Telluride Magazine Winter/Spring 2021-22

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52 • FEATURE Air Powder Speed riding, the dreamy combination of flight and skiing, arrives in the San Juans By Rob Story LIKE MOST LONGTIME TELLURIDERS, I OFTEN DREAM ABOUT SKIING. THE MOST EUPHORIC DREAMS OCCUR WHEN, AS A SKIER, I SKIP MERRILY DOWN TILTED FIELDS OF PUFFY MARSHMALLOWS. I NEVER COLLIDE WITH OBSTACLES, BUT RATHER, BOUNCE HARMLESSLY UP AND OFF THEM, FOR DREAMTIME ME IS SPRY AND INVINCIBLE. IN THESE SPLENDIFEROUS DREAMS, I ACHIEVE THE GLORY OF WEIGHTLESSNESS. GRAVITATIONAL FORCES BEND TO MY VERY WHIM. THEREFORE, MY ON-SLOPE MANEUVERS CARRY ME, EFFORTLESSLY, BOTH DOWNWARD AND UPWARD. BOTH! TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

Turns out, the glory of weightlessness, the one—say, a speed rider—does after exiting the Taylor asserts—are considered especially condu- euphoria of escaping gravity’s cruel grip, have Backcountry Access gate atop Gold Hill. “It’s a won- cive to speed riding. already arrived in the real world of our San Juan derful launch,” says Taylor, “allowing us to fly down Mountains (which are actually covered in snow, into Bear Creek.” The drainage makes for ideal Speed riders boggle plenty of minds atop Little not puffy marshmallows). How? Via the twen- speed riding due to its alpine snowfields, wide land- Wasatch. Taylor says that while preparing his wing, ty-first century advent of “speed riding.” Don’t ing zones, and huge vertical drop from Gold Hill. “Skiers look at me and say, good God, what are worry if you’ve never heard of it—almost no one you doing? The nice thing about Little Wasatch has. As the name suggests, speed riding combines In most cases, Taylor exits the gate solo or is it’s very open, especially near The Wave. You freeskiing and paragliding, giving “big mountain” with fellow members of the Telluride Air Force, can turn the canopy in such a manner that you’re skiers access to terrain that would otherwise be the non-profit organization that oversees foot- descending with less speed, playing on the snow, considered unrideable. launched aviation in the region. While his com- then speed up the canopy and leap off a cliff.” pany makes its bones taking tourists on tandem According to Ryan Taylor of Telluride Para- paragliding flights, tandem speed riding would be Speed riders perform a trick called “barrel gliding, the San Juans shine as a speed riding almost comically impossible and dangerous—well rolls” to slow down, an inverted maneuver that destination. “We get lots of sunny days here in the beyond the mere chaos of eight razor-sharp ski looks as terrifying as it sounds. Maximizing their winter. The San Juans have always presented great edges slashing about. “I can’t even guide speed time near the surface floods their brains with some backcountry skiing, and speed riders here have riders,” Taylor says. “My insurance only covers the of humankind’s happier neurotransmitters. They lots of opportunities for first descents. Many of the tandem operation. If an experienced speed rider term this particular euphoria a “ground rush.” peaks have never been ridden with a chute. You is visiting town, though, I’ll go fly with them. But look around up there, and the world is your oyster. they need to be expert skiers who can handle the “You get in a ‘flow state,’” explains Taylor, 46. It’s stunning. I’ll ask myself: ‘What do you want to steeps of Bear Creek. And they need to ride with “You’re 100 percent in the moment. You’re going do today? What do you want to pioneer?’” backcountry safety gear.” sixty, seventy miles an hour, skiing and soaring. One minute of speed riding provides so very much Speed riding is prohibited at Telluride Ski Asked his preferred slopes for speed riding, adrenaline—especially if it took you three hours Resort—perhaps for good reason. Tourists would Taylor rattles off Nellie Mine, E Ticket, Deep & to ski-tour up to the launch.” be shocked at skiers raining down from the sky, Dangerous, Hairy Banana, and other routes tradi- and there are only so many defibrillators in a small tional off-piste skiers hold sacred. Little Wasatch For a more visceral understanding, check out town. The resort, however, cares not what some- and La Junta Basin—“the nicest lines around,” the internet machine’s countless speed riding vid- eos. Frequently shot with POV cameras mounted on helmets, they offer sublime visuals, like ath- WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 53

54 • FEATURE letes nearly touching down upon their own shad- important to a speed rider, but balance is; ergo, tend to travel for their passion—if only because ows before joyfully lifting again into the wild blue Ulrichs likes to mount bindings closer to the skis’ Montana experiences more lousy weather than yonder. The footage is jaw-dropping, with partic- center point than he would with his resort planks. Southwest Colorado. “I’d never wing off a moun- ipants speeding down snow toward a giant cliff, tain without knowing what’s below. We do a lot of then filling their chutes with air and soaring to Pushing the limits in speed riding, Ulrichs terrain analysis, lots of studying via Google Earth,” the next alpine snowfield. As “Alaska Jon” Devore says, “Is not all fun and games. I’ve seen people the computer program that renders a 3D repre- says in one Red Bull production, “We can get seriously injured. You have to recognize your pop off cliffs and hop out of gullies when skill set and how much risk tolerance you have. sentation of the planet based on satellite we need to. If the conditions start getting In France, at Les Deux Alpes, I got helicopter-res- imagery. “We’re looking for creeks, power- bad, we just fly away.” cued after double-ejecting out of my skis and lines, ditches, fences, and other obstacles launching into a scree field. I hadn’t fully locked before we land somewhere.” There aren’t many speed riders in Tel- out my touring bindings, but I was OK in the end.” luride. Taylor reckons only five dwell year- He raves about the sense of freedom round in the region: Telluride Air Force Telluride locals know the Bear Creek drainage that results from “playing in the fourth president Karl Welter, Mark Snyder, Mark down pat, and fly/ski accordingly. Young, unmar- dimension,” relishing both terra firma Simpson, Mickey Roy, and himself. Another ried, gung-ho speed riders like Ulrichs, however, and stratosphere. An experienced speed member of Telluride Air Force, Jack rider, Ulrichs says, can touch down with Ulrichs, pilots tandem flights for Telluride zero impact, gliding on the surface with Paragliding in summer and spends winter ease. “Speed riding takes you to big lines and spring speed riding around Montana. that skiers can’t get to, mountains one could never reach simply by traversing Ulrichs, 25, is known for riding with a on snow.” smaller chute than his elders: a high-per- formance air foil with shorter lines, like The Montanan’s most beautiful speed those used in Red Bull speed riding com- riding moment occurred in the Gallatin petitions in Europe’s Alps. High-perfor- Range near Big Sky. “It was a beautiful mance foils permit higher speeds and day, with a stable snowpack and six inches more radical tricks. “I’ll get to a hundred of fresh snow. We rolled off a 500-foot cliff miles per hour with my wing,” Ulrichs alongside a frozen waterfall. To me, the maintains. In addition to barrel rolls, he ideal speed riding line involves twenty or pulls dramatic spirals and dives. “The machine thirty nice turns before concluding in a itself is actually more simple than a bicycle,” he huge terrain feature that could never be navigated says. “But riding with a high-performance foil is on skis alone.” definitely an expert’s thing, combining expert ski- Like Taylor, Ulrichs worships the mind-body ing with expert flying.” flow-state engendered by speed riding. “There’s a sense of pure bliss,” he says. “When flying and skiing Speed riders ski on a variety of big mountain come together, it’s a really beautiful thing. I think boards: under 200 centimeters in length with a 110 of it as ‘air powder.’ The slopes we access never get millimeter or so waist. Turn initiation isn’t that tracked out. And any mountain is fair game.” \\ TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022



