In the seven years we've owned the Plaindealer, it has become pretty obvious that we need more resources to help cover stories related to public lands, environmental issues and climate challenges. We ...

Dear Editor: Thank you for alerting the public to the absurd bluff of Mark Kirk. He is threatening to sue the Ouray County commissioners if they don’t adopt a regulation to accommodate the exterminati...

Dear Editor: My wife and I are very proud of all the many improvements that have been made to our little town of Ridgway since we moved here about 10 years ago. We have one suggestion that we feel wou...

The year 2025, Ouray’s hottest year ever recorded, began with a very cold, dry month. January 2025’s mean temperatures were 4.8 degrees below normal both day and night, making it the only below normal...

Dear Editor: I want to commend the Ridgway Town Council for its decision not to move forward with the proposed vehicle idling ordinance and for taking a thoughtful, practical approach to the issue. I ...

60 Years Ago December 30, 1965 What can we expect to happen to our pocketbook in 1966? Here are some clues gleaned from the 43rd Annual National Agricultural Outlook Conference held in Washington D.C....

Dear Editor: With the departure of Interim Police Chief Daric Harvey, Ouray once again faces instability in its police department. Rather than automatically rebuilding the same structure, this feels l...

Dear Editor: As we welcome the winter solstice, and the slow return of the light, I want to share some thoughts for the season, and the year to come. I believe the core values of the season, whatever ...

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Wunderground’s “meteorologists qualify a white Christmas as one with at least an inch of snow on the ground [SOG] on Christmas morning,” (Hayden Marshall and Jonathan Er...

Dear Editor: The Dec. 4-10 edition of the Plaindealer made me realize just how long it’s been since that moniker has had anything to do with the paper’s content. And now it appears, with the publicati...

The winter of 1905-06 was a dangerous time for the high-altitude mines above Telluride as snowstorm after snowstorm hit the region. Just four years earlier, the infamous 1902 "White Death" avalanche h...

Dear Editor: I read the dichotomous reports in the Ouray County Plaindealer, Dec. 11, 2025, issue, which define two types of Ridgway's “creative” people. One was the person who recently asked the Ridg...

We don’t put women in timeout; we put children in timeout. When you put a woman in timeout, you are putting her voice in timeout; telling her to go be quiet and that she should be seen and not heard. ...

Had I not participated in scores of Ouray County Board of County Commissioners' and Planning Commission meetings, that Commissioner Lynn Padgett was elected or appointed to, I may have felt differentl...

Ouray finally woke up to its first measurable snowfall Monday, Nov. 24. While waiting for the magic of winter’s arrival, late or not, I found myself wondering: Would this 2025-2026 season’s first meas...

Concerning the proposed San Miguel Power Association rate increase: Has the recent peak/off-peak rate structure worked to reduce the demand charge from Tri-State Generation and Transmission Associatio...

Dear Editor: I’m surprised that no one has considered the fairly obvious solution to the wolf release issue and the Top of the Pines prairie dog problem. Release the wolves at Top of the Pines. Charle...

I still can’t believe we own a newspaper. It feels silly to type that sentence. We’re almost seven years into being the caretakers of this community institution, publishing for 148 years. And yet, it ...

Was the famed "Outlaw Thanksgiving" in Brown’s Park history or simply a tall tale? According to Ann Bassett, the "Queen of the Cattle Rustlers," it was a Thanksgiving feast for the ages, hosted by non...

Dear Editor: I would like to offer a different perspective in support of the decision by the Ouray County Board of County Commissioners to proceed with management of the prairie dog colony at Top of t...