Author - News

Feature

Spotlight on the Arts: The Closet Potter

When Joan Gibson-Bevier first sat down at a pottery wheel in 1976, she knew she had found her passion. Forty- nine years later, she runs her own busin...

July 23, 2025

Feature

Meet your neighbor: Robert Stoufer

Name: Robert Stoufer Age: 73 Lives in: Ouray When did you come to Ouray? I studied to be a geologist, but I never did geology for a living. I went to ...

July 2, 2025

Feature

Meet your neighbor: Amy Exstrum

Name: Amy Exstrum Lives in: Ouray Age: 61 What’s your profession? Well, I’m retired now, but I spent many years as a vocational home economics teacher...

June 11, 2025

Feature

Meet your neighbor: Rob Rose

Editor's note: During focus group discussions we held earlier this year, to gather feedback for our upcoming redesign of the newspaper, we heard from ...

May 14, 2025

Feature

Seed money helps teens sprout businesses

Neva Hines spent hours looking for internships her junior year at Ridgway Secondary School. She contacted at least eight businesses, and most of the t...

February 26, 2025

Feature

Students to showcase work at fair

The public will be able to view a showcase of student inventions, science experiments, art projects and beyond at the second annual Uncompahgre STEAM ...

January 29, 2025

Feature

Mexican eatery adds second location in county

Editor's note: The interview for this business feature was conducted in Spanish and translated by Chloe Kiparsky. A new taste of Mexico came to Ouray ...

December 25, 2024

Feature

Nature photography exhibit opens in Ouray

A new photography exhibit will transport viewers to nature landscapes at the Wright Opera House. Shanda Akin and Betsy Botsford’s photography show, "S...

November 6, 2024

Feature

‘Constitution’ play takes stage this weekend

Playwright Heidi Schreck earned her college tuition by traveling the country doing speeches on the U.S. Constitution for prize money. Her award-winnin...

November 6, 2024

Feature

ONCE TEAMMATES, NOW FRIENDLY RIVALS

The track and field and cross country athletes from Ridgway and Ouray who once were teammates now compete against each other. The split in the teams e...

October 23, 2024

Main, News...

Fire surges into Cimarrons

Evacuations expand, forest closes as forecast offers little relief

By Mike Wiggins and Erin McIntyre mike@ouraynews.com erin@ouraynews.com

July 1, 2026

A wildfire that started as a wisp of smoke on a cliffside just north of Ouray last weekend exploded to more than 15,000 acres by Wednesday, driven by winds north to the Cimarron Range east of Ridgway....

Main, News...

City curtails holiday events

By Deb Hurley Brobst Special to the Plaindealer

July 1, 2026

Fourth of July events in Ouray will be scaled back this year in response to the Gold Mountain Fire, with the July 3 fire department benefit concert and the Independence Day parade and kids’ games a go...

News

Blaze forces evacuations, destroys family cabin

No word when owners will be able to return

By By Mike Wiggins, Erin McIntyre and Deb Hurley Brobst mike@ouraynews.com erin@ouraynews.com

July 1, 2026

Rachel Nichols helped Russell McCrady when he needed emergency treatment for his dog. Little did she know he would return the favor when she and her husband encountered their own emergency, after they...

News

Fire crashes wedding party

Forced to flee, Denver-area couple improvises, moves celebration

By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com

July 1, 2026

The navy blue suit was ready for James Lindaman to attach his great-grandfather’s Air Force airman’s pin to the lapel. Michelle Lindaman spent months arranging every detail of her wedding, from the fl...

News

Looking Back

July 1, 2026

Compiled from the files of The Ouray County Herald, The Ridgway Sun, and The Ouray County Plaindealer 60 Years Ago July 7, 1966 Dynamite charges started Ouray’s Independence Day Celebration with a ban...

By Chloe Kiparsky Plaindealer intern

Remote-triggered avalanche in San Juan Mountains

First responders receive first COVID-19 vaccines