After five years working as a principal in Europe, Heidi Hanssen is happy to have landed at her new job – at the helm of Ridgway Elementary School. It's not the first time she's lived in the Colorado ...

The track and field season ended before it even started last year for Ouray, Ridgway and Silverton student-athletes, teasing them with a few practices before COVID-19 yanked it away from them prior t...

Left: Ouray track athletes Paton Edwards (1), Owen Lane (2), Canyon Ishikawa (4) and Corey Thomsen (5) compete at the Pirate Invitational Meet in Olathe on June 17. Right: Kaitlyn Winkelmann takes th...

Last year felt like a loss to Jake Abell. To be certain, the fact that the 2009 Ouray School graduate was able to collaborate with co-founders Terry Kiser and Jared LaCroix to press on with the inaugu...

A secret gem tucked away in the far northwest corner of Ouray County is waking up this spring after nearly a decade of hibernation. Elk Mountain Resort, once a private retreat for celebrities and thos...

The pandemic brought an unexpected opportunity to one of Ouray’s iconic places to stay and soak. Now the Wiesbaden Hot Springs, Spa and Lodge is celebrating a facelift and a reinvigorated atmosphere. ...

Approaching the end of his 42nd year at Ouray School, there’s pretty much no job Bernie Pearce hasn’t done — and done exceptionally well. Teacher of math, Spanish, chemistry and physics. Coach of near...

The question seems funny now. When Rich and Karen Avery bought Box Canyon Lodge & Hot Springs, someone asked them what sort of experience they had in the hospitality industry. “Our experience was we h...

When a line began to form on summer weekends as the day’s first light peeked over the top of the Amphitheater and spilled into the Uncompahgre Gorge — that’s when the operators of the Ouray Via Ferrat...

When we were on a book tour in New Zealand, we came across a country inn marquee advertising the “Best Muscles in the World,” green-lipped ones. We pulled in. Mussels (not muscles), beer and a band -w...

Duane Beamer was shoeing horses the first time he met Vince Kontny. It was summer 1987 at the San Juan Guest Ranch. Vince brought his family for the Fourth of July holiday, and he took an interest in...

Tod Lokey has returned to his childhood playground. The 43-year-old was hired as superintendent and high school principal of Ouray School in May amidst COVID-19 closures across the state and country a...

I'm a retired horse trainer living in my beloved childhood home town of Ridgway. The national forests are my playground and every day is a holiday. I have a wonderful wife, Sandy, and I've got countle...

The Ouray County Historical Society received word that Walter Rule, longtime OCHS Board member, died on April 18 of this year. Walt was a remarkable man who loved history and its preservation. Walt wa...

  As a commanding officer for a sheriff’s office staffed by 300 sworn deputies just outside the Washington, D.C., beltway, there was too much opportunity for Jeff Wood to experience the worst in peopl...

“The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow / Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below” ("Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore) is not likely to be Ouray’s 2019 Christmas Eve...

  If you were looking for the perfect dress for this weekend’s social event, Dee Hilton would not only help you pick it out, she’d offer you an honest opinion about how you looked, not simply tell you...