56 • FEATURE PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CENTER OF SOUTHWEST STUDIES, FORT LEWIS COLLEGE RECONCILIATION AND RESILIENCE The dark history of Native American boarding schools “Only by complete isolation of the Indian By Christina Callicott or first-generation background, and it’s clear that child from his savage antecedents can ment by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland of free tuition is a far cry from a free education. he be satisfactorily educated.” When a comprehensive review of U.S. Indian boarding John B. Riley, Superintendent of Indian Schools, schools, the nation’s eyes have turned toward Fort For Indigenous students, however, the problem wrote those words in his 1886 report to the U.S. Lewis College, whose dark history persists in the cuts closer to the bone. From 1892-1911, Fort Lewis Department of the Interior, he expressed a sen- form of a tuition waiver for all qualified Native Indian School housed anywhere from a few dozen to timent, and gave voice to a strategy, that was American and Alaska Native students. almost 250 students, mostly from the Dineh (Navajo), gaining traction across the nation: That the least Apache, Ute, and Hopi nations. They passed their expensive way to put an end to the “Indian prob- While the waiver has led to one of the high- days in the highly regimented, severely disciplined, lem” was, rather than maintain a standing army est rates of Indigenous student attendance in the militaristic fashion devised by Richard Henry Pratt. for the purposes of extermination, to assimilate nation—their student body boasts over 40 percent Founder of the first Indian boarding school, Carlisle them into white, Christian society—and that the Indigenous students—the misperception that they Industrial Indian School, Pratt’s methods derived best way to do that was to remove Native American go to school for free perturbs Indigenous students from his years supervising Indian prisoners of war. children from their families and their communi- at Fort Lewis. In fact, the waiver doesn’t cover He is most famous for the quote that summed up his ties; strip them of their cultures, their languages, student fees, books, or room and board—costs strategy: “Kill the Indian, save the man.” their clothes and their hair; and turn them into that are significant for any student but that can industrious members of the capitalist society that be especially burdensome for those coming from Research into living conditions and student they were thereafter intended to serve. an economically disadvantaged background. Add experiences at Fort Lewis has just begun, so the in the social, cultural, and logistical challenges extent of the trauma that its residents endured is By the turn of the century, the federal that students can face coming from a reservation not yet known. However, the broader story of U.S. government had built over two dozen off-res- ervation, government-run boarding schools Indian boarding schools is well known. Chil- for Native American children, including the dren were often rounded up en masse and Teller Institute in Grand Junction and the Fort loaded onto trains to be shipped to schools Lewis Indian School in Hesperus, just outside far away. Native American families use the Durango. The Teller Institute was converted term “kidnapped.” Thomas Jefferson Morgan, into a mental health care center in the early Commissioner of Indian Affairs, was explicit twentieth century, but the Fort Lewis Indian about the use of force to remove children from School eventually became what we know their families. “We owe it to these children today as Fort Lewis College. These schools to prevent, forcibly if need be, so great and were part of a system of residential and day appalling a calamity from befalling them,” he schools that numbered in the hundreds and wrote in 1891. So that they would not grow up stretched across the U.S. and Canada. With to become “a race of barbarians and semi-sav- the recent discovery of unmarked children’s ages.” The fact that many families never saw graves at Canada’s Kamloops Indian Residen- their children again was not a failure of the tial School, and the subsequent announce- system but a product of its design. Having arrived at a boarding school, children’s hair was cut, an act of mourning TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

for many tribes. They were often doused in ker- Begay’s own parents are survivors of boarding when it accepted the transfer of land and buildings osene or dusted with DDT. Their traditional gar- schools, and he acknowledges that that history, from the federal government,” she asserted. ments were burned or disposed of and exchanged and his own struggles with addiction, led him to for Western-style clothing according to dominant the line of research that he pursues today. How- Others see it as an aspect of the government’s gender norms. They were often issued new names. ever, his great-grandmother was a medicine treaty obligations toward Indian nations. For FLC Given that the overarching goal of the schools woman, and to her teachings, he attributes his graduate and chemistry professor Joslynn Lee, the was not education but assimilation, Indigenous resiliency, as well as his professional focus on cer- waiver represents payment for the land on which the languages were forbidden, and children were emonial healing practices. “From the Indigenous original school sat: “Being from the area,” she said, “I routinely beaten for speaking their native tongue. perspective,” he said, “we have this relationship know what land was given up, and what the resources Traditional spiritual practices were banned, and with the earth and with the universe. That’s really are, the minerals and water and land that have accu- attendance at Christian church services was com- what brings us a sense of balance. My great-grand- mulated money for the state and private companies.” pulsory. What education did exist was oriented mother, a Navajo medicine woman, used to refer to toward menial labor. Many Native Americans see that as living in harmony; she called it ‘the natural Lee, a Dineh and Pueblo woman, has three a direct connection between the end of Afri- grandparents who went to boarding school. It was can-American slavery and the rise of Indian Having arrived at a boarding school, her decision in 2019 to speak out against the misrep- Industrial Schools, whose roots lay in Presi- children’s hair was cut, an act of mourning dent Ulysses S. Grant’s Peace Policy of 1869. for many tribes. They were often doused resentation of FLC’s history that sparked the school’s current move toward reconciliation. Violence and abuse of all forms was in kerosene or dusted with DDT. Thus far the process has culminated in the rampant in the schools, both between staff Their traditional garments were burned or ceremonial removal of a set of panels promi- and students as well as among students disposed of and exchanged for Western-style nently displayed on the college’s clock tower themselves. Studies estimate that during clothing according to dominant gender norms. that inaccurately portrayed boarding school the height of the boarding school era in the reality. Now, with Secretary Haaland’s Federal late 1920s, between 40 and 80 percent of all They were often issued new names. Indian Boarding School Initiative, FLC has school-age Native American children were in Given that the overarching goal of the schools begun consultation with tribes regarding if some kind of federally sponsored school. To and how they should proceed with the search many Native Americans, that represents a was not education but assimilation, for graves on the old Fort Lewis campus. The lost generation—and a collective experience Indigenous languages were forbidden, decision is up to the tribes, some of whom have with repercussions that are still felt today. and children were routinely beaten for prohibitions against disturbing the dead. Cultural psychologist Tommy Begay, a Dineh speaking their native tongue. For Ally Gee, while the losses were signifi- man and a researcher with the University of Ari- cant, Indigenous resilience represents a major zona College of Medicine, studies the physiolog- order.’ What we see today is a culture disconnected victory. “I think about how amazing it is for ical, neurological, and cultural mechanisms by from healing, from ceremony, from language.” Native students and other students of color to which historical trauma is passed down through be able to occupy this colonial space that wasn’t generations. “When you go to these border towns It is to these losses that Ally Gee refers when really made for us,” she said. “It’s hard to think like Gallup or Farmington and you see these she rejects the idea of Fort Lewis’s tuition waiver as about how our ancestors were treated in these Indigenous people in the streets you think, a form of reparations. “I just don’t think the tuition schools, and how much harm had to be done ‘What’s wrong with these people? They can’t waiver is enough in terms of all the harm that was in order for us to be where we are now. But it’s handle their alcohol,’” he said. “But what you done and all the culture and language that was lost,” such a win for students in academia that we don’t see is the pain, the fear, the shame.” said Gee, a Dineh woman and FLC graduate. Majel can indigenize these colonial spaces, and that Boxer, Sisseton and Wahpeton Dakota and professor we can learn to be good teachers or lawyers He sees behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, of Native American and Indigenous Studies at FLC, or whatever to help further tribal sovereignty.” She and even sex addiction and suicidal behavior and is adamant that the waiver was not intended, nor finds it empowering that despite all the attempts to ideology, as forms of self-medication with their roots should it be considered, as a form of reparations: “It kill their culture, her grandparents and parents were in historical trauma. He uses the term “cultural aug- is a contractual obligation that the state agreed to able to retain fluency in their language. mentation” to refer to maladaptive behaviors that For Tommy Begay, language is key to healing. become part of the culture as a result of historical “When we talk about connecting with our spiritu- trauma. “When I speak in public at a conference or ality, it’s through the language,” he said. “We need something,” Begay said, “often these older Native peace, we need calm, we need ceremony. You can American men will come up to me afterward and look at the deficits and trauma, but the flip side very discreetly say, ‘I understand now why I acted of that is the sacredness of life, the sacredness of the way I did when I was younger, why I treated peo- love, and how love can be used as a healing mecha- ple so badly. I never understood before.’” nism. That’s the natural order that my great grand- mother taught me.” \\ WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 57

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60 • FEATURE Making Tracks Sustaining a running regimen in the winter By Sarah Lavender Smith THERE CAME A DAY IN JANUARY OF 2019 WHEN I WONDERED IF PERHAPS I HAD TAKEN THIS WINTER RUNNING THING TOO FAR. MY EYELASHES FROZE INTO ICY TRIANGLES, AND MY LIPS NUMBED AS THEY TOUCHED THE FRIGID CRUST OF FABRIC WRAPPED AROUND MY NECK. HOARY FROST SETTLED LIKE OLD-MAN WHISKERS ON MY CHEEKS. MY CHILLED FINGERS COULD BARELY GRASP THE JACKET ZIPPER. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

SAFETY. EXPERIENCE. LUXURY. Our activity offerings range from Peak Ascents and Ski Mountaineering to gentle Snowshoe tours. BETH PRICE A progressively fierce snow- side of this mountain, perhaps Telluride’s most exclusively recommended storm had blown in while I ran waiting out the storm at Alpino backcountry guide service. laps on Alta Lakes Road, and my Vino. Other friends would be eyes strained to follow snowmo- skate-skiing loops on the Nordic In winter, we specialize in Ice Climbing, bile tracks through swirling snow- tracks of the Valley Floor or break- Skiing/Snowboarding and Snowshoeing for all ages and flakes. I slowly jogged and took ing a sweat indoors at the gym. hiking breaks through ankle-deep abilities—from first timers to seasoned veterans powder on the steep three miles I tried to be agreeable and up, then ran fast on the three embrace winter sports when we Locally owned and operated. miles back down, four times. moved to Telluride year-round in 2019. I had been a part-time Book Now at 970-728-4101 Under my layers, the working resident here my whole life, but I muscles and organs in my legs only knew the region during sum- www.tellurideadventures.com and chest generated heat like a mer and fall. As a Californian, I furnace that kept my core and wasn’t sure how to handle winter. Operating as a fully insured USDA Forest Service lower body warm enough to run I assumed I had to take a break permitted outfitter that is an equal opportunity provider. fluidly. After doggedly working my from running and hiking during way up to the base of Alta Lakes, the months when snow covered WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 61 around 11,000 feet elevation, I my favorite trails. flew back down the road, grate- ful the metal spikes on my shoes So I invested in downhill skis, prevented slipping on ice. I felt Nordic skis, and lightweight snow- giddy with a runner’s high on this shoes for snowshoe racing. I tried stretch through the forest, which them all, with mixed success and a I had all to myself. “meh” reaction. I had signed up for a fixed- I am a runner, and I coach other timed ultramarathon in Utah, on a runners for a living. I am addicted snowy mountain with a 3000-foot to the sound and rhythm of my climb (the person who summits breath and footsteps during a run, the most times in a twelve-hour and to the burn of energy as my legs period wins), so I needed to log gallop over the ground. So I decided long training runs like this twen- not to let some snow interrupt my ty-four miler in the dead of winter. running routine. I would adapt. My husband and other rea- I trained well enough that sonable people our age (50-some- winter to win the twelve-hour thing) would be skiing on the other ultra on that snow-covered Utah mountain, and during the follow-

62 • FEATURE from shoe tightness); surprisingly, feet tend to stay warm while snow running. Hands, however, ing winter of 2020, I ran enough to race and earn county roads 23 and 17 out and back to Ouray, easily go numb. Wear thick gloves and bring a podium finish at a 100-mile ultra in Arizona in extending the route on Camp Bird Road for addi- hand warmers to put in them. Ski goggles work January. I also formed a winter running group to tional mileage. well in lieu of sunglasses for stormy, low-light coach several local women to prepare for a trail conditions and for added warmth on your face. race in Moab last March. These runs on quiet, mildly hilly county roads are almost as satisfying as rugged summertime DON’T NEGLECT HYDRATION. It’s easy to think Though we avoided white-out conditions, mountain routes—if you prepare properly. To stay you won’t get thirsty when it’s cold outside. Wrong. our training group ran even when it snowed safe and relatively comfortable, follow these tips: You will be breathing hard and sweating under your so heavily that visibility diminished to a gray GET TRACTION. Slipping on ice is one of win- layers, in extra-dry cold air, so you need to replace fog and thick powder coated the plowed road. ter running’s biggest risks. Investing in a device fluids as you run. Avoid using a reservoir in a hydra- “I’ve never done anything like this!” one of the that straps onto your shoes is an easy, effective tion pack during winter runs, because liquid in the women shrieked and laughed as we ran out and way to prevent slipping. My favorite is Kahtoola’s long tube can freeze. Instead, carry soft-flask bot- back on Fall Creek Road all the way to Woods EXOspikes, because they’re lightweight and tles in a pack and fill them with hot water, so the Lake during a stormy eighteen-mile training run their spikes are minimal enough that you can water will be warm when you drink. last winter. Back at our cars, our bodies steamed run with them on melted-out snow-free patches. with heat and we were beaming. Yaktrax also specializes in traction devices, KEEP THE INTENSITY OF EFFORT RELA- and their Run model is designed for running on TIVELY LOW. Breathing hard in very cold, dry Many runners I know act as if they’re aller- hard-packed snow. air can lead to exercise-induced bronchospasm, gic to snow, believing they’re restricted to a DRESS IN LAYERS. Remember, if you’re com- similar to regular asthma, in which the dried-out treadmill during snowy months. To free them, fortable when you start your run, you’ll feel too airways of your lungs trigger an inflammatory and you, from the “dreadmill,” let me share hot in about a mile, so don’t over-dress. I rec- response, causing the airways to narrow and pro- some winter-running advice. ommend running tights (not as thick as leg- duce mucus. This in turn can cause shortness of gings used for Nordic skiing; those tend to get breath, coughing, and wheezing. In short, winter- The truth is, you do have to tell your favorite too warm for running), a long-sleeve wool base time conditions can be hard on your respiratory trails, “Goodbye, see you in late May” when sev- layer, and a medium-weight jacket with vents. If system. To moderate the risk, run at a slow, easy eral feet of snow blanket the region. Trail running it’s extra cold, add a fleece pullover under your pace that allows you to breathe deeply and to talk is