGH THE WORDS OF OUR POETS

As spring turns into summer, gardens across Colorado are blooming into glorious life. Our poets celebrate the gardens found across the state, from handplanted vegetable gardens to naturally occurring gardens of wildflowers.

Smorgasbord

Janice Volz Schefcik, Centennial

Winter’s snow recedes in the warmth of the sun, Leaving moist, rich soil eager to nurture seeds

That sprout and grow into a smorgasbord Of glorious wildflowers and fine herbs. Like clockwork the word gets out, Rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels and deer Invite themselves to the bounty so lovingly planted. I should be dismayed but I’m not As such is the way of life in the mountains. It is soothing to observe the thieves enjoying my offering And when full they promise to return again when … Winter’s snow recedes in the warmth of the sun.

Colorado Garden

Mike McLaren, Fort Collins

The rains come and go, come again; endlessly, the cycle continues through seasons that mark the birth and death of all things.

From seeds planted in fertile soil, each and every thing, according to the roots, will spread forth leaves; the fruit of dedicated effort will branch in all directions to become the fruit of life.

Peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, radishes and lettuce –each is different in form, color, taste and smell, yet all begin as green shoots, seek the sun, and in being life will give life, even when consumed.

There is a time for all things: a time to replant, a time to grow, a time to harvest ...

... this is a time to share.

Garden Haiku

Charles Ray, Evergreen

planned and planted garden full of wildflowers now eaten by deer

Noah Wetzel

Vernal

Vaughn Neeld, Cañon City

– after a line from a poem by Emily Brontë

Mist arises from my garden to reveal a scene of dappled fields of fresh, green grass and dew-steeped flowers that shyly nod in hazy light of early morning sun.

I could collect a fragrant bunch to grace my table at our lunch, but why would I when here within this bountiful field is where they began?

I caress each face, touch them gently, these gifts of Nature’s bounty. They sweetly sway to inner music. I linger long among their glory. I thank them for their smiling welcome.

Mudling

Jill Hance Bakke, Manitou Springs

Childlike in the earthen soil

Before the garden greens

A muddy, puddling Mudling sits With dirty hands and knees.

Fingers probe and mold the mud, Planting seeds in tranquil joy.

The soft damp oozing loam and me

At one in muddy play.

From dust to dust the sages say, But dust is not enough.

I pray for rain upon my grave

The day they bury me.

Thus, I will meet my maker

Amid the mud I love,

A child in the earthen soil again Before the garden greens.

The Gardens of Southern Colorado

Janice Walters, Walsenburg

We don’t have manicured rows of vegetables waiting on their vines to be picked by hungry fingers or for a destination far away.

Instead, in Southern Colorado, we grow evening sunsets, pink with the blush of a day well spent.

We harvest mountains in winter, twin peaks that rise above us and remind us we are only a part of something much greater.

We grow rocky dikes that take eons and eons to erode into great walls of stone and legend.

We plant our hopes and dreams in the earth and watch them grow into the kernels of tomorrow from yesterday’s seeds.

In Southern Colorado, the air is thin in places but we breathe deep and cherish our gardens.

Echoes

Nathan A. McNally Jr., Elizabeth

Winter’s rest ends. In the melt, hope rises. A new year ... a new garden. Privilege in preparation. Joy in planting. Work prompts whispers, prayers, and blessings. Echoes of Eden.

DO YOU WRITE POEMS about Colorado? The next poetry theme is “On the Road” for July/August 2023, deadline June 15; the theme is “Aspen” for September/October 2023, deadline Aug. 15. Send your poems, including your mailing address, to poetry@ coloradolifemag.com or to Colorado Life, PO Box 270130, Fort Collins, CO 80527.

A couple strolls through the Yampa River Botanic Park in Steamboat Springs. Children tend the flowers at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Regularly scheduled Wild West gunfights help bring the past to life at Burlington’s Old Town Museum

story by TOM HESS

photographs by JOSHUA HARDIN

Lurena Moorman, Alyssa McClellan and Aaron Duree engage in a climactic staged gunfight at Burlington’s Old Town Museum.

ALL IS QUIET ON MAIN STREET at Old Town Museum in Burlington, but not for long. A narrator forewarns onlookers, his deep baritone booming from overhead speakers:

“Out on the cattle trail, men went for weeks or months without seeing civilization, and once they hit town, well, a celebration was in order. A full wallet fueled a spending binge … but most cowboys stayed inside the law when they painted the town.”

