Telluride Magazine Summer/Fall 2023

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52 • FEATURE EL SUEÑO NUESTRO Four members of our immigrant community share their stories By Mary Hearding We are a nation of immigrants—aside from the indigenous tribes in this country, our ancestors all came from somewhere else, a grand migration that made us ethnically diverse. In Telluride, the majority of our modern immigrant community are Latin Americans; but often the language or cultural barriers can be isolating or make people feel invisible within the community as a whole. These interviews were conducted to help us understand what the immigrant experience is like from their perspective, to learn how and why they came here, and to give them a voice. Their stories matter—they are an important part of our collective story, our shared experience. TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of the people interviewed. JUAN home that he and his wife have created, one where be able attend those classes.” When Juan was seventeen, he was lost. the bellies are full and the homework is done. It’s In the home, though, Cristina and her husband in watching his children learn, grow, and believe It was 1999. His father had just died, and his in the possibilities that fan out before them like make it a rule to speak Spanish. It’s not simply about family had no income. He knew he was some- invitations, like promises. the boys being able to move between languages; it’s where between Tucson and Phoenix, but he CRISTINA about developing a cultural dexterity that better wasn’t sure where. In the heart of Placerville sits a small white build- equips them to move through the world. ing, right next to M&M Mercantile. The sign reads, Wherever he was, he had bused, taxied, and “Telluride Moto—Adventure Motorcycle Tours and She celebrates the fact that her sons have walked more than two thousand miles to get there, School,” and it is Telluride’s newest adventure tour- had unique experiences that bear the inimitable taking care along the way not to fixate on the bul- ism company. Uniting motorcycles, nature tourism, fingerprints of their upbringing. “My sons have a let-torn bodies of others who had dared to do the and education, Telluride Moto is utterly unique. background of playing Latino sports, skiing, and same. He had gone into debt, gone into hiding, been now, riding motorcycles,” she says. “It’s unique.” robbed, been apprehended, been deported nearly “We connected the dots,” says Cristina, who She hopes that the richness of those experiences ten times. And now, he had no money and no direc- co-founded Telluride Moto in 2021. The dots, of translates into open-minded, passionate adults. tion. In a grocery store somewhere between Tucson course, are elements of Cristina and her husband’s and Phoenix, Juan found a public restroom, locked shared passions: they love the San Juans, they “I tell them all the time: believe in the oppor- himself in one of the stalls, and finally gave himself have backgrounds in tourism, they believe in the tunities you have.” This is not a pithy mantra, but over to months of deferred tears. importance of education, and they adore motor- an essential truth, a way of perceiving oneself and cycles. The blueprint for Telluride Moto emerged the world that Cristina insists on in every way: as a Things had been hard even before his father from their own family values. woman, as a CEO, as an immigrant. died. In the rural Mayan villages of Guatemala, sys- temic neglect and festering trauma from govern- Originally from Argentina, Cristina and her “It’s not the American dream,” she explains. “It’s ment genocides compel many of the downtrodden husband found Telluride when their shared love of our dream: el sueño nuestro. Every day, I ask myself, to turn to alcohol. Both of Juan’s parents drank skiing drew them to the San Juans. For years, they ‘What is my opportunity for today?’ Maybe my oppor- heavily, forgoing necessary expenses for their and their two children alternated between Tellu- tunity is to learn more English. Maybe it is to grow children in order to feed their addictions. Juan ride and Argentina, where they owned a business. my business. Whatever it is, it is mine—it is for me.” didn’t have clean clothes. He didn’t have shoes. He As their sons grew, they longed to find a way to VERONICA didn’t have meals. “Sometimes, I felt ashamed,” make Telluride their permanent home. For that, Veronica wanted to buy a house. Juan says to me, recalling the pang of inadequacy though, they needed a stable source of income he felt every day around dinnertime. “I would be during the summer months. In her hometown in Mexico, there was little playing with my friends, and when it started to get room for social mobility. “We lived very freely,” she dark, their parents would come and say, ‘Hey kids, Telluride provided. The thriving tourism indus- says with fondness, “but we had almost nothing. I come on; dinner’s ready.’ My friends would go, but try and small-town atmosphere offered the couple decided I was going to the United States, and I was I would still be there. Who was coming for me?” a chance to create their own niche. Today, Telluride going to buy myself a house.” Moto is a popular tourist attraction that partners He would pretend that it was dinnertime at his with prominent local organizations, orchestrates She crossed with her younger brother in house, too, but when he got home, the place was ambitious motorcycle tours, and offers motor- 2001, when she was twenty and he just seventeen. empty, and there was nothing to eat. Too often, cycle safety courses, empowering newcomers to They landed in California and grabbed whatever Juan resigned himself to a mere glass of water push past their misgivings and develop confidence employment they could. before putting himself to bed. through education. “It was a little scrap of a life,” Veronica recalls. Poverty and alcoholism also consumed Juan’s For Cristina, education is vital. She doesn’t She worked grueling hours and did everything from education. He had just three months of kindergarten just integrate it into her business; she also seizes factory work to cutting hair to cleaning office build- before his parents pulled him out. Schools require every opportunity to continue her own learning. ings on the night shift. The work itself was onerous, families to purchase supplies, and it’s expected that “Here, in tourism, English is the most important but the employers were worse: it’s relatively com- a child have shoes. Over the course of an education, thing you can learn,” she says. “I learned English mon for companies, especially large ones, to exploit these small expenses place schooling out of reach from Kathleen Morgan and Bright Futures. Those the fact that undocumented workers have no legal for many rural families. With the added financial classes are so helpful, and they’re really important recourse when their rights are denied. Veronica stress of substance abuse, any hopes of Juan receiv- for our community. I would love for every Latino to recalls one employer in particular who flagrantly ing an education were quietly swept away. stole hours of her time: “She would send me to clean her houses, but then she would tell me they When his father died, Juan knew he had to were houses for the company. When I brought her leave to support his family. He resolved to find that small Colorado town where a friend had guaran- teed he would have work: Telluride. It wasn’t easy. He got separated from his trav- eling companion when immigration descended on the pair in the Arizonan desert, leaving Juan with no idea how to get to his destination. That’s why one day, sometime between May and Septem- ber, somewhere between Tucson and Phoenix, he locked himself in a bathroom stall and cried. Perhaps it was luck; perhaps it was just a mat- ter of time. As for Juan, he credits God. After five long months, he finally made it to his friend’s place in Telluride, where he was awed by the abundance, the beauty, and the people. Within two days, he had found work and was earning more than had ever seemed possible back home. But the real abundance of Telluride isn’t some- thing Juan sees in his bank account. It’s in the SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 53

54 • FEATURE my timesheet, she told me it was wrong. I went he was finally earning some money, and he back and forth with her, arguing that I had dreamed of one day starting business. In TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023 done the work and that I needed to get paid. 2018, he realized that goal by launching My Eventually, I got desperate and told her to just Family Painting. pay me whatever she wanted.” Jesús threw himself into growing his enter- Another challenge was that Veronica had prise. He learned of Telluride Venture Net- no authority over her schedule. Her schedule work’s Como construir un negocio program, seldom permitted her to spend time with the an eleven-week bootcamp designed specifi- kids when they were out of school. There was cally for Latino entrepreneurs, and registered no point in requesting a change; she would at once. He attended in-depth classes to learn just lose work, and she couldn’t afford that. the fundamentals of operating a business, and he connected with a mentor who helped him Even in Telluride, there are stories of streamline systems and develop his brand. He worker exploitation, particularly when a com- even earned a generous grant. “I learned so pany is providing housing. Some accounts much,” reflects Jesús. “Before, I didn’t know tell of undocumented workers being packed how to do an estimate or create invoices, but by the dozen into tiny apartments; in some now I have everything set up, everything by the cases, their employers even instruct them book. I have my company registered, I have all to remove their shoes as they come and go the insurance that I need … I have everything.” to reduce noise and avoid suspicion. “They know what they’re doing,” says Veronica. “If Sitting with him now, it’s hard to imagine you have a company, you need hands; without that there was a time when Jesús didn’t believe those, you have nothing.” he could do it. But the life of an undocumented immigrant is trying, and the stakes are unimag- When she moved to Telluride, she decided inably high. For many undocumented people, to start working for herself. She started a small sticking your neck out feels like beckoning cleaning business, and through word of mouth, disaster. Although he dreamed of owning a it grew into a reliable source of income with a business, for years the issue of documentation loyal clientele. Now, she finds herself in the cov- bred doubt in Jesús, and doubt hardened into etable position of managing employees, and she fear.“Many of us don’t move up because we live tries to do so with integrity. “In my company, if in fear,” he says. “Many Latinos are mistreated, there’s a small job on a Friday, I do it myself,” but they don’t speak up because they’re afraid.” she says. “I want my workers to have the chance to spend time with their families, because I Jesús is no stranger to this. While most of didn’t have that when I was an employee.” his clients honor his value, there are those who try to exploit him by adding surprise demands Veronica feels she has found her home in after a project has been completed, thinking Telluride. “I love the aspens, the mountains he can’t do anything about it. And the reality is … I love that my kids can come and go and that for many Latinos, “doing something” is, in I don’t have to worry. Telluride doesn’t lack fact, a frightening prospect. Immigration offi- anything,” she says. Then, laughing to her- cers have historically used mundane legal mat- self: “Well, except for houses.” ters as an arena for making arrests. Longtime residents recall immigration officers loitering Veronica is still working toward that in the Telluride courthouse, awaiting anyone house, the one she’s been dreaming of since who looked like they didn’t have documents leaving Mexico. Thanks to her business, she’s and basing the criteria for such judgments on saving, she believes it’s only a matter of time their own prejudices. Jesús remembers peo- before she becomes a homeowner. “I’ll find ple being seized while appearing in court for a way. We Latinos, we’re insistent. We don’t trivial reasons, prohibited even from finishing stop fighting. We don’t stop dreaming.” their proceedings. JESÚS Jesús comes straight from a job to meet me. Until 2013, when Colorado permitted He owns a painting company, and the unpre- undocumented residents to obtain drivers dictable demands of off-season mean dizzy- licenses, any contact with law enforcement ing requests for his services. Today, he wears was perilous. When someone’s legal docu- the evidence of this on his shirt, beige spat- ments from their home country expired, any ter partially obscuring the words “My Family request for proof of identification resulted in Painting” on his chest. automatic exposure and, most likely, depor- tation. Every day, Jesús drove to work in ter- By all metrics, his business is a triumph: ror: being pulled over for any reason, even an He is supporting his children in their univer- unwarranted one, meant losing everything. sity studies, he provides steady work for sev- “It’s scary when you have a family,” he says. eral employees, and if the number of phone “But after that date, my life changed.” calls he receives is any indication, he is in extremely high demand. That fear has abated for Jesús—partly because he has a license now, partly because Jesús silences his phone and leans for- he is in the process of obtaining the rest of his ward. He’s taking valuable time from his busy documentation. But it is also because he made schedule to be here, and he’s here because a choice: a choice to not let the fear win. he wants to change minds. “I used to be afraid,” he says, “because of my legal situa- Our hour is up, and Jesús has a marathon tion. Many of us think we can’t start a busi- of a workday ahead; he will likely be painting ness, but that’s not true.” until ten or eleven tonight. But before he goes, he shares a parting thought, a wish for his Like Veronica, Jesús emigrated from Latino neighbors: “Don’t be afraid to speak. Mexico for financial reasons. When he Don’t be afraid to try. We have an equal right arrived in the states, he tried his hand at dif- to strive for a better life; we are important.” \\ ferent jobs. He enjoyed learning new things,