virtually impossible when deep snow reduces jacket, which you can tie around your waist if in full sentences. If you want to do high-intensity your steps to post-holing, and it’s risky due to ava- you get too warm. Wear a beanie on your head speed intervals that elevate your breathing to the lanche danger and the difficulty of navigation. and a buff or other type of layer around your point where your ability to talk is limited to a short neck that you can pull up to warm your cheeks phrase, then head inside for a treadmill workout. But, you can log high-quality runs on hard- and lips. Choose socks that go past your ankles, packed snow on numerous plowed dirt roads so snow doesn’t get into your sock. You don’t GET INSIDE SOON AFTER YOU FINISH around the region. My favorite roads to run in need to layer socks (this might cause blisters RUNNING. You’re at greater risk of catching a snowy or icy conditions include: Last Dollar, Mill dangerous chill when you finish your run if you Creek, Ilium, Sunshine Mesa, Ophir (between stay outside in the freezing temps. Your body the highway and town, not the mountain pass), temperature will drop rapidly, and the damp, Silver Pick, and Fall Creek. For an extra-long sweaty layer close to your skin will suddenly feel run, I sometimes head to Ridgway and run cold. Get inside to warm up and change into dry clothes. Take a steamy shower immediately fol- lowing a run to soothe your overworked lungs. BEWARE OF THE “UMBLES”: The mumbles (slow, slurred speech), stumbles (stiffness and loss of muscle control), grumbles (unusual grumpiness or change in behavior), and fumbles (loss of dexterity) are warning signs of hypother- mia. If you notice you or your running partner acting “umbly,” it’s time to get back to your car and turn the heater on or go inside ASAP. DON’T GO TO EXTREMES. Personally, I can han- dle running in temperatures as low as about ten degrees. When the temps dip to the single digits, then exercising outside for a prolonged period feels risky and unpleasant, so I find a treadmill to get my run done. Or I wait until midday when the sun is overhead, and temperatures climb to the teens. We all have different levels of adapting to and tolerating winter conditions. If you feel truly uncomfortable running or hiking outside due to the cold and snow flurries, and you feel your extremities going numb, then go inside to warm up and workout. But if it’s a sunny fifteen degrees and you’re itching to run rather than ski, then strap on spikes, layer up, and go for it. Sarah Lavender Smith is the author of The Trail Runner’s Companion: A Step-by-Step Guide to Trail Running and Racing, from 5Ks to Ultras. She publishes a newsletter called “Colorado Mountain Running & Living” at sarahrunning.substack.com. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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64 • ESSAY SnowAN ODE TO Meditating on the magic of winter By Michelle Curry Wright THERE IS A PLACE WE ALL LEARNED TO GO TO IN THE EARLY DAYS OF CREATIVE VISUALIZATION (THANK YOU, SHAKTI GAWAIN AND OTHERS), TURQUOISE- WATERED WITH A SANDY SHORE, THE GENTLE CLACK OF PALMS SWAYING IN THE BREEZE, THE LAPPING OF WAVES ON SHELL-COLORED SAND. MANY LEARNED TO CONJURE UP THIS SCENE TO CREATE PEACE AND SPACE IN THEIR DAY-TO-DAY. The truth? I never really liked that place. I remember glancing around at people who were doing It took me years to realize why the tropical happy the same thing back at me. Transfixed by the slow-moving place wasn’t mine, but my first inkling was in the 1980s scene, we began to slow down with it, helping each other in New York City. We had a blizzard one winter, a whop- out cautiously, shyly exchanging words. Now, this could per that managed to lodge itself into my inner landscape, be called new-neural-pathway territory, because without sort of like a snowdrift. Silent, cleansing, protective. the familiar hustle and rush, rough edges, and horns and On the morning of the storm, as I walked my twice- sirens, it was a different place mandating different and daily forty-five blocks to midtown Manhattan, the whole brain-mending moves. For a few hours, we got friendly. town, with its watery midwinter light, was coming to a Our hearts probably temporarily stretched a couple sizes. grinding halt, buses sliding around, cars crawling off to the side, cops on foot appearing from out of their own Nothing new here, right? Challenges bring people stranded black-and-whites. The snow, deep and thick, together; they always have. But it was new to me, and news covered everything with the heavy curves of a blanket— to me that snow could be bigger than eight million people including all the curbside garbage cans and bags that to in Manhattan, all temporarily disengaged from their daily a great extent defined the streetscapes. Back then it was lives. People were pitched forward, hell-bent on produc- still a gritty, dirty city. On a visual level, the white layer tivity, even then, even before the advent of cellular data. looking-glassed it. Where were we? So when the deep snow came, it peacefully and irrefutably said, “I’m in charge here. Take a breather.” TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

am salvage Barnwood and Reclaimed Lumber is Our Specialty The largest selection of reclaimed lumber in Colorado! 970.596.2407 100 Industrial Park Rd., Gunnison, CO 81230 barnwoodamsalvage.com • [email protected] True North Youth Program would like to thank the following foundations, community UE NOR organizations and individuals for their financial contributions over the past year. TH YOU Community Sponsors: 2021 Individual Donors: • Barbara Hinterkopf TR • Alpine Bank • Anonymous • Carol & Henry Hintermeister • ASAP Accounting and Payroll • Mary & Paul Anderson • Todd W. Hoffman RAM • CCAASE - Town of Telluride • Kathleen Armacost • David & Laura Homer TH PROG • Coldwell Banker • Nina & McKay Belk • Alex Jones • Lone Cone Legacy Trust • Richard Betts • Kyle Koehler True North serves high school students in the Telluride, Norwood, and West End school districts. • Montrose Community Foundation • Katherine Borsecnik & Gein Weil • Thomas Kyle All programs and activities are free of charge for participants. True North’s vision is that every • San Miguel County • Robert Bowen • Harold & Shawnee Krebs • San Miguel Power Association • Eliot & Mary Brown • Donald Katz & Leslie Larson participant will graduate high school with a plan and a path to follow into adulthood. • Town of Mountain Village • Ben Canty • Amy Levek • Town of Naturita • Bob & Paula Canty • Matt Lewis college and career readiness • academic tutoring and support • community service activities • TheraTogs, Inc. • Daniel & Elizabeth Caton • Carol Linneman catering apprenticeship program • teen drop-in center • college scholarships • equine therapy • West End Pay it Forward Trust • Denise Clark • John & Susie Mansfield positive youth development • wilderness trips • spring break staycation • teen summer jobs fair • West End Economic • Louis & Bonnie Cohen • Joan May Development Corporation • Virginia Coleman • Ellen & Tracy McVickerd Foundation Supporters: • Suse Connolly • Jody Miller • Anschutz Family Foundation • Brooke & Calvin Crowder • Marci & Dan Morris • A.V. Hunter Trust • Durfee Day • George Lewis & Judy Muller • BuildStrong Education • Matthew Devine • Lanier & Denee Nelson Foundation • Kevin Dunkak • Lisa & Victor Nemeroff • Carmel Classic Golf Tournament • Cindy Elbert • William & Jill Orton • Colorado Department of • Betsy Farrar & Craig Echols • Susan & Paul Oupadia Higher Education • William R. Garing • Gary & Mary Page • Colorado Opportunity • Eliza Gavin • Jeff Keil & Danielle Pinet Scholarship Initiative • Martha Gearty • Jess Stevens & Stephen Pollard • Colorado Health Foundation • Zoe Gillet • Jennie Franks & Jeff Price • Deer Hill Expeditions Foundation • Bill Gordon • Graham Russell • El Pomar Foundation • Kathy Green • Pat Russell • Energize Colorado - Relief Fund • Amy Greene • Ulli Sir Jesse • Faraway Foundation • Jerry Greene • Kelly Shelly • Just for Kids Foundation • Peter Edwards & Rose Gutfeld • Jim & Joanne Steinback • Mabel Y. Hughes Charitable Trust • Chris & Stacie Harden • Katie Tapper • Schuster Family Foundation • Richard & Pier Angela Hare • Billi Cusick & Lee Taylor • Telluride Foundation • Richard Harris • Vesta Tutt • Todd W. Hoffman Foundation • Lucinda Carr & Nancy Heim • Betsy & David Walker • Nancy Hild • Anne Whalen • Sandy & Roger Wickham In-Kind Donors and Business Sponsors are listed on the Partners Page • Ashley Williamson of our website: www.truenorthyouthprogram.org/partners • David Ziegler To see True North’s full list of volunteers, donors, and partners, please visit: truenorthyouthprogram.org/partners LEARN MORE, DONATE, OR GET INVOLVED: TRUENORTHYOUTHPROGRAM.ORG WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 65