However, the narrator intones, sometimes things got “a little too wild, and the marshal and his men had to step in ... So sit back, relax, enjoy the show, because it’s about to get Western.”

Two rowdy young cowboys burst out of the 19th century tavern, arguing loudly over a task for their trail boss. Charley complains like a whiny little brother when the older McClane sends him away to sell cattle.

Like all good Westerns, the plot thickens, and young Charley finds himself engaged in a tense, gunslinging showdown with the marshal. Spoiler alert: There’s collateral damage, but a good guy and gal win.

ON SATURDAYS IN June, July and August, visitors to Old Town Museum, within view of Interstate 70 not far from the Kansas state line, can watch the gunfight performed twice daily. The black-powder blanks give off loud reports and send up plumes of white smoke that seem very realistic, but the scuffle is entirely fictional and completely safe. After the melee, the actors pose for pictures and hand out souvenir autograph cards to young and old alike, bringing the nostalgia of the Old West to life.

Aaron Duree leads the gunfighter cast. Depending on the needs of the day, he will play either a hero or a villain, but either

way, he warmly greets the audience afterward. Along with Old Town Museum Director Nikki Wall, Duree helped create the gunfight program, even writing the script for the eight-minute drama.

Duree was one of the original cast six years ago who responded an ad in the local paper, The Burlington Record, recruiting “gunfighters and dancing girls.” The dancing girls are for Old Town’s can-can shows and monthly Wild West Dinner Theater, which showcases high-kicking, comedienne can-can girls who also sling bottles of sarsaparilla and cowboy cream soda.

Matt and Lurena Moorman have also been with the cast since day one. In fact, they met while working together at Old Town and are now married with a child. Lurena heads up the cast of can-can dancers, choosing the script, selecting songs and choreographing dance routines that will be performed in Old Town’s Longhorn Saloon.

Old Town hires local high school students and kids home from college. Most of the dancers studied theater in school, performing in plays. They play parts in Old Town that come right out of a classic Western, with good humor, agility and quick tongues.

Many can-can dancers start as freshmen in high school and come back every summer through college. Lee Fernandez started as a 14-year-old and is graduating this year. Alyssa McClellan will be home from her freshman year of college to be in the shows all summer.

The gunfights and can-can shows take place in a setting that seems to transport visitors to the past. All 21 of Old Town’s buildings are authentically restored historic structures, most of which were moved here from elsewhere in eastern Colorado. For instance, the 1890 jail where Charley and McClane spend time in the daily gunfight routine originated in Kit

Aaron Duree shows off his marhal’s badge. Cowboys Charley Neal and Matt Moorman start a ruckus in the town streets. Clockwise from top left are Aaron Duree, Lurena Moorman, Matt Moorman, Charley Neal, Kamille Cole, Ali Rice, Alyssa McClellan and Lee Fernandez. Can-can dancers perform in the Longhorn Saloon.

as distinctive as a cattle brand, to secure their land.

Next to the barbed wire, the curves of vintage vehicles – mainly cars and tractors – tell the story of bygone craftsmanship. Visitors can imagine them on the streets of Burlington and back roads of Kit Carson County when gasoline was 4 cents a gallon.

A 1917 Maxwell automobile (Chrysler bought Maxwell in 1925) cost $655 brand new when Martin Driscoll bought one from a dealer in Wild Horse, 75 miles away. When he could no longer drive, his wife, Elsina, would take their grandchildren on good days for ice cream cones. Still operable, it’s sometimes driven in Burlington parades.

The museum pays tribute to Burlington’s most famous son – the late U.S. astronaut Mike Lounge. Born in Burlington, Lounge flew in the space shuttle Discovery in 1985 and again in 1988, the second flight carrying a flag signed by 3,500 well-wishing citizens of Burlington. The flag is on display at the museum. South 18th Street in Burlington, near the museum grounds, is Mike Lounge Drive – a testmaent to just how beloved he was.

MANY OF THE MUSEUM’S buildings are equipped with voice boxes. The push of a button begins a taped, one-minute explanation of the building’s significance.

Carson County, then moved to Stratton, 19 miles east, and arrived in Old Town in 1986, when the museum first opened.

The church on the museum grounds was relocated from Armel, what was once a thriving prairie town with a post office 42 miles north. The Boese house, built in 1915 south of Vona, 27 miles east, displays its original wallpaper and curtains upstairs.

