August 2017 . Issue 6.8
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August 2017
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Jay Mogil
In response to the growing opioid epidemic sweeping across Routt County and the nation at large, Super Fun Show cast member Sabrina Stewart is producing and directing her third narrative film, “Ruined Wings,” based on the novella “Ruined Wings” by awardwinning author Ashley Fontainne. The film has raised more than half the funds needed for production and will begin filming in fall 2017, using all local cast and crew. Our August Super Fun Steamboat Show will be taking donations toward the final fundraising needed to make this much-needed film a reality.
Steamboat lost one if its most-beloved members in June 2017. Jay Mogil loved and supported the arts in all forms, and he was a sponsor and true friend of the Super Fun Steamboat Show. He was loved so much by so many, and he will be deeply missed.
PRESENTS
The Merchant of Venice
THE CHOSEN ONE
William Shakespeare
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& The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare
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www.galsco.com 970-355-9403
t member Sabrina Stewart is producing and directing her third narrative film, “Ruined Wings,” based on the novella “Ruined Wings” by award-winni
t and crew. Dates and Times Each performance runs 75 minutes! Saturday Shows at Steamboat High School are Alcohol Free!
Friday, July The Chosen One - Botanic Park h-needed film28,a6pm: reality.
Saturday, July 29, 6pm: Merchant - Steamboat High School Sunday, July 30, 6pm: The Chosen One - Botanic Park
Wednesday, August 2, 6pm: Merchant - Botanic Park Thursday, August 3, 6pm: The Chosen One - Botanic Park Friday, August 4, 6pm: Merchant - Botanic Park Saturday, August 5, 6pm: The Chosen One - High School Sunday, August 6, 6pm: Merchant- Bud Werner Library
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
FREE Admission for all Shows! Wednesday, August 9, 6pm: The Chosen One - Botanic Park Thursday, August 10, 6pm: Merchant - Botanic Park Friday, August 11, 6pm: The Chosen One - Botanic Park Saturday, August 12, 6pm: Merchant - High School Sunday, August 13, 6pm: The Chosen One - Library
Valley Voice
August 2017
Rants...
Contents The Fruits Of Summer
Page 4
Household Income Inequality
Page 5
German POW Camps in Colorado
Page 6
By Eric Kemper
By Scott L. Ford
By Ellen and Paul Bonnifield
What A Mess Page 7 By Scott L. Ford
Sales: Eric Kemper valleyvoicesales@gmail.com Event Calendar: Eric Kemper valleyvoicesales@gmail.com Valley Voice is published monthly and distributed on the last Wednesday of each month. Please address letters, questions, comments or concerns to: Valley Voice, LLC, P.O. Box 770743 or come by and see us at 1125 Lincoln Ave, Unit 2C, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477. Or contact Matt Scharf: 970-846-3801. Scott Ford: 970-819-9630. Website www.yampavalleyvoice.com. Subscription rate is $40 per year (12 issues). All content © 2017 Valley Voice, L.L.C. No portion of the contents of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the written permission from the Valley Voive.
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Advertisers assume full responsibility for the entire content and subject matter of their ads. In the event of error or omission in the advertisement, the publisher’s sole responsibility shall be to publish the advertisement at a later date. Advertisements and articles are accepted and published upon the representation that the author, agency and/or advertiser is authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The author, agency, and/ or advertiser will indemnify and save Valley Voice, LLC harmless from all claims and legal action resulting from the contents of the articles or advertisements including claims or suits resulting from libel, defamation, plagiarism, rights to privacy and copyright infringements. The views and opinions expressed reflect the views and opinions of the authors and may not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of the editor, staff or advertisers in Steamboat’s Valley Voice. Direct all correspondence, articles, editorials or advertisements to the address below. The author’s signature and phone number must accompany letters to the editor. Names will be withheld upon request (at the discretion of the publisher). Submission is no guarantee of publication. Subscription rate is a donation of 40 measly dollars per year. However, if you wish to send more because you know we desperately need your money, don’t be shy, send us all you can! Advertisers rates vary by size, call 970-846-3801 and we’ll come visit you. Please make checks payable to: Valley Voice, LLC P.O. Box 770743 • Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 Thank you for your support!
Remember when we had an adult in the White House… 16 year old abandoned, hulking eyesores… Roadkill cattle bloating in the wind… No backup plans for “unexpectedly” cancelled fireworks…
The Flying Dragons!
Page 10
People looking for thier horse...
Twin Enviro Receives Grant
Page 11
Luminescence & Light
Page 12
Raves...
The Swimming Squirrel
Page 13
Congrats to Jordan Ward and Delaney Parker. Two more Steamboat athletes who make us all proud…
Hopper & Dropper
Page 14
The annual explosion of color when the wildflowers are in full bloom…
News from the Chief of the Chief
Page 19
Calendar of Events
Page 20
First Friday Artwalk
Page 21
By Jeneiri Yeats
Scott Ford
Those bright pink parking tickets…
Page 8
By Karen Vail
Business Manager:
Unhinged ravings. You know who you are…
Evolution of a Craniac By Molly Kinsella
Publisher/Art Director: Matt Scharf matt@yampavalleyvoice.com
3
By Dagny McKinley By Aimee Kimmey By Peter Parsons By Scott Parker
By Eric Kemper
By Wina Procyzyn
Missing some singletrack time...
Fair’s fair. Even city councilmen get parking tickets… The excitement never stops… New trails on Buff Pass… The new and improved Gondy… To all the rain that hit the ground…
Tales of A Town - Part I - Germination
Page 22
People connecting with their lost pets...
Not My Circus
Page 24
Moto-chat with old riding buddies...
Rose Colored Glasses
Page 25
A Blast from the Past
Page 26
Say What?...
Swinging into the Scene
Page 27
“The most essential service is the most non-essential service – Howelsen”
Yampa Valley Health Care Group
Page 28
“You think Trump cares about Steamboat Springs’ opinions on North Korea??!!??”
Like Balloons on A Summer Day
Page 29
“I’m not feeling it in terms of the need for a community vote on this?”
By John Whittum By Lyn Wheaton
By Wandering Rose By Monica Yager By LA Bourgeois
By Nancy Spillane By Debora Black
Yepelloscopes Page 30 By Chelsea Yepello
Comics
“What time do they shut off the river for the night?” “Where is a good place to stargaze?”
Page 31
“Do you have fireworks every night?”
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Just because you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.—George Carlin
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Drink of the Month
Sunset
The Fruits Of Summer By Eric Kemper
Happy Hour Join us for a beautiful sunset and views of the valley with signature cocktails, appetizers and live music.
Beer, for all of its complexity and ubiquity, is such a simple beverage. It has only four ingredients, yet in every glass is contained a history of the world from which each beer originates. Water, malt, hops and yeast are all it takes to make this most popular of drinks worldwide. The type of grains, hops and yeast strains the brewer selects determines the characteristics in each glass, and what story that particular beer will tell.
$15 includes gondola ride and $5 off food or drink of your choice.
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970.871.5150 • steamboat.com Perfect for the over 21 crowd Dates and bands are subject to change
The codification of these four ingredients can in many ways be traced back to the Reinheitsgebot Law of 1516. Originally introduced in part to require that beer was made strictly from barley, preventing price competition with bakers for wheat and rye, the law set standards that influenced beer making around the world for centuries. One of the effects in Germany was that many brewing traditions and brewing styles went extinct. Other brewing nations such as Belgium and England were not bound by these restrictions. However, it was the German immigrants, as compared to immigrants from these other nations, who did the most to shape the American brewing tradition. The craft beer revolution has brought these other great traditions back into fashion, with styles such as lambics, chocolate stouts and shandys being rediscovered by a new generation of drinkers. The notable thing all of these styles have in common is the addition of non-Reinheitsgebot ingredients. Fruit, vegetables, chocolate and spices all have their place in great beer, even if it doesn’t comport with the 500 year old codes. One of the innovations that seems to be predominantly American is the advent of the fruit beer. Belgians, long the ‘rebels’ of the brewing world, started the practice of adding fruit to beer with lambics and Krieks less than 100 years ago. But these styles, basically a wheat beer with fruit added, are very sour and complex, compared to the average fruit beer most people are likely to pick up at the store. Crafted fruit beers are likely to be lighter, more approachable and oftentimes are grounded in a strong sense of place (i.e. cranberry beers from New England or chili beers from the Southwest)
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
America, with its vast cornucopia of fruits from across the nation, has taken the concept of fruit and vegetable beer to all new levels. Apricot wheats , with their easy drinkability and refreshingness, were early examples, but the wide variety of chili beers, pumpkin beers and even savory herbal beers demonstrate the explosion of popularity with the concept. Recently, the trend has even expanded to the IPA. Hops, the defining characteristic of an IPA, are usually such a strong flavor on their own that no additional fruits were needed or even wanted. But, as experimentation is inherent in the American character, even this Rubicon has been crossed. Fruit IPA’s abound. Citrus fruits are the most natural pairing for the bitter, hop character of an IPA, but any fruit can be used. Which brings us to the beer: Eddyline Brewing, out of Buena Vista (pronounced ‘Byoona Vista’ by longtime Coloradans), has been making excellent beers since 2009. Their Crank Yanker IPA has been a flagship for years. For summer, they have created a bright, tropical citrusy variation they call Grapefruit Yanker IPA.
Featuring the addition of mango as well as grapefruit, the beer pours a beautiful, rich gold with a light, lacy head. The aroma is tropical, with an abundance of grapefruity hops. This bright citrusy character carries through the flavor, with enough hop bitterness to leaven any sweetness. The malt back bone is solid, and the finish is long and lingering. This is a fantastic, flavorful beer for the season. Pair this one with pork kebobs or a nice goat cheese. Enjoy this one while it lasts during the hottest days of summer. Eddyline’s other beers, Crank Yanker IPA, Boater Beer Pilsner & River Runners Pale Ale can be found in stores and on tap all over town. Cheers!
Valley Voice
August 2017
5
Economics Common Sense of Our Dollars and Cents
Household Income Inequality By Scott L. Ford This issue I will take a deep dive into the topic of income inequality. I hesitate to write about this topic because it is so politically charged. I am not going to debate the issue of income inequality from a political context. The intent of this month’s column is to simply report what it is and the trajectory Steamboat Springs is on compared to other Colorado resort communities.
The $611 million in aggregate household income is distributed as follows:
Steamboat Springs Area 2015 Distribution of $611 million of Aggregate Household Income by Quintile 60%
Before I jump into the deep end, there are a few things that need to be clarified.
Share of Aggregate Income
First -Income inequality is not the same thing as wealth inequality. Without question there likely is a strong correlation between the two – but they are different things. A discussion about wealth inequality is beyond the scope of this month’s column which will solely focus on the distribution of annual income. Second - Although we all may be equal in God’s eye and ideally in the eyes of the law, when it comes to athletic ability and economic potential we are very different from each other. Income inequality is the inevitable consequence of the unequal distribution of skill, intelligence, ambition, dedication, parental involvement, market valuation, risk taking and just plain luck, to name only a few variables. The US Census, using data passed to it by the IRS, does have reasonably good estimates of how income is distributed in the greater Steamboat Springs area. According to the US Census, in 2015 Steamboat Springs had a total of $ 611 million in aggregate household income from both labor and non-labor sources. The US Census separates these households into quintiles. For discussion purposes each quintile in the Steamboat area represents about 1,350 households.
52%
50%
Over the last six years, the pace of household income disparity is occurring the fastest in Steamboat and Telluride. This is one of those areas where social science overlaps with economics. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is perhaps the best way to visualize this. This hierarchy is separated into five levels:
40% 30%
22%
20% 10% 0%
15%
9% 3% Lowest
Second
Third Quintiles
Fourth
Top
Income inequality can be quantified. In 1912, an Italian statistician, Corrado Gini, developed what became known as the GINI Index. The GINI Index measures the degree of income inequality in a population. It does this by calculating coefficient ranges from 0 (or 0%) to 1 (or 100%). Considering that these calculations had be done by hand in 1912 – this was an impressive task. As a range, a coefficient value of zero (0) represents perfect equality, and a value of 1 represents perfect inequality. An area which every household has the exact same income would have a GINI coefficient of zero (0). If only one household earned all the income, while every other household earned nothing, the GINI coefficient would have a value of 1.
