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...
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...
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...
Practicing retirement
More than 10,000 baby boomers a day are turning 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years. Many expect to keep working since 40 percent are not sure they will have enough money to retire. Robert Schulz saw the trend when he started researching retirement issues and making a plan for he and his wife. After attending several retirement seminars he realized many of the programs were trying to sell him products he didn’t...