Rock Island Railroad built the train depot, the oldest building at Old Town, in 1889 in Bethune, where it remained in operation through half of the 1940s. The H.H. Ernest family donated it to the museum. Inside is an original blueprint of the depot, several pieces of track and an original pot-belly stove.

The 1911 Harmony School House

moved to Old Town from the town of Cope in School District 54. The desk inside the school is dated 1889, based on a repair ticket for $1.95.

No period museum is complete without a red barn. With its 40-foot-high ceiling, the one at Old Town in a beautiful specimen. Built in 1930 in Kanorado, Kansas, right along the Colorado state line, it took 15 days of planning and two days to move the massive barn to Old Town. It now hosts weddings, meetings and other special events.

The museum building, which was constructed to house several thousand donated artifacts, is home to the nation’s third-largest collection of barbed wire; visitors can imagine the race that ranchers ran to put up their specific barbed wire,

Nothing on the museum property illustrates the rugged life of the Eastern Plains quite like the authentic sod house on display. Push the button, and the narrator explains why sod houses arose on the Eastern Plains.

The Homestead Act of 1862 offered settlers 160 acres they could call their own if they stuck it out for five years. Sod houses were a quick and economical way to set up a house, the sod placed grass side down to secure the 2-foot-thick walls. Old bed sheets covered the ceiling. Nothing prevented snakes from wiggling their way inside.

Abundant rainfall in the 1880s led farmers to believe that eastern Colorado was a “rain belt.” Against the advice of prairie veterans, they plowed up drought-resistant plants. When drought followed soon after, many newer farmers became

A young museum visitor rings the bell in front of the 1915 Boese House. Charley Neal steals a sack of money during a shootout skit. Kamille Cole, Lee Fernandez and Ali Rice perform a can-can dance in the saloon. Doc and Michael Engelbrecht drive their Rockin VX Chuckwagon past the historic 1937 Old Town Barn.

TRIP TRIP TRIP

ROAD ROAD ROAD

destitute and left the area.

Often overlooked in the museum is the salmon-colored wool Pullman train passenger blanket recovered from debrisstrewn mud left behind by the Republican River flood that devastated eastern Colorado and western Nebraska in May 1935. Two feet of rain fell on the parched Plains in the middle of the Dust Bowl drought, destroying Rock Island rail lines and bridges, in some places rising 6 feet in 30 minutes. The flood killed an estimated 114 people.

Passenger service to Burlington aboard the railroad began in 1888 and discontinued in 1967.

In his role as catalog librarian for the Burlington Public Library, Old Town gunslinger Aaron Duree dug deep to learn the history behind another overlooked museum item: an unopened 1938 bottle of Dom Benedictine, displayed in the museum’s Honor Hall.

The story behind the bottle involves two

Tammy Engelbrecht works at the Rockin VX Chuckwagon, which is visiting from Cheyenne Wells to demonstrate how cowboys ate when out on the range.

men from Burlington, veterans of World War I, who traveled to Paris in 1938 to attend an American Legion convention.

As members of The Last Man’s Club, they agreed to store and secure the bottle until only two members of their club remained. Apparently, the bottle was forgotten.

The bottle came into the possession of a donor who noted that “all of the men are deceased, and there is no one left to drink it. and all members of the club passed away before the beverage could be consumed.” Duree is searching records at the museum for obituaries for members of The Last Man’s Club. He’s found 11 of 46 so far.

When the smoke from Duree’s guns settle, the 6.5-acre Old Town Museum embodies the history of the Eastern Plains by bringing it to life through creatively staged exhibits, song, dance and thoughtful narration. Old Town is a treasure trove of relics waiting to be discovered.

GO. SEE. DO.

COLORADO’S CALENDAR OF EVENTS

by LEAH M. CHARNEY

CULTURE

JUNETEENTH MUSIC FESTIVAL

JUNE 17-18 · DENVER

Juneteenth celebrates the day in 1865 that African Americans in Texas learned the Emancipation Proclamation had actually freed them from bondage two years earlier. Welton Street, located in the former “Harlem of the West” Five Points neighborhood of Denver, throws a big party that includes a parade, vendors, live music and 30,000 people.