True North serves high school students in the Telluride, Norwood, and West End school districts. UE NOR All programs and activities are free of charge for participants. TH YOU True North Youth Program would like to thank the following foundations, TR community organizations and individuals for their recent contributions which helps RAM provide services and programs to youth in our rural San Miguel region. Foundation Supporters & • Telluride School District • Durfee Day TH PROG Community Sponsors • TheraTogs, Inc. • Betsy Farrar & Craig Echols • Alpine Bank • Todd W. Hoffman Foundation • Erik & Josephine Fallenius • Amy Levek • Angel Baskets • Town of Mountain Village • Jim & Mary Gallagher • Matt Lewis • Anschutz Family Foundation • Valentine Farm & Jubilee Stables • William R. Garing (estate) • Carol Linneman • ASAP Accounting and Payroll • West End Pay it Forward Trust • Doylene Garvey • John & Susie Mansfield • A.V. Hunter Trust • West End Economic • Martha Gearty • Joan May • Bank of America Foundation • Elizabeth Gick • Ellen & Tracy McVickerd • BuildStrong Education Foundation Development Corporation • Jerry Grandey • Jody Miller • Burt Foundation • West End School District • Kathy Green • Tanya Morlang • CCAASE - Town of Telluride • Wilkinson Public Library • Amy Greene • Michael Mowery • Christ Presbyterian Church Individual Donors • Jerry Greene (estate) • George Lewis & Judy Muller • Colorado Opportunity • Anonymous • Ellen Greubel • Lanier & Denee Nelson • Dawn Alligood • Barb & Gary Gross • Lisa & Victor Nemeroff Scholarship Initiative • Mary & Paul Anderson • Sheila Grother • Sean E. O’Fallon • Deer Hill Foundation • Anne S. Andrew • Peter Edwards & Rose Gutfeld • Jeff Keil & Danielle Pinet • El Pomar Foundation • Nina & McKay Belk • Chris & Stacie Harden • Jessica Stevens & Stephen Pollard • Faraway Foundation • Richard Betts • Richard Harris • Jennie Franks & Jeff Price • Just for Kids Foundation • Katherine Borsecnik & Gein Weil • Lucinda Carr & Nancy Heim • Deborah Pruett • Lone Cone Legacy Trust • Todd & Deb Bittner • Nancy Hild • Graham Russell • Karl E. Eitel Fund • Katherine Borsecnik • Todd W. Hoffman • Pat Russell • Montrose Community Foundation • Eliot & Mary Brown • Nayantara Kabir • Ulli Sir Jesse • Norwood School District • Barbara Butler • Michele & Geoff Kalish • Valerie & Dylan Sloan • Quick Foundation • Marc Cabrera • Shelley Kelly • Sarah Lavender & Morgan Smith • Rocky Mountain Health Foundation • Bob & Paula Canty • Nancy Kerr • Jim & Joanne Steinback • Rocky Mountain Arts • Beverly Capelin • Charleen Knickerbocker • Vesta Tutt • San Miguel County • Daniel & Elizabeth Caton • Kyle Koehler • Robert I. Usdan & Amy Yenkin • San Miguel Power Association • Rosella Chiles • Thomas Kyle • Elizabeth Werner • Telluride Academy • Virginia Coleman • Kiernan Lannon • Sandy & Roger Wickham • Telluride Foundation • Suse Connolly • Donald Katz & Leslie Larson • David Ziegler • Telluride Nordic Association • Brooke & Calvin Crowder • Ximena Rebolledo León • Telluride Crossfit Community after school programs • college access • workforce preparedness • academic tutoring and support • community service activities • teen drop-in center college and trades school scholarships • higher ed access programs • positive youth development • outdoor recreation • wilderness trips • summer jobs To see True North’s full list of contributors including volunteers, donors (including in-kind) and partners, please visit: truenorthyouthprogram.org/partners LEARN MORE, DONATE, GET INVOLVED: TRUENORTHYOUTHPROGRAM.ORG

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58 • TELLURIDE FACES Telluride Coaches By Emily Shoff | Photos by Matt Kroll Coaches do a lot more than just teach kids how to play a sport. These coaches—Teresa Brachle, Ramon Rodriguez, and Lea Gibbs—give their students the skills they need to succeed not just at mountain biking, gymnastics, or soccer, but also in life. Sports can be a mechanism for instilling confidence and humility, learning how to be a part of a team, and showing young athletes the value of hard work. TERESA BRACHLE Gymnastics Coach When Teresa Brachle moved loved it. Everything about it—moving with her husband to Tel- my body, working hard, learning new luride in 2005, she was tricks—felt natural to me.” When her shocked to discover there wasn’t a family couldn’t afford the classes for a place to do gymnastics in town. As a few years, she kept right on practicing, child, her happiest memories were in working out in the improvised gym her the gym. “I wanted to be able to offer dad had set up in the garage. “My dad that same thrill to other kids.” used to tease me, saying, is there ever While she was working year- a time when you’re not doing a hand- round for the Telluride Academy, a stand? When do I get to see my daugh- parent approached her and asked ter right side up? But I loved it. I knew if she might be willing to offer gym- it was what I wanted to do.” nastics classes as a part of the pro- In high school, she rejoined the gram, so she cobbled gym and it was there together a make-shift that she met Doug tumbling studio out “I teach kids that Hughes, a coach who of the old high-school changed everything climbing gym, tuck- it takes time to for her. “I think there ing her equipment learn a new skill; are certain people behind the rock walls that they have to who are meant to after class each night. teach. This man had “I realized how lucky I a way of bringing out had been to have the have patience the best in everyone gymnastics spaces I’d with themselves.” on the team. He defi- had as a child.” nitely did in me.” Brachle started looking around But for as seamless as her rela- for other places where she might be tionship had been with gymnastics able to teach and hold real classes, up until that point, about halfway and she discovered her current space through high school, she developed a in Lawson. “The owners wanted a crippling fear of learning new tricks high school and college. Moreover, her the gymnastics programs—both recre- five-year lease, which at the time felt and of what it would say about her if own experience with anxiety in high ation and competitive level—and nin- like a terrifying prospect. My husband she couldn’t learn those things. She school profoundly shaped the way she jas and warrior girls classes, the gym and I were like 25. Five years felt like eventually quit the gym and shifted teaches in the gym today, making her instructs roughly 400 kids annually. a long time to lock into anything.” to diving. “With diving, I rediscov- more aware of the many stresses ath- There are young toddlers playing in a As luck would have it, the Bra- ered the freedom I’d lost with gym- letes face and her ability to influence “Mommy and Me indoor playground” chles scored a caretaking gig, one nastics. It fit my love of movement not just their physical health but also all the way up to high schoolers, who which made their housing free. in the same way but was an entirely their emotional wellbeing. “We build are competing at the Platinum level of “Every time I looked at the gym lease different crowd, an entirely different mental health into our practice. I USAG Xcel Gymnastics. and got scared, I would tell myself, set of skills. I had to keep remind- teach kids that it takes time to learn this is just like renting an apartment, ing myself that I was supposed to a new skill; that they have to have Reflecting on her decades as a just a little bigger. We can do this.” do things like a one and a half. That patience with themselves. Saying you coach, Brachle feels grateful for the Overcoming obstacles, it turns out, trick would be death in a gym.” can’t is a choice.” ways in which the gym has connected was a big part of Brachle’s training to But even though Brachle stopped her to the larger Telluride community. be a gymnast. She’d started the sport as practicing gymnastics in high school, Judging from the popularity of the “I know so many families and so many a preschooler in Seattle. “Right away, I she coached the sport throughout gym, it’s clear that Brachle’s dedication kids through coaching. It’s opened up and approach have paid off. Between an incredible amount of doors.” TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

RAMON RODRIGUEZ Soccer Coach High school soccer coach Varsity soccer player Hannah Ramon Rodriguez’s approach Lyga admits that Rodriguez works to sports is straightforward: them hard. Practices are filled with it’s all about consistency. “I tell the lots of running and scrimmages; but kids all the time—if you show up, I’ll the final result is that they grow as show up. I’m your rock.” a group. “By the end of the season, Rodriguez also believes strongly we’re a family.” in team bonding. “The whole group This idea of family is central to has to gel. It doesn’t matter if you’ve Rodriguez’s expectations as a coach. got one or two hotshot players. Players have to work as a team when Everyone has to be involved if you’re they’re on the field. “I don’t care if going to win.” they’re not friends outside of soccer. His dedication and his belief in On my field, they’re friends. It’s the teamwork have paid off. When Rodri- only way we’re going to succeed.” guez first moved here eight years ago, Embracing the team mentality is the boys team didn’t even make it to not always a guarantee, especially in the playoffs. The following year, they Telluride where athletes are used to went to state championships. The girls individual sports such as ski racing. team followed an identical trajectory, Students don’t necessarily value the heading to states after Rodriguez extra work that goes into building a started coaching them four years ago. team. To make that point, Rodriguez All of this comes as an unexpected always reminds kids that their par- bonus for Rodriguez, who wasn’t even ticipation is a choice. “I tell them, planning on coaching when he moved look, you don’t have to be a part of it. here from Phoenix. “I You’re choosing this. just wanted to get out Love you, but if you of the city,” the Ari- don’t have the team zona native reflects. “There’s mentality, then you “I’d grown up in a something can leave.” small town, outside of incredible about “It’s hard when Tombstone. I wanted you lose players,” the same for my kids.” Rodriguez says. “But He got a job at being outside I always make sure Telluride’s high school with kids. And it they know I’m there teaching Spanish, as to support them; that he had done for years, directly translates there’s a way back on figuring he’d hang up to your work in the team.” his coaching cap for a the classroom.” For the most part, while. Life was plenty though, kids have busy, working and responded to Rodri- helping to raise his kids, who were guez’s authenticity. “They like that I only 2 and 4 at the time. But when he don’t sugarcoat things.” Players are heard the soccer team needed help, also excited about the recent wins at he couldn’t resist. “There’s something state and his track record. “Making it incredible about being outside with to the state championship game and kids. And it directly translates to your being state runner ups made people work in the classroom,” he says. The believe in the program. We had a bonds he’s formed with students over record number of players sign up this the years and the breakthroughs he’s year—30! That’s enough to easily fill had with some of his toughest kids, two teams.” says Rodriguez, happened because of Rodriguez has a lot of expe- their shared time on the field. rience in building teams. Back in But just because he cherishes his Phoenix, he followed the seasons, relationships with students, doesn’t coaching baseball and football as mean he goes easy on them. “I joke well as soccer, but he was most pas- with them all the time when soccer sionate about baseball. “My first love season’s about to start—are you is coaching baseball,” he admits. going to come back and get tortured Rodriguez never expected he’d by me?” There’s an undercurrent of end up coaching soccer in Telluride, seriousness to his play though; he but when he moved here, he scored. expects the kids to give soccer their “That’s this town. Soccer’s one of our all. He knows it’s the only way they’re big sports; I’m grateful to be a part of going to improve at soccer or at any- it. I love the game. I’ve played it for thing in life: by giving 100 percent. most of my life.”

