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...

This summer, you’ll find the Ouray County Plaindealer is no longer available at one of its previous locations. And that’s because a local business didn’t appreciate being highlighted in a story and to...

The summer of 2020 has placed all of us in a state of “what now.” I go to work every day and at 4 p.m., as I drive back to the ranch, I question, “What now?” In past summers, we were full of “now what...

Dry. Hot. Windy. Summer 2020 crisped this patch of earth - until last week’s monsoon surge. Forests were tinderboxes, trails obscured by fallen trees, wildlife scarce — except in town. Ouray saw only ...

What’s most remarkable about the Gunnison Tunnel? To me, the non-engineer, it is that construction started simultaneously from the east and the west and the tunnels met! But do you remember the old ca...

I can’t remember how old I was, but I must have been really young because it’s the first time I can remember hearing of the Easter bunny. Dad was working for Marie Scott. We lived in a two-story house...

I spent most of my first week in Ouray County walking around wide-eyed, overwhelmed by how stunning it is, unable to believe I could somehow, actually, get to live here. I had an idea of where I was h...

The coronavirus pandemic ensured there were no officially sanctioned city events in Ouray last weekend, but it turns out there were fireworks of a different sort. Plaindealer reporter Liz Teitz took p...

I spent most of my first week in Ouray County walking around wide-eyed, overwhelmed by how stunning it is, unable to believe I could somehow, actually, get to live here. I had an idea of where I was h...

Dear Editor: On Aug. 6, john Warren, the owner of Red Mountain Brewing in Ouray, will be arraigned on three counts of sexual assault. He is alleged to have raped a woman who feared violence if she did...

When I was a child, my dad worked on a ranch near Ridgway. He made $150 a month. We were furnished with a house and utilities. The utilities boiled down to coal, and enough electricity to run a radio ...

Dear Editor: I lost my sister, Peg Laughlin, to COVTD-19. She was 91 years old and living in a very nice assisted living facility. She was in great health her whole life and still took long daily walk...

Ouray doesn't often see snow followed by heavy smoke in June, but in this crazy year of coronavirus and more climate weirdness, that is exactly what we got - 2.2 inches of very wet, heavy snow on the ...

Dear Editor: I used to think that The Emperor's New Clothes was a silly story. Based on a bald-faced lie concocted by con men that is so preposterous it's impossible to believe, the emperor, his minis...

Dear Editor, I am so proud of the youth of Ridgway and Ouray. Over the last couple of weeks, young people from our municipalities have organized protests that were well-attended and peaceful. Given th...

50 YEARS AGO June 4, 1970 - At Monday night’s meeting Ouray councilmen passed Ordinance No. 4, Series 1970 on first reading. The or dinance allowing tree planting on streets and avenues of the city of...

Dear Editor, How do we find the truth in times like these? (COVID-19) Certainly not the “Main Stream Media” or our government. Logic is about clear and effective thinking. It’s about testing the authe...

50 YEARS AGO May 28,1970 - The ability to squeeze significantly more snow and rain out of mountain winter storm clouds in now an accepted fact. Work on seeding cumulus clouds is progressing well. Hail...

Dear Editor: One of the candidates for sheriff seems to have a wink and a nod, good-ole-boy attitude towards law abidance. Candidate Ted Wolfe has flaunted the county sign ordinance which plainly stat...

Dear Editor: I would like to thank three members of the Ouray City Council for stepping up and forgoing their salaries for the rest of their terms in office. The three are Mayor Greg Nelson, Mayor Pro...