Though Denver’s Juneteenth celebrations have been going on for more than 50 years, Christopher Banks and his business partner Norman Harris kicked things up more than a notch with the Juneteenth Music Festival they started producing in 2012. The mission of their nonprofit JMF Corporation is to cele-

brate freedom by engaging the community to further strengthen ties between the Five Points neighborhood and its neighbors. That means artists, dancers and other creatives coming together alongside organizations, entrepreneurs and other community members to flood Five Points with song and to celebrate what is now a federal holiday.

Expect music styles ranging from blues to soul to hip hop, and food from restaurants and food trucks. Last year’s celebration included side block parties with separate DJs, and previous headlining acts have included DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Grammy-award winning singer Ashanti. juneteenthmusicfestival.com

WHERE TO EAT

MIMOSAS DENVER

It’s not surprising, given the name, that there are seven different mimosa types to choose from, but at Mimosa’s there are also decadent beignets, fried green tomatoes and a crab meat benedict that forgoes the classic English muffin for pancakes. This place will be packed during the festival, so plan accordingly. 2752 Welton St. (720) 372-7572.

WHAT TO DO

BLACK AMERICAN WEST MUSEUM & HERITAGE CENTER

Did you know it’s estimated one in three cowboys was Black? You’ll learn about the West’s Black inventors, entrepreneurs and others in the two-story museum, which has recently undergone a multi-year restoration. Located in the home of Dr. Justina Ford, who delivered more than 7,000 babies and spoke multiple languages, the museum is currently open on Saturdays by reservation only. 3091 California St. bawmhc.org.

Jensen Sutta

SPORTS

ANIMAS RIVER DAYS

JUNE 2-4 · DURANGO

Former international whitewater canoe slalom racer John Brennan has been paddling the Animas River since he was 8 years old. He’s also a longtime volunteer for Animas River Days, an event he’s only missed once since it began in 1983.

Brennan and his wife run the slalom race, which involves steering a boat through a course of gates set out over the river. Brennan emcees that and other events across the three-day party on the river and in Santa Rita Park. The Animas, which Brennan likes to think of as “one long linear park that flows through town,” includes a permanent course where athletes train in winter and early spring for the Olympics and World Cup events.

Thanks to the snowpack, this is expected to be one of the best boating seasons in recent years, with higher-than-average water. At the boat parade on Saturday night, join the 10,000 or so people who line the banks to watch the 350 to 400 boats come through town, see the costumes and roar when a boat tips over. animasriverdays.com

WHERE TO EAT

JAMES RANCH GRILL

Just north of town is the best burger you may ever have. At the James Ranch Grill, the beef is grass-fed and has been since 1991. Owned and operated by a multi-generational family, the food at the grill is lovingly referred to as “table on the farm” instead of farm-totable. Cheese, chicken, eggs and pork products all come from the ranch, and produce is sourced locally whenever possible. 33846 Highway 550. (970) 764-4222.

WHERE TO STAY

THE STRATER HOTEL

Built in 1887, the Strater is an imposing presence on the corner of Main Avenue and 7th Street. This renovated Victorian beauty has watched Durango grow from mining town to recreation town and is a pleasant 20-minute walk to the festivities at Santa Rita Park and mere blocks from the depot for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. 699 Main Ave. (970) 247-4431.

Other events you may enjoy

JUNE

Crawford Pioneer Days

JUNE 8-10 • Crawford

Unlike other traditional community events, when was the last time you saw a hay bale or outhouse race? At the latter, teams race outhouses to a toilet paper station, wrap the outhouse in paper and then must re-enter the structure without the paper breaking. crawfordpioneerdays.com.

Telluride

Yoga Festival

JUNE 22-25 • Telluride

This four-day intensive boasts more than 100 sessions of yoga, meditation, music, hiking, talks and other offerings designed to help you center yourself and find your inner om. Teachers include well-known names on the yoga scene today, while the stunning setting invites attendees to take in the peace offered by nature. tellurideyogafestival.com.

Colorado Tiny House Festival

JUNE 24-25 • Brighton

As tiny living only seems to increase in popularity, this event features housing that’s small but mighty. Attendees can expect a mix of model homes, occupied dwellings and DIY creations. Tickets cover both days, so you can observe and return; kids ages 12 and under are free. (303) 900-5477.

Fête

de la Musique

JUNE 25 • Ridgway

Dozens of musicians are placed in public spaces radiating outward from Hartwell Park, with performances occurring both simultaneously and at a staggered schedule for maximum music. Attendees are encouraged to walk or roll through town to experience mariachi, bluegrass, youth orchestras and more. ridgwayfete.com.