60 • TELLURIDE FACES LEA GIBBS Mountain Biking Coach Mountain bike coach Lea sport: coaching. “She kept telling me Gibbs developed a passion how much fun she was having, that I for the sport at a young should come down to Arizona to do age. “As soon as I could ride, my dad a clinic with her and get a profes- took me on the trails surrounding sional mountain bike certification so Boise. We rode everything we could. I could coach with her. Eventually, Then I’d come home and shred the she wore me down,” Gibbs says with neighborhood streets with friends. I her characteristic smile, reminiscing couldn’t get enough of it.” about the fun, competitive relation- As her confidence grew, Gibbs ship the two have always shared. and her closest friend Tara Alcan- Coaching, in turn, has opened up tara would head to Boise’s foothills an entirely different side of the sport together, racing each other to see for Gibbs. She has taught around the who could ride the downhill faster. region, working for HomeGrown in “We got really good.” Tucson, running skills and mechanics At the time, mountain biking was courses for COMBA (Colorado Moun- still a fairly new sport, so there weren’t tain Bike Alliance), and teaching in high school level races. However, as both Sedona and around Colorado for soon as Gibbs started college in Bend, VIDA, a female-based biking organi- Oregon, she dove headfirst into the zation whose primary goal is to make emerging race scene biking more inclusive. there. “I kind of kept Throughout it all, the surprising myself,” she cycle company Yeti admits, recalling her has been an enormous ascension through the supporter of both her divisions, from begin- riding and her work. ner to intermediate “I love sharing my to eventually riding at “I love sharing passion for the sport. the pro level. my passion for It’s incredible how the “I remember com- building of confidence ing home from a string the sport. It’s in riding translates to of successful races and other things.” telling my Dad that I incredible how One of the most thought I might just the building of profound experi- go pro after college confidence in ences Gibbs has had instead of looking for a recently was coach- job. He kind of laughed ing in Bentonville, at me, saying ‘That’s riding translates Arkansas at the great, honey, but who’s to other things.” Women of Oz Sunset going to pay for it?’” Summit. The mission Gibbs had to of the weekend-long admit her dad was workshop, hosted right, that while the by the Walton Fam- races offered bikes ily Foundation, is to and gear, the prize “break down barriers money wasn’t enough to live on. for women in cycling.” Women of Nevertheless, for the next twenty all levels and abilities come from years, she continued to compete, all around the region to participate in while getting her master’s degree the summit and to learn skills such and teaching. (Gibbs also works as as cornering, technical climbing, a learning and literacy specialist at and descending, as well as refining Telluride Mountain School.) drops, jumps, and manuals. In doing She competed in almost every so, they walk away with a greater division, including Cross-Country, appreciation of not only what their Colorado, most of the riders attend- coaching. “It’s fun getting kids out on Cyclocross, Super D, and Enduro. bikes can do, but what they can do as ing the skills clinics are pretty phys- the backcountry rides near Telluride, Her favorite, however, was Downhill, individuals. “It was amazing to watch ically fit. That wasn’t necessarily the practicing technical skills, and teach- just as it had been all of those years women, some of whom had never case in Arkansas. E-bikes are the ing them how to repair their bikes. ago with her friend Tara. “I loved the really ridden technical trails, and great equalizer, allowing everyone to With all the practice and coaching speed and technical aspects involved. might not have had the confidence participate.” they receive, they go from riding their I started downhill skiing at a young to ride the uphills on a regular pedal bikes at a pretty beginner level to age, which directly transferred into bike, just take off downhill with only In Telluride, Gibbs primarily becoming a leader on the trails. That my love of downhill mountain biking.” a few small tips,” Gibbs says of the coaches the mountain bike team at translates to confidence and leader- It was Tara who also inspired experience. “I walked away from that Telluride Mountain School, sharing ship in other aspects of their life. Bik- Gibbs in her next iteration of the weekend a huge fan of e-bikes. In the work with bike aficionado Max ing is an amazing sport.” \\ Cooper, as well as doing some private TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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62 • INNOVATION ENVISIONING THE GRID OF THE FUTURE Telluride Science convenes workshop on energy storage By Karen Toepfer James Back in 1890, local industrialist L.L. Nunn Thanks to a Telluride Science and Innova- them in an environment that facilitates communi- faced an economic dilemma. How could tion Center event this fall, there’s good reason to cation, collaboration, and creativity.” he profitably run his Gold King Mine believe that Telluride could again be at the van- perched above Telluride, with the timber guard in developing and implementing this new Meng is hopeful that this “secret sauce” will needed to power its steam engines running out, system. The center is hosting a workshop called indeed yield meaningful results in the form of col- and no local railroad to deliver alternative fuels “Energy Storage on the Future Grid” in October. laborations and tangible action plans. “Some con- cost effectively? ferences are more marketing tools,” she explains. That’s when researchers, grid engineers, “A lot of us like the Telluride format because it’s Nunn turned to something he did have: water. utility executives, investors, policy makers, and small and affords conversation.” After consulting with his brother, an engineer, Nunn other key participants will unite here to discuss approached fellow businessman George Westing- approaches for the scalable energy storage solu- And productive conversations are what we need to house and persuaded him to install Nikola Tesla’s tions needed to modernize our national grid. “The get us where we need to go. “The current national grid fledgling, alternating current electric power system Ames Plant provided inspiration for our current system is 120 years old, it is aging, and it is not designed (which was competing against Thomas Edison’s grid; wouldn’t it be cool if the next iteration of the for implementing renewables,” Meng explains. “We direct current technology at the time) in a new grid were designed out of here,” says Telluride Sci- need to invent a new grid in order to do that.” hydroelectric facility planned for the South Fork of ence executive director Mark Kozak. the San Miguel River at nearby Ames. The scientific community concurs: This new grid At the meeting’s helm will be longtime Tellu- must be fueled by clean, renewable energy resources Westinghouse bit and the lights went on, so to ride Science scientist and internationally renowned like wind and solar to power our utilities if we are to speak, at the Ames hydro plant in June 1891. From energy storage expert Shirley Meng, Ph.D. Meng is veer off our present course, which is heading toward there, the system reliably powered Gold King min- a professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker climate disaster. “I have nothing against fossil fuels ing and milling operations 2,000 feet above it and School of Molecular Engineering and chief scientist themselves,” says Meng, who also serves as an advisor 2.6 miles away. for the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Stor- for the Shell Science Council. “But fossil fuels have age Science at the Argonne National Laboratory. fulfilled their role in human history.” The success made the Ames plant the first in U.S. history to generate and transmit AC electric- Her globally recognized work has resulted in Unfortunately, renewables are unreliable. ity for industrial purposes, gave rise to the Tellu- hundreds of publications, patents, and even startup They produce energy intermittently —when the ride Power Company, which sold power to local companies. Excitingly, it has also led to the devel- sun is up, or the wind is blowing—not necessarily mines as the nation’s first electric utility, and opment of stronger, safer, more durable batteries— when power is most needed. As a result, safe, reli- helped Westinghouse win even bigger projects like including a new class that remains operational at able means of large-scale energy storage for use the Adams Power Station at Niagara Falls—the -112°F. “She’s kind of a rock star,” enthuses Kozak. during periods of low productivity or high demand largest of its era—in 1895. are imperative for a green grid. The gathering is one in a series of grid-related Today, some 9,200 electric generating units, workshops from Telluride Science and a part of its The new storage technologies to which Meng and 600,000 miles of transmission lines, and 1.2 million new “Innovation Workshop” programming. Through her fellow researchers are devoting their careers will megawatts of capacity later, global climate change these, the organization strives to leverage its pow- play a critical role in this future grid. And given the and new technologies are driving us to overhaul our erful and productive format to generate solutions to outsized part Telluride played in the history of elec- anachronistic grid infrastructure. Going forward “grand challenges” faced by society and the planet, tricity in this country, there’s perhaps no more inspir- (and quickly—Biden Administration targets have Kozak says. “For the past thirty-nine years, the Tel- ing place to grapple with what exactly it might be. the U.S. achieving 100 percent clean electricity by luride Science and Innovation Center’s secret sauce 2035, and net-zero emissions by 2050) experts agree has been its ability to convene small, interdisci- “In Telluride we just feel happy, and happiness that a complete transformation is required. plinary groups of subject-matter experts and place leads to creativity,” Meng explains. “It does infuse a kind of tranquility that makes us quiet down and think deeper.” \\ TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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64 • NATURE NOTES A LANDSCAPE TRANSFORMED San Miguel River re-routing delivers recreation and habitat improvements By Karen Toepfer James Take a stroll on Telluride’s RYAN BONNEAUSUP entrepreneur Johnny Lombino of SOL Valley Floor this summer and Paddle Boards describes as one of the most you’re likely to see stand-up surrounding vegetation and groundwater, flood- scenic, fun-for-all-ages sections of the Valley paddleboarders dotting the plains also prevent erosion by slowing floodwaters. Floor. “Because it’s so bendy and winding San Miguel River’s winding path while More than that, they sequester carbon, contain now, you get a chance to stop and enjoy it,” anglers attempt to entice elusive trout debris, and are important for aquatic and terres- he says, speculating that more people are from its riffles and pools. trial species, says Sturm. out floating it as a result. These activities seem like they’ve During the project, the ERC crew backfilled The improvements are perhaps even always been popular pastimes on the 3,000 linear feet of channelized river between more profound for the angling community. vast open landscape forming the gateway the town’s public works facility and upstream of “Previously, there was nothing redeeming to Telluride, but until 2016, they really the Boomerang Road bridge, redirecting them about the water to a trout other than being weren’t—not like they are today, anyway. into a new, sinuous channel with shallow riffles cold,” says longtime fishing guide and Tel- and deeper pools designed to mimic a natural luride Outside owner John Duncan, whose That was the year consultants to system, Blauch says. company fundraised seed money for the the Town of Telluride completed the project in partnership with Trout Unlimited. first phase of the town’s Valley Floor ERC based the route on old aerial photos and River Restoration Project, a stretch ground exploration that provided clues to the San Although the commercial fly fishing and known as “Reach One.” The work, Miguel’s historic course. A shorter, 500-foot sec- SUP activities offered by Telluride Outside undertaken for entirely different tion was restored the following year, ultimately and other outfitters are prohibited on the purposes than more recent tailings creating an additional 1,500 feet of waterway. Valley Floor, Duncan observed new trout remediation efforts downstream, com- behaviors during his private wanderings pletely transformed our resident river The Reach One restoration yielded what local there shortly after the restoration. These and its surrounding habitat. included an almost immediate migration to newly accessible gravel areas for spawning, Now, nearly seven years after the he recalls. “Everything about the ecosystem last of the machinery left the site, the is improving,” he says. “There are wetlands initial restoration project is considered everywhere, which is a natural thing, it has a success by those who enjoy recreat- turned green again, and there are birds and ing there, the people who made it hap- wildlife all over the place.” pen, and the researchers who continue monitoring its results. ERC continued to monitor the resto- ration following its completion until 2020 Prior to the work, the San Miguel and observed that “riffle pool sequences, “riverscape”—both the waterway and habitat variability, and floodplain interac- its surrounding floodplain—existed tion persisted as intended,” says Blauch. as ecological shadows of their former “Moreover, after several seasonal cycles of selves. That’s because the good folks high and low flows, the stream maintained from Telluride’s mining heyday saw fit a natural equilibrium indicating a success- to force the river into a straight, narrow, ful restoration.” speeding channel well-suited for mine tailings disposal, but less so for aquatic Meanwhile, habitat suitability data life and the surrounding habitat. “The collected and analyzed by researchers channelization took out all interac- from the Silverton-based Mountain Studies tions with the natural floodplain and Institute (which is contracted by the Town degraded instream aquatic habitat,” explains Dave of Telluride to conduct a monitoring program in Blauch, vice president and senior ecologist for Eco- alignment with the Valley Floor Management Plan) logical Resource Consultants, the Lakewood firm supports anecdotal reports of better fishing. “With- that completed the restoration. out a doubt [the physical habitat for trout] has improved,” says aquatic ecologist and MSI water Although our predecessors may not have real- programs director Scott Roberts. “The complexity ized how vital those interactions were to the health and diversity of habitat features have increased.” of the Valley Floor’s riparian ecosystem—the bio- However, not enough time has passed since sphere found along the edges of rivers, streams, the projects were completed to be able to scien- and other water bodies of water—today we have tifically, definitively state how they have affected a much better understanding of their importance. groundwater hydrology and surface water quality, he explains. “In principle, we should see improve- When rivers can’t access their floodplains, ments, but we won’t know until we have a few ecological processes are limited, explains Chris years of post-restoration data to be able to make Sturm, watershed program director for the Col- that assessment.” orado Water Conservation Board. The CWCB Still, says MSI hydrologist Jake Kurzweil, “This facilitates stream restoration and watershed pro- is a much more natural system and that’s what we tection through grants and technical assistance want to see. It’s a better system.” \\ and helped fund the project. Beyond the lack of annual flooding that would naturally recharge the TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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66 • ENVIRONMENT DIGGING INTO THE TRASH EPA analyzes how much of our waste is actually compostable or recyclable By Martinique Davis The most literal definition of “throw Nearly 70 percent of the trash environmental programs already in existence away” is to discard something as use- discarded during the collection here, and because the County had already com- less or unwanted; but figuratively, missioned and completed its own waste study, “throwing away” is understood to mean periods was recoverable, called the Sneffel’s Waste Diversion Planning wasting an opportunity. And that figurative with 24 percent of that being Project. That study provided data represen- meaning is, literally, the focus of a new study of tative of the waste generated by permanent the waste stream in the towns of Telluride and recyclable materials, residents, and in turn was compared to the Mountain Village. How much of our trash actu- and a whopping 44 percent results of the short-term rental accommoda- ally belongs in the trash? tions waste study. being materials that The EPA sponsored a two-phase study to ana- could be composted. Under the guidance of the EPA, that origi- lyze the garbage that was tossed from two local nal group of stakeholders helped coordinate lodging establishments during high-visitation sea- SORTING IT OUT two trash sortings in 2019 which provided the sons, to better understand how waste generated Last spring’s trash collection and analysis pro- study’s baseline data set. The baseline collec- by people on vacation might differ from waste vided the bookend to a project that started in 2018, tion, or Phase 1 of the study, took place over produced by people at home. Crews of workers when the Telluride/Mountain Village region was two peak visitor periods—during the winter ski physically collected and sorted the trash, and pre- awarded a grant to participate in this novel study. season, and again during the summer festival liminary findings indicate that vacationers throw Mountain Village resident and local environmental season. A total of nearly 8,000 pounds of waste away a lot of potentially useful stuff. crusader Jonathan Greenspan helped coordinate was collected and sorted during that time. The the program in its early stages, alongside current findings were published in a report that came “You really get a feeling for how wasteful we San Miguel County Commissioner Kris Holstrom. out in October of 2019, which found that nearly are,” says Tyler Simmons, Zero Waste Coordinator The program brought together elected officials, 70 percent of the trash discarded during the for the region’s sustainability organization Eco- hotel industry representatives, local sustainabil- collection periods was recoverable, with 24 per- Action Partners, which was a partner on the proj- ity organizations, the EPA, and local volunteers to cent of that being recyclable materials, and a ect. The most recent trash sorting took place in build a system that could gather the data neces- whopping 44 percent being materials that could March, and people were paid $30/hour to organize sary for the study. be composted. the trash collected from the Franz Klammer Lodge in Mountain Village and the Manitou Lodge in Tel- As Greenspan explains, the EPA wanted to In effect, the Phase 1 study suggested that, luride into twenty-two different categories. Sim- better understand how the peaks and valleys of a theoretically, 70 percent of the waste stream could mons, who help coordinate the sorting process, tourist economy might impact the waste stream. be reused, recycled, or repurposed. “It’s revealing says the group discovered all kinds of curious and “They were looking for a place they could do some to have done these kinds of trash sorts, and to see often recoverable items—from unopened beer, to sort of resort profile, to see what exactly people how much our ‘garbage’ reflects on our lifestyles,” baselayers with the tags still on them, and even are throwing away and if it’s different because Holstrom says. “In general I think folks on vaca- a wad of cash. But more importantly the March they’re on vacation,” he says. tion buy and throw things away a bit differently collection provided the final data set for a one-of- than those not on vacation, but seem to appreciate a-kind project that spanned five years, and which San Miguel County was chosen as the loca- the ability to have recyclables taken care of. And sought to understand whether implementing edu- tion for the study, thanks in big part to the it’s interesting to consider how we as businesses cational and other interventions could truly help and communities might be able to make recycling reduce waste. easier or more clear.” TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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68 • HISTORY WALKING IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS Telluride’s trails have a colorful history TELLURIDE HISTORICAL MUSEUM By Susan Kees Many of Telluride’s iconic trails would not exist today, if it were not for the Native Americans, prospectors, road builders, utility workers, and miners who first inhabited this place. Some of these paths were first trod a century or more ago, and over the years they have been imbued with a rich and dramatic history. SAVAGE BASIN Savage Basin with his parents. His eight-month- could live a whole winter without putting their A five-mile hike on the Tomboy Road to Tomboy pregnant mother Allene, who lived to 105, bundled feet in the snow. Water was drawn from springs ten Mine in Savage Basin, once heavily forested, reveals up Jack in a sled and on snowshoes made it to the feet below the surface until February. When Harry the hardships endured by working miners who were Smuggler Mine the next basin over, got in an ore Wright operated the junction house seven days a paid less than $2 an hour. In the early 1900s, a horse bucket inside the tunnel, and rode it to town to week for Colorado Power in the basin, he earned ride to Savage Basin took three hours. The basin have her baby. The tramway was used for sending $87.50 a month. was discovered in 1880 and closed to mining activ- lumber, coal, food, and tools to the mines. ity in 1927. Today there are tree stumps and barely The Tomboy road is usually clear of snow earlier recognizable remnants of old wood buildings that At the boarding house on the edge of the than many places around Telluride, and it is rela- were pilfered, burned, and weathered. basin, single men of various nationalities lived in tively easy to walk in spring or fall when Imogene the fifty rooms, four to a room, dodging bedbugs, Pass is closed and jeep traffic is minimal. In 1977, a In 1937-38, two-year-old Jack Pera (who was often a result of their unwashed bedrolls. Every- ski race called the Lunar Cup originated in Savage later the owner of Telluride Hardware) lived in thing was under snow sheds at Tomboy and people Basin where locals bid their final farewell to winter. TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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70 • HISTORY MELISSA PLANTZ MARSHALL BASIN In the now badly scarred, nearly treeless Marshall Basin, just beyond Marshall Creek on Tomboy Road, the Mendota mine sat at 12,300 feet, the highest mine in the basin. Before the arrival of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, some of its ore was packed over the ridge and taken to Ouray. Several hundred miners worked in Marshall Basin, residing in boarding houses there. Through- out the 1880s the Sheridan and Smuggler mines were the most profitable. The first labor strike in 1883, when owners tried unsuccessfully to lower workers’ wages, was a harbinger of the violent labor-against-management conflicts to come. The trail to the Mendota, Sheridan, and Smuggler mines above can be linked from the Liberty Bell hike. Getting to the Liberty Bell Mine, established in 1876, is a steep and strenuous hike, but well worth the effort. Originally at 11,300 feet and later moved down nearly 1,000 feet to be worked at the Stillwell Tunnel, the mine wasn’t considered worth much until the 1890s, when rich ore was discovered. The walk to the Stillwell Tunnel begins on Tomboy Road, and veers off the Jud Wiebe trail. The road steepens to the Stillwell Tunnel, named for Arthur A. Stillwell of Kansas City, Missouri, president of the Liberty Bell Gold Mine in 1899. Decayed ruins of houses and horse and mule barns stand above the road, like ghosts from another era. In 1915 and 1916 children rode horses to school from Liberty Bell to Telluride. Work conditions were challenging in each of these basins, especially in winter, when avalanches cre- ated havoc. At the Liberty Bell Mine on February 12, 1902 at 7:30 a.m., a massive snowslide swept away the boarding house, bunk house, tramway station, and ore loading house. An employee saddling mules in the stable heard the horrific crashing sounds and slammed the door closed; when he opened the door, he looked out to see no sign of the boarding house and saw the tram cable swinging and buckets tum- bling down the hill. Doctors and residents started up the trail to help and to recover bodies. Seven were recovered, but a second slide came down to cover the men of the rescue party and work was called off as all those buried were dead. While work- ers started back to town, a third slide let loose and killed three more men. Their graves are in the his- toric Lone Tree Cemetery on the east end of town. It’s easy to cut over from upper Liberty Bell Basin beyond the Stillwell Tunnel to the Sheridan Crosscut trail and mine. Go back out to the main Liberty Bell road and keep heading up. Take the right hand turn before the trail heads up to the ridge above. This trail is less traveled but obvious as it passes an old shed and goes across a steep, washed-out gully. Go 50-100 yards to the ridge that divides Royer Gulch and Liberty Bell basin. Drop down a few hundred feet on the ridge on the edge of the treed slope to the right, above the grassy meadows to the left, to an open slope where a rock fin juts 60 feet in the air. Look for another smaller rock at the edge of the aspens below, Then follow a faint trail that comes out of the trees to the base of a gray knoll and turn back left through the trees and angle right, stepping over logs on a subtle path to find the trail to Royer Gulch drainage and the Sheridan Cross- cut Mine at 11,150 feet. Cross the narrow, crum- bly gray rock gully and drop down to the tailings and the ruins of the Sheridan Crosscut boarding TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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72 • HISTORY TELLURIDE HISTORICAL MUSEUM Blue Lake, above 12,000 feet, is the largest natural water storage in the region and once the house where my neighbor, Mrs. Clementi, worked after the Bridal Veil Creek crossing is the seldom main water source for the powerhouse to process as a cook’s helper and met her first husband. Her traveled, often obscure Jackass Basin trail. In 1817 ore for the Idarado/Pandora Mill. Ahead, beside daughter Marina remembered throwing her toys in Buck Lil occupied the cabin there, and later the Blixt the road, are the old wooden Polaski Tram towers. the dump there and her mother riding her horse brothers, who found little ore in the basin. A walk to Mining was done in the three summer months and to Telluride, some days walking—in heels!—into the ridge above connects this trail to Silver Lake. ore was rowed across the lake. Later, in the 1930s Liberty Bell Basin to visit a friend. In 1936 when BLUE LAKE and 40s, a tunnel was dug a distance of 1,600 feet the mine no longer operated, Marina’s husband Mud Lake and Blue Lake are ahead off the Bridal to regulate the water pressure. Sometimes inside Leighton Patterson and his brother Wes had a con- Veil Falls Road. Mud Lake is a manmade water stor- there would hang a side of beef and potatoes, tract to remove five-ton ore carts from the dump. age reservoir. Below, nearly decomposed from years which could be kept for a few years. They used the tram and let the ore carts down the of decay, are the remains of a 12x16 log structure rocky gulch above Tomboy Road into Royer Gulch. referred to as the Bill Ludkin cabin. Bill took care Unless stocked, fish didn’t survive at that alti- Cables can still be seen in this gulch above the of the penstock, an intake structure that delivered tude. One fisherman carried a boat up there, which road. There, they took apart the carts and tied one water to the powerhouse below. Inside this cabin sank and blocked the tunnel. After the lake was item at a time to a cable, pulling it across the draw was a note on a box of supplies that read, “If you drained to remove the boat, boats were forbidden. and then dragging it down the rocks. are ever near here at lunchtime or at night, help BRIDAL VEIL BASIN yourself, you are heartily welcome. Remember only Avalanches up there were frequent and Hikes in Bridal Veil Basin are exhilarating and a fool will violate the code of the mountains. If you deadly, so caretakers stayed put from Novem- closed to motorized traffic beyond Bridal Veil Falls. do, well, don’t ever let me catch you bending over.” ber to June. It was remote and far from help in Notice rock climbing walls on either side of the road an emergency—Buck Deals had an appendici- before the falls, which attracted ice climbers in the tis attack and Cecil Goldsworthy went up and 1970s. My three children and I secretly watched brought him out in a sled. It wasn’t uncommon my husband escape arrest climbing the falls one for men to go stir-crazy, even insane, in that winter. Just beyond the road closure is a beautiful lonely, desperate winter environment. In another building, the power plant, once used as a home for incident, a man called for help, sounding hope- the Jacobson family—Eric Jacobson restored the less. When the rescue team arrived at the Polaski power plant and got it running again in 1991. Tram, they found that the ore buckets had been removed, forcing them to walk up; the man was gone by the time they arrived. Beyond Bridal Veil Basin The Bridal Veil Road connects with the Blixt Road, which ends up in Ophir, and the Wasatch Trail, which connects to Gold Hill on the ski area or the Bear Creek Trail, which leads back to Telluride. Eventually, all roads lead home, as the saying goes. Please respect the historical remains in these basins; they help tell the tales of the people who first walked these paths, and they should be left for future generations to appreciate. As you walk in their footsteps on these hallowed trails, you are adding your own story, marking your place in the colorful history of these high alpine basins. \\ Susan Kees is the author of the Telluride Hik- ing Guide. She has lived in Telluride since 1972 and befriended many of the old-timers as she researched her book. At 82, now a grande dame herself, she is still hiking the trails and sharing their stories. SILVER LAKE At the first creek crossing to the right, treacher- ous and slippery trails to Silver Lake and Jackass Basin are often hard to find. Some miners confirm (and others dispute) that Silver Lake was used as a pasturing area for ailing mules and horses that were tended to by injured miners unable to work underground. A tunnel under the lake transported water to the power plant below. In the 1950s, Ed Baker, Dale Dyer, and Billy Mahoney, Sr. put fingerlings in the lake that grew to fourteen inches the first year. In those days, it wasn’t uncommon to catch one hundred native greenback cutthroat trout, kept fresh in rain barrels. To the left TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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76 • FICTION BEES By By Andrew Porter Illustrations by Tim Johnson They arrived in late April. According to the beekeeper we’d brought out to the house, they’d found a way into our laundry room wall and had been building a hive in there for some time. Our laundry room is attached to our garage-it’s a separate outdoor structure, removed from the main house by about twenty yards-and that’s where they’d decided to build their home. My wife, Alexis, was the one who first noticed them, cir- **** cling in a small cloud near the back fence of our yard, right The reason it wasn’t the best time was that we had just next to the laundry room window. When she got stung a few begun what Alexis was now referring to as our trial separa- days later, taking a small basket of hand towels and dish- tion. She’d moved into an apartment downtown, closer to her cloths out to the laundry room, we called up the beekeeper job, and during the week she sometimes slept there in the and had him come out and take a look. Apparently, there are evenings. For the time being, our daughter, Rhea, was stay- a lot of people out there who will remove your bees for free, ing with me. We’d told Rhea, who is five, that sometimes her bee enthusiasts, I guess—or maybe bee conservationists is a mother had to stay downtown for work—that she sometimes better term—but Alexis didn’t want to take any chances. She had to sleep there when it got too late to come home—and wanted a professional, or a team of professionals, if need be. so far Rhea, who is a very bright and perceptive child, hadn’t questioned it. As it turned out, the guy we hired was able to remove the In the evenings, whenever Alexis was home, we carried bees in a fairly humane way-taking out a part of the drywall, on in much the same way as we had before. We ate dinner then using this vacuum device to suck the bees into a large together, watched TV, spent the late evenings talking about wood box, which he then transported to another part of the Rhea’s schedule, planning her play dates, covering our county, some part of the Hill Country outside of San Antonio, credit card bills. The only real difference was that some- where, he assured us, the bees would prosper. times Alexis would leave at the end of the evening, after Rhea had gone to sleep, or other times never show up at all. Before he left, he reminded us that we’d want to have the Personally, I didn’t really know what this separation meant. honeycomb removed from the inside of the wall within the Alexis had assured me that she had no intention of divorcing next few months-bees have an excellent sense of smell, he me. She said that she was doing this to strengthen our mar- said, and a new swarm would very likely return next spring riage, to strengthen herself. She’d fallen into a pretty dark if we didn’t have the honeycomb removed. He also suggested place lately, she said, and now she was trying her best to get having the insides of the walls thoroughly cleaned and out of it. This time alone—whatever she did downtown in scrubbed down, filled with insulation, then carefully sealed the evenings—was somehow helping. up. The cost of doing that would be expensive, he said, but it I’d known about Alexis’s dark places before we ever mar- was a necessary precaution. ried. She’d been prone to depression even in college, when we’d met, twelve years earlier, and had been on any number As I followed him out to his truck, parked in front of our of antidepressants over the years. She went to therapy about house, I thanked him again and told him we’d be in touch in a as often as most people go to the gym, but she hadn’t suffered couple months about the other stuff. any type of postpartum depression after Rhea’s birth and had been more or less okay for the first few years of Rhea’s life. “We’d do it now,” I said, handing him the check, “only it’s not the best time.” “Sure,” he said, without looking at me, as if he’d somehow intuited what I was referring to. “Just let us know.” TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 77