66 • ESSAY “A SNOW DAY LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY FALLS FROM THE SKY, UNBIDDEN, AND SEEMS LIKE A THING OF WONDER.” —Susan Orlean I had never experienced this, having grown up in about the “brief, delicious moment where you’re staring Seattle, where three inches of snow was enough to shut into your mitten and those tiny star-type flakes are land- the city down. Maritime snowfall had not exactly been ing and melting.” What about a word for “the accumu- awe-inspiring, but more of a fleeting novelty, part of the lating silence and its effect on your ears and spirit.” Or world of wetness, bound for the lake and ocean waters “snow that curls under the eaves of a roof” or “snow fall- all around us. ing slowly like a dream?” New York’s blizzard, on the other hand, had staying Because here we are; we’re mountain people—what power, and lived in my brain until I arrived in Telluride in I like to think of as honorary winter residents of this August of 1984, a place I knew nothing about, except that fantastic thing called a cryosphere. We’re amid a most it had a youth hostel where I planned to spend a night. In mysterious and extravagant form of crystalline water, a that particular summer moment, the cloud-poking peaks form that can alight upon something tiny without moving at the end of a box canyon appealed. I parked my ’66 Cut- or changing it, but can also crush something huge into lass diagonally on an unsurfaced main street with zero smithereens. Here we are, loving the beloved ice crystals idea about anything, really, and ended up staying about we call snowflakes, their divinity, symmetry, and spar- 11,000 or so more nights, utterly unaware of and unpre- kle—an entire world unto itself. pared for six-month winters, giant avalanches barreling down chutes, and days so cold the insides of our bedroom That’s why snow—watching it, feeling it, being in windows regularly froze shut. it— is the perfect vehicle for meditation. It whitewashes and silences outwardly then inwardly, creating a radiant As years go by, any local denizen can list off the basic spectrum of whites from lit-up blues and pinkish grays vocabulary of snow we get up here in the San Juan moun- to a color you could only name “cold,” because no other tains – soft, slushy, powdery, icy, feathery, wet, wet like name would work for it. cement, dry, bone dry, super bone dry. There’s graupel, the rare soft pellets, so sweet to ski on. For the snow Snow is a meditation in process, a waking meditation, educated, there are words like nevé and firn, snow asso- where the world becomes miraculous and inconceivable, ciated with the formation of glaciers. But what about all where things become covered then hidden, where the the other under-represented versions of snow? atmosphere is thick and visibility nil, where it might be falling like a giant perpetual curtain, or blowing sideways, In other languages—Inuit, Yupik, Icelandic, and or it might be just a few precious icy flakes gracing the Sami, for instance—there are words for things like “crys- air, or giant flakes landing on your cheeks or tongue like talline powder snow that looks like salt,” (Yupik) “the quenching asterisks. Where everything, but everything, snow in which one sinks,” (Inuit), “a hard snowball, the slows down, almost begging, supplicating us humans to kind that only sadistic people use in snowball fights,” and watch from a place deep within our consciousness, to be “a cloud of snow which blows up from the ground when cleansed, nourished, to follow the flakes up and out-out- there is a hard frost without very much wind” (Sami). out, to feel the marvel of this tiny blue planet spinning in In other places, there are thousands of lexemes—words the void, full of fire and ice and everything in between. and all their variations—for snow. How many winter months of the year does it take for that to happen? Do Here in snow country, we are privileged to be able you have to live in the cryosphere, the places on Earth to gawk at the world made new, at a richly desaturated where water is frozen as ice or snow? landscape of winter whites. We can simply watch snow falling and be transported by its magic. We can close our What about a word for “pristine snow on the bow of eyes, no matter where we are, and we can go to the happy a spruce tree just about ready to fall.” Or that “first dis- place I call mine, where snow, snowflakes, and snowfall covery that the snowfield is more blue than white.” What are as soothing every time as they were the first. \\ TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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68 • BOOK REVIEWS SAN JUAN Scribes THE GUIDE ECOQUEEN SAGEBRUSH EMPIRE PETER HELLER The Superhero with the Power to How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront 978-0-525-65776-7 Reverse Climate Change of American Public Lands JOANNA MEASER KANOW JONATHAN THOMPSON Peter Heller, the bestselling author of The River and The 978-1736598702 978-1948814447 Dog Stars, has a new novel about a fishing guide in Colo- rado: The Guide. Move over, Marvel. There’s a new superhero in town, and Jonathan Thompson has been camping and exploring San she is saving the world from an actual threat—not a villain Juan County in Utah since he was a little boy, and he has Sounds a little sleepy, right? Fishing? Guess again—the like Thanos or Doctor Doom, but climate change. The su- been a writer and an environmental journalist since he was fast-paced thriller takes place in the near future, when perhero is EcoQueen, aka seventeen-year-old Kora. a young man. He is uniquely capable of writing about the variants of the pandemic are continuing to plague society. Kora has an inauspicious start: her first word as a baby clash of cultures—ranchers, tribes, environmentalists, in- Jack has taken a guiding job at Kingfisher Lodge, an ex- was “why?” and she spends her childhood barefoot and dustrialists, and politicians—over Bears Ears, the conten- clusive private resort outside of Crested Butte on a gated nearly dreadlocked before accidentally starting her first tious National Monument that has dominated headlines for stretch of river known by locals as the “Billionaire’s Mile.” fire at the aage of twelve. Not to worry; things get better the past several years. Indeed, the land battle in this area is He soon sniffs out the fact that many of these billionaire from there. Kora discovers she has a superpower, and she the epitome of what’s happening all over the West. clients are not just coming to the Kingfisher to pluck trout stirs up trouble in the best way. It all stems from a feeling of entitlement, writes Thomp- out of the river, and something about the whole place EcoQueen doesn’t just succeed as a superhero story, it’s also son. When he was a kid, he is aggrieved to say, he used smells fishy. a worthy coming-of-age story. Writing about teenagers is to collect potsherds. The kids riding ATVs over living soil, challenging, but everything about EcoQueen feels genuine— corporations extracting resources, cattlemen running The plot unspools like a perfect flyfishing cast, back the dialogue, the way the characters interact. While the plot livestock, and even extreme athletes climbing sacred for- and forth and taut, until the reader is hooked. It’s one is steeped in fantasy and hope, the stuff of science fiction, the mations all feel entitled to the land, ignoring its history of those engaging books you read in a weekend, or even nuts and bolts of the narrative feel very authentic. and the way Indigenous people were violently driven from one sitting, trying to guess how it will end (spoiler: you That’s probably because local author Joanna Measer this place, their home. won’t). These types of books are usually page-turners, Kanow is a mother of teen daughters and an eco-warrior Sagebrush Empire is a rigorously researched history of but I found myself lingering over and rereading some in her own right. Like Kora, Kanow is also trying to change these lands, and while the book’s opening salvo is a dis- of the more lyrical passages: a grove of poplars whose the world; proceeds from the book are going toward Seas agreement in 2017 over a closed cattle gate, it spans more leaves spun in sunlight like chimes; or the private upper of Trees, the Kanows’ nonprofit organization that plants than a century of events that form the backdrop of today’s stretch of the Tomichi twisted on itself and twisted back trees to offset carbon emissions. bitter feud. He writes about all of it with nuance and rever- in a series of looping bites as if resisting with every turn its ence, as he is a person who feels connected to the region, surrender to a larger stream. With his prose, Heller con- someone who has spent so much time there that he has veys a reverence for the natural world; the mountains, become a part of its story. It is this inside perspective that the river, the fish and birds. But in this story, he also makes the book so powerful and places it in the canon of explores human nature, the chasm between the super nonfiction about the American West. wealthy and the working class, and how a crisis like a pandemic puts it in sharp relief. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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70 • BOOK REVIEWS SAN JUAN Scribes MARINA AND THE MERMAIDS sweet children’s book, Marina practices in the pool, gath- ers shells from the beach to make a lucky bracelet, and LINNE HALPERN gets swim goggles to help conquer her fear. Written and $17.99 beautifully illustrated by local Linn Halpern, Marina and the Mermaids is the perfect book for beginning readers What little girl doesn’t fantasize about being a mermaid? or for reading to a child—especially if you’re planning a They all do, at least until they first encounter the ocean. beach getaway for the off-season. It can be a little intimidating for kids—waves crashing, sea creatures, and too dark to see the ocean floor. In this TANDEM ROWING THE TELLURIDE ALPHABET STORIES FROM THE More Than a River An Illustrated Journey Through Telluride’s AGE OF COVID SUSAN KEES Past and Present Local author Susan Kees (Telluride Hiking Guide) has JILL WILSON & ABBY FOX GLENN STECKLER & LARRY STECKLER published a new memoir. Tandem Rowing is a travelogue 978-163752203-5 979-8575462927 chronicling the raft trip she did with her husband Bill Kees: There are a lot of fun ways to teach a child the alphabet, an 1,800-mile journey from the headwaters of the Colora- but if you’re in Telluride, the most fun way is with this A father-son duo, local Glenn Steckler and his dad Larry do River (at its tributary, the Green River in Wyoming) all new book written by Jill Wilson and illustrated by Abby Steckler, compiled and edited a collection of essays and the way to its terminus in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. Fox. It’s got the basics, of course—the ABCs—but it also poems and musings about the COVID-19 pandemic. Even The couple had been married for thirty years and were has clever content. And Captivating Columbines, which though vaccines have lent us more liberty and business- becoming grandparents when they embarked on their is the C entry; each letter has an alliterative companion es and schools are open again, we’re still not living in a adventure, which lasted several months. Most rafts have (Astonishing Ajax, Impressive Imogene, etc.) and a pas- truly post-pandemic world, and this anthology is a stark a single set of oars, but theirs had a custom rigging, so sage with something special about Telluride or its history. reminder of what it felt like to be in the eye of the storm. that they could both row, in tandem. Figuring out how to The illustrations are quintessential; one beautiful image There are lighter moments about homeschooling and Zoom stay in sync and afloat is a metaphor for long term rela- per entry, plus a bonus smaller image to accompany the collaborating and being too close or too far from family tionships. “Something inside me changed forever as the text—Booming Bridal Veil features the iconic waterfall at during lockdown. There are ruminations on social distance, miles of rowing seeped into my soul and sanded the rough Telluride’s east flank, and the smaller image is a glass in- living in a bubble, and the healing balm of being outdoors. edges of my marriage,” she writes. sulator for powerlines; all the mini illustrations are Easter There are scary and funny stories about traveling. There are It’s a love story in every way—it is an ode to her marriage eggs for locals or Telluride aficionados. pictures, and coping strategies, and obituaries. And there are and relationships and the people in her life, as well as an Also unique about this alphabet book is the language; no tales about near-loss, and actual loss, and existential dread intimate portrait of the Colorado River, the lifeline to the baby talk here, just vivid descriptions and information. that are piercing to read. Stories from the Age of Covid is a poi- West that pulses through the landscape like a heartbeat. When The Telluride Alphabet is read to a child or by a child, gnant reminder of how life changed in 2020, and Telluread- they will probably need to ask what certain words mean ers will recognize many of the great local poets and writers or why they are significant. And therein lies the genius: who shared their personal experiences about this extraordi- because that is how young people learn. nary bit of history we lived through collectively. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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74 • HISTORY Telluride 81435 A short history of Telluride’s post office TELLURIDE’S FIRST POST OFFICE WAS LOCATED ON THE NORTHEAST CORNER OF COLORADO AVENUE AND PINE STREET DURING THE 1880s. THE MEN STANDING ON THE SIDEWALK MAY HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE MAIL TO ARRIVE. By Paul O’Rourke more specifically, the reading of same: Cal v Col— As if matters weren’t confusing enough, the the rationale. For the next two years, Columbia, state legislature, in response to petitions submit- Alta Cassietto stood in front of the Tel- Colorado endured, albeit mightily inconvenienced, ted from the growing populations in San Miguel luride Post Office, located as it was in without direct mail service. City, Placerville, Ophir, and Columbia, created 1963 on the northwest corner of Pine San Miguel County in early 1883 and designated Street and Columbia Avenue—in the Mail arriving late or not at all proved an unten- Telluride, not Columbia, as the new county seat. It able aggravation. One local—whose name has Miners’ Union Hospital building. About to perform been long forgotten—suggested naming the post would take another four years of civic schizophre- her summertime gardening chores, she reflected, office Telluride. In spite of the fact there was pre- nia until the townsfolk had had enough. On June 4, with genuine fondness and gratitude, upon her cious little if any telluride ore found near the town 1887, the name of the town was officially changed nearly thirty years as Telluride’s Postmaster, the that now bears that name, the Postmaster Gen- to forever match that of its post office. first woman ever to hold this important civic posi- eral, finding no Telluride in California or anywhere tion. On this day, July 1, Alta was excited by news else for that matter, on July 26, 1880, established Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom that would affect her post office and even the town a post office known as Telluride, for a town named of night stays these couriers from the itself. Telluride, as if by the waving of some govern- Columbia. The fun was just beginning. swift completion of their appointed rounds. mental magic wand, was now part of the United Just three weeks later on August 17, and for —Herodotus States Post Office Department’s Zone Improve- some inexplicable reason, the Telluride Post Office ment Plan. “Oh my,” she may have marveled, was transferred a mile and a half east to the town In spite of lingering issues with a dual person- somewhat in disbelief that Telluride now had its of Folsom that, until recently, had been known by ality, the Telluride Post Office—opened in 1880 in own zip code, realizing at the same time just how everyone living there, as Newport. The ever vigi- the back of James P. Redick’s small one-story book, far she and her post officer had come from the lant, if not somewhat devious Postmaster General jewelry, and stationery store on the northeast cor- days when the young mining camp struggled to informed the unsuspecting residents of that place, ner of Pine Street and Colorado Avenue—did, in receive its always much anticipated mail. most of whom had come west from Newport, Ken- fact, function as the repository for incoming as In the spring of 1878, several forward-think- tucky, that another Newport had already been well as outgoing mail. Considering its geographic ing prospectors turned civic boosters made formal established in Colorado, thus obligating him to remoteness and sometimes extreme winter plans to establish a new town. The motivation was change the name. That