Will Berger

A classic car show is one of the many activities at the Rifle Rendezvous.

RIFLE RENDEZVOUS

MAY 19-21 · RIFLE

The sheer amount of activities occurring at the annual Rifle Rendezvous is dizzying. Festivities feature a WRCA-sanctioned rodeo with bucking bulls and broncs, as well as the 4-H Shamrock Shindig with live music, a barn dance and auction. Proceeds from the car show benefit the C. Squires Memorial Scholarship, open to high school seniors who attend Colorado Mountain College’s new automotive program. There’s a Saturday night concert from Justin Todd Herod, who boasts at least six Texas Country Music Awards and returns Sunday morning for the church service.

And don’t forget the mud bog races. What’s a mud bog race? Picture a giant mud pit that off-road vehicles attempt to

drive through. Not wanting to leave the kids out, there’s a muddy candy dash, too, so be sure to bring an extra change of clothes for any kiddos who wish to compete.

All events are designed with families in mind, and every event benefits the Rifle-area community. This includes the carnival that lasts all weekend long and the food and craft vendors who fill the Garfield County Fairgrounds, including underneath the grandstands.

Pricing for events vary, like at the youth rodeo – where contestants as young as 3 compete for belt buckles – whose ticket price is non-perishable food items for the local food pantry and shelter. (970) 6202489.

Joshua Hardin

WHERE TO EAT ORDER UP

One of the most well-loved spots in town is the Order Up, open for breakfast every day beginning at 5 a.m. The Ramos family has standard items like waffles, omelets, burgers and sandwiches, but also southwestern flair like chilaquiles and huevos rancheros. The green chile is a fan favorite. 1214 Access Rd. (970) 625-1632.

WHERE TO GO

RIFLE GAP AND RIFLE FALLS STATE PARKS

Rifle boasts two different state parks located within minutes of each other and 30 minutes from town. Rifle Gap State Park includes a crystal clear, 360-acre reservoir that’s great for water sports. At Rifle Falls State Park, behold the wonder that is Colorado’s only triple waterfall. You can also hike up to the top and check out limestone caves. 5775 Highway 325. (970) 625-1607.

JULY

Stills in the Hills

JULY 1 • Central City

Imagining the fun of Stills in the Hills is as easy as picturing Central City’s Main Street lined with Colorado distilleries serving up craft spirits. Though described as a “speakeasy,” this 21-and-up event also boasts food and music – plus the best Ulysses S. Grant costume wins a prize. (303) 582-3345.

Great Race Finish Line

JULY 2 • Colorado Springs

Great Race teams compete in antique automobiles not by speed but by following up to 250 detailed course instructions per day. After traversing eight other states, a caravan of collector cars cruises into Colorado Springs having completed this competitive road rally that takes place completely on public highways. (800) 989-7223.

Old Fashioned Fourth

JULY 4 • La Junta

Even in the 1840s, Americans celebrated the Fourth of July. Take a trip back in time to Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site and celebrate independence as the traders, trappers and tribes of the Santa Fe Trail did, including a parade, cannon firings, refreshments, a piñata and other games. (719) 383-5051.

Georgetown Plein Air

JULY 28-AUG. 13 • Georgetown

Artists create in outdoor mountain locations around Georgetown on July 28 and 29 before exhibiting and selling their works through the first weeks of August at Georgetown Heritage Center. Though many think of painting, any fine arts medium is accepted here, so long as it can be created outdoors. (303) 569-5180.

COLORADO CAMPING

LAUNCHING POINTS FOR OUTDOOR EXPLORATION

FROM COACHES TO CAMPERS

by DAN LEETH

LOCATION

Steamboat Springs

TENT/RV SITES

Hiking,

ACTIVITIES

Stagecoach State Park near Steamboat Spring offers camping along a bygone stagecoach route

WINTER’S SNOWLINE HAS begun to retreat, and most of the state’s ski areas have locked up their lifts for the season. Instead of sliding down the hillsides, it’s time for us lovers of the outdoors to pack the camper with burgers, brews and brats and head for the lower, snow-free reaches of the Colorado high country. One pleasant camping spot I’ve found for a late-spring cabin fever cure is Stagecoach State Park.

