In early March, many rural Coloradans initially assumed they would be safe from COVID-19; the television coverage showed crowded cities, huge, overflowing hospitals and long lines at the grocery store. We wanted to be immune. We wanted to just continue with our daily lives.

Then we couldn’t ignore it any more.

Gunnison County now has one of the highest per-capita incidences of COVID-19 in the state. It has affected people living in Crested Butte and Gunnison, the small towns of Pitkin and Parlin...