78 • FICTION It was only in the past year or so that I’d noticed a change, Frozen, followed by ice cream—but she didn’t say a word some of her old anxieties coming back—a fear of social about her mother. She didn’t ask me where she was or why engagements, a preoccupation with Rhea’s health and her she hadn’t stayed for dinner or when she would be coming own. She’d started smoking again during the Christmas hol- back, all of which was very unusual. Later, as I was tucking iday, and that’s when I knew that something had happened. her into bed, I asked her if there was anything she wanted She hadn’t smoked a cigarette since college. to talk about. When I asked her about it one night in late January, as “Like what?” we were sitting out on the back deck of our house after din- “Like your mother?” ner, Rhea watching a show inside, Alexis just drew on her cig- “Mommy’s in heaven.” arette and shrugged. “It’s really fucked up, I know. I stress I stared at her. “Your mother’s downtown. She’s not in about my health all the time, right, but the only way I can heaven.” settle down my fear of dying is by smoking.” “That’s what I meant,” she said. Then she closed her eyes. Was she messing with me? Kids say all sorts of strange “I’m not talking about the smoking,” I said. “I’m talking stuff, but this felt calculated. about everything.” “You know, Mommy’s coming to soccer tomorrow,” I said. Alexis hadn’t actually agreed to this, but I now felt worried She nodded. And that was the first time she brought it enough to text her. up—the apartment. That was the first time she mentioned it. Rhea said nothing. “Did you hear what I just said?” **** Rhea kept her eyes closed. “I’m sleeping, Daddy.” What I hadn’t been able to explain to the beekeeper was “Did you hear what I just said about your mother?” that the reason we hadn’t been able to afford to have the She was quiet for a long time, and then, finally, she honeycomb removed from the inside of our laundry room wall opened her eyes and looked at me. “Yes,” she said. “I heard.” was that the cost of Alexis’s apartment had spread us so thin financially that we could barely afford to cover Rhea’s day **** care. We were managing, but barely. It wasn’t a tenable long- The next morning I sent Alexis a text asking her to come term situation. We didn’t talk about this very much, but that to Rhea’s soccer practice. I didn’t mention anything about evening, when I came in from talking to the beekeeper, I felt what Rhea had said, but I’d written in all caps that it was very inclined to mention it. important that she come. “We don’t have to get the thing removed immediately,” Alexis had written back, Ok. Will try to. I said, “but we don’t want to wait too long either. If we do, Please, I wrote a few minutes later. Very important. they’ll be back. Or another swarm will move in, and that could This time she didn’t respond, which I took as a bad sign. be worse.” I went into Rhea’s room and woke her up, made her She nodded. breakfast, started straightening up the house. I looked out the “Nothing’s sealed, is what I’m saying,” I continued, and window and saw that several of our trees were dying. then I sat down at the table and watched her as she packed I needed help, but I didn’t know who to ask. I couldn’t up her bag for the evening. Before the beekeeper came, she’d ask my mother. She already had her problems with Alexis, talked about making dinner when Rhea got home from her and if I told her about the apartment thing, that would be it. play date next door, but now I could see that she’d changed I had my brother, Cal, up in Austin, but he could come down her mind. only so often, and usually only for a few hours at a time. “Will you be back tomorrow?” I said. I had various friends with kids, but it somehow felt like a “What’s tomorrow?” betrayal to Alexis to let them in on what was happening. If I “Saturday. Rhea has soccer.” did, it was probably unlikely that we’d ever be able to hang “It’s Friday already?” out with them again in a normal way. So what could I do? “Didn’t anyone mention that at work?” It seemed like I had a number of vague possibilities but no “I didn’t go to work today.” real options. “Why not?” I was thinking about this later that day, as I drove out to “I have vacation saved up.” She looked at me. There was a the junior high near our house where Rhea had her weekly defensiveness in her tone, so I didn’t push. soccer practice. It was hot, easily a hundred degrees, by the Outside the window, I could see that the cloud of bees time we arrived at the field. Rhea had said very little that was virtually gone, just a few stragglers, which we’d been told morning, and I had hopes that we’d see Alexis’s car in the to expect. parking lot when we arrived, but it wasn’t there. “Whatever,” I said, smiling, taking her hand. “Just let us I didn’t say anything about this, and neither did Rhea. know.” As Rhea’s soccer coach lined the kids up in front of a row of orange cones, I stood in the shade of a live oak and texted **** Alexis again. On the nights when Alexis appeared and then disap- We need to talk, I wrote. peared, it was harder for Rhea. I knew that she could sense But, again, I heard nothing. that something was going on, that it didn’t make sense for her We need to talk, I wrote one more time, soon. mother to be home for dinner, but then not stay for her bed- time routine, or that she’d be home after school to play with **** her, but then not stay for dinner. That night, when Rhea came back from her play date next door, we had our typical Friday night ritual—the movie TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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At first, the situation with the apartment had seemed rea- that it was a good idea to try to expose your child to things sonable. I knew how it might look to people on the outside, but it that were important to you, that this was as important to seemed reasonable to me, and I knew that Alexis wouldn’t take them as it was to you, and so I’d started introducing Rhea advantage of it, which she didn’t. She only used the apartment to some of the music I liked, mostly music I’d liked when I when she absolutely needed to, maybe one or two nights a week. was younger—Joy Division, The Smiths, Echo and the Bun- nymen, those types of bands. Lately, though, those one or two nights a week had turned into three or four, and sometimes five. I knew that I was partially She seemed to like the music I played for her. Sometimes to blame for this, that I had allowed it to happen out of fear, but I couldn’t tell if she really liked it or if she just said she did I also didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. Our household was to spare my feelings. The one song I was certain she liked, in a tenuous position. If I pushed too hard, it might all collapse. though, was the song “Thirteen,” by Big Star. For a whole week she made me play it for her every night before she went Still, this thing that Rhea had said the night before—this to sleep. I liked the original but she preferred a cover by thing about Alexis being in heaven—it had unsettled me, and Elliott Smith, which was kind of low production, very spare on the drive home from soccer practice that day, I sent Alexis and haunting. I didn’t mention to her that Elliott Smith had another text, asking her to please call me as soon as she could. taken his own life when he was thirty-four. Like all the stuff And then, when we got home, I called her up and left a message that was going on with her mother, it wasn’t something I felt on her voicemail, explaining that I was very worried about Rhea she needed to know. and how all of this time away might be affecting her. That night, after we’d listened to a few songs by the Velvet I was standing out on the back deck of the house as I Underground, she asked me if I would play “Thirteen” for her did this, and Rhea was inside watching a show. It was late again. afternoon and very humid. Over by the laundry room window, I could see that there were still a number of bees, more than “Do you know what this song is about?” I said. there had been that morning, more than a few stragglers. “It’s about us.” “Us?” After I’d finished my message to Alexis, I called the bee- “Like when you pick me up at school, or when we go to keeper and told him what was happening, but he said that this the pool.” was all very normal, to just give it a few days. If they weren’t I didn’t have the heart to correct her in the way my own gone in a few days, he said, he’d come back and take care of it. father would have corrected me. If that’s what the song meant to her, that’s what it meant. Who was I to ruin it? I went back inside and grabbed a beer from the fridge, She came over to me and sat on my lap and closed her then headed back out to the deck. I sat in the shade and eyes, and I held her. drank my beer and watched the bees. Later that night, after she’d fallen asleep, I went out to the kitchen and poured myself a beer. I saw that Alexis had **** sent me a text. There wasn’t any writing on it, though. Just a After dinner, Alexis called. She said that she’d spent the photo of the view from her downtown apartment: a few trees day exercising and reading a book, a book that was helping at the edge of a park, some buildings behind, a fountain. I her to center herself. It was a little “New Agey,” she said, thought of writing back to her about the view but realized I but still pretty good. She said she felt terrible about missing had nothing to say. Finally, I just wrote good night, and then Rhea’s soccer practice and hoped it went well. turned over the phone and went to bed. I’d been prepared to confront her about all of the stuff I’d alluded to in my message, but somehow I lost my nerve. **** Instead, I just told her I was happy she was feeling better. The next morning when I got up, Rhea was already sitting “I know that none of this is fair to you,” she said at one at the kitchen table eating a breakfast bar and drinking from point. her sippy cup, her eyes focused on her iPad. I reminded her of “It’s fine,” I said. our new rule—no watching shows while she was eating—but “And I know it’s not fair to Rhea.” she said she wasn’t watching a show, she was talking to her I said nothing. mother. I walked over to the iPad and looked, but the screen “It’s not like I’m not making progress, though. Some days was blank. I knew that they sometimes did video chats, espe- are just better than others.” cially when Alexis was staying downtown, but this seemed “I know.” early in the day for that type of thing. She said a little bit more about the book she was reading, “Are you telling me the truth?” I said. but I was only half-listening. When we hung up, I felt terrible. Rhea nodded. I thought about calling her back, but instead went in “What were you and Mommy talking about?” search of Rhea, who was lying on the floor in her bedroom, “Heaven.” drawing. I looked at her. “You need to stop that.” “Who were you talking to?” she said when she noticed me “What?” in the doorway. “Seriously,” I said. “I don’t want you saying stuff like that “No one,” I said. anymore.” She looked at me. “Do you think we can do a song tonight?” She looked down. “A song? Sure.” I picked up the iPad, took it over to the closet next to the “My choice?” refrigerator, and placed it up on one of the highest shelves, far “If you want.” from her reach. Rhea started crying. This was something we’d started doing together a few months earlier. I’d read about it in a book. The book said SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 81