Located 30-minutes south of Steamboat Springs, the state park surrounds an 820-

acre reservoir on the upper Yampa River. Its four campground units feature 88 sites, some of which are perfect for tent campers while others with electrical hookups are best suited for trailers and motorhomes. There’s a dump station, coin-op showers and a small convenience store along with a swim beach and marina offering boat rentals and guided fishing tours.

The park lies along Routt County Road 14, which was once part of a stagecoach and wagon route between Toponas and Steamboat Springs. Near here stood the only rest-stop on the 50-mile route. The remains of old wooden cabins still dot the hillside near the park entrance.

Lift towers from an abandoned ski area stand on the hills south of the park. In the early 1970s, a Colorado Springs developer began constructing the Stagecoach Ski Resort. It was to have five base areas and

nearly two dozen chairlifts, only three of which were there for opening day. Funding dried up, the developer went bankrupt, and the resort was abandoned after only two years in operation. While some dream of reopening the ski area, the lift today remains empty, and the base area sports a small community of private homes.

To provide a reliable water source for the neighboring farms and communities, the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District decided in the mid-1980s to build a small dam on the Yampa River. Working around the clock, workers completed the 145-foot plug across the river in just 37 days, which around here is less time than it takes road crews to fill a pothole. The resulting Stagecoach Reservoir stores more than 30,000 acre-feet of water, and the dam’s generators produce up to 800 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 100 homes.

The state park opened in 1989. Located some 7,250 feet above sea level, late-springtime weather can be pleasant by day and cool at night. Ground squirrels and chipmunks scurry around campsites, mule deer and elk dine on the surrounding hills, and coyotes frequently can be heard yelping at night. Birders have reported sighting more than 189 species, from songbirds and waterfowl to hawks, eagles and osprey.

From shore or boat, anglers at the reser-

voir can hook northern pike and walleye, as well as rainbow and brown trout, which occasionally exceed 20 inches in length. Those preferring to fling flies will find the catch-and-release tailwaters below the dam to be what Colorado Parks and Wildlife touts as one of Colorado’s best rainbow trout fisheries. Lake and fly-fishing rods and supplies can be checked out for free from the park office.

For those of us preferring lugs to lures, the park offers 8 miles of hiking and biking trails. The 5-mile-long Elk Run Trail begins with a crossing of the dam, then parallels the southeastern shore of the reservoir. Hikers or bikers without a shuttle ride can return to the dam or continue the Lakeview and Overlook trails to the campground, where a gravel road leads back to the dam for an 11-mile loop of the lake. Bikes and activity backpacks, complete with binoculars and field guides, can be borrowed for free from the park office.

If the fishing, birding, hiking and biking at Stagecoach aren’t enough of a lure, another compelling enticement for camping at Stagecoach is its proximity to Steamboat Springs. The slopes may be closed, but most of Steamboat’s restaurants, shops and hot springs remain uncrowded and open for business. It’s another excuse I’ve found that makes Stagecoach State Park a pleasant, late-springtime camping destination for curing cabin fever.

Stagecoach State Park offers 86 individual and two group campsites. Sixty of the sites feature electrical hookups. Camping fees range from $18 for a primitive site (no water), $28 for a basic site and $36 for an electrical site. A $10 per day or annual parks pass is required for all vehicles. Water spigots and dump station are closed Nov. 1-May 15. Reservations and advance payment (cpw.state.co.us, 1-800-244-5613) are required.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

9 c. Yucca (Yucca House National Monument) 10 b. Red baneberry

11 False (it’s in Utah) 12 True

b. Piñon pine (the state tree is the Colorado blue spruce)

15 False (don’t eat it, but the name comes from how it grows quickly after fires)

Page 18 Lupine wildflowers grow near the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. A prickly pear blossoms outside Colorado Springs. Page 19 Tumbleweed adorns a corral near the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Campsites at Stagecoach State Park have a beautiful view of Stagecoach Reservoir. Anglers can hook northern pike and walleye, as well as rainbow and brown trout.

Dan Leeth

HOMETOWN, COLORADO

LOCAL GUIDES GIVE AN INSIDE LOOK AT COLORADO’S SMALL TOWNS

About 165 wild horses live in the open country east-southeast of Rangely.

Joshua Hardin

by EMMA BAKER

Western Slope town is steeped in history

ALITTLE OVER 10 MILES FROM the Utah border in northwest Colorado, you will find Rangely, a town of 2,300 people situated among the mesas of the high desert of the Western Slope.