there existed a Folsom in weather, it’s a wonder Telluride got any mail at to keep up with San Miguel City a mile and a half to California apparently played no role in the head all; that the post office received mail three times a the west, and Newport a similar distance to the east. postmaster’s curious decision. For several months, week in 1881 bordered on the heroic. More significantly, incorporation would be the first the residents of Columbia were required to go to The mail hubs serving what was to become San step in gaining a post office, and few things were Folsom to pick up their mail, delivered as it was, Miguel County were Ouray and Silverton. From Ouray more important than receiving the mail. Okayed to the Telluride Post Office. In December of that the historic roadways followed pretty much the same at the state level, election papers authorizing the same year, some semblance of (mail) order was paths as those of the Rio Grande Southern (RGS) incorporation of the newly platted town of Colum- restored, at least for a while, when the Telluride Railroad after 1890 and the current highways, up and bia were sent on to Washington for final approval. Post Office was returned to Columbia. over Dallas Divide to the head of Leopard Creek. On While the General Land Office quickly the first of the two principal mail routes, ratified Columbia into existence in July at a point just west of Dallas Divide and 1878, the Postmaster General refused On August 13, 1885, Swan Nilson’s frozen body was the Dallasville PO (est. in 1877), the road to establish a post office with the same found. Apparently, he’d been swept off the pass by a turned south on what is now Last Dollar name, citing what he believed would be snowslide and entombed in ice for those 20 months. Road to the Alder (Creek) or Hastings inevitable delivery mix-ups due to the Ranch PO (est. 1878), and then ran south existence of another Columbia, this The mail pouch, stuffed with holiday gifts and and east to San Miguel City (the PO was one in California—poor penmanship or greetings, was still strapped to his back. established there on July 16, 1877). TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

Davis-McCormick Block, home for J.C. Anderson’s drug and jewelry business. Situated on the first floor and in the back of Anderson’s emporium, the post office, much like Telluride itself, was a very busy place. For an influx of immigrant miners along with hundreds of newcomers eager to take part in Tel- luride’s booming economy, the post office—beyond its sale of stamps, postcards, and envelopes—func- tioned as a sort of community center and gathering place when the daily mail arrived. At the turn of the last century the mail was scheduled to arrive on the evening train at 5:50 pm and depart on the outbound train at 8:15 am the following morning. The railroad’s timetable occa- sioned more than a few heated exchanges between postal patrons whose businesses depended upon the timely receipt and return of correspondence and the post office staff, especially when the inbound trains ran late. Which, according to The Telluride Journal, was the “rule rather than the exception.” The fact that the post office needed to conduct its business well into the night and then open early in the morning did not always sit well with the building’s other occupants. The Daily Journal reported on January 8, 1900, “the day is not distant when the Telluride post office must have more room and more help…there are sev- eral thousand pieces of mail to handle every night THE REAR OF THE J.C. ANDERSON DRUG AND JEWELRY STORE WAS THE LOCATION OF TELLURIDE’S POST OFFICE CIRCA 1895 – 1905. and the quarters are so cramped that the postmaster (George Mott was appointed postmaster in March 1898) and the one assistant he is allowed cannot A second route followed Leopard Creek south In this country two things stand first in rank: work to advantage.” One year later, Telluride had two to its confluence with the San Miguel River, where your flag and your mail. post offices. The second opened in the narrow mid- the county’s first (and shortest-lived) post office had been established at Wareville on May 16, 1877. —E.V. Wright dle space in the five-storefront complex known as the It then proceeded east along the San Miguel River Nunn & Wrench Block that since April 1900 housed By the time the RGS made its way to Tellu- the National Club and Café on the southeast corner to the valley floor communities. Near the site of ride in November 1890, the post office had moved of Pine Street and Colorado Avenue. By mid-decade the former Wareville PO (discontinued in July four doors east; J.P. Redick and his successor J.B. and even with the population in town growing close 1877), the Placerville post office was established Frasher had both retired from their postmaster to 5,000, the lease for the post office space in Ander- on April 22, 1878—evidently the Postmaster Gen- duties. In the mid-1890s and during the term of son’s drug store was not renewed. Messrs. Nunn and eral had no issues with the existence of a Califor- postmaster E. M. Arthur (who’d recently succeeded Wrench, prompted by the prospect of a ten-year lease nia post office of the same name. Fred Hilgenhaus), the post office moved once again, at $40/month, promised to upgrade their post office From Silverton, the most notable early mail this time to a more prominent location in the two- space so that, according to The Telluride Journal, route ran over Ophir Pass, through Ophir (a post story brick building on the northeast corner of Fir “Telluride will have an office that for convenience office was established there in May 1878), and Street and Colorado Avenue, in what was called the and appearance will have no superior in the state.” then followed the South Fork of the San Miguel River past the Ames PO (est. December 1880) to its confluence with the San Miguel River. Over what was called the “snow-shoe route,” a rookie mail carrier in November 1879, perhaps feeling overwhelmed and underpaid after experiencing a perilous trek over Ophir Pass, rifled the reg- istered mail and vanished with the money. His replacement, after just one winter trip, quit and informed anyone who’d listen, “I wouldn’t do this again for $5,000.” Swan Nilson set out from Silverton on Decem- ber 23, 1883, in a driving blizzard, determined to deliver the Christmas mail to Ophir. Christmas came and went with no sign of Swan. The good folks of Ophir, fond as they were of their mail- man, couldn’t help but recall a few of the route’s less trustworthy carriers. On August 13, 1885, Swan Nilson’s frozen body was found. Appar- ently, he’d been swept off the pass by a snowslide and entombed in ice for those 20 months. The mail pouch, stuffed with holiday gifts and greet- ings, was still strapped to his back. Winter mail deliveries from Silverton over Ophir Pass were discontinued. Not until the arrival of the RGS Railroad to Ophir Loop in 1891 did Ophir receive MAIL TO AND FROM THE SMUGGLER POST OFFICE AND GENERAL STORE AT THE BULLION TUNNEL CAME AND WENT BY WAY OF AERIAL “regular” mail service. TRAM, TELLURIDE’S FIRST (AND PERHAPS ONLY) DIRECT AIR MAIL. IMAGE COURTESY OF JANE LEEKER, JIM MCELROY AND ELIZABETH ANDERSON, DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS BRECKENRIDGE. WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 75

76 • HISTORY FROM 1901 TO 1918 TELLURIDE’S POST OFFICE WAS LOCATED ON THE SOUTH WINTERTIME MAIL DELIVERY. POSTMAN ON SKIS WITH SIDE OF COLORADO AVENUE, BETWEEN PINE AND SPRUCE STREETS, IN THE TRUSTY COMPANION BY HIS SIDE. MIDDLE STOREFRONT OF THE NUNN & WRENCH BLOCK. Telluride’s post office was more than an import- “The Telluride post office is to be enlarged next spring new postal facility in Telluride when it reported, “a ant civic facility; it was also a hub for commercial to better accommodate the greater volume of business lease has been signed for the entire lower floor of the and banking activity. Money orders—used in trans- which is now being done here.” Miners Union hospital…and the post office will be acting “cash” business or by foreign miners sending moved there as soon as the rooms can be fitted up.” home a portion of their paychecks—accounted for The following April, both the Journal and The San a large percentage of the post office’s receipts. The Miguel Examiner announced that Postmaster D. Lee I get mail; therefore I am. Telluride Journal announced in late November Staley (he assumed the office from Louis Lomax in 1907 that the post office’s money order department January 1916) “received official notification that the —Scott Adams did “$5,000 BUSINESS IN ONE DAY.” (Factored for U.S. government has