82 • FICTION “You can have it back after lunch,” I said, “but not this to—so I took my coffee out to the back deck and tried to get my morning.” thoughts together, tried to figure out what we might do that day. She got up from the table and ran to her room. I knew In the distance, I could see that our neighbor was work- she didn’t understand what she’d done, or maybe she did but ing on the bushes in his backyard, spraying them with some didn’t understand why she was being punished for it. type of pesticide. I looked back at the laundry room and saw that the bee situation was even worse. Not only were there I walked over to the counter and started my coffee, and about twice as many bees now, but there was also something then I checked my phone, but there were no new messages from else—a small hole at the base of the laundry room wall that Alexis. No new texts either. This was the first time she’d stayed the bees seemed to be entering and exiting in large numbers. away both Friday and Saturday night, and I felt like things were slipping away from me. I wrote her a brief text asking if she I put down my coffee and headed over there to check it could meet us somewhere for lunch. It was fine out, standing at the far edge of the swarm, if she wasn’t ready to come home yet, I wrote, being sure to keep a safe distance, even but it would be nice to see her. though the beekeeper had assured me these types of bees weren’t aggressive. Later, as I stood at the sink, cleaning up From what I could tell, it looked like a the breakfast dishes, I thought about some small animal of some sort, maybe a raccoon or of the strange things she’d been saying to a possum, had chewed through the wood com- me lately, comments about not knowing how pletely—the beekeeper had mentioned this much longer she could continue working at could happen—making a small hole in the wall, her job or whether she could ever really talk no bigger than a softball, and then burrowing to her parents again. I didn’t really know how inside to get the honeycomb, which was now to respond to these things. They seemed to lying in the grass, completely devoid of honey. come out of nowhere, like a lot of the stuff she’d been saying in the past month, so I just shrugged and I called the beekeeper, even though it was a Sunday morn- reminded her what quitting her job would do to us. Not only ing, and left a long message describing what I was looking would she have to give up the apartment, but it would basi- at: the small hole, the bees crawling in and out of it in large cally mean the end of Rhea’s day care, not to mention a major numbers, the empty honeycomb lying on the grass beside it. hit to our mortgage and our monthly expenses. It worried me that she might just go ahead and do it anyway, though, with- After that, I called Alexis and described the same thing. out mentioning it to me, just like she’d done with the apart- Then, just as I was hanging up the phone, just as I was turning ment. It seemed like something that might happen. around and heading back inside, I felt something at the back of my head, right behind my ear, a faint rustling in my hair, a buzz- In the other room, I could hear Rhea turning on some ing, and then as I was reaching back to swat it, a sharp sting music—her Disney songs, not the music I’d introduced her on the side of my neck, a sharp needling sensation that was TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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84 • FICTION shocking mainly for how painful it was. A moment later, more Inside, the restaurant was virtually empty, and in the half bees were swarming around my head—it seemed like close to hour since we’d been here Rhea had twice asked me to take fifty—and I was running back to the house, getting stung once her home. “It’s so cold in here,” she’d said, “and dark. And more, again on my neck, before reaching the back door. strange.” Now she was staring at me, concerned. Inside, I found Rhea lying on the couch in her pajamas, “It’s worse, Daddy,” she said. drawing in her coloring book. “What?” “Your neck. It’s more swollen.” She narrowed her eyes like I told her to get dressed. a worried doctor. “Where are we going?” “I’ll be fine,” I said, though I was wondering now if I might “Downtown,” I said, “to get your mother.” be allergic. I hadn’t been stung by a bee since I was a kid. “You should go see Dr. Ritvo,” she said. **** “Dr. Ritvo is a children’s doctor.” I didn’t actually know the address of Alexis’s apartment. “He could help you.” I’d never been there before, and she had never given it to me. When the waitress passed, I ordered another beer and Rhea She’d wanted to keep it a secret, I guess. But based on the looked at me again, bit her lip, then looked out the window. photos she’d sent me I had a rough idea of where it was. I “I want to go home,” she said, now for the third time. knew the park, for example, and recognized one of the build- “Just give her a few more minutes.” ings as being a hotel where we’d once gone for a formal event. “She’s not coming.” On the way down, I called her voicemail again, telling her “You don’t know that.” that we were on our way, that we were coming to get her, that “Yes,” she said, looking out the window. “I do.” we needed to talk. If I had had more time to think about it, I probably would have taken a different approach—we had **** agreed never to mention the apartment to Rhea, for example, At home that night, I made us frozen pizzas and let Rhea and now I was taking her there—but the pain in the back watch a cartoon while she ate. I could tell that the day’s events of my head was worse, it was throbbing now, and the area had rattled her. Earlier, when we’d pulled into the driveway, around the side of my neck where I’d been stung was starting bees had surrounded the car, and she’d started to cry. She’d to swell up. It was hard to think of anything else. refused to get out. Now, every time she noticed one close to In the backseat, Rhea was sitting quietly, not saying a word. the kitchen window, she’d scream that they were coming in. As we passed the children’s museum, where she always begged I was sitting on the couch with a big bag full of ice cubes me to take her, I turned on the radio and tried my best to find pressed against my neck. I’d taken some Benadryl earlier, but a station she might like. I could feel my neck still swelling, a the swelling was still pretty bad. I looked out the window and warmth now spreading across the skin above my shoulders. saw that the swarm of bees was probably about twice as big Later, when we pulled up to the park that I’d recognized as it had been that morning, possibly growing. After Rhea had from Alexis’s photo the night before, I parked the car and finished her pizza, I stood up and went into the kitchen and looked back at Rhea. She was just staring at me, blank-faced. pulled down the iPad from the high shelf where I’d hidden I asked her if she was hungry and she shook her head. Are you it, and then I began to search through it for the playlist I’d sure? She nodded. A moment later, Alexis called, upset. made for her earlier in the week, a playlist of all of her favor- “What are you doing?” she said. ite songs from the past month or so as well as a few Elliott “We’re here,” I said. Smith songs that I thought she might like. “Where?” Once I found it, I told her to come over and have a seat on “Outside. By the park.” the couch next to me, but she said she didn’t feel like listen- “You brought Rhea? What are you thinking?” ing to any music tonight. She just wanted to be alone. “We need to talk.” I looked down at my cell phone. In the two hours since “You’re just going to confuse her.” we’d been home, Alexis hadn’t called once, hadn’t made any “It’s the bee situation,” I said. “It’s worse.” attempt to contact us at all since flaking out on us at Zinc. I She was quiet for a long time. turned over the phone and looked back at Rhea. “It’s just not a good time for me,” she said finally. “Can we “Come on,” I said. “I made something for you.” do this tomorrow?” “What?” she asked, and came over gradually, her eyes full “One hour.” of skepticism. She was quiet again. Then she said, I’ll meet you at Zinc. “It’s just a few songs I think you’ll like,” I said, and then I Twenty minutes. It’s right around the corner.” cleared the blankets on the couch away, so that she could sit down next to me. **** At an earlier time in our lives, Alexis and I used to go to **** this cafe all the time—The Zinc Café—but as I sat there now Later that night, after Rhea had fallen asleep beside with Rhea, sipping on a beer, pressing a cube of ice against me on the couch, I had a memory of something Alexis had the side of my neck, I realized we hadn’t been there together said to me earlier in our marriage. This was just after we’d in close to seven years. moved into our first apartment in San Antonio, before we’d Rhea was coloring on her menu, and in the small court- ever talked about buying a house or having children. She’d yard outside the dark restaurant, people were sitting under been fired from her job at a radio station downtown and had umbrellas beside the River Walk, sipping on wine and mojitos, come home that night, drunk and very angry. She’d gone out eating chips and guacamole in the sweltering heat. TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023