2015 Steamboat Springs Area Household Income Analysis by Quintiles Number of Households
Lowest
Second
Third
Fourth
Top
Total
1,353
1,353
1,353
1,353
1,353
6,765
$27,329 to $50,170
$50,170 to $79,827
$79,827 to $121,782
$121,782
N/A
$38,661
$65,916
$98,865
$232,899
$90,347
<$27,329
Annual Household Income Range Mean Household Income
$15,392
Colorado Mountain Communities GINI Index 2010 thru 2015 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Pct. Change 2010 to 2015
Aspen
Breckenridge
Crested Butte
Durango
Steamboat
Telluride
0.6320 0.5920 0.5691 0.5512 0.5668 0.5747
0.3930 0.3869 0.3985 0.3910 0.4011 0.4036
0.4260 0.4428 0.4227 0.4245 0.3972 0.3819
0.4350 0.4341 0.4356 0.4326 0.4353 0.4407
0.4040 0.4267 0.4507 0.4600 0.4683 0.4763
0.4530 0.5021 0.5215 0.5115 0.5216 0.5412
-9%
3%
-10%
1%
18%
19%
Source: US Census/ACS Table B19083
1. Physiological 2. Safety 3. Love and Belonging 4. Self-Esteem 5. Self-Actualization In Steamboat about 60% of the households are likely focused primarily on meeting basic Physiological and Safety needs (air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep. protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear) and 20% of the households are focused on essentially Esteem and Self-Actualization needs (achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, selfrespect, respect from others, realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences) As income inequality becomes more pronounced in Steamboat there is a danger of losing the middle of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs of Love and Belongingness friendship, intimacy, trust and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love, affiliating, being part of a group (family, friends, work). I hope losing the middle is an not inevitable consequence of increasing household income inequality.
Next Month – How Local Households Spend their income?
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Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.—Russell Baker
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Bonnifield Files
German Prisoner of War Camps in Colorado By Ellen & Paul Bonnifield
Eight more soldiers were implicated in the episode. Three admitted their part and a fourth was connected to the crime. A military court sentenced Maple to death for treason; however, through a long legal battle he was freed in 1950.
World War II German Prisoner of War (POW) camps in Colorado are an interesting story of contrasts and contradictions. The terrible fighting in Africa and Europe seemed on a different planet or solar time from the universe of the POWs. Colorado had 48 German prison camps. Primary camps were Camp Carson, later Fort Carson, with 9,000 to 12,000 prisoners, Trinidad with 2,500 prisoners, and Camp 202 near Greeley housing 3,000 prisoners. Primary camps supplied 45 “side camps” and many secondary side camps. Serious thought was given to placing a side camp at the deserted CCC camp on Bear River west of Yampa. However, the local timber industry was too small to accommodate a large number of prisoners. Immediately following the Declaration of War, land was purchased for construction of Camp Carson at Colorado Springs. In 1942, approximately 11,000 people rushed to build the base. In less than a year, it was in operation. German prisoners began arriving on January 1, 1943. Because the war drained the domestic work force, their labor became critical to every day base operations. Prisoners were sent from base camps to “side camps.” One of the earlier side camps was Camp Hale, where beginning in 1942, German POWs played a significant role in construction and maintenance of the base. Here, prisoners became involved in scandal and charges of treason. Americans caused the most serious trouble at Camp Hale. Stationed at the camp was the 620th General Engineering Corp. The troops were not engineers but conscientious objectors and misfits, often pro-Nazi
sympathizers. Their principal function was making camouflage nets, digging ditches, and sawing wood. They mixed freely with the prisoners. Within the 620th was a cadre of hard core Nazi supporters who planned several illegal activities including sabotage and guerrilla warfare. They searched trash cans and offices for important military documents and successfully forged money and other documents. Once, two members of the 620th accompanied a German POW on an illicit tour of beautiful northwestern Colorado where they drank beer and enjoyed hamburgers. After their trip, the escapees slipped back into camp undetected. Dale Maple had a history of pro-German activities and, at the beginning of America’s entry in the war, he attempted to join the German Army. He was drafted and assigned to the 620th Engineers. He was brilliant and hard core. After purchasing a car in Salida, he talked two prisoners into escaping to Mexico where they planned to catch a ship to Germany. Maple deserted and drove the escapees to Mexico. They probably would have got away, except a Mexican officer stopped them because he was looking for escapees from a Texas POW camp. Maple was court marshaled for treason.
While the Maple episode was making headlines, military investigators discovered five WACS romantically corresponding with German prisoners. It was just a fling without any actual contact, but three WACS were dishonorably discharged for fraternizing with the enemy. That was quite different from what happened at the agriculture side camp at Del Norte. For several months, late in the evening, a lady drove to a certain location and picked up her man. Early in the morning she returned him and he slipped back into the prison camp. When discovered the prisoner was returned to the Trinidad prison camp and no legal action was taken against the lady. Fearing a return to the gas warfare of World War I, in May 1942 the Rocky Mountain Arsenal site near Denver was selected to produce mustard gas, lewisite, and napalm. Napalm was used in the firebombing of Tokyo that killed 83,000 and injured another 41,000. That’s nasty stuff. Located on land that later became the north-south runway for Stapleton International Airport, the Rose Hill Prisoner of War Camp operated with 300 prisoners from November 3, 1943 until April 1, 1946. Prisoners were used for many tasks on the Arsenal. Security was lax. Four prisoners dressed in prison clothing walked out and down to Denver’s red light district before they were discovered.
The Japanese invasion of the Philippines and the loss of the sugar cane fields resulted in an acute sugar shortage in the United States. Raising sugar beets became a prime wartime goal of the nation. In Colorado, the Extension Service was responsible for placing German POWs and Japanese interment prisoners to work in the fields. The majority of the German prisoners were used as “stoop labor” to raise sugar beets.
Camp Trinidad opened in June 1943 and soon became notorious for the excessive number of escapes. Prisoners dug a tunnel long enough to reach beyond the security lights and used it regularly. Once, three prisoners were caught attempting to break back into the Camp. Distilling whiskey and other liquor was on a large scale. The blacksmith regularly arrived drunk for work. Meryle Hansen gave an excellent account of the Prisoner of War Camp at Ryan Park in the Snowy Range north of North Park. From 1943 until 1946, prisoners were used to harvest timber for Crow Company. The first prisoners to arrive were Italians. “They could not get much work out of them.” The Italians were excellent performers who were always ready to sing, dance, and recite poetry. At acrobatics they provided superior entertainment, but they quickly sat down next to their work, unsure of how to operate a shovel, ax, or saw. Germans, who were less entertaining but more productive, replaced the Italians. More than 200 prisoners spread out in the woods felling, skidding, or decking logs. All were armed with axes, saws or other weapons.
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
Valley Voice
August 2017
7
Go Figure!? Yet, Hansen only recalled one attempt to attack a civilian. On Sundays, everyone in camp gathered at the prison gate and listened to music and song. Prisoners often made their own instruments. Hansen donated several beautifully carved and painted items made by the prisoners to the Saratoga museum. Another camp at Gould, Colorado shipped lumber out of Walden. There may have been a camp at Walden. A fourfoot high slab fence defined the prison at Gould. The Fleming Lumber Company had a large force of prisoners working on Gore Creek above present Vail. The side camp at Fraser was an exciting place. Prisoners daily produced about 25,000 board feet, primarily telephone poles for the Kopper Lumber Company. Prisoners had their own band and played for public dances. The German POW doctor made house calls to the isolated residents of east Grand County. When supervisor Morris Long was called upon to provide entertainment for dignitaries at the Wabooson Lodge, he turned everything over to the prisoners. It was a high tone affair that ran very smoothly with black-market beef served while the orchestra played from the balcony. Morris mused, “Of course most everyone got gloriously lit, including the attending prisoners.” The party was talked about for years. For additional entertainment, prisoners were marched to the local theater for a movie. Railroads transported troops and instruments war, yet German prisoners were used as extra gangs in track repair. POWs cut ice blocks for ice boxes at Gore west of Kremmling, Rollinsville, and Minturn. They were housed in outfit cars or CCC camps next to the mainline. Prisoners could have hopped a freight train or caused a wreck without any effort. In April 1946, the prisoners returned home and the camps were soon forgotten.
CORRECTION An interested, sharp-eyed reader and former resident of Oak Creek spotted some errors in our article “Those Damn Hippies at Oak Creek: Part II.”
What a Mess By Scott L. Ford I have had the opportunity to work with young adults trying to put their personal financial affairs in order who have staggering amounts of student loan debt. Student loan debt exceeding $50,000 is not unusual. I am sure that many folks reading this article have their own student loan story to tell. According to Equifax, one of the leading credit reporting agencies, Americans owe over $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers. That’s about $620 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt. The average Class of 2016 graduate had $37,172 in student loan debt, up six percent from last year. The average monthly student loan payment (for borrowers aged 20 to 30 years) is $351.
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Counting both subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans, a student can borrow up to $57,500 for undergraduate and an additional $81,000 for graduate school. Counting the interest on these loans, it does not take too long before this debt becomes overwhelming. Yes, the average student loan balance at the end of 2016 was about $37,000. However, of the 44 million borrowers only 5% of them had loan balances of $100,000 or more, and this relatively small group accounts for about 30% of the $1.3 trillion in student loan debt. This simply means that of those with balances over $100,000, their average balance is about $180,000 per borrower.
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The number of student loans considered delinquent or in default is 11.2%. Perhaps more troubling is the default rate amongst those with loan balances over $100,000. For example, the class cohort of 2010-11 has been out of school for about 6 years, and their earnings are not sufficient to service these high levels of debt; the default rate is approaching 30%. Let’s not forget that the American tax payer is eventually responsible for these loans, because they are federally guaranteed. Next Month - How did we get in to such a mess?
- The call letters of the wind powered radio station were KFMU. - Mary Jane’s Kitchen is the proper name and spelling of that popular eatery. - Bob Raiford’s name was also misspelled. Our reader still owns one of Raiford’s rocking chairs and claims it is not at all comfortable. Love the differing opinions! - The reader also pointed out that we didn’t mention Ruby Cady’s Wagon Wheel Café and the $3.00 Taco Tuesdays. We have many stories we couldn’t include because of space limitations. We thank all our readers and all those who so willingly share your stories with us.
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Go Figure? is sponsored by Rocky Mountain Remedies Proudly supporting alternative modalities in medicine and media. 2570 South Copper Frontage • 970•879•5717 Still I was concerned that politics would get between us and or POW’s.—Bo Gritz
8
August 2017
CALLING ALL CRANIACS! 6th annual
Valley Voice
Yampa Valley Crane Festival
Evolution of a Craniac By Molly Kinsella
Soar in for daily crane viewings, films, expert speakers, live raptors, bird walks, family activities, bird sketching, crane art, Carpenter Ranch picnic & talk, flying dancers, ranch tour & more!
Aug. 31-Sept. 3 Steamboat & Hayden SPECIAL GUESTS! Keynote by George Archibald of International Crane Foundation
Birding Editor Ted Floyd Photographers Sandra Noll & Erv Nichols John Azua, Denver Zoo’s Curator of Birds Liza Rossi, CPW Bird Conservation HawkQuest founder Kin Quitugua
Schedule & festival details at www.coloradocranes.org
Presented by CCCC, Inc.
Cranes are often called a “flagship species.” For wildlife biologists, this is a fancy term for cool and charismatic species that get people interested and excited. And there is a lot to get excited about. Crane fossil remnants have been found dating back at least 10 million years. When you consider the fact that early ancestors of Homo sapiens have only roamed Earth (at least in our current fossil record) for about 2.6 million years, this number becomes even more striking. Beyond their fossil record, cranes also have an extensive mythological background. You don’t really understand the term “craniac” until you fully submerge in the Yampa Valley’s own community of Greater Sandhill Crane supporters. Sitting in on a Yampa Valley Crane Festival planning meeting, you will hear a range of topics you hadn’t ever really considered—everything from who will be a part of the Crane March in the Fourth of July parade, to what making a life-size Rocky Mountain Greater Sandhill Crane mascot might entail, including how to keep the crane’s neck and body proportionally accurate and whether to consider obtaining real, taxidermied crane eyes from formerly hunted sandhill cranes. As a self-labeled “nature lover,” I was drawn into this project with little to no knowledge about cranes—Greater Sandhill or otherwise! But as an anthropologist and avid researcher, it quickly became apparent to me that the crane is a majestic creature with an almost mythic following and culture around the Yampa Valley. I spoke with local artists, photographers, conservationists, former employees of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, ranchers and, of course, the founders and avid birders who began the Yampa Valley Crane Festival six years ago. The power that lies behind the craniac craze is something deeper than just the birds, magnificent as they are. The power behind this movement lies in the light it sheds on our own humanity, and how our interplay with the natural world enriches our very being.
Photo by Gerhard Assenmacher
Over centuries on each of the five continents that various cranes inhabit, hundreds of stories and myths linked people with their local cranes. They pack a presence. Some cranes reach up to six feet tall with an eight-foot wingspan. They have long, graceful necks and legs. A long trachea echoes a bugle cry across its landscape. Some of the birds’ most prominent features are just as captivating to Routt and Moffat county locals. “They are unique,” said Van Graham, a former long-time Steamboat resident and Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist. “Their call is pretty haunting and lets you know when they are migrating. You hear them before you see them.” Nancie McCormish, an adjunct professor of environmental science, at CMC, agreed with a chuckle: “Their call is my alarm clock!” Other Yampa Valley craniacs noted the birds’ particularly enigmatic character. “I like finding cranes and then watching their ancient dance for an hour or two—it’s better than any television or video because it’s not virtual, it’s really real and you can experience it in real time,” noted Holly Harker, a local photographer. “They mate for life,” said Jay Fetcher, a local rancher with deep roots in the Yampa Valley, “and they are great parents. They nest on the ground, so both parents are needed to raise their young.” When Leslie Lovejoy first witnessed the cranes in person, she too was taken in. “I was awestruck by these huge, gangly, almost prehistoric looking birds with their haunting calls,” she recalled.