given the contract for housing inflation, that’s more than $145,000.) the local post office to J.A. Segerberg, proprietor of The newly relocated post office served Telluride’s the New Sheridan Hotel.” Segerberg, the newspapers citizens for 47 years. Postmaster George Painter On June 1, 1911, Telluride’s postmaster Louis reported, “will erect a concrete, one-story building on christened the new space on the northwest corner Lomax (he’d followed George Mott in January of the (northeast) corner of Oak and main streets.” of Pine and Columbia in 1918 and then “forwarded” that year) announced that in keeping with a new law his duties to longtime resident, Loran G. Denison, on passed by Congress, a postal savings bank would soon In a letter dated August 29, 1916, newly appointed February 28, 1922. Denison served three four-year open at the Telluride post office. Intended to attract postmaster George Painter informed the Post Office terms—appointments coming from three Republican the savings of European immigrants—especially Inspector in Denver: “Mr. Segerberg desired me to Presidents (Harding, Coolidge and Hoover)—during miners—who were accustomed to saving at the post ask for a one-year extension…he is now practically a period when the town endured the economic woes offices in their home countries, money deposited at certain of being able to secure the funds to construct attendant to the Great Depression and a downturn in the post office was redeposited at the Bank of Tellu- and equip the building as soon as spring opens in its principal industry. No sooner had he assumed his ride, where it earned 2 percent interest. 1917.” On January 17, 1918, the Journal confirmed postmaster-ship, Mr. Denison weighed in on a postal Mr. Segerberg’s inability (or reluctance) to build a matter, long familiar to Telluride’s citizens. As a repository for Telluride’s postal savings accounts—that had, by December 1912, reached ALTA CASSIETTO’S POSTAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT WAS OPENED WHEN Its late evening arrival and early morning $14,049.15 (almost $400,000 in 2021 dollars)—the SHE WAS 17 AND CLOSED THREE YEARS LATER. (NOTE: THE CARD departure had been an irritation to postal patrons Bank of Telluride was required to purchase U.S. Trea- IS IN THE COLLECTION AT THE TELLURIDE HISTORICAL MUSEUM) ever since the RGS began delivering the mail. In sury Bonds or Notes as security for those deposits. 1915, postmaster Staley initiated all night service Thus, postal savings—unlike accounts at other banks to deal with this bothersome state of affairs. When, (until the FDIC came into existence in 1933)—were on February 10, 1922, Denver postal inspector E.L. backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. gov- Jackson announced his plan to close the Telluride ernment, a circumstance that would have implica- post office at midnight and close the outgoing mail tions during the Great Depression, when across the at 7:30 pm, regardless of when the inbound mail had country one commercial bank after another failed arrived, the response was predictable and angry. and depositors were left holding the proverbial bag, an empty one at that. With Telluride having no com- Postmaster Denison, of the mind that Tellu- mercial bank from 1929 to 1969, the postal savings ride’s post office should answer to the town’s needs accounts became the only banking option in town. and not kowtow to Denver or Washington, rein- stated all-night service at his post office on May 15. The postal savings system was, actually, “progres- His mistake was informing the postal inspector of sive era” banking reform, a federally sponsored alter- his locally applauded action. On June 9 the Journal native to huge—some claimed corrupt—corporate informed its readers that the post office depart- banks, and was made available to working class citi- ment in Washington ordered the Telluride post zens, many of them immigrants. Motivated by growing office to lock its doors at midnight and to not open public indignation over the exorbitant profits reported again before 6 am. Coincidentally, June 9 was the by private express delivery companies like American same day a large metal post box was installed on the Express and Wells Fargo, and for motives similar to sidewalk in front of the post office, accomplished what spurred the postal savings system, Congress ostensibly to afford convenience for those patrons instituted parcel post service on January 1, 1913. For a not wishing to climb the steps to mail their letters. reasonable charge determined by distance and weight, a new way to send a wide array of products was made In the midst of all the hullabaloo over post available to Americans, many of whom lived in remote office hours, Postmaster Denison invited Tellu- sections of the country. Almost overnight mail order ride’s citizens to visit him at the post office in early business exploded. Post offices across the country, May 1922. Denison hoped, according to the Jour- including Telluride’s small facility on East Colorado nal, to familiarize folks with “the inner workings Avenue, were inundated with new business. The Daily of this important establishment.” The newspaper Journal, on November 28, 1915, informed its readers, reported 250 people turned out, a good number considering Telluride’s population was just more TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022



78 • HISTORY taken down to make way for the new post office had once housed Telluride’s first postal facility rendered the move perhaps more ironic than emblematic. Joining Alta and postal veterans Wilma Lines and Minnie Ackerman at the new post office in 1965 were Twylla Mahoney and her mother-in-law, Freda. Considering the personalities involved, affability and camaraderie converged with proficiency and dedication and found expression in a letter mailed from Wichita, Kansas, postmarked Jan. 8, 1966, and addressed: To the nicest Post Office in the USA… Telluride, Colorado 81435. You can go on endlessly about the post office, but it doesn’t mean you’re mad at your mailman. —P.J. O’Rourke TELLURIDE’S NEW POST OFFICE WAS DEDICATED ON JULY 13, 1965. PHOTO COURTESY OF DON OBERTO. U.S. Census reports for 1970 and 1980 indicated that Telluride’s population had just about doubled than 1,500 at the time. One of those in attendance ing. At the same time, incoming mail is dropped from during the decade, a misleading statistic perhaps in just may have been one young and inquisitive stu- the low-flying airplane to provide record breaking that it didn’t account for those, like Alta Cassietto, dent by the name of Alta Cassietto. speed in the handling of air mail.” who’d left town during that time. Alta couldn’t have Whether the “Sky King meets Telluride” air drops predicted the number of post office boxes would The post office is a wonderful establishment. and pickups ever occurred isn’t entirely clear, but in jump from 180 in 1970—the year she retired—to The regularity and dispatch of it. 1946 Postmaster Cassietto informed her patrons, “of 1,200 in 1976, or that three postmasters (Loree If one thinks of all it has to do and all that it the new five cent air mail rate.” From Telluride air Clark, Minnie Ackerman, and Barbara Martin) would does so well, it is really astonishing! mail was dispatched via Grand Junction where two handle her former job during those years. Alta had left the post office in a good place and in capable —Jane Austen flights left daily for Denver and two for Los Angeles. hands; it’s safe to say Alta Cassietto had put her stamp on this important Telluride institution.“Twy- If late arriving mail—whether by rail, truck or lla remembered all of the new people who’d come to Alta was thrilled to have been offered Telluride’s airplane—worried Postmaster Cassietto, she was per- town during the 70s, by name and by box number,” postmaster-ship, a position of no little permanence at haps more troubled by the fact that for several years recalls Mona (Mahoney) McIntyre, who’d joined the a time when finances were uncertain. It was August during the late 1950s and early 60s, Telluride was post office staff in 1975, “she was always smiling; 1934, and she couldn’t have imagined that her new without a local newspaper. And that did not sit well everybody liked Mom.” Some of those who came to job would last 36 years. Like Loran Denison, who’d with Alta; once a journalist, always a journalist. She call Telluride home during the 1970s and 80s were of been around Telluride since Telluride became, well, and assistant, Wilma Lines, by way of large bulletin the mistaken (but not unwarranted) impression that Telluride, Alta, too, was familiar with the place and boards in the post