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...
Gas, coffee and quinoa: A life changing pit stop.
The San Luis Valley is a high-altitude agricultural basin covering approximately 8,000 square miles in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico. The average elevation of 7,664 feet above sea level is similar to the Altiplano regions of Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Peru where 90 percent of the world’s supply of quinoa (keen wa) is grown. The valley is home to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, the tallest sand dunes in North America,...
A Mount Evans fixture
Karl Snyder has been driving from Boulder, Colorado (5,430 ft above sea level) to the top of Mount Evans (14,264 feet ASL) to shoot photographs ever since he got his first driver’s license way back when. The Forest Service rangers know him. The staff at the Echo Lake Lodge know him. And anyone who has searched the Internet for information on the trip up the highest paved road in North America knows his website. Coming out of the...
Shikata ga nai
It appears there is nothing left of Amache except a small cemetery with gravestones and other memorials. The swirling wind doesn’t remember. The prairie grass twitches indifferently. The concrete barracks foundations are motionless. But buried below this forlorn landscape are pieces of ceramic tea cups, Go game tokens, hair barrettes, eggshells, rounded stones from the nearby Arkansas River and residual pollen from plants grown on...
America’s carousel conservator
From 1885 to 1928, an estimated 4,000 wooden carousels operated in the United States; less than 300 of those exist today, about 150 of which are operational. They were carved and painted by European immigrant craftsmen who were proud to be in America. Patriotic images such as eagles, flags and banners were used extensively. Will Morton has spent half his life using his form of exploratory craftsmanship to reveal the character and...