86 • FICTION with some of her coworkers after getting the bad news, and “This is crazy.” they’d bought her shot after shot, and then put her in a cab “What?” and sent her back to me, and before I’d even had a chance to “Are you ever coming home? ask her what had happened, she’d gone into the bathroom “What’s that supposed to mean?” and smashed the mirror with her fist, and then come back “Are you ever coming home?” out, screaming her head off, blood dripping all over the car- She was silent. pet. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed some dish towels and “That wasn’t actually a serious question,” I said, but she tried my best to stop the bleeding and calm her down, but she didn’t respond. was laughing now, not screaming, but laughing, and trying to I could hear the sound of cars beeping on the street outside pull me toward her, trying to kiss me. her apartment, music playing on the TV, and I felt the warmth again on the side of my neck, the throbbing. “You’re drunk,” I said, pushing her off. “And hurt.” “We just want to see you,” I said finally. “Rhea especially.” “I’m not that drunk,” she said, and then she cupped my “I know that,” she said. “I know that you do.” face in her hands and stared at me so intently it felt like she After we hung up, I put down the phone and put my arm was seeing inside me. around Rhea and pulled her close again. In the background, I “I know you like it,” she said. could hear the words of her favorite song playing, Elliott Smith’s “What?” whispery voice, and I suddenly felt it, that we were entering into “This,” she said, smiling. “I know this is why you married another phase, a deeper phase, a phase without any foreseeable me. You like it.” end. I braced myself. In the distance, at the far end of the yard, I pushed her away then and went into the kitchen to get it was completely dark now, though I knew that they were back her some water, but the memory of that moment had always there somewhere, in the darkness, circling the laundry room stayed with me. It was like she’d hit on some shameful secret wall, swirling in slow motions, probably growing in number. \\ between us that we never spoke about: that “Bees” is from Andrew Porter’s new collection, The Disappeared, I was attracted to the part of her that also published by Penguin Random House in April 2023. scared me the most. Centripetal **** I was thinking about this later that night as While we stand at the stove I sat in the family room with Rhea, staring out making potstickers the sliding glass doors at the bees in our back- yard, listening to the playlist I’d made for her. my daughter leans into me Outside, it was almost dark, and it was get- and drops her head on my shoulder ting hard to discern the swarm of bees against and those twelve seconds of stasis the blackening sky, though I knew that they were out there somewhere, in the distance. It was just become the center of rotation hard to know where. I reached down and touched on which the whole day spins Rhea’s shoulder and pulled her closer. Then I picked up the and F equals mv squared over r phone and called Alexis again, knowing she probably wouldn’t is just another equation for love. answer, hoping she would. The phone rang a few times, but no I have ridden enough roller coasters answer. I called again, same thing. I thought of leaving her a mes- through the loops so to speak sage, but instead tried one last time, and this time she actually picked up, her voice soft and distant now, dreamy, like she’d just that I trust how this works, woken up. I asked her if I’d woken her, but she said I hadn’t. She trust that in this wildly spinning world said she’d just been reading a book. “How are you?” I said. there’s a force that pulls us “I’m okay,” she said. “Tired. I’m sorry about earlier.” to the center, that won’t let us “It’s okay.” “I just wasn’t expecting you guys.” be pushed off the path. “I know,” I said. I trust it so much in this moment She was quiet for a long time. Then she said, “I need a few more days, I think.” I don’t even try to hold on. “A few more days? What about work?” “I’m taking my vacation.” By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer I bit my lip. “I think you need to come home.” She was quiet. Local poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer’s latest collection is “Okay,” I said. “A few more days. But definitely in a few All the Honey. It was released this spring and was named to both more days, right?” “I don’t know.” Amazon and Bookshop bestseller lists. I had to restrain myself. I knew if I pushed I’d lose her. “I need something a little more definite here.” “I know,” she said, “and if I could give you something a little more definite, I would.” TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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90 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News NATURAL MEDICINE Colorado legalizes certain psychedelics By Reilly Capps Adecade after Colorado made meetups, psychedelic professionals, use. Other cities quickly followed. act legalized, for people over 21, four history by opening cannabis psychedelic therapists, psychedelic Mushrooms—and certain other substances: mushrooms, DMT, ibo- stores, certain natural psy- venture capitalists, and a whole psychedelics—are decriminalized gaine, and mescaline. (The authors chedelics are now legal for personal spectrum of psychedelic religions— or legalized in nearly twenty cities, of the law succeeded at rebrand- use. Psylocybin, DMT (ayahuasca), churches run by a Lakota Indian, a counties, and states—from Washing- ing these drugs, which are organic ibogaine, and mescaline are sud- medical doctor, a rabbi, and even a ton State to Washington D.C., Santa rather than synthetic, as “natural denly part of our state’s cultural and self-described witch. Cruz to Ann Arbor. medicines.”) Anybody can grow and legal landscape. share these four substances. A mush- This psychedelic smorgasbord No place has ventured as far, room trip with friends around the A few examples: the Telluride spreading out across Colorado is legally speaking, as Colorado. In campfire, for example, is now legal Mushroom Festival is now embracing due to recent changes in the law. November, voters passed the Natural in the eyes of the State of Colorado. psilocybin mushrooms, along with The first big breakthrough hap- Medicine Health Act. The act is simi- its usual edible ones. And across pened four years ago, when Denver lar to a law passed in Oregon in 2020, Unlike with cannabis, there will the Front Range in Denver, Boul- made world history by decriminal- but Colorado’s law is among the be no psychedelic stores—probably der, and Fort Collins, there are now izing mushrooms, prohibiting cops boldest, most surprising, and most ever. Psychedelics are too powerful— psychedelic businesses, psychedelic from using resources to police their sweeping drug laws in history. The too weird, too discombobulating, too TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

