Brands.  The return address for 3 million livestock in Colorado.
Apr18

Brands. The return address for 3 million livestock in Colorado.

Chris Whitney grabbed a pair of worn leather gloves from his back pocket, pulled them on with his teeth and stoked the campfire and the red-hot branding irons which read Lazy T Reverse F. The young calves were restless and noisy.  Whitney looked across the Uncompaghre Valley at the towering snow-capped peaks of the Cimarrons and San Juans.  It would be his last spring roundup at his family’s ranch in Ridgway, Colorado, before he...

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Mountain Man Badger Puthoff
May02

Mountain Man Badger Puthoff

Approximately 3,000 mountain men roamed the Rocky Mountains between 1820 and 1840, the peak beaver-harvesting period. While many were free trappers, most mountain men were employed by major fur companies. Mountain men lived aux aliments du pays, French for “nourishment of the land”, surviving by using the provisions of nature.  Eating bull cheese (buffalo jerky) and galette, a basic flour and water bread made into flat, round...

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Capitol building tour guide
Sep24

Capitol building tour guide

  Richard Lamm was governor (1975-1987) when Carol Keller started giving tours of the Colorado capitol building 25 years ago. She waits quietly for her next tour group to gather.  She says good morning to Gov. John Hickenlooper as he enters the Executive Chambers near the capitol tour guides desk.  It’s Friday, 10 a.m., according to the Mickey Mouse watch on her graceful wrist.  Time to start. At age 87, she’s entertained...

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School Lunch for 35,000
Sep13

School Lunch for 35,000

Jason Morse was following a narrow snow path to his neighbor’s house for Sunday brunch.  It was one of those crunchy, my-breath-almost-froze-in-front-of-my-face Minnesota winters. The couple treated him like their grandson. Using their finest silverware, silver pitchers and china they covered the large dining room table with pastries and salads, meats and vegetables.  It was all very elegant. Jason watched his reflection move up and...

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An Irish Storyteller
Jul18

An Irish Storyteller

In the town of Ballybay, in the County of Monaghan, four roads converge beside Lough Mór. The Dromore River meanders south of this Irish town. Tommy Makem, The Godfather of Irish Music, sang about a young lass in Ballybay who had a wooden leg to which she tied a string and played it like a fiddle. Along Clones Road sat an old nursing home where another storyteller was born in 1951. A nun wrapped the infant, Mick Bolger, in a blanket...

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Jesus in my knapsack
Jul04

Jesus in my knapsack

    Lawrence Egan is fluent in Spanish but his Queens, New York, accent still comes through. His second-generation Irish father was not enthused about Larry becoming a priest.  He became decidedly less enthused when Egan told his parents he had signed up to be a Maryknoll missionary. Father Egan arrived in Guatemala in 1964, just as the anti-government revolutionary movement was beginning and as the government was increasing...

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