For many locals, cranes offer a grounding presence. “Cranes represent that moment to pause, hear or see their dancing. They don’t come and go on a calendar date; they show up some time in March. They represent a change in the seasons,” Fetcher said. Van Graham added, “When you hear the cranes migrate south, you know winter is coming, and the same in spring.” The crane has certainly served as a magnificent ambassador to the Yampa Valley community. As Jennie Lay, adult
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
Valley Voice
programs coordinator at Bud Werner Library and selfdescribed craniac put it, “Cranes are cool! If you get out and witness these gigantic dinosaur-era birds meandering around the Yampa Valley, I have no doubt you’ll agree.” That’s a sentiment I heard across all my interviews. Yampa Valley Crane Festival co-founder Nancy Merrill described it best when she talked about opportunities to get out and see the cranes on the festival’s many guided tours: “It’s always a thrill, whether you’re seeing the cranes for the first or hundredth time, you feel that electricity, that excitement.” That excitement has been building over the last six years, as the festival has really taken flight. “People have come to respect the cranes and embrace their presence,” Van Graham said. When Graham and CPW began working with the birds in the mid-1970s, there were only about 25 nesting pairs in the area. Today, across the region, there are an estimated 250-300 nesting pairs! Fetcher described a similar shift in the culture and awareness regarding cranes. “Landowners around Hayden feel that the cranes are pretty cool. There has been a shift, even among ranchers. The festival has brought attention to the cranes that have perhaps been taken for granted all around Routt County,” he said.
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Photo by Abby Jensen
hearts. “This is a citizen-based conservation success story,” said McCormish. “Camera hunting is better than carcass hunting.” United by controversy and the possibility of crane hunting, a band of people came together to celebrate the Greater Sandhill Crane. “Cranes have grown to represent what’s right about the Yampa Valley—namely, our passion for what’s wild,” Lay said. “Protection of the cranes and their habitat has happened because this community overwhelmingly cares about the planet and respects the broad diversity of species that live on it. The Greater Sandhill Cranes have created a very special way for us, and thousands of visitors who pass through our town, to celebrate this victory for wildlife and wild places. These big beautiful birds are a glorious symbol for something bigger that’s happening around here.” For Merrill, this flagship species was just that—a beautiful, ancient, majestic creature with the power to bring a community together in the hope of awareness and conservation. “I love cranes because they connect me to nature, and they connect me to the people in this Valley. Really, all of this is not just about the cranes. The cranes are the
ambassador species. Really, it’s about this incredible habitat and the desire to keep that the same—protected and preserved,” Merrill said. Further, Merrill hopes that people realize just how much our lives are enriched by the cranes and all the other species that share the habitat. “We have a better, richer life when we recognize how we share the planet, not just when we look out for ourselves,” she said. Want to get involved with this craniac culture? The 2017 Yampa Valley Crane Festival kicks off Thursday, Aug. 31 and runs through Labor Day weekend with events for everyone in the family. From guided crane viewings, to bird and nature walks, award winning documentaries, live raptors and internationally renowned speakers, there is something for everyone. New events this year include crane storytelling, crane yoga, crane aerialists and a “Big Sit” at the osprey nest at the Yampa River Botanic Park. Get excited, get registered and immerse yourself in the craniac culture…who knows, you just might get the craniac bug yourself! Check out the detailed festival schedule at www.coloradocranes.org. Many of the awesome events are free and do not require registration. Some events with limited numbers do require registration and a nominal fee. Don’t miss out on this more-amazing-than-ever 2017 festival!
Photo by Kevin Dietrich
Lay added, “Crane consciousness is high in the Yampa Valley. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is wholly because of our Yampa Valley Crane Festival. That consciousness continues to grow because of the festival’s enticing crane curriculum that all third graders get in school. The kids educate their parents. It’s also growing because the festival itself is irresistible. Everyone seems to find a nugget of a day or event that draws them in, whether it’s via an angle on science, conservation, art or just straight-up engagement with live birds. I think our community feels a strong connection, a strong need to be active in their preservation.” Across all of my interviews, this theme of community and preservation stuck out pretty clearly. From the festival’s beginning, a group of dedicated people, a craniac community, fought hard for the bird they hold so dear to their
It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.—Aesop
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Valley Voice
Dog Days of Summer!
‘Boat Almanac
The Flying Dragons! By Karen Vail
Are you as fascinated by the flying jewels with stained glass wings as I am?! Yep, dragonflies have got to be one of my favorite insects. Now, after a bit more sleuthing, they are also the most fascinating.
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If you were hanging out during the Paleozoic era, around 300 million years ago, you would have seen “giant dragonflies” with wing spans up to 30 inches! These are considered the largest insects of all times according to Wikipedia. Some scientists theorized that increased oxygen levels allowed this giant size. It’s nice that they have slimmed down a little, but other than size they are virtually unchanged from the earlier monster flying machines. Take a moment and watch a dragonfly zoom through the world. Their flight is a masterful blend of speed and maneuverability; straight up or down, hovering like a helicopter, all of this so fast it is hard to keep track of them. They are the insect equivalent of falcons, catching their insect prey in the air. An article in Current Biology from March 2016 (Michael H. Dickinson) outlined how dragonflies don’t just chase their prey, but they compute internally where the insect will be in accordance with their own flight pattern. That means calculating the direction and speed the prey is moving, and the dragonfly’s angle of approach. Like a horror movie, they are waiting for the hapless insect. Their front legs curve up like a basket to “catch” their prey. Dragonflies are such efficient hunters that a study from Harvard University found they devoured 90-95 percent of the prey released in their enclosure. If lions were as efficient in hunting gazelles, there would very soon be none left. Then there are those eyes! Taking up most of their head, the eyes wrap around its head giving it a 360 degree view. This is valuable both for catching prey and evading predators. While most insects have multifaceted eyes (the house fly has 6,000 facets), dragonflies have an incredible 30,000 facets. Each facet creates its own image, and its brain compiles those thousands of images into one picture using eight pairs of visual neurons. These super powers are only the beginning. We humans see colors as a combination of red, green and blue (tri-chromatic vision) due to three different types of light-sensitive proteins, called opsins, in our eyes. According to New Scientists February 2015 article (Catherine Brahic), a study of 12 dragonfly
species found no fewer than 11, and sometimes a whopping 30, different opsins. If a dragonfly and I were sharing a beautiful rainbow moment, they would see ultraviolet on top of blue, green and red, and they can also recognize polarized light coming off reflective surfaces, plus other “colors” we can only dream of. Dragonflies have amazing vision, but it is the brain’s reaction to that vision that truly makes them incredible. A video on the BBC (the Curiosity Makes You Smarter blog has this) showed a dragonfly reacting to a pea shot through a pea shooter. Where we cannot even see the pea fly through the air, the dragonfly notes and reacts to the pea before it is even in its space. Our reaction time is 60 images per second and the dragonfly’s is 200 images per second. The presenter put this into perspective by using a flip book, showing for a human a nice seamless movement as the book’s pages are flipped through. The dragonfly, on the other hand, would see each page turn.
Then there are those wings! Both dragonflies and damselflies have two sets of wings. This is a good distinguishing factor between the two. as dragonflies hold their wings flat out at rest, whereas damselflies fold their wings up over their body. Each wing works independently of each other and is connected to the thorax with a separate muscle group. Visit www.dragonflywebsite.com to see videos of dragonflies hunting to really appreciate the beauty and efficiency of their flight. While enjoying the videos, take a close look at the tips of their wings and a strange discolored rectangle there. This is the stigma (also called the pterostigma) found in mature dragonflies, and is believed to signal a mate or rival, and to provide weight that affects the wings-vibrations. Working together with a midway notch area where several large veins intersect, the stigma helps to increase flexibility and prevent fatigue fractures of the wings. The flight of the dragonfly is so special, it has engineers drooling over creating dragonfly-like robots. You should thank a dragonfly! Because of their voracious appetite they are one of the most efficient mosquito controls we have, eating hundreds of mosquitos a day. They eat all manner of flying insect, including butterflies. Dragonflies scientific name, Odonata, means “toothed one” in Greek. They have powerful serrated jaws, and some of the larger dragonflies of the tropics can take small birds. Their jaws open as wide as their head consuming anything
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August 2017
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within reason, and they often eat their meal on the wing. gI found a video of a dragonfly caught in a spider web with a surprise ending. The dragonfly ate the spider! We admire the impressive dragonfly, but the majority of a dragonfly’s life is spent as an aquatic or semi-aquatic monster. The immature (or larval) stage, called the nymph, lives up to four years in water voraciously hunting small prey. Different species of nymphs have varying hunting strategies, but most are wait and pounce. Mosquito larvae, small insects, then tadpoles and fish as they grow larger, are all prey as the nymphs wait then suddenly extend the labium in the lower jaw armed with spines and hooks. This hunting weapon usually rests folded under the body, to be thrust at a high speed using hydraulic pressure. The nymphs, after undergoing 10 to 12 instar stages where they molt into a new skin and their wing buds enlarge, will finally emerge above water on a stem. Tightly gripping an anchor point, the larva starts to redistribute its body fluids, expanding the thorax until its skin splits down the back. Heads, shoulders, legs and thorax ease out backwards until the new dragonfly is hanging by its tail. An hour or so later the legs have hardened – a chemical process called sclerotisation. Next the dragonfly extricates its tail and begins pumping fluids into the wings. Several hours later, after the rest of the body has hardened, the glittery new dragonfly speeds off. Here is your homework; next June head to a pond to look for emerging dragonfly nymphs. This process is one of the most amazing life events (right up there with butterfly metamorphosis!) for you and your kids to enjoy.
Guide to Colorado Insects by Kershaw and Kondratieff list the skimmers as some of the most common dragonflies of Colorado. These have distinctive dark wing patterns swith some species having brightly colored (red, blue or purple) abdomens. “Common Colorado genus of dragonflies are Libellulu (the king skimmers), Sympetrum (the meadowhawks), and Aeshna (darners). Damselflies of the genus Argia are common along lower elevation streams, while Enallagma (blues) are often spotted in the vicinity of ponds and lakes.” Enjoy the flying dragons of summer and appreciate their stunning beauty and amazing history. See you on the trails!
Photo by Crash Sterne
Twin Enviro’s Revolution Receives Grant
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Twin Enviro’s recycling efforts for Routt County and NW Colorado have just been enhanced by an award from the State Department of Public Health and Environment. This grant, and the matching in-kind investment by Twin, will improve productivity in Twin’s Material Recovery Facility located at Twin’s landfill site in Milner. This investment will enhance local recycling, benefit the environment, and divert re-useable materials from the landfill. In May of 2016, Twin accepted delivery of The Revolution, a first-of-its-kind sorting system for recyclables. Since then Twin has been sorting and storing recyclables in Milner instead of transporting them several times a month to recycling centers in Denver. The Revolution was designed for rural markets, and Steamboat was the pilot program. Twin is now processing all recycling collected from its customers and has made the facility available to other local haulers and the City of Craig. Twin sorts, bales, and stores the recyclables until sufficient quantities can be hauled en masse direct to processors. The grant awarded Twin approximately $137,000 for specific improvements to the recycling center, including an additional conveyor system, a concrete pad for truck entry and bale storage, materials handling equipment, and a glass pulverizer. The glass pulverizer will be of particular interest to the community. Glass processed through the pulverizer will be reduced to a uniformly-sized, safely-rounded, and colorful product that can be used in landscaping designs, as a road base, or as a drainage layer in landfills. Glass is a significant problem in recycling collection, transportation and processing. It is very heavy and adds significant weight for transportation, often breaks during collection and transportation posing threats for handling, and chards make their ways into the recycling equipment causing equipment breakdowns. In addition, there is not much of a market for recycled glass and much of it ends up in the landfill. The pulverizer will be a positive addition to Twin’s recycling efforts. Twin Enviro was started in Steamboat Springs in the 1970’s and remains locally owned and operated. Twin has three locations in Colorado, two of which contain landfill operations and all three feature trash collection and transportation and environmental remediation.
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We all know that preventative medicine is the best medicine. Did you know that the Pet Kare Clinic is AAFP certified as a cat friendly practice?
