It’s a RAP
The Battle over Idarado’s Reclamation

by Samantha Tisdel Wright

Locals called it the Toxic Twinkie.

By the time the Idarado mine shut down in 1978, the enormous loaf-shaped mound of tailings at the edge of Telluride – otherwise known as the Number 6 tailings pile – had taken on a life of its own in the town’s collective consciousness.  

Snow is the New Gold
Telluride’s Transition from Mining to Skiing

by Samantha Tisdel Wright

In a small upstairs room at the Telluride-Miners-Hospital-turned-Historical-Museum, Bill Mahoney’s first skis are mounted to the wall, convalescing like stout wooden soldiers beside a window that looks out over the ski area he helped create.

Miles of Tunnels

by Samantha Tisdel Wright

A Brief History of the Idarado Mine

The history of the Idarado Mine is as long the tunnels and as rich as the ore veins that riddle its guts. Its stories are stoked by volcanic tantrums, and sculpted by the winds of history that blew Americans across the West.

by Samantha Tisdel Wright

Getting to know the Idarado Mine is a little bit like that poem about the blind men and the elephant. Depending on which part of the elephant each man encounters, he declares it to be a wall, a tree trunk, a spear, a fan, a snake – never grasping the whole animal for its bewildering array of parts.

Likewise, it’s hard to imagine that the scattered remnants of the Idarado Mine could possibly all belong to the same being:

By Sue Hirshman
with Kent Nelson

A bird that is called a nomad
 with beaks of each type
  adapted to fit the cones
  of specific conifers
          —anonymous—

by Alan Todd
atodd@ouraynews.com

by Mary Menz
news@ouraynews.com

by Mary Menz
news@ouraynews.com

by Mary Menz
news@ouraynews.com

by Tori Sheets

tori@ouraynews.com

Runners in the Imogene Pass Run headed out of Ouray early Saturday morning and traveled 17.1 miles over the mountain pass into Telluride. This year marks the 42nd time runners have participated in the grueling run over Imogene Pass.