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After criticism last spring, group must meet several tourism promotion standardsThe Ridgway Area Chamber of Commerce will continue marketing tourism p...

January 17, 2024

News

Deal helps protect bighorn sheep habitat

Montrose sheep ranch retires grazing permits south of OurayEfforts to protect bighorn sheep habitat in the San Juan Mountains recently received a boos...

January 10, 2024

News

Fire District struggles to fill open seat

For more than two months, the Ridgway Fire Protection District Board of Directors has been short a board member and the district has struggled to find...

January 10, 2024

News

Fire Department plans training center

Shipping container in Ridgway would offer permanent, year-round opportunitiesLocal public safety organizations may soon have a permanent training faci...

January 10, 2024

Feature

‘What else is there for me but this?’

Throughout Shea Freedom’s life, timing has been everything for better and for worse. It was everything when his mother passed away right before he was...

January 10, 2024

News

New program to fill energy workforce gaps

Initiative aimed at training for small-scale energy efficiency jobs For years, local renewable energy companies have struggled to find enough qualifie...

January 3, 2024

News

County eyes permit fee increases

Marijuana businesses expected to bear largest brunt of hike For the first time since 2008, Ouray County is expected to increase user fees across a bro...

January 3, 2024

News

Updated resolution secures public winter road access

In a win for winter recreationists and environmentalists, Ouray County commissioners last month approved an updated resolution designating certain cou...

January 3, 2024

News

Commissioners preview priorities, tout accomplishments

Ouray County commissioners discussed prioritizing public health, environmental protection and affordable housing projects in 2024, and reviewed highli...

January 3, 2024

News

County attorney receives glowing review

County Attorney Leo Caselli on Dec. 20 received glowing remarks from Ouray County commissioners during his annual performance review, earning 97 out o...

January 3, 2024

Main, News...

Popular trail needs new steward

Uncompahgre Riverway Trail founder, longtime volunteer ready to step down

By James Hanlon

September 23, 2026

Chip Marlow, the man who spearheaded the construction of the Uncompahgre Riverway Trail from Ridgway to Ridgway State Park, has maintained the multiuse path largely by himself for many years. Now 80 y...

Main, News...

‘Super El Niño’ won’t be savior for West Slope

Officials: Warming Pacific temps may bring more snow but won't wipe out drought or fill reservoirs

By Chart Riggall

September 23, 2026

GRAND JUNCTION — Amid a stream of bad news for Western Slope water stakeholders last week, Russ Schumacher had the pleasure of opening the sluice. Nearly on the far side of the state’s worst drought y...

Main, News...

Judge to hotel: End workforce housing

Injunction prohibits MTN Lodge from housing resort construction workers

By James Hanlon

September 23, 2026

A district court judge has ordered Ridgway's largest hotel to stop housing construction workers who are building a new Four Seasons in Mountain Village. In a preliminary injunction filed Sept. 16, the...

Main, News...

Investigators close case on mine shaft death

Nearly a year later, authorities conclude Ridgway resident Jennifer Nelson accidentally drowned

By Erin McIntyre erin@ouraynews.com

September 23, 2026

Eleven months after rescue volunteers found Jennifer Nelson's body in a water-filled mine shaft on Red Mountain Pass, investigators are left wondering what her final moments looked like. Their case, w...

News

City ready to cut losses with building

More than a year after purchase, council tells staff to sell empty Sixth Avenue property for reduced price

By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com

September 23, 2026

When the two-story building across the street from Ouray City Hall went up for sale last spring, Ouray city leaders scrambled to buy it, envisioning a top-tobottom renovation culminating in a new, lar...

Daniel Schmidt daniel@ouraynews.com

Remote-triggered avalanche in San Juan Mountains

First responders receive first COVID-19 vaccines