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We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.—Tom Robbins
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Valley Voice
Art in the ‘Boat
Luminescence & Light: A Summer of Art By Dagny McKinley
This August, art will fill the streets of Steamboat Springs. Paint brushes will brush against canvas, dancers will leap into the air light as a feather, music will float on a breeze and words will wrap around emotions. The All Arts Festival, August 11th – 13th, celebrates art forms from every walk of life beginning with the Fine Art Stroll, where 60 hand selected artists from around the country display their individual expressions of art. Saturday from 11:00 – 1:00 p.m., 35 participants will be welcomed to the Corks & Canvas Workshop where attendees delight their senses with live music, wine and appetizers as they are guided through a painting workshop by Steamboat’s beloved Janet Bradley. The evenings of the 11th and 12th will be celebrated with the ever-popular Creative Mixology, a happy hour event that combines performance art, spoken word, dance and more with appetizers, local beer and a scintillating lavender beverage. The celebration of art isn’t just limited to a single weekend. Throughout the month of August at the Steamboat Springs Art Depot, color, texture and light come together in a multi-faceted show, Patterns of the West, featuring new paintings by Lance Whitner, pottery by Bill Sanders, prints by Barb Sanders and woven wall hangings by Wendy Kowynia. In the gallery, MK Ghiglia will be featuring new encaustic works in her Before the Fall show.
Wendy Kowynia recently opened up about her work, where an average piece of hers takes 30 years to come to fruition from subconscious to conscious to physical form. She spends 4 to 10 hours to prepare and dye yarns and dress the loom (making it ready for weaving.) To put into perspective the intricacies of her work, her Allusion series consists of 500 ends of yarn, each of which is threaded twice. The loom is not a common tool of artists anymore, but for Wendy, “the loom provides for a specific quality of exploration: the intersection of the horizontal and the vertical. Weaving is an act of accretion: moment upon moment, a memory upon memory, thread upon thread. Woven cloth is a grid where interactions take place between the spiritual and the material, the seen and unseen.” The works in the Allusion series are woven of unusual Japanese yarns in silk, paper, ramie and stainless steel wrapped silk. A gauze weight uncolored textile is woven, then taken off the loom and sized with clear gesso, which stiffens the textile. Wendy then works this ‘canvas’ with traditional artist’s materials including graphite, charcoal, conte crayon and even indigo pigment. She chose to name her series Allusion for the quality of referring to something without naming it. “A kick under the table might allude to the fact that you’ve just said something politically incorrect. A poem about a sunset might allude to the passing of life. The works in Allusion series are meant to evoke some feeling, reference or memory in the viewer.”
As flowers let their petals be taken by the wind and aspen trees silence their soothing song, there is no better time to take home a piece of art that captures the colors and emotions that speak to us so we can reflect our art as another fall and winter settle in. Patterns of the West, an exhibit displayed at the Steamboat Springs Art Depot is inspired by response to place – the Yampa Valley. Lance’s paintings take the viewer deep into the Yampa Valley’s forest and glades. Bill’s horses and bears are totemic of the animals that share this world with us. Barb’s prints preserve the architectural heritage that sets the Yampa Valley aside from other places while Wendy’s wall hangings respond to the colors of Steamboat’s changing seasons.
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
The inspiration for Wendy’s work comes entirely from the natural world, although obliquely and abstractly. “As an artist, I choose to live in a place where I can be in constant interaction with and observation of nature. For years I have responded to the intricacy and beauty of the interacting patterns of Steamboat’s sky, vegetation and snow.” Her Surge series mimics the color of surf and sky and evokes the patterns of waves slipping onto shore or clouds scudding across a sky.
This show will be a return for Wendy Kowynia to the Steamboat Springs Art Depot where her work was first shown in 1995. Her wall hangings have been exhibited many times since and always draw a following. Despite having her worked picked up by a Santa Fe Weaving Gallery in 1985, it wasn’t until the year 2000 that she finally knew she was an artist. She found a ‘home’ there with the artist friends she made and realized that was because she,
Valley Voice
too, was an artist. “Until then I had always wanted to BE an artist, but didn’t think I could call myself an artist until I was a ‘successful’ artist. Bad thinking.” Today, Wendy is not only a successful artist but an inspiration to many other fledgling artists finding their way.
Tales from the Front Desk
The Swimming Squirrel By Aimee Kimmey
“Uh, okay, I’ll... get right on it...” What the hell was she going to do about a squirrel in the toilet?! Who could she call? Her boss? She doubted he had the fortitude for it. Animal control? Where do you even find their phone number?
In the platform gallery will be MK Ghiglia with her ‘Before the Fall’ show featuring all new encaustic pieces including one of Rabbit Ears. MK works as a printmaker and painter in a variety of media from oils, acrylics, encaustic, mixed media, printmaking of all stripes and even teaches computer classes. Her work typically has a strong narrative content and social commentary… usually with a touch of whimsy. What determines an artist is their passion for what they do. August 11th – 13th during the All Arts Festival, artists will share their passion and their creations with the town of Steamboat. The Fine Art Stroll takes place Friday, August 11th from 12 – 5, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 10-4. Artist and festival producer, Tim Zandee, will be showing his fine art photography. “Patience is more important than any equipment in my camera bag,” he says. “We live in a fast-paced society where we want everything in an instant. Instant food, instant conversations on portable phones, and instant information from fast computers. We really don’t want to wait for anything.” But when you photograph landscapes, all you do is wait - wait for the perfect light, wait for the perfect season, wait for the perfect shot. Having the patience to seek out diverse artists has served Zandee well as he began producing small festivals to limit the amount of repetition in the show while increasing the quality of art to create a more personal setting. Two artists that Zandee is excited to have participate this year are Judith Dickinson, who paints African widows and orphans as well as the character and strength of Native Americans and western people, and Douglas Fountain, whose bright masks are adorned with feathers from all over the world. A direct descendent of the legendary Chief Sitting Bull, Doug and his family are proud members of the Spirit Lake Dakota Sioux tribe. Doug’s distinguished legacy enables him to use the knowledge and wisdom of his heritage to create one-of-a-kind, limited edition art. A local favorite at the show will be Denise Bohart Brown, whose glass works are inspired by nature, often the four elements of earth, water, air and/or fire. While it may remain a challenge to “get a hard material to seem soft in design,” Denise likes the “clean lines of glass, the fact that it is almost always contemporary in feel no matter the style of the art.” The All Arts Festival is the perfect place to experience different expressions of art, what it is, how it transforms us. “With art work, buyers aren’t just buying a product, they are connecting with a part of us.” Tim said. This summer, connect with the artists who are waiting to share a part of themselves with you. Feel, see, experience art through the last light and luminescence of summer.
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Maintenance had gone for the day, and she sure as hell wasn’t going toilet diving for a rodent. Then it hit her, Rosie! Rosie was the head of housekeeping, whisperer of creatures great and small. If anybody could rescue a critter from a toilet bowl, it was Rosie. Armed with hefty rubber gloves, Rosie and the front desk clerk knocked on 316’s door. The young father ushered them in apologetically, “We just didn’t know what to do.” “No problem sir, we’ll take care of it.” The front desk clerk replied, hoping she sounded professional. Sure, we do this sort of thing all the time. They found the tiny beast desperately treading water in the toilet. He was a sad sight; soaked to the bone, barely keeping his head above the water. Snapping on her gloves, Rosie shook her head at the poor, half drowned creature, “What on earth are you doing in there?” The story you are about to read is true... more or less. 4:23 pm. Room 316. It was a quiet day at the front desk. Summer was in full swing, the town was bursting at the seems as usual. But the hotel was already full, the guests were settled in by now. For once, no one was beating down the doors of the lobby. And then the front desk phone rang. The young parents from 316 had been gracious and cheery when they checked in. They were in town for the weekend with their charming five year old daughter.
The front desk clerk couldn’t help herself, “Wishing he had some water skis?”
Giggling, Rosie dived in to scoop out the sodden little beast. As she headed for the door, a tiny girl with big worried eyes peeked out from behind her mother’s legs. “He must’ve come in when I was cleaning.” Rosie smiled reassuringly at the child. “He’ll be fine once he dries out.” The young parents beamed gratefully, “Thank you!” “No problem.” The clerk nodded, just another day at the front desk.
“Front desk.” The clerk picked up the phone, ready for what ever they threw for her. “Um, yeah, there’s um... a squirrel, in our toilet?” The voice from 316 sounded unsettled. The clerk was sure she must’ve heard wrong, “Excuse me?”
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“There’s a squirrel in the toilet.” Damn, that’s what she thought she heard. How did that even happen? “Uh, is it alive?” The front desk clerk struggled to sound professional and competent. “Yeah, he’s... sort of swimming around.”
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Valley Voice
Fishing from the ‘Boat
Hopper & Dropper Presented by Steamboat Springs Arts Council
By Peter Parsons
It is August in the Yampa Valley. The bright vibrant green of June has faded to dull army green. I like this time of year because I can wade wet even in the high country. My attire consists of wadding boots, neoprene socks and shorts. I admit that I look like a nerd. However, the cool of the water on my legs feels pretty good so I willingly sacrifice fashion. Late summer also means it is time to start fishing a hopper/dropper rig. In addition to being beautiful creatures, trout are masters at energy conservation. It takes a lot of energy to swim in a river. That energy is measured in calories. To conserve energy, a trout will often hold in water behind a rock or near the bottom where the water is slower. A trout holding near the bottom is unlikely to make the effort to swim up through 3 to 4 feet of water to take a small insect floating on the surface. Simply put, if it takes 10 calories to swim to the surface, for a 1 calorie bug – they will not do it. However, trout will aggressively come to the surface to eat a 50 calorie bug. Grasshoppers are big calorie meals for trout. Typically, by August the grassy banks along the local rivers and streams have abundant grasshoppers. This abundance, combined with the winds of the afternoon, means that a few unlucky grasshoppers get blown into the water. Once in the water, the grasshopper struggles and kicks, which is noticed by the trout and triggers a strike response.
The Kemper Family at the Balloon Festival
I like to fish a small bead head nymph 18-inches below my grasshopper imitation, tied in at the bend of the hopper hook. A size #18 Pheasant-tail or red Copper John is perfect. I like to use foam body grasshopper imitations with rubber legs. The legs twitch like a struggling hopper and the foam is buoyant enough to easily float the trailing nymph. A hopper/dropper rig is not delicate dry fly fishing. The rig is a bit tricky to cast – and the landing is splashy. The best advice I can give is to slow down the speed of the cast and avoid too much false casting. I like to cast my hopper/dropper rig as close to the bank as possible. Any of the local fly shops will be happy to set you up with a hopper/dropper rig and suggest some places to fish it. Next Month – Fishing at Night with Mice
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steamboatsprings.net Haymaker Golf Course Driving Range . Pro Shop . Haymaker Patio Grill . Rental Clubs Public 18-hole links course . 970-870-1846 . haymakergolf.com Howelsen Ice Arena Daily Ice Skating . Ice Bumper Cars . Skate Rentals & Lessons Indoor Facility/Heated Lobby . 970-871-7033 . steamboatsprings.net/ice Howelsen Hill Ski Area Historic ski area with summer ski jumping and miles of hiking and biking trails 845 Howelsen Parkway . steamboatsprings.net/ski Howler Alpine Slide Slide your way to exhilarating alpine family fun 970-819-8010 . steamboatalpineslide.com ProRodeo Where cowboys and cowgirls come to play every Friday and Saturday evening 970-879-1818 . steamboatprorodeo.com . Live Music @ 6pm . Rodeo @ 7:30pm Steamboat Tennis Center 6 Indoor Courts . 10 Outdoor Courts . Open 7 Days A Week 2500 Pine Grove Rd . 970-879-8400 . steamboat10s.com Parks & Community Services Youth/Teens/Seniors Programs, Adult & Youth Sports Leagues 245 Howelsen Parkway . 970-879-4300 . steamboatsprings.net/rec Yampa River Botanic Park Colorado Botanic Jewel . Free Admission . Dawn to Dusk . April - October 31 1000 Pamela Lane . 970-846-5172 . yampariverbotanicpark.org
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For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
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Questions? 970-846-1800 or lisa@mainstreetsteamboat.com
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Come down to Farmers Market and vegetate with the rest of us. Have some lunch, listen to music, talk to your neighbors and have a great time. Then stick around to explore the rest of downtown.
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7th Street
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Saturdays from July 1 - September 16 9:00 AM to 2:00 pm. 7th and Yampa Streets
http://www.mainstreetsteamboat.com/ farmers-market/farmers-market-map/
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For a complete list of vendors, go to mainstreetsteamboat.com
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Schmac and Cheese
Valley Voice
August 2017
Smoke Signals
News from the Chief of the Chief
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By Scott Parker
Hello all and thank you for reading the 47th installment of Smoke Signals: News from The Chief of The Chief.
FREE
Happy Anniversary to me!
$10
August marks the beginning of my FIFTH year as Chief of the Chief! My how the time flies!
