5O YEARS AGO September17, 1970 - The bright new star in Federal Resources Corporation's national resource stable is the Camp Bird Mine at Ouray, which resumed operations this July. In a recent interview, "Nels W.
When I was tO, my brother Carl and I lived with our mom and stepdad, Roger Gleason. Roger leased summer pasture on Dallas Divide. Every Sunday we would go there to check the cattle. We had pasture leased along Leopard Creek where Ski Dallas used to be. Carl and I wanted to camp there and fish.
The decades following the Civil War brought changes to the Western Slope of Colorado. The miners and prospectors came searching for rich mineral veins, and the homesteaders, ranchers, and farmers soon followed. They arrived by foot, in wagons and on horses.
First, the good news. Ouray County's rate of participation in the 2020 census is higher than the national count conducted 10 years ago.
The migration of birds is a natural phenomenon. Usually every fall, birders are treated with migrant shorebirds, gulls, and other birds passing through the area and using Ridgway Reservoir as a stopping point. This year the big week at Ridgway Reservoir was Aug. 17-23. These dates can vary from week to week and into September, depending on the year..
It's been sweet to get measurable rain again after a rather disastrous month of seriously abnormal heat, drought and smoke, but August 2020 isn't finished and may yet be one for the record books in many ways.
As schools open across our nation, we have been seeing that things are going to look different in every town and city. In some instances, decisions to do home school or on line school have been made for families by their districts. In other instances, there are decisions to still to be made: should parents send their child ren to in-person school or not? Even after families have la bored over these decisions and made what they hope to be "the right decision," there is always a possibility that things can change without their input in these uncertain times.
5O YEARS AGO August 20, 1970 - An intensive effort by Game, Fish and Parks personnel is currently underway in the San Juan Mountains to determine whether or not the "Great White Bear,'' found to be so plentiful by surveyor-trapper Jacob Fowler and others in the early 18oos, still exists in Colorado. The Rio Grande-San Juan Grizzly Bear Management Area was created in 1954 to protect the grizzly from all hunting in this area.
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 countless friends. Every morning I'm faced with the dilemma of whether to go fishing, read a book, or do something with my stellar horse. I often use her to help rancher friends with their cattle. Angel is a pretty bay mare that I raised. She is the horse that everyone dreams of owning: affectionate and gentle, but never pushy, rude or disobedient. She does everything I ask of her with a smile on her face. I trained her to be a cutting horse and she has won a little money. Angel is a pleasure to ride doing ranch work. I have packed her and also taught her to pull a buckboard. I'm sure she is one of the best all-around horses in the Uncompahgre Valley. She thinks I walk on water, and I'm pretty sure she hung the moon.
This summer, you’ll find the Ouray County Plaindealer is no longer available at one of its previous locations.