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A patriotic way to celebrate the Fourth
Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
A patriotic way to celebrate the Fourth
By Erin McIntyre 
July 9, 2025
"Are you the newspaper? Are we gonna be in the paper?" These are questions I hear when people see me taking photos at parades. I usually shrug my shoulders and smile, because the truth is I don't know...
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The rise, fall and rise of Ouray County
Columns, Feature...
The rise, fall and rise of Ouray County
By Carolyn Snowbarger 
July 9, 2025
Why did thousands of people, most of whom had never even heard of Ouray, Ridgway or Colona, come to this remote part of Colorado? The history of Ouray County follows the familiar story of the American...
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County’s historic churches home to ample stories
Columns, Feature...
County’s historic churches home to ample stories
By Carolyn Snowbarger 
July 2, 2025
When does a mining camp truly become a town? It happens legally with official documents of incorporation. It occurs economically when businesses arrive to support the mining interests. Its culture beg...
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Please join us Saturday for film, journalism talk
Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Please join us Saturday for film, journalism talk
By Erin McIntyre 
June 25, 2025
When filmmaker Heather Courtney set out to make a film about rural America, she decided to do it through the lens of a local newspaper. She visited a small-town weekly in the Texas panhandle, the Cana...
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Will Ouray County benefit from Weather Service rehires?
Columns, Opinion...
Will Ouray County benefit from Weather Service rehires?
By Karen Risch 
June 25, 2025
For six lovely days, June 2-7, our San Juan earth was cool and wet. Local peaks regained their winter white. Ouray days averaged 65 degrees, 11 degrees below the new normal June average, 76. Nights av...
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Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Coming soon: A spruced-up Plaindealer
By Erin McIntyre 
June 11, 2025
The Plaindealer just celebrated its 148th birthday. Personally, I don't think it looks a day over 99. Still, from time to time, we need to show the paper some love and spruce it up. That's why we've b...
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Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Weary of mail problems? Try the e-edition
By Mike Wiggins 
June 4, 2025
The newspaper you’re reading is mailed to nearly 900 post office boxes and street addresses in more than 40 states every week and sent to more than 1,300 email addresses. Once in a while, a mailed new...
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Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
Soccer aims to build on successful season
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
May 28, 2025
A longtime goal for the Ridgway High School girls’ soccer program was to make it to the second round of the state playoffs, travel to the Front Range to take on one of the top seeds and put up a compe...
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Drought reigns as county barrels toward summer
Columns, Opinion...
Drought reigns as county barrels toward summer
By Karen Risch 
May 28, 2025
Ouray County, along with much of far western Colorado and other Southwestern states, is now in severe drought status, according to NOAA’s U.S. West Drought Monitor, released Tuesday, May 20. More worr...
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Small but mighty: Ridgway girls’ track and field secures first league title as independent program
Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
Small but mighty: Ridgway girls’ track and field secures first league title as independent program
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
May 7, 2025
In high school track and field, athletes are limited to competing in four events. It’s a way to ensure competitive balance, limit wear and tear on athletes and — in the case of the Ridgway girls' team...
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Scenic Last Dollar Road connects to rugged past
Columns, Feature...
Scenic Last Dollar Road connects to rugged past
By Carolyn Snowbarger 
May 7, 2025
It is time to begin planning our explorations into the San Juan Mountains again. Be certain to include another trek on Last Dollar Road, connecting Ridgway and Telluride over a 21-mile, unpaved, breat...
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Soccer finishing season with strong kick
Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
Soccer finishing season with strong kick
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
April 30, 2025
After a 4-0 victory over Bayfield on Monday, the Ridgway High School girls' soccer team clinched a record of .500 or better for the eighth time in the past decade. Throw out a season lost to the COVID...
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Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
As weather warms, so does Ridgway soccer team
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
April 23, 2025
It’s probably no coincidence that the Ridgway High School girls’ soccer team has heated up on the field as temperatures have warmed up outside. In the sunshine, practices can focus much more on team p...
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Brief warm spells, plenty of snow — yes, it’s April
Columns, Opinion...