Rangely is a place that feels like you’ve stepped back in time in some of the best ways. Kids still freely ride their bikes down the street, and their laughter echoes throughout the neighborhoods. Rangely is so full of history that driving down Main Street, you can picture the horse and buggy that sat parked at the very same building more than 100 years ago. The original general store, the Coltharp Store Co., still stands. More of the area’s history can be found at the Rangely Outdoor Museum which is open for the season during the summer months and is best enjoyed with local historian Diane Sizemore as your guide.

Long before that first building, the Rangely area was the gathering grounds for the archaic people known as the Fremont Indians from as early as A.D. 650. Many of their petroglyphs and pictographs are marked along the Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway in an area called the Canyon Pintado National Historic District, only a short drive from town. Much of their handiwork and other Fremont-built structures are tucked away in the vast miles of public land surrounding Rangely and are a closely guarded secret among the locals.

Among the Fremont and Ute Indian markings are many more markings from area ranchers, sheepherders and the occasional outlaw who made this area a part of his escape route. In fact, there’s speculation that after Butch Cassidy’s first bank robbery in Telluride, it was this area that he came through and stopped to trade horses with the Utes before crossing into Utah. Locals tell stories passed down from family members of feeding Butch, Sundance and the Wild Bunch as they came through, and all seemed to tell a story reminiscent of a Robin Hood sort of outlaw who was well liked and thought of reverently.

Waving Hands Interpretive Site is one of many pictograph locales in Canyon Pintado National Historic District.

Joshua Hardin

RANGELY

Fremont

Site

Petroglyphs

Kenney Reservoir White Birds Interpretive Site

Canyon

Pintado National

District

LOCALS ARE SOME OF THE TOUGHEST people to survive in this high mountain desert terrain but also some of the kindest people you will ever meet. The oil and gas industry brought the majority of Rangely’s population with the boom in 1944 and the subsequent oil camp, initiating the incorporation of the town in 1947. The Weber and Mancos Shale formation is among the largest and the oldest in the United States, with the first well drilled in 1901, and the patch is still active today.

One of the many locals who makes Rangely so special is Frank Huitt, known for his jean shorts, outspokenness and affinity for fast sports cars. His family’s taxidermy business gives tours to the elementary kids each year and co-hosts a Christmas event with the Recreation Center, complete with carriage rides, s’mores, chili and hot dogs. You’ll always see Frank and his family out and about supporting the many small businesses, the local events like the Rangely OHV Adventure Rally and raising money and awareness for our local veterans, law enforcement and first responders.

Another colorful local is also a small business owner who turned out to be the area’s champion during the great toilet paper shortage of 2020. Rodger Polley, the

Taylor Draw Dam captures water from the White River some 6 miles east of Rangely to create Kenney Reservoir, a popular local recreation destination. Joshua Hardin

owner of Rangely True Value, is known for his quirky social media posts, afternoon popcorn giveaways, local train knowledge (so much so that he wrote a book about it) and keeping our small town in stock of the essentials.

Along with the local grocery store, Polley’s store kept our small community supplied with life’s necessities during a time when many of the large brand stores were struggling with empty shelves and backlogged orders. Because of their foresight and commitment to providing for our small community, we had visitors from much larger cities when they discovered we had stock of those precious tissue tickets.

The best part of living in and visiting Rangely is that it’s a hub for so many different activities. You can go half an hour in any direction and experience a multitude of environments and activities. It is fun to take your water toys and spend the day floating down the White River in old tire tubes or rafting into Utah, paddleboarding on Kenney Reservoir, kayaking, fishing, water skiing and picnicking on the shores of the beautiful reservoir, which yields exquisite sunsets

that reflect vibrantly off the wakes. The Colorado entrance to Dinosaur National Monument is a 20-minute drive with a multitude of sites to visit.

You can take your off-highway vehicle from any place in town, as the ordinances are OHV-friendly, and it’s common to see our youth getting to and from after-school activities in them. There are 360 miles of trail on the west portion of the Wagon Wheel OHV Trails system, and you can explore Texas Creek, Rabbit Mountain and other remote places where you most likely won’t run into another soul other than the band of wild horses that live in the area.

On the Fourth of July, fireworks sparkle high above the lake and echo loudly through the canyon. In the fall, during SeptemberFest, one of our longest running events, there are local activities and contests that you can only find in a small town.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emma Baker is a writer who lives in Rangely. Her family has lived in the Rangely area on and off since the time of her great-grandparents.