Most people probably don't know they're driving past the burial site of one of the most prolific American authors in recent history when they're traveling from Ridgway to Telluride. But just off Color...

November is synonymous with Thanksgiving, a major family holiday for Americans. As most of us learned in elementary school, its storied beginnings date to the early colonists and their Indian neighbor...

John Charles Fremont (1813-1890) is a famous and infamous figure in the 19th century. He was a major general for the Union Army during the Civil War, served as a U.S. senator from California, and led ...

On Halloween, the spookiest day of the year, the latest developments in global weirding seem especially unsettling. Water Year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, was another drought year for Ouray with 22.17...

Sometimes, you can't win. You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. It's important for us to be transparent with readers about newsroom ethical debates we hold, and we wanted to share a few of...

Do vice presidents leave a legacy? Many historians believe that Vice President George Mifflin Dallas certainly did here in Ouray County. Today you can find a creek, a mountain, a pass, a company and a...

It’s raining on a late September Saturday afternoon and a cold 48 degrees as I begin this column. Pristine snow drapes the mountains above timberline. A remarkable gardening season ends at 7,736 feet ...

We all know this year's election is a big one, nationally. But locally, we have one contested race for county commissioner, House District 58 and Senate District 6 races and a bunch of statewide ballo...

“Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side The summer’s gone, and all the roses falling, It’s you, it’s you must go, and I must bide.” The history o...

Last Sunday, Ouray’s wet August weather definitively broke the old precipitation record for the month, 5.28 inches, set during the serious flood year of 1982, when both Portland and Cascade Creeks cau...

Some folks might be tempted to think the biggest problem with the Ouray Police Department has been solved, because the city fired the chief. They think the trash has been taken out, so to speak. But s...

During this summer, like last year’s, it’s not just Earth’s cities and countrysides that are swelteringly hot. The oceans, which cover 70% of the planet, are too. Science writer and essayist David Wal...

Being in the Plaindealer staff box that appears at the bottom of this page most every week has felt a little lonely this year. For more than five months, the only names you’ve seen there are ours and ...

The mineral rush was on! Prospectors found gold, silver and other mineral deposits in the northern San Juan Mountains in the years following the Civil War. The historic Red Mountain Mining District ex...

It’s easy to forget how small Ouray County is, both in population (4,874 2020 census) and land area (542 square miles). It’s only 37 road miles but 4,717 feet of elevation difference from Colona (6,36...

Ouray County’s diverse landscape includes high alpine mountains, the headwaters of the Uncompahgre River, wind-swept valleys, and the Uncompahgre Plateau. From its earliest days, Ouray County has attr...

Summer 2024 could make perennial climate change deniers finally take global warming/weirding seriously. In many farflung places — as well as close to home on this beautiful but very stressed planet — ...

Think back to the summer of 1976. Assuming you were alive, where were you? Did you see a fireworks show, go to a concert, visit Washington D.C., watch a parade, or wear red, white, and blue? Fifty yea...

The bees are back, hugging the grape hyacinths and dandelions, buzzing me as I work. I am living a gardener’s dream. It’s not quite 60 degrees, my carefully nurtured earth in this mountain place is fi...

News of gold and silver discoveries brought fortune-seekers to the northern San Juan Mountains in the late 1800s. After the Silver Crash of 1893, gold took over as the primary mineral produced high ab...