FREE
When I took the job of Executive Director of the Chief Theater waaaay back in 2013, I knew the potential that this place held and it was my job to help the Chief Theater realize that potential. We have had our share of setbacks along the way but our triumphs are more and BIGGER!
FREE FREE
Here are some of my favorite and proudest moments and memories from the past FOUR years.
FREE
• Winning the Navigator Award for “Business of the Year”
$20
• Removing the Post and renovating the Green Room (Thank you Fox Construction)
$5
• The Chief Players producing 13 different plays!
FREE
• Music, Music, Music!!! The Wood Brothers, Todd Park Mohr, Reckless Kelly, Keller Williams, Vince Herman….to name a few
FREE
• Comedy!!!!! Will Durst, Sean Patton, Sam Tallent and many many more!
FREE
• Steamboat is Magic! Jon Armstrong, David and Leeman, Handsome Jack….and more!!
FREE
• Films!!!! Thank you Bud Werner Library and Tread of Pioneers Museum
FREE
• Our many, many amazing Non-Profit Partners; Steamboat Springs Arts Council, Perry Mansfield, Yampatika, SS Winter Sports Club, SS Free Summer Concert Series, (and soooo many more. Too many to name!)
FREE
nce Night a D n i t a L m Sundays: / Open Ja e k o a r a K d : Live Ban s y a d n o M ay TuesdOh p e t S 2 Schmiggity! : s Tuesday Karaoke : s y a d s e Wedn
Thank you to the Chief Theater Board of Directors for hiring me and for the continued faith in me. Thank you Ashley Waters for being a great Event Director, Shannon Parker for all of the design and marketing work, Heather Shore for writing our grants, Lock Mc Shane for the amazing Tech Support and Julie Grady for our squeaky clean books! It takes a community for the Chief to be all it can be…and for that I thank you Steamboat Springs!
Schmappy 7-9 Daily Steamboat's ONLY Happy Hour fromHour 7-9 pm 1/2 Off the entire bar; $3 1/2 pound 100% Angus Beef Hot Dogs
$1
Genesee Cans
Tickets online at schmiggitys.com or at AllSliders That. Schmiggity-ball Schmac and Cheese
Thank you for reading and I hope to see you at the Chief!!! Cheers, Scott
www.chieftheater.com 813 Lincoln Avenue 970-871-4791
Every Thursday
The Secret of Yonder Mountain: A Live Western Melodrama Fun for the entire family
Tickets: $15. for Adults $10. for kids / Show 7:00 pm
August 4
Super Fun Steamboat Show Show: 8:00 pm Donations for worthy causes
August 5
Shiny Ribs Show Get your Dancing Shoes Ready! Tickets: $15. Show: 8:00 pm
August 9
BibiLearnMcgill about
Beyoncee’s Lead Guitarist Tickets: $20. Show: 8:00 pm
August 19
An Evening of Jazz with
Kenyon Brenner Tickets: $15. Show: 7:00 pm
The way the world is, I think a silly evening in the theatre is a good thing, to take our minds off terroe.—Tim Curry
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Calendar of Events TUESDAY AUGUST 1 Olympic Heritage Tour 9-10:30AM @ Howelsen Hill Lodge FREE. Every Tuesday in August www.treadofpioneers.org Hike with A Yampatika Naturalist and a Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation Ambassador. 10:30AM @ Mt. Werner Information Center in Gondola Square. FREE, with purchase of gondola ticket. Every Tuesday in August www.yampatika.org Yoga in the Botanic Park 9AM @ Yampa River Botanic Park. $10 donation. Call/text 970-846-5608 Every Tuesday in August Two-Step Tuesday 7PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. Every Tuesday in August www.schmiggitys.com WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2 Mineral Springs Tour 9:00-11:00AM @ the Art Depot FREE. Every Wednesday in August www.yampatika.org. Free Film “Last Men In Aleppo” 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events Karaoke Night 9PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. Every Wednesday in August www.schmiggitys.com Yoga in Strings Park 9AM @ Strings Park FREE. www.stringsmusicfestival.com THURSDAY AUGUST 3 Downtown Historical Walking Tour 9-10:30AM @ Tread Of Pioneers Museum FREE. Every Thursday in August. www.treadofpioneers.org Western Melodrama “The Secret Of Yonder Mountain” Doors & Bar 6:30PM. Show 7:00PM @ Chief Theater $15 adults, $10 students. Every Thursday in August Yoga in the Botanic Park 9AM $10 donation. Call/
text 970-846-5608 Every Thursday in August Yampatika Naturalist On Site At Fish Creek Falls 10:00AM-1:00PM @ Fish Creek Falls FREE. Every Thursday, Friday & Saturday www.yampatika.org Steamboat Springs Writers Group Noon @ Art Depot FREE. Every Thursday in August www.steamboatwriters.com Free Film “Chasing Coral” 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events Gaslight Street 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com FRIDAY AUGUST 4 Brown Bag Lunch Series – “Old Town Hot Springs Then And Now” Noon @ Tread of Pioneers Museum www.treadofpioneers.org Lulie Crawford’s Wildflowers and Watercolors (Kids Program) 9:00-10:00 AM @ Yampa River Botanical Park FREE. www.treadofpioneers.org First Friday Art Walk 5PM @ Downtown Steamboat. Self-guided tour of local art galleries, museums and alternative venues. FREE.
To submit your free events or calendar information e-mail: matt@yampavalleyvoice.com Events may be edited for length or content. Calendar entries must be received by the 15th of each month. Sugarleaf 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
Botanic Park. FREE. www. stringsmusicfestival.com
Shinyribs 8PM @ The Chief Theater $15. www.chieftheater.com
Brown Bag Lunch Series – “John Fawcett: An Artist’s Perception”. Noon @ Tread of Pioneers Museum www.treadofpioneers.org
SUNDAY AUGUST 6 Piknik Theatre “The Merchant Of Venice” 6:00PM Bud Werner Library Lawn FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events
DJ DraLa 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
Latin Dance Night 7PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. Every Sunday in August www.schmiggitys.com
Jocelyn & Chris Arndt 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
MONDAY AUGUST 7 Watershed Walks 9:30-11:00AM @ TBD Registration Required @ 970-871-9151 www.yampatika.org Live Band Karaoke/ Open Jam 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. Every Monday in August. www.schmiggitys. com TUESDAY AUGUST 8 Improv Workshop 7PM @ The Chief Theater $10 www.chieftheater.com WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9
Steamboat Theatrical Society Noon @ Arts Depot FREE. Every Friday in August Contact sstew@gmail.com for info.
Tour The Historic Mesa School 1:00-3:00PM @ Mesa School (33985 Hwy 40) FREE. www.treadofpioneers.org
Euforquestra 10PM @ Schmiggity’s $10 www.schmiggitys.com
Release Party with Matt Richtel 6:00PM @ Off The Beaten Path FREE
Super Fun Steamboat Show 8PM @ The Chief Theater Details to Come. www. chieftheater.com
FRIDAY AUGUST 11
Bibi McGill 8PM @ The Chief Theater $20. www.chieftheater.com
SATURDAY AUGUST 5
THURSDAY AUGUST 10
Yoga in the Botanic Park 9AM $10 donation. Call/text 970-846-5608 Every Saturday in August
Dirty Bourbon River Show 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
Mountain Wildflower Hike 8AM @ TBA Registration Required @ 970-871-5444 www.yampatika.org
Music on the Green – Acoustic Favorites 12:15PM @ Yampa River
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
SATURDAY AUGUST 12
SUNDAY AUGUST 13 Piknik Theatre “The Chosen One” 6:00PM Bud Werner Library Lawn. FREE. www. steamboatlibrary.org/ events
Music on the Green – Irish Session Music 12:15PM @ Yampa River Botanic Park. FREE. www. stringsmusicfestival.com FRIDAY AUGUST 18 Brown Bag Lunch Series – “Identifying Family Photos” Noon @ Tread of Pioneers Museum www.treadofpioneers.org Eminence Ensemble 10PM @ Schmiggity’s $5. www.schmiggitys.com SATURDAY AUGUST 19 Geology Hike 8:00AM-1:00PM @ Mad Creek $10. Registration Required. 970-871-5444 www.yampatika.org We’s Us 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com Jazz Night with Kenyon Brenner 7PM @ The Chief Theater $15 www.chieftheater.com
TUESDAY AUGUST 15
TUESDAY AUGUST 22
Poetry Slam 6:00PM @ Off The Beaten Path. FREE.
Two-Step Tuesday w/ The Buffalo Ruckus 7PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
Free Film “The Islands And The Whales” 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events WEDNESDAY AUGUST 16 Book Signing with Michael Crouse 6:00PM @ Off The Beaten Path FREE Free Foreign Film “Soul On A String” 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events Town Challenge Mountain Bike Series (Sunshine Loop XC) 5:30PM @ Mt Werner www.townchallenge.com THURSDAY AUGUST 17 David Cook w/ Kathryn Dean 8PM @ Schmiggity’s $20. www.schmiggitys.com
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 23 Tour The Historic Crawford House 4:00-6:00PM @ Crawford House (1184 Crawford Ave.) $5 for non-museum member adults. www.treadofpioneers.org. Wild Films at the Library “Super Hummingbirds” 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE. www.steamboatlibrary.org/events THURSDAY AUGUST 24 Jay Roemer Band 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com FRIDAY AUGUST 25 Brown Bag Lunch Series – “Rewriting My Father’s Words”. Noon @ Tread of Pioneers Museum www.treadofpioneers.org
Dynohunter 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com SATURDAY AUGUST 26 Yampatika’s 25th Anniversary Hikes Details To Come! www.yampatika.org Yer State Birds 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com SUNDAY AUGUST 27 Small Town World 7PM @ The Chief Theater $15. www.chieftheater.com TUESDAY AUGUST 29 Live Music at the Library: Tera Johnson’s “HOME” Album release party 7:00PM @ Bud Werner Library Hall FREE, but donations gratefully accepted for the artists www.steamboatlibrary.org/ events WEDNESDAY AUGUST 30 Book Signing with Pat Curran 6:00PM @ Off The Beaten Path FREE Town Challenge Mountain Bike Series (Quarry Mountain XC) 5:30PM @ Emerald Mountain www.townchallenge.com THURSDAY AUGUST 31
Spellbinder Story Time: Crane Tales 4:30-5:30PM @ Bud Werner Library Stoytime Room FREE Spirit Wind Aerial Arts Dance Performance 5:30-6:30PM @ Bud Werner Library Lawn FREE Bud Werner Library Presents “The Eagle Huntress” 6:30PM @ Library Hall FREE. www.coloradocranes.org & www.steamboatlibrary.org/events Kris Lager Band 10PM @ Schmiggity’s FREE. www.schmiggitys. com
Valley Voice
August 2017
HappyHours
First Friday Artwalk August 4, 2017 5 pm - 8 pm All over downtown
Last minute changes can and do occur - Mother Nature, illness, tour malfunction, whatever - the accuracy of this calendar is not guaranteed! 8th Street Steakhouse 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m. Aurum Food & Wine 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. daily Azteca Taqueria 4:00 - 5:00 p.m. & 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. daily
McKnight’s Irish Pub 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. & 9:30 - 11:00 p.m. daily Off the Beaten Path After 4:00 p.m. daily Old Town Pub 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. daily
Back Door Grill 4:00 - 7:00 p.m. daily & All day on Sundays
O’Neil’s Tavern and Grill 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. & 10:00 p.m. - 12:00 p.m. daily
The BARley 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily
The Pit on 5th 2:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Big House Burgers 4:20 - 6 p.m., Mon-Sat. & 2 - 6 Sunday
Rex’s American Grill & Bar 4:20 - 6:00 daily
Cantina Mexican Restaurant 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily
Salt and Lime 3:30 p.m.- 5:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.- 11:00 p.m.
Circle R Bar 4 - 6 p.m. Thurs., Fri.,Sat.
Sake 2 U 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Colorado High 5 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily
Sambi Canton 5:00 - 6:00 pm Monday - Saturday
Cuginos Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. & 9:00 - 11:00 p.m. daily Double ZZ BBQ 2:30 - 6:00 p.m. daily Dude & Dan’s Bar and Grill 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily Late Night Happy Hour: 10:00 - 12:00 p.m. daily E3 Ranch & Chophouse Restaurant 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily Harwigs & L’Apogee: 5:00 - 6:30 p.m. daily Laundry 4:30 - 6p.m. Tues.-Sat. Low Country 4:30 - 6 p.m. daily Mahogany Ridge 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Late night happy hour: 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. daily Mambo Italiano 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. daily Mazzola’s Majestic Italian Diner 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. daily
ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS
ALTERNATIVE VENUES
GALLERY 89 1009 Lincoln Ave 970.439.8196 Coveted by world-renowned collectors, GREGORY BLOCK opens his first Solo Show in Steamboat “VERGE of REMEMBRANCE” Friday, July 7, 5 p.m.