Colorado’s law is among the TELLURIDE | COLORADO boldest, most surprising, and most sweeping drug laws in history. The act legalized, for people over 21, four substances: mushrooms, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline. spiritual—to be sold to any jabroni be contemplating microdosing to DailyApres who comes teetering in. To that end, help with anxiety. the Natural Medicine Health Act CRAFT BEERS • SPRITZES • ROSÉS also regulates a way to ingest mush- Scientists and researchers have APRÈS MENU rooms relatively safely. The law set tested the safety of psychedelics in into motion the creation of “healing labs. For example, in the early 90s, a l ’après-midi parfait centers,” which could open in late doctor in New Mexico administered 2024. In these centers, you’ll be able DMT to about 400 people, and proved voulez-vous? to eat magic mushrooms while being that even the most powerful psyche- watched over by a trained sitter who delic wouldn’t kill you. Yes, these Open 7 days a week Reserve is licensed by the state. The ideal research subjects saw visions of “a fan- healing center might be a cabin in the tastic bird,” “a tree of life and knowl- APRÈS AVOIR JOUÉ 2:30-4:30PM woods, with an EMT on site, and some edge,” and “a ballroom with crystal DINNER 5-9:30PM lovely trees to marvel at, contemplate, chandeliers”—but they came out okay. watch change color and shape, and +1 970 728 7020 PetiteMaisonTelluride.com maybe even talk to. Starting in 2026, So now we have a patchwork of the state could allow healing centers laws across the country decriminal- to expand their medicine cabinet izing and legalizing psychedelics, beyond mushrooms to use ayahuasca, and a strange new world opening up. mescaline, or ibogaine; but these are A word of caution: psychedelics are more complicated, long-lasting, and not as dangerous as we were told in unfamiliar drugs. the ‘70s, but they’re also not as safe or helpful as the psychedelic evange- Colorado’s remarkable new law lists say. Trips can go sideways; folks is the latest indication that The lose their way. In my experience, Onion got it right: “Drugs win Drug psychedelics are safest to use care- War.” And why wouldn’t the drugs fully, occasionally, with close friends win the Drug War? The drug war- who’ll look out for you. What’s going riors in Washington are a bunch of to happen once psychedelics are in paunchy men in drab gray suits who the hands of the state that doesn’t jailed millions of nonviolent people, understand them and for-profit busi- often nice people, including some of nesses looking for ways to get rich? the best guitar players of their gener- ation. And these warriors are trying We can say this: it’s fun to see to fight “drugs,” a wide spectrum of once-impossible things happen. It substances which can be harmful was fun to see the Wright Brothers fly, and addictive—but also comforting, a man on the moon, a Black president elevating, and beautiful. Consider and gay marriage, and a Tellurider DMT, a harmless-looking powder winning Olympic silver. It was also fun now legal in Colorado for personal to watch last year as Coloradans went use. Users say DMT rockets you to the polls and suddenly—voila!— through tubes of light that appear the fungus is among us. \\ to exist in five dimensions, not the normal four. The drug warriors never Reilly Capps, once a mild-man- stood a chance against DMT. nered reporter for the Daily Planet, lives in Denver, and has written Psychedelics have seeped into about drugs for Rooster Magazine, modern culture. Joe Rogan, the The Washington Post, and 5280. A nation’s biggest podcaster, eats licensed EMT, he used to answer 911 mushrooms live on air. Aaron Rodg- calls on the ambulance in Boulder, ers says ayahuasca helped him play Colo., where he learned how drugs better football. Even your mom may affect a community. Follow him on Twitter at @reillycapps. SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 91