Brief warm spells, plenty of snow — yes, it’s April
By Karen Risch 
April 23, 2025
April, a notorious trickster of a month, has lived up to its reputation this year. Fine hot spells, not-so-good freezing temperatures, ample snow and, unfortunately, a continuing drought. It’s been a ...
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Sharing between soccer, track breeds success
Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
Sharing between soccer, track breeds success
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
April 16, 2025
It can be difficult for a coach not to oversee every aspect of an athlete’s training or competition during a given season. It’s also rough to juggle scheduling conflicts when an athlete competes in mu...
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Columns, Opinion...
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Ouray deserves better than fake public votes, shredding documents
By Erin McIntyre 
April 9, 2025
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. I've been thinking about that quote from C.S. Lewis a lot lately, because I'm concerned about secret activities in the city of Ouray t...
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The forgotten — and shameful — history of Silverton
Columns, Opinion...
The forgotten — and shameful — history of Silverton
By Carolyn Snowbarger 
April 9, 2025
Mining entrepreneurs founded the town of Silverton in 1874. With the discovery of silver, gold and zinc, it was a boomtown with prospectors, suppliers and builders arriving daily for adventure, riches...
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Ridgway stands toe-to-toe with larger school
Columns, Feature...
PREP ROUNDUP
Ridgway stands toe-to-toe with larger school
By By Matt Meyer Special to the Plaindealer 
April 2, 2025
Editor's note: The Plaindealer is trying something new – publishing a sports column with information about local high school sports during the seasons for those sports. We don't have the resources to ...
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Spring is here, but rain may stay away in April, May
Columns, Opinion...
Spring is here, but rain may stay away in April, May
By Karen Risch 
March 26, 2025
Spring has sprung: Baby birds chirp riotously in birdhouses, leftover snow vanishes under an ascending sun, crocus and forsythia flutter in the March wind. This first month of spring 2025 has been two...
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More shadows than light during Sunshine Week
Columns, Opinion...
GUEST COLUMN
More shadows than light during Sunshine Week
By By Jeffrey A. Roberts Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition 
March 19, 2025
Sunshine Week, which started Sunday, is an annual celebration of Americans’ right to know what government is doing. This year, there is far more to be concerned about than to celebrate, both nationall...
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Editor Picks
Smoke blankets Ouray County as wildfires burn in region
News
Smoke blankets Ouray County as wildfires burn in region
By Mike Wiggins 
July 11, 2025
Heavy smoke and haze choked Ouray County for a second straight day Friday as a series of wildfires churned through tinder-dry trees and brush in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The Colora...
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Signs of trouble in Ouray
Main, News...
Signs of trouble in Ouray
City halts production after public backlash over size, appearance of wayfinding signs
By Mike Wiggins mike@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
Ouray business owners and residents threw up a symbolic stop sign in front of the city council on Monday, urging city leaders to pause or altogether abandon plans to install dozens of new wayfinding s...
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Go Fourth and celebrate
Main, News...
Go Fourth and celebrate
July 9, 2025
The crowd cheers as a fire department tanker truck sprays the wet side of the street during the July 4 parade in Ouray. Ouray Tourism and Destination Marketing Director Kailey Rhoten said cellular dat...
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Main, News...
County scrambles to pay for road repairs from rockfall
Leaders pull from multiple sources to cover $300,000 tab, look to replenish emergency fund
By Lia Salvatierra lia@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
Ouray County is scraping together money to pay for emergency repairs on County Road 361 while looking for ways to replenish its emergency fund in anticipation of other disasters. During a work session...
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News
Hot Springs moves forward with upgrades
Council OKs bathhouse design contract; pipeline replacement, heat exchange system on tap this fall
By By Lia Salvatierra and Mike Wiggins lia@ouraynews.com mike@ouraynews.com 
July 9, 2025
A series of much-anticipated upgrades to the Ouray Hot Springs Pool is coming together, with the city beginning infrastructure replacements this fall and searching for ways to pay for building a new b...
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First responders receive first COVID-19 vaccines

Ouray County Plaindealer
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Ridgway, Colorado 81432
970-325-4412

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