FHYSICAL ELEMENTS PERSONAL TRAINING STUDIO 9th and Oak 970.846.0828 Local photographer Liam Hahn’s photographs feature landscapes from the Yampa Valley presented on special aluminum mounts to highlight the colors and tones of his work.
JACE ROMICK GALLERY 813 Lincoln Ave. inside The Chief Theater 970-846-3877 Jace Romick’s photography capturing the American West and its lifestyle, paired with handcrafted artisanal frames to compliment his engaging photos. MANGELSEN-IMAGES OF NATURE 730 Lincoln Ave 970.871.1822 Legendary nature photographer Tomas D. Mangelsen has traveled throughout the natural world for over 40 years observing and photographing the Earth’s last great wild places and is one of the most awarded nature photographers of our time. 970-871-1822 www.mangelsen.com
The Rusted Porch 2:00 p.m.- 6:00p.m. daily
Carl’s Tavern 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily
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PINE MOON FINE ART 117 9th St 970.879.2787 Pine Moon Fine Art IMPRESSIONS OF CUBA. MAGGIE SMITH and SANDI POLTORAK bicycled the cities and countryside of Cuba. These artistic works on paper are reflections of their experience..
Schmiggitys 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. daily
STEAMBOAT ART MUSEUM 807 Lincoln Ave., 870-1755 Colorado Nature Photography Invitational Exhibit featuring established and emerging photographers. Local artist MB Warner will be featured in the Museum Store.
Scratch 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily Slopeside Grill 10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS ARTS COUNCIL AT THE DEPOT 1001 13th St. 970.879.9008 Patterns of the West Color, texture, and light come together in this multi-faceted exhibit. New paintings by Lance Whitner, pottery by Bill Sanders, prints by Barb Sanders, and woven wall hangings by Wendy Kowynia. Mary Kay Ghiglia exhibits encaustic works: “Before the Fall” - Platform Gallery
The V 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. & 10:00p.m. - 12:00 a.m. Steamboat Smokehouse 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. & 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. daily: Sunpies Cajun Bistro 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. daily
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS CENTER FOR VISUAL ARTS 837 Lincoln Ave 970.846.8119 Award-winning local art at its best - colorful, diverse & accomplished. New work from Deb Babcock, George Fargo, Dale Foster, Jennifer Lynn Haskett, Paula Jo Jaconetta, Al Reiner, and Jessica Trusty. Complimentary wine. www. steamboatartcenter.com
Table 79 Foodbar 5:00 - 6:00 & 9:00 - 11:00 daily The Tap House Sports Grill 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. weekdays Truffle Pig 2:00 - 5:00 p.m. daily Vaqueros Mexican Restaurant & Taqueria 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily
HARWIGS/LAPOGEE 911 Lincoln Ave 970.879.1919 Paula Jo Jaconett, Artis – Photographer. Show title: Botanicals Skulls A exploration of found skulls and my favorite botanicals HOLY NAME CATHOLIC CHURCH 524 Oak St 970.879.0671 This month several of the local artisans who produced our stained glass windows will join Greg Effinger, explaining the art, the process and the subjects. THE SKI LOCKER 941 Lincoln Avenue, #100a, 303-882-4927 This month’s featured artist is local artist and Young Bloods Collective leader, Sista Luna. Sista’s art combines line, shade, and perspective to create contemporary work, which associates human qualities with abstract landscapes. STEAMBOAT SMOKEHOUSE 912 Lincoln Ave 941.321.2809 Born and raised in the northwest, Ashley McKinstry has been an artist for many years focusing mainly on writing, photography, and sculpture; it wasn’t until moving to the Yampa Valley that she discovered her love for using canvases as a vehicle for her art. Ashley’s art comes across as out of the box and multi themed, with a bit of that feeling you get when you realize how vast the universe is. This collection of art highlights Ashley’s love for the process of physically creating a piece and all the thoughts and feelings that go into each stage of completion during the process. “Art should be used as a tool to get the viewer to think and to feel; to not only ask questions but answer ones they may have never even thought of before.” URBANE 703 Lincoln Ave 970.879.9169 Local Artist & Custom Furniture Producer Brian Leach displays his funky artistic creations. He combines his intricate illustrations and woodworking to create a very unique style.
W GALLERY 115 9th Street, Lincoln Ave., 846-1783 W Gallery will be featuring the Black & White photography of David Epperson, mostly focusing on European travels, street scenes, and roads less traveled. WILD HORSE GALLERY 802 Lincoln Ave., 879-5515 Wild Horse Gallery will be featuring birds by various artists…..some by to see these amazing pieces. Bronze, oils, pastels, watercolors, etchings. For more information, www.wildhorsegallery.com or call 970-819-2850.
The geographical isolation and lack of television made world happenings and problems seem remote.—Paul D. Boyer
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Steamboat Stories
Tales Of A Town Part I Germination By John Whittum to which books were then being read, to further formal educational prospects, and to an exploration of the arts. Relationships between the camp and the ranching families in much of the county were fostered by weekend visits. The girls, many from urban centers were invited to spend several days at working ranches, where they could participate in chores and eat meals with extended families, sleep in haylofts and square dance in barns, and exchange flirtations with the local young men, many of whom had rarely traveled beyond county limits. Also invited to country square dancing events, already popular in various county localities, the girls experienced “chivalries,” informal dances in barns with music supplied by fiddles or phonographs. During a several-year period of summer Saturday Night square dancing with professional callers in the very center of the main street, the girls were also welcomed to dance with locals while vehicular traffic was rerouted onto side streets. Since the camp also offered classes in horsemanship, many campers came to experience western rural life while mixing it up with new acquaintances. Outdoor camping trips to the high country offered another diversion from formal camp classes. Horse pack trips sometimes included men who were part of the camp’s equestrian component, or belonged to its small contingent of male actors and dancers.
The rapid metamorphosis from rural cow town into cosmopolitan resort city was not a singular event. Other western towns experienced similar trajectories following the World War II population explosion. The town’s founder was believed to be the major force in its planning and development. And so he was. But the nature of the town’s evolution was shaped more subtly by a unique and fortuitous circumstance: the arrival of a pair of extraordinarily-gifted teachers who, uninvited and unexpected, established a summer camp for girls several miles outside the recently incorporated town.
homes of their grateful day students. Social interaction between the two ladies and local families brought a world of artistic expression and sophisticated culture to households unfamiliar with either. Though both teachers came from a background of high society, they seemed unconscious of class divisions as they mixed easily with their common-born hosts. The young girls and their parents rarely found them pretentious or condescending. On the contrary, the two were relaxed guests - laughing with the families and each other, while conversation often turned
The incorporators’ most immediate goal in the first year of the 20th century was to prohibit the cowboys’ chief amusements - riding horses down the main street, shooting guns, and terrifying citizens. Next, the early city fathers sought to improve the water system, establish an electric power source, a waste disposal, and other services including schools, all of which they ably achieved. But most town and rural residents still felt isolated, living in the backwaters of a powerful country already surging swiftly ahead. They yearned for a sense of personal improvement and a fulfillment commensurate with what they imagined was happening to others in the nation. Some of these desires were effectively realized by contact with the summer camp. For more than half a century the two women taught dance and theatre and provided instruction in music and art. Offering scholarships to local young women, the pair were then invited into
For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
Remaining in the town for only four or five summer months, the ladies’ influence was inversely proportional to their period of residence. Immensely popular with local day students, they were also sought-after guests with local families. Some citizens, electrified by the pair’s creative genius and warmhearted nature, followed their example by instituting new educational facilities. A summer western boys’ camp, which later morphed into a private, co-educational secondary school was founded near the girls’ camp. Soon afterwards, a college was initiated in the very center of the town. Both institutions were conceived at the girls’ camp. Their founders, governing
Valley Voice
August 2017
23
Getting the shot no matter what is coming....
an expert skier, a first-class horse trainer and pack trip leader, a self-designated “renegade from society,” a tireless worker in providing milk and vegetables for the girls’ camp (from which she lived apart), she was also an intrepid and savvy hunter of bear and mountain lion and a lover of cowboy tales and songs. Having learned early from her father, a wealthy investor, coal and railroad baron, how to hunt and handle rifles, she shared many passions with the town’s notable citizens. After an adventurous ski trip with a prominent rancher, she gave him a spectacular parka for further alpine expeditions. The night she died, she and her friends sang cowboy songs until she expired. boards, and first faculties looked to the ladies for guidance and support. And repeating the example set by their mentors, many new talented instructors often developed life-long friendships with their own students in the same way. Extensive book reading, along with sophisticated dialogue and discussion, became far more common among households of the former cow town. Finally, the older sister of one of the camp’s founders also made substantial contributions to the town and ranching community. Distinctly different from her theatrical sister in personality, dress, and interests, she became a summer and a winter visitor. First known to locals as
At the same time and well before the three ladies had passed away, the town’ residents had demonstrated a new communal spirit in their conversion of a large automobile shop and showroom into a community center. The shop became a large hall with a raised stage, the showroom an improved library – much enlarged from what the town fathers had stuffed into its first hospital. Many events – dances, dinners, banquets, amateur theatrical shows – proved the hall a popular public resource. And a newly erected public high school was also handsomely equipped with a 500-seat auditorium and deep stage. For a town of only several thousand people, such facilities were exceptional
kpaproductions.com 970.734.4321
• 1136 Yampa Street • Steamboat Springs • Colorado 80477 • www.orangepeelbikes.com • 970.879.2957
Northwest Colorado's #1 source for organic gardening and hydroponic supplies. 2560 Copper Ridge Drive, Steamboat Springs, Colorado (970) 879-8577 What is history but a fable agreed upon?—Napoleon Bonaparte
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Routt County Disasters
Not My Circus By Lyn Wheaton
The ham sandwich wasn’t indicted. Despite its obvious guilt, the verdict handed down in the ham sandwich case was a no bill. The smug ham sandwich and its supporters were jubilant. It was going to walk for the crime it had committed. The grand jury was simply supposed to decide if there was enough evidence to send the case along to trial. The countless victims were up in arms. The ham sandwich claimed it was Kosher, causing throes of observant Jews to break thousands of years of religious vows by consuming the foul unapproved meat. Now they marched the streets in protest. They wanted the prosecutor to be fired immediately for the egregious crime against mankind. The ham was clearly anti-Semitic. The angry crowd failed to recognize there were other crimes too. The Swiss cheese was made in Wisconsin not Switzerland. The stone ground mustard was not actually ground by hand with a stone and the bread, well, let’s talk about the bread for a minute. Gluten-free, Paleo, low-carb, how many crimes did this despicable starch commit? We will never know. The crime was clear. The ham was never Kosher and everyone knew it. It would never be Kosher, but society decided it was superior to all other lunchmeats and per-
petrated the crime out in the open. With disregard to law, the self-righteous poultry haters almost entirely wiped out their existence. The grand jurors threw the baby right out along with the bathwater. The ham and the accomplices in this heinous crime were all free to go about their cushy lives leaving the injured parties worse off. Who could they trust? Certainly the system was failing. People who live in glass houses should have plenty of Windex. If you live in a glass house it can get pretty depressing when the windows become dirty from rain, wind, mud splatter, and the dog’s nose. You need to keep a stockpile of Windex on hand. You might consider a black Friday run, to get it at a good price. You can probably pick up some rags while you’re at it. You’ll need a lot of them, and don’t forget a squeegee. Aside from the obvious appearance problems with dirt, there are bigger issues. You will not be able to see out clearly, your viewpoint may become distorted and the more disjointed your view, the more you are apt to make bad decisions about what you think you see. Inaccurate judgments can cause those outside the windows to feel scorned by the misunderstanding and this could make them angry. Your glass house could quickly become un-
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popular. People might want to tear it down. That which does not kill me, makes me a little weaker each time it fails to do me in. I am wimp. Every setback chips away at my fortitude to carry on. Like a wooden ladder on a dock, my rungs get weaker and weaker with every pounding. Indeed, I will develop callouses and may appear stronger, but is a hardening really strength, or merely protection? Perhaps it is nothing more than a shell, a covering, a numb external coating, that prevents the organism beneath from feeling anything. A bird in hand can be really messy. And I don’t think I need to explain why. I’d much rather it stayed in its bush but we don’t always get what we want. Don’t count your chickens if you have a fox lurking around your henhouse, or if someone has traumatized your chickens. You will be sorely disappointed. Sometimes it is better to expect there will be no chickens or eggs, that way anything will be a bonus. Actions used to speak louder than words, but those days are gone. I suggest you buy a megaphone. Beggars can be choosers. When I was in Denver I saw a guy on the corner with a sign that said: Will work for food, so when I got lunch I got him a sandwich too. Feeling really good about myself for being so charitable, I took it to him. But he wasn’t as excited to take it, as I was to shove it in his face. Is this bread gluten-free, he asked? I don’t know, I said. He told me he’d rather have the cash. There is most definitely no such thing as a free lunch. The best things in life are not free. Nothing’s free. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?