92 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News RYAN BONNEAU DEBT FREE Valley Floor bond is paid off By Joan May The decades-long quest to percent of all town revenues—sales million of which was raised in just of the open space funds should be preserve the Telluride Valley tax, use tax, property taxes, business over three months. Ultimately the diverted to other priorities. Economic Floor crossed its final hurdle license fees, real estate transfer town was able to pay the $50 million ups and downs dictate the actual in February with the last payment taxes, parking meter fees—to open price tag for the land plus interest, amount of revenue, but that fund made on the $20 million bond, sev- space preservation. Voters over- legal fees, and associated expenses. currently brings in about $3 million eral years ahead of schedule. whelmingly affirmed this decision. annually. There are still many open The fund’s first major purchase was The court approved the condem- space projects in the queue that some The dream of preserving Tellu- the majestic and stunning Bear nation specifically for the purpose of that money will be needed for, but ride’s Valley Floor began in the 1970s Creek Preserve in 1995. of open space protection, assuring the town has a long and expensive when newcomers, predicting a great that the land will be preserved as additional wish list: water and sewer deal of growth in the region, envi- After failed negotiations, twisted such forever. While that precludes plant upgrades, workforce housing, sioned protecting certain important plots, suspenseful court cases, leg- building anything on the Valley Floor, and a beloved gondola transit sys- crown jewels: first was Bear Creek islative diversions, and an eventual including much-needed workforce tem whose future funding must be Canyon, and then the Valley Floor— fairytale ending, in 2008 Telluride housing, the town had the foresight planned, to name just a few. the 570-acre swath of open land, successfully used eminent domain to include part of a separate twelve- wildlife habitat, recreational trails, rights to purchase the Valley Floor. acre parcel of land (the Virginia Thirty years after the launch and flowing river landscape at the It did so by committing its approx- Placer) in the acquisition. That land of the open space fund and fifteen west edge of town. imately $6 million of accrued open now houses about one hundred resi- years after the acquisition, paying off space funds, plus the aforemen- dents in town-owned rental units, a the bond is a celebratory moment in It took until 1993 for the com- tioned $20 million in bonding against number which will increase as the the Valley Floor saga. And being free munity to put its collective money that fund, and in one of modern-day property is built out. of that debt creates more opportuni- where its mouth was. That year, the Telluride’s proudest feats, raising $24 ties for the Telluride community to Telluride town council amended million in private donations—$17.5 With the bond paid off, the town plan for the future. \\ its municipal code to divert twenty council can now decide if some or all TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

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94 • TELLURIDE TURNS Headlines & Highlights from the Local News GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY Telluride Film Festival turns fifty By Paul O’Rourke The Telluride Film Festival will celebrate RYAN BONNEAU its golden anniversary this coming Labor Day weekend. And what can be expected to be a proper, if not exuberant, salute to the SHOW’s remarkable longevity might also spark some reminiscing; the collective memory might wander to the early 1970s, when Telluride— thanks in large part to a legion of young, smart, and artistic newcomers—was in the process of repurposing itself. Into that transformative time, Bill and Stella Pence arrived and decided the Sheridan Opera House would be the perfect venue for screening classic films. In the early spring of 1974, Bill and Stella invited their good friend James Card, a film historian and the curator of classic films at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, to visit. Card brought with him two silent-era films, Lonesome (1928) and A Page of Madness (1926). They were screened in Aspen and Telluride on consecutive nights. Telluride’s opera house was packed with wildly enthusiastic movie fans; the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen was almost full. Telluride’s appreciative audience, paired with the magic of the newly renovated Sheridan Opera House, gave Card and the Pences an idea. Card recruited his friend, Tom Luddy, of the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and together with Bill Pence the three film lovers dove into TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

“We saw it as a A pour for every palette, one-time, cool event, a place for everyone. a party for some Learn more here. of our friends. “BRILLIANT But it just kept going, WRITING... took on a life of its own.” these gorgeous, gutting the work of programming the first Telluride Local. stories haunt me still.” Film Festival, scheduled for Labor Day weekend Professional. 1974. As it turned out, the choice of dates would Experienced. —Ben Fountain, prove inspired—just after Cannes, and right before the Toronto Film Festival. Stella Pence -Drapes author of Billy Lynn’s Long took on the task of managing the festival’s busi- -Blinds Halftime Walk ness affairs and personnel, a task she likened, -Shades at least at first, to the whitewashing of Tom Saw- -Shutters AVAILABLE NOW yer’s fence. “All we really needed to do was hand -Roman Shades out the paintbrushes.” -Motorization SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 95 -Automation The first Telluride Film Festival, just one of a handful of North American film festivals at CALL TODAY the time, consisted of fourteen programs at the 970.728.8238 opera house, eleven satellite screenings at the “Meeting Place” in Tomboy Lodge, and tributes www.TellurideWindowTreatments.com to Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola, and German director Leni Riefenstahl. In all, 329 festival passes were issued at $25 each ($10 for locals). Bill Pence recalled, “for $50, you could get a festival pass, lodging for three nights, transportation to Telluride and back to Denver, and a chance to meet Gloria Swanson. We wor- ried it was too high-priced.” They never imagined, while planning that inaugural celebration of film, that the festival would go on to become one of the most presti- gious events on the international circuit. “We saw it as a one-time, cool event, a party for some of our friends,” said Stella Pence. “But it just kept going, took on a life of its own.” Sadly, Bill Pence and Tom Luddy will not be with thousands of their extended festival family and friends to celebrate all that the Telluride Film Festival has achieved in its fifty years. Pence passed away on December 6, 2022, after a long illness, and Luddy died on February 13, 2023, due to complications from Parkinson’s. Bill and Tom, along with co-founder James Card, who passed away in 2000, will surely be everywhere present in spirit, and will be remembered and applauded for their decades-long contributions to the festi- val and their fervent love of cinema. This anniversary is a milestone, not just because Telluride Film Festival has become internationally renowned over the last half century, but because of how hard the festival directors and advisors have worked to keep the festival vibrant and fresh and, at the same time, respectful of the past and true to its mission. The more things have changed—more venues, more programs, more volunteers and staff, increases in ticket prices and expenses, not to mention the many transformations in Tellu- ride itself—the more things have remained the same. The Telluride Film Festival in 2023, like it was in 1974, will be a celebration of the art of cinema. Because it’s all about the SHOW, the festival for folks who love film. \\

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98 • INDEX COLOR BY COMING TO REFILLING THE HULA DIAGNOSING WASTE NOT, AMERICA RESERVOIRS HOOPING DIABETES WANT NOT More than 40 million Snowpack in the Hula hooping for In 2022, there were U.S. households waste 8.75 million people people living in the U.S. Colorado River Basin 30 minutes can burn about 1/3 of the food they 165-200 calories. worldwide with Type were born in another peaked at 160% of normal buy each year. Hoops typically range from 1 Diabetes, 1.52 million country—1/5th of the this year, and the runoff In 2021, there were 29-42 inches in diameter. (17%) of whom were 80 million tons of food world’s migrants, more than means Lake Powell and Lake The hula hooping record is younger than wasted in the country; any other country. Mead will go from 23% full to 26% full. Lake Powell’s 74 hours and 20 years in age; 54.5% or 43.6 million 77% of immigrants are in 54 minutes, set in 5.56 million (64%) tons were residential release into Lake Mead will were age 20-59 and and 16% or the U.S. legally, and Ohio in 2009. 1.67 million (19.9%) 12.8 million tons was increase by 35% to were age 60 or older. 25% of all immigrants in 9.5 million acre-feet. There were 530,000 from food service. the U.S. were born new cases of T1D in Mexico. diagnosed in 2022. TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023

NUMBERS DOWN BY THE INCREASED ON THE SAVE THE A SWEET RIVER ENERGY FLY BEES YEAR Colorado has The world’s total energy From 2018 to 2019, the There are 20,000 bee The 2022 U.S. maple approximately 107,403 supply increased by 68.2% number of people in the species worldwide, of which syrup production totaled miles of river, of which from 1990 to 2019 to just 76 miles—less U.S. who went flyfishing 4,000 live in the U.S. 5.03 million gallons, than 1/10th of 1%—are exceed 600 EJ (exajoules) Bees pollinate 71 of the 35% higher than the increased by 100,000 for 100 crops that provide designated as Wild and for the first time. This 90% of the world’s food, previous season; the a record number: Scenic. 85% of wildlife in increase was driven by Asia, and they pollinate number of taps was 7 million, or 2% of all Colorado rely on riparian responsible for 83.6% off $16 billion worth of food in 14.3 million, up 2% from Americans. There were 2021. Yield per tap was habitat, but just the global growth in those the U.S. alone. Commercial 0.352 gallons and on a total of 76.7 million 1% of the land in the state decades; the U.S. supply beekeepers in America lost average the season lasted flyfishing trips in the country is riparian habitat. increased by 12.2 EJ 37.7% of their bees from 34 days, compared to in 2020, an average of 2018-2019. 27 days in 2021. during that period. 10.9 per person. Sources: Pew Research, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Mayo Clinic, Ten Random Facts, Forbes, ReFED, IDF Atlas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Roaring Fork Conservacy, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Fly Fisher Pro, World Animal Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture SUMMER/FALL 2023 TellurideMagazine.com 99

100 • LAST LOOK “The spiral in a snail’s shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it’s also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It’s the same ratio that you’ll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world.” —JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT Starry Night The Fibonacci sequence, the “golden mean,” is the foundation of everything—from what makes us elementally human, to the melodies that move us, to the stars that remind us that we are just a fleeting bit of life in a universe that is beyond our comprehension. The sky at night is how people have navigated this world, and found our place in it, for thousands of years. PHOTO BY GARY RATCLIFF TellurideMagazine.com SUMMER/FALL 2023