Columns

By Tegan Welsch-Rainek. Starting on the outskirts of Del Norte, I embark on a journey that transcends time, tracing parts of the historic Old Spanish Trail from when this land was a Spanish territory.  The Old Spanish Trail is a historic 2,700-mile wagon route used by Anglo, Mormon and Spanish travelers. Stretching from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, it traverses six Southwestern states. This trade route was primarily used to transport wool, handmade items and other goods in exchange for California-bred horses and necessities. There are many rumors of lost gold along the trail and tales of the slave trade. As I...

By Thomas Cleary, Crestone Charter School director CCS is growing, literally and figuratively. Below you will find introductions from the new staff who are coming on board for the 2024/25 school year. Some are new positions, like the instructional support role to help teachers and students in the classroom, the greenhouse coordinator for the new Growing Spaces Dome, and the experiential education coordinator to support field trips and travel learning.  Others are re-boots, like the in-house special education to replace our former virtual SpEd, and the return of a music teacher. As of press time we are on the verge of...

By Amy Garoutte, Northern Saguache County Library District We are excited to announce the addition of a Library of Things to our collection in 2024.  To better meet the needs of our community, we invite you to share your ideas with us. Please complete the survey at www.bit.ly/NSCLD-Things or visit either branch to drop off your suggestions in our Library of Things suggestion box. The Library of Things will be rolled out gradually. Starting in August, we will offer items including a pickleball set, appliance dolly, 100-foot extension cord, electric pressure canner, 6-foot step ladder, metal detector, tennis racket and ball set and...

By Gussie Fauntleroy. “I’ve planted a lot of seeds and now, I love seeing the sprouts of rebirth,” Whitney Strong mused, sitting in her small, comfortable, hogan-shaped home near the entrance to the Baca, one of the first houses built here in the 1970s. Whitney has been in Crestone-Baca almost as long, and the seeds she’s referring to are projects and organizations she either began or helped start, and led, many years ago. Among them: A couple of years after moving here in 1980, she created the community’s first artists’ collective, arranging for exhibitions by artists from around the Valley at...

By Bruce Becker. Anyone can do the things I’ve done if they’re willing to live the life I’ve led. ~ Fool’s Crow Summer in the high country. It’s a short season, two and a half months long, three and a half if you’re lucky. After a long hike up, I always hate to come down. So one summer, I didn’t. I’d planned to stay out this time before I left Aspen, where I lived. I knew I’d never pack enough food for the whole summer, so I brought only a little that I would ration out for a while.  My old standbys: rice,...

By Gregg Goodland It happened again this year. They nearly got me this time, though. Our Valley’s youth possess such great aptitude and passion for learning that I nearly ran out of things to present to them. I’m talking about the amazing students that attended the Forestry Session at the Beaver Creek Youth Conservation Camp on June 4 - 6 this year.  Nearly five years into working here at the Rio Grande National Forest, I find myself pretty amazed, and thankful, that I was able to share a bunch of a long career’s worth of acquired knowledge to a great...

By John Rowe. Blair Meerfeld and I met at the “Old Men’s Breakfast,” in Moffat, several months ago. Blair gave off a gentle, friendly vibe making me want to get to know him. I discovered he is building his own home in the Grants. He has been getting lots of help from the guys at breakfast — both technical expertise and labor. Blair is apparently the kind of fellow that people just naturally want to help. He is the classic case of a guy getting by “with a little help from his friends.”  Blair and I sat down in June outside...

By Matie Belle Lakish. July! Gardens are growing well with all this heat and the good moisture we have gotten this spring. Summer is officially here and I’m having lots of salads and green things to eat.  Part of what I am harvesting, though, are wild things, so I thought I would talk about some of those plants this month. By the time you read this, many of them will be too mature to eat, but others will be perfect. Think about the earlier ones for next year. These wild plants come up in my garden and yard and in some...