A fool and his money will soon be your President because money is the most important measure of a person’s worth, no matter how ill gotten the money may be. I often judge books by their cover and that’s why I am spending so much time on the cover for my book. I am more of the school that believes you never have a second chance to make a first impression, so there is that. That brings me to the subject of the pen. The pen is only mightier than the sword if people read and many don’t anymore. The television is now the mightiest sword. It’s always darkest inside my head. Not my Circus, but they could very well be my clowns. It’s hard to say, there are so many clowns running around loose these days.
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Valley Voice
August 2017
25
The Wandering Rose
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“When did we move here?” The redhead asked her blonde friend. “It feels like we’ve always lived here, but I think it was in May sometime.”
As Audrey Rose wandered down Lincoln, her sparkly skirt catching the sun, she overheard some women talking outside of Rootz Restaurant.
Audrey Rose took a few bites of her salad, the flavors of the marinated onions, the goat cheese and cucumber bursting in her mouth. She couldn’t help but smile at the joy her insides were experiencing.
“It’s so amazing here, I mean everyone who lives here lives here intentionally. Everyone is so happy.”
The blonde hesitated, but the redhead seemed unfazed by the question. “We usually grab a latte from Starbucks, read the paper, come downtown to practice yoga, then head to the Old Town Hot springs for a swim and a soak and then we work. We’re going to open a yoga and meditation studio,” said the redhead as she twirled a curl of red hair between her fingers then tucked it behind her ear. Her blue eyes were bright and honest. Her blonde friend sipped uncomfortably at her smoothie as if something were about to happen she wasn’t quite ready for.
“I know,” said her friend, whose curly red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and whose perfectly shaped eyebrows arched slightly as she talked. “I was kind of worried that it would be harder to integrate with the locals, but everyone has been so kind and so friendly.” This was the kind of conversation Audrey Rose couldn’t pass up listening to, so she went into Rootz, ordered a Meditate with field greens and rice, and sat next to the three women. The one woman, a local judging by her lack of make-up in the middle of the day and the deep wrinkles around her eyes, listened to the two women, asking a question here or there. “I mean, look around us. How could you not be happy here, everything is so perfect.” Audrey Rose smiled sadly to herself. Just that morning she had seen a mama bear with two cubs trailing her, walking into first morning’s light. The sunrises and sunsets had been infused with hot pinks and fiery reds. Steamboat was a beautiful place to live. There was wilderness without compare, places where you could still walk for hours without seeing another soul, and a real sense of community but was everyone really happy? “I’m so sorry to interrupt,” said Audrey Rose as she sat down at the table with the women, the traffic of Lincoln softening her words. “I wanted to personally welcome you both to Steamboat,” The women looked slightly startled, but then rearranged their drinks and plates to make room for Audrey. “Thank you,” their words stumbled over each other. Audrey flashed a quick smile at the local. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. How long have you both lived in Steamboat?” This was the first time Audrey had had a chance to really get a good look at them. Their nails were perfectly manicured, enough make-up to take a few years off their lives. They both wore Lululemon yoga pants and tank tops. They were sipping smoothies and a salad had been split three ways between the women.
“Do you mind my asking where you both hang out, spend most of your days?”
The local woman turned her chair so she could face Audrey more squarely, somewhat curious to see how this was going to play out. “I mentioned I overheard your conversation and one thing you said struck me,” “What’s that?” asked the blonde somewhat defensively. “How happy everyone is here, how everyone who lives here has intentionally chosen to be here and I was wondering if you would be interested in joining me someday so I can introduce you to some people you may not have met yet.” The redhead responded eagerly, “I’d love to. When?” “How about now?” asked Audrey Rose. They walked downtown and over to Integrated Community. Audrey introduced them one of the staff members there and asked the young man, who had dark circles under his eyes, if he could talk a little bit about some of the struggles that families faced who had come here from different countries. “Housing, of course, is always a struggle for lower income families. Living out of town means finding transportation into town, which isn’t always reliable. Some families don’t have warm clothing in the winter, their kids don’t have enough to eat. Other families live in overcrowded condos.” Both the man and Audrey Rose saw the women look at each other surprised. These were the kind of problems you found in the rest of the world, but not in Steamboat. Next Audrey Rose took them to Sk8 Church. There was a dad teaching his daughter to skateboard and some teenagers hanging out, skating, talking. Sk8 Church was a safe place for kids, a place for kids who didn’t have safe spaces at home and for kids who just wanted a place to hang out with likeminded people. Audrey Rose sat down with some kids she had met before and asked them if they could tell her new friends what life was like as a teenager in Steamboat. They talked about the opportunities you had if you were rich, Winter Sports Club, skiing, traveling, but they also talked about heroin, how easy it was to get it, how they had seen their friends die from it.
They talked about the pressures teenagers face. “People fly here from all over the world because it’s so ideal and picturesque and perfect,” said a young girl with short dark hair and fresh rosy cheeks, “but life happens here, just like anywhere else. Kids bully kids, kids are depressed, raped, anorexic, suicidal. Life ain’t all peaches and cream. It’s life, right?” Audrey Rose thanked the girl and her friends and ushered the two women out the door. “When people come here, they see what they want to see,” said Audrey Rose. “Steamboat isn’t going to cure you or heal you, it’s not going to change humanity, it’s just going to give you some really incredible scenery where you can sort through what it is to be a human being in this world in this time. When you look at the world through rose-colored glasses, you miss the true colors of what life has to offer. Steamboat isn’t good or bad or happy or sad, it’s just another place where people are trying to figure out what life is all about.” The redhead stopped walking and turned to Audrey Rose, picked her up and hugged her as tightly as she could. The blonde who hadn’t said anything since they started their afternoon journey started laughing. She caught her friend’s eye and they nodded in some kind of agreement that Audrey Rose didn’t understand. A few weeks later, as Audrey Rose sat with her bare feet dangling in the Yampa River, she flipped open the Pilot & Today. On the front page was a picture of a bull moose standing in front of the Historic Butterfly Barn. The article below had nothing to do with the image. It was titled ‘Transplants Teach Steamboat To Breathe.” The article went on to talk about the two women Audrey had met and how they were donating meditation classes to the local schools, to Sk8 Church and once a week, they held meditation classes that were free and open to the public at the Art Depot. “When we realized that not everyone here had had the opportunities that we have had in life, we realized we could share meditation with others. Everyone breathes but how you breathe can transform how you feel,” said the redhead whose name was really Abbey, “There are so many ways to get involved and to give back to this town that opened its arms to us.” The blonde, Melanie, was also quoted, “we know we aren’t locals but we thought, maybe, we had something that could be useful to others, something that might help someone see the world a little differently, maybe see the world through the same rose colored glasses that we do and maybe that’s not all bad.”
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26
August 2017
Valley Voice
A Closer Look
A Blast from the Past By Monica Yager Dinner 5pm Wednesday- Sunday Bar 3pm everyday Sunday Bruch Coming Soon Happy Hour 3-6 Monday - Thursday
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There was a time in Steamboat Springs when a chiropractor from Glenwood Springs came to town. He was persuaded to come by a local resident who claimed the chiropractor to be extraordinary in a most peculiar way; it was said he could communicate with feet. Appointments in 15-minute blocks were quickly filled and everyone looked forward with much anticipation to the time when this amazing chiropractor, who could communicate with feet, would come and all would be well.
The appointments began the same as any typical chiropractic visit, cracking the neck. After that, the chiropractor moved to the foot of the table where the client’s feet were hanging out, slightly splayed. The chiropractor would Hayden Heritage Center On Exhibit Now! tap the sides of the feet, all the while mumbling to himself. Looking for Then came his pronouncement: the client must eat blue volunteers for cheese because there was salmonella in the gut. Everyone the fall 'Echoes Summer 2017 who had an appointment those two days was told the of the Past same thing. The two grocery stores in town quickly ran Lantern Tour' out of blue cheese. People were dispatched to Denver to Contact us! find and bring back big wheels of blue cheese that could Visit the Museum! Open most Tues-Sun 11-5 pm be divvied up. After all that, the story seems to fade away. haydenheritagecenter.org / haydenmuseum@zirkel.us No one said whether they felt better or not after eating haydenheritagecenter.org / haydenmuseum@zirkel.us / (970)276-4380 Free Admission! 276-4380 300 W. Pearl St. Hayden all that blue cheese or if they just got tired of eating it Summer 2 and gave up, but the grocery stores always seem to have Thanks to: 017 plenty, so apparently there is no more blue cheese crisis.
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H T d S a c g So some may say, “no harm, no foul”. No one was harmed t o and the worst that happened was a couple of grocery stores got run out of blue cheese. True enough, the whole s episode is actually quite funny. But there is this: an entire group of people totally suspended all rational thought and T totally bought into the notion of having salmonella in their p gut that could be cured by eating blue cheese. An entire t group of people and no one questioned anything except f probably how much blue cheese to eat. “ The suspension of all rational thought is precisely what alternative practitioners and sellers of various alterna- “ tive products are counting on. The alternative experience H starts with the practitioner telling the client what is wrong with them; tired, stressed, toxins, salmonella or A something that the client starts thinking about, which i then turns into that rapturous moment when a client r buys into oils that cure everything, needles poked into their skin because there are imaginary meridians in there a somewhere, special vitamins, vitamin infusions, or eating C blue cheese. But at the very moment when the client openst their pocketbook for all this alternative specialness, the rapture begins to shift, fading from the client and clinging T to the practitioner. A From the days of the charlatans and the medicine wagons t to the present, it’s the rapture that makes the alternative f I world go ‘round. t Monica Yager is a graduate of Brown Institute, Minneapolis, MN and attended Colorado Northwest Community I College (CNCC) and Colorado Mountain College (CMC) Artsm & Humanities program. A Closer Look is the culmination n of witnessing first-hand the wackiness of the alternative health world as former owner of a health food store and the encouragement of a couple of professors to write, write, write. To those who are considering eating blue cheese because they may have salmonella in their gut, if you had salmonella in your gut, you would know it. Salmonella has some rather nasty symptoms associated with it. Eating blue cheese is okay, but blue cheese is not known to cure anything.
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Valley Voice
August 2017
27
Here Knitty-Knitty
Swinging Into the Scene By LA Bourgeois
Have you seen kids using a rope to swing out over a pond? Tied to a treebranch overhanging the pond, the rope dangles until a child climbs on. A friend pushes them hard. Swinging out over the water, they release the rope at its apex, flinging themselves out from the shore as far as they can. Splash! They burst out of the water like superheroes, grinning and swimming back to the shore. As they lift themselves from the water, they pull their swimsuits out of their butts and charge back into line to swing and be swung in return. Then, one of those kids won’t let go of the rope swing to plunge into the pond. You know that kid, swinging out over the pond and, when she hits the apex of her swing, she freezes and fallback to the side.
world,” I’ve forgotten even seeing the notice. A swing back to the tree! No. I can do this. Push me again! I check the calendar at my local yarn shop and see that they hold a knitting group on Monday mornings. “Monday morning? I work on Monday morning,” I harrumph. The shop also lists a Wednesday afternoon meeting. Much better.
The next day, a friend from Steamboat got in touch. The shop owner had contacted her to ask about me. I hadn’t even suspected this would happen. My friend gave me a positive review and I thanked her for her kind words. Scramble, sputter, panic! The shop owner called me soon after and we set up a meeting. We discussed my new class and, even though she didn’t think it would get much traction, we put it on the calendar.
I manage to schedule any appointment or lunch date so I can never make that meeting. I don’t “not go,” I just can’t. Too many things to do!
My first class in Asheville.
“Get off the swing, Florence! You’re such a fraidy-cat!”
And back to the tree again.
“No! I can do it. Push me again!”
Something changed in the last month.
To promote my class, I knitted with my first knitting group since leaving Steamboat.
Her cousin pushes her again.
I wrote up a proposal for a new class (“How to Get Away With(out) Murder: Teaching Friends & Family How to Knit”) and decided that I had to start teaching it locally before I applied to fiber festivals and conferences.
At the apex of the swing, she bravely lets go and then panics – scrambling and scrabbling and trying to catch the rope again. Hitting the pond with a belly-flop, she sends up a spectacular splash. She surfaces, spluttering and gleeful. Crawling back out of the water, she fights once more for a turn at the rope swing. That’s how I’m slipping into the Asheville knitting scene. A notice that the “Asheville Knitting Club” is meeting at the beginning of next month slides across my Instagram feed. I hit “Reply” to say I’ll be there and then I think, “Do I really want to drive across town at night?” or “Where is that tea house?” or “No! I don’t want to meet people!” I click away from my reply and continue to scroll through my feed. Cute kittens and luxurious skeins of yarn hypnotize me. By the time I force myself out of “social media
Friends don’t let Friends drive down Buff Pass buzzed.
With the proposal in hand, I drove over to my local yarn shop. I walked in the door and found an employee. I conversed. She was delightful. After she promised to hand my proposal off to the owner, I left the paperwork and headed back out to the car. Rope released. Scrabble, scrabble! As I slid into the passenger seat, I felt the panic rise in my belly. Would I splash down on a rock? Would the rope hit me in the head on the way down? Stop it. Stop. What’s the worst that can happen?
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Splash!
Splash! Oh yes. I’ve belly-flopped onto the Asheville knitting scene. Five people are signed up for my new class and we’ve scheduled two other classic classes for August and September, one on beading and one on brioche. Now that I’ve released the rope, I feel no compunction to head back to the shore. Next week, I’m heading over to a craft night at the local fiber mill. Two knitting groups have been attended. I finally committed to that “Asheville Knitting Club” meetup. So far, the water is buoyant and warm. My swimsuit has managed to stay in place and the other kids aren’t jumping on me yet. Splish, splash, swim.
-LA Bourgeois still mainly knits in her house, but she’s getting out more. Support her writing at Patreon.com/ Housewyfe.
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Summer is a great time to visit art museums, which offer the refreshing rinse of swimming pools-only instead of cool water, you immerse yourself in art.—Jerry Saltz
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August 2017
Valley Voice
Yampa Valley Health Care Action Group
Neither Ronald Reagan Nor Good HealthCare is Communist Nancy Spillane
Some people out there consider those of us who think good health care is a human right (like a good education) are communists. That’s just not true. That ‘health care is a human right’ concept begins with the fact that we all believe that hospitals should stabilize patients with life-threatening conditions. The US military requires treatment for injured enemy combatants, detainees, local nationals, and coalition forces. Shouldn’t US citizens have the same health care right as forces harming US troops? Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) into law to insure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. Reagan’s law was a moral argument that everyone should have a base level of health care. To the best of my knowledge, Ronald Reagan was not a communist. The revised Senate health care bill should be rejected because it not only dramatically increases the number of uninsured, and provides a huge tax cut for the very wealthy. The poor, disabled, women, and the elderly are being sacrificed. This all is according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (a non-partisan federal agency) report on this bill.
America is the most expensive country in the world for health care, yet our country ranks 37th in outcome (World Health Organization). In quality of care, we rank 42nd. Our average life expectancy is mediocre compared to other countries. For example, Japanese are expected to live approximately five years longer than Americans. (World Bank Data) Americans go bankrupt paying for medical bills; no other developed country has this issue. The solution to our health care needs is a system, which cuts out the middleman and provides coverage for everyone. These savings can be used to give everyone good health care. Cutting out the middleman is not communism; it is good business. A majority of Americans say it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. A growing share supports a “single payer” approach to health insurance, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center. (June 23, 2017) In his book, The America We Serve, Mr. Trump wrote, “We must have universal health care. Just imagine the improved quality of life for our society as a whole… The Canadian-style single-payer system, in which all payments
Waiting times for seeing a doctor when sick or needing medical attention (2005) Same Day
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for medical care are made by a single agency (as opposed to the large number of HMOs and insurance companies with their diverse rules, claim forms and deductibles) … helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans.” Where was Mr. Trump when congress crafted the American Health Care Act that disenfranchises so many? Maybe it was “so complicated” that he couldn’t figure out what to do. What we know is that a single-payer national health insurance, “Medicare for All,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains private. Under a single-payer system, all citizens would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. According to Physicians for a National Health Program, the program would be funded by the savings from replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented system, with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Premiums would disappear; 95 percent of all households would save money. Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care like co-pays and deductibles, and would have free choice of doctor and hospital. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care. Are universal coverage and single-payer health care the same thing? No. Universal coverage refers to a system where all residents have health coverage. Setting up a single-payer plan, where the federal government pays for all residents’ health care, can be a path to get to universal coverage — but not the only one. Some universal-coverage countries have lots of different payers. Japan and Germany, require citizens to enroll in one of dozens of competing health insurance plans (Japan has 3,500 insurance plans; Germany has 300). These are typically called “multi-payer” health care systems. There are lots of similarities between single-payer and multi-payer countries like Germany and Japan. All of them have government-set medical prices at a standard rate. But there are still different paths to getting a country’s population insured. Neither Germany nor Japan is a communist country. Do single-payer systems have long wait times? Here’s one graph from the Commonwealth Fund that looks at what percentage of adults can get a same-day doctor’s appointment when they’re sick (the single-payer systems below are Canada and the United Kingdom; all the rest, except for the United States, also have universal coverage). None of these countries included in the graph are communist. Canada tends to have the longest wait times in studies, but the Commonwealth Fund data suggests that long wait times are not systemic to single-payer systems. In the
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Valley Voice
United Kingdom, a single-payer country, it’s easier to get a same-day appointment than in the United States. And multi-payer systems like Germany often have much lower wait times than the United States.
August 2017
The Paw Print
Like Balloons On A Summer Day By Debora Black
are cruising over the park, sometimes loping ahead, sometimes falling behind. I notice Io is still at the bleachers looking for any edible thing that the rugby players might have left behind. So I pause for another swallow of coffee. It is peaceful here in the park—green and lush, and quiet barring the rodeo announcements. I suppose that everyone else has gone to watch the balloons from other locations around town. Io gives up on the bleachers and trots toward me. Stephan is waiting at the fork in the trail. I turn toward the balloons again, happy to see their cheerful colors and bright patterns floating large and aimless in the big blue sky, happy that I skipped all of the production of getting ready, so we made it in time for the show. I am happy like this when the man shouts from behind us, “Hey!” he says, “Your dog just ate my kid’s burrito!”
Do single-payer systems cost less? Compared to the US, single-payer systems tend to be considerably cheaper. All other health-care systems looks affordable compared to ours. Single-payer systems have lower administrative costs than those many private insurance companies. One 2011 study (Health Affairs) estimated that American doctors spend four times as much money interacting with healthcare payers than their foreign counterparts. Single-payer systems have an advantage negotiating prices. Because prices and terms determined by the government, single-payer systems feature much lower prices than the U.S. Many multi-payer systems, like Germany, achieve similar savings to single-payer systems because the government sets health care prices. Having the government set health care prices is not communist. What’s the case against single-payer health care? There are a few arguments that turn up frequently. One is that single-payer health care could stifle innovation by regulating lower rates for health care providers — and leaving them less space to experiment with new treatments. The United States has long been a leader in biomedical research, and some attribute that to the fact that we spend a lot of money on health care. We pay more for nearly all medical treatments than publicly financed systems do. According to this theory, the extra money allows pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and other developers to experiment with potentially groundbreaking experiments. In that view, the United States’ higher healthcare costs are subsidizing medical innovations that then proliferate across the globe as profits for the companies, which developed these innovations. Every country — single-payer or not — has a limited number of dollars it devotes to health care. Those dollars get divided up in a way that doesn’t cover all the medical services that everybody wants. Supporters of single-payer systems tend to point out that the United States employs a different kind of rationing: people who can’t afford health insurance often don’t get it. That means these people never get access to health-care treatments regardless of whether it might help. These people are effectively waiting forever, and that won’t show up on surveys about wait times. Obviously, the way we pay for health care in the U.S. is not working, and it just might be time for a single-payer system to be implemented. And just a reminder that it is not communist to be thinking out of the box to create a new system.
29
It is the Master of Ceremony’s electrified voice moving in broken bits across the summer air, spreading over the new day, calling in tones, dusty and barbed, through windows flung open during the night that eventually brings me into awareness, and I realize it is the morning of the balloon rodeo. I want to leap up. But I don’t. I only imagine leaping up. I imagine that, and a shower, and fresh, bouncing hair. I imagine walking out the door in a sundress. I imagine a blanket and coffee and pastries, and Stephan and me, because this is what the electric voice means. It means summer vacation. It means hurry! Run! It means, the Wild West circus has arrived, and you are about to miss it all. But I am feeling a bit of malaise. I am not on vacation. I am coming off a busy and stressful workweek. I am tired. I consider skipping it all. But then, there are the dogs. My three beasts stirring in their beds and here comes Trina, now, her long toenails which she refuses to let me cut clicking across the wood floors.
Uh oh, I think and turn around. Sure enough, I see a chubby, white arm sticking out of the stroller and reaching toward my two black dogs. And there is Jinx, my giant, male Labrador, licking away at that little hand. And then on top of it, Trina, tall and lanky and formidable in her own right, lets out one of her high-pitched chirps, a demanding and startling sound, which means, “I want some too!” Thank the universe the child is undisturbed by Trina’s insistence. But what to do, I wonder, with this angry dad. It’s not like I have a burrito in my pocket that I can give him. I think fast and before I know it, I shout back, “Oh that’s okay, he gets into stuff all the time. He’ll be fine!” And then I wave my arm in a big loop, shout, “Come on dogs,” and we all spin on our heels and head for the water.
What can I say in our defense? Only that it was clear the kid had fed the burrito to my dog and probably had a lot of fun doing it. My own parents would have thought the whole affair was funny. Plus, I just wasn’t about to get into a burrito fight with a cranky dad at seven o’clock in the morning. Besides, I heard the wife say, “Well, we have another.” As if to suggest, it’s not a big deal, honey. I figure that probably pacified him. I mean I’m almost certain the winds calmed down behind us. It’s kind of magical, the easy way things can feel if you simply release the tethers and let yourself float away.
***** We are the only ones parked at the entrance to Whistler Park. I hold our coffee cups while Stephan opens the back of the Porsche and the dogs jump down. I did not get a shower. I am wearing my usual hat with the wide brim and glad to have on sweatpants as we walk across the grass and Stephan slaps at the mosquitoes buzzing around his bare legs. We have the park to ourselves, except we pass a 30-something couple with a stroller and an older child that is a few inches taller than the stroller cover. I take them for visitors, but this is only because I have never seen them at the park before, and no one comes to the park this early except for dog walkers. There are a few balloons already high in the air and more are beginning to rise above the tree line. We are watching the balloons and stopping to sip our coffees as we make our way toward the path that follows the river. The dogs
Effective health care depends on self-care; this fact is currently heralded as if it were a discovery.—Ivan Illich
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August 2017
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Valley Voice
Yepelloscopes
Your Monthly Message By Chelsea Yepello Aries
March 21 - April 19
The answer to the question that has boggled you for the longest time is “food additives.” Now you know.
Taurus
April 20 - May 20
After you and your friend drink out of the same glass while sick with a cold, your germs will mingle together and develop into the virus that creates the zombie apocalypse. You thought you wouldn’t accomplish anything with your life...but look at you now!
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Gemini
May 20 - June 20
Sometimes it’s just bad timing. It turns out that your life is not a chick movie. Unlike the expected happy ending, your co-star gets stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and you get on the flight. At least theres always Facebook.
Cancer
June 21 - July 22
A new study came out last week that concludes, yes, one hundred percent of all non smoking vegetarians eventually die. Cheerio!
Leo
July 23 - August 23
For some reason it feels like everyone is ignoring you, which is odd because you explained to them that the smell will go away and the wound will eventually stop seeping.
Virgo
August 23 - September 22
Now is the time to follow to your dreams. So tomorrow, when you get into your flying unicorn car to float to work at the marshmallow factory, drinking a steaming cup of sunshine and eating a bag of sugared rainbows, remember that this is only temporary, and your dreams will be a reality if you believe... until a giant-cigar-smokingmonkey-robot eats you.
By Cully Kistler
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For those who live here and for those who wish they did.
Libra
September 23 - October 23
You told someone that you would never date them, even if they were the last person on Earth. Which is unfortunate, because soon after they move to Yemen, the world will end, as well as Earth’s entire population... besides you... and that one person in Yemen. Not so cocky now, are you?
Scorpio
October 24 - November 21
You will feel awfully silly when the creditors finally find you. Apparently moving every other month doesn’t stop them, and growing a mustache doesn’t confuse them either.
Sagittarius
November 22 - December 21
When they say “home is where the heart is,” they didn’t mean that hording hearts under your floorboards will make you feel at home. Seriously, eventually all those hallucinations of a dozen beating hearts will make you a little uncomfortable.
Capricorn
December 22 - January 19
For some reason, you flirting with the opposite sex will not leave you satisfied or hopeful. It will however, leave you with a few cups of sugar and one very offended pool cleaner.
Aquarius
January 20 - February 18
You feel that no one is paying attention to you, so you have decided to reveal your lifelong addiction to oxygen to stir it up a little. Strangely, that doesn’t seem to shock anyone and doesn’t give you the attention you hoped for.
Pisces
February 19 - March 20
For some reason, you start to suspect that your call really isn’t important to them. And there is a good chance that they are laughing at you for waiting on the phone for three hours.
Valley Voice
1957 - 2017
By Matt Scharf
Making Memories
August 2017
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August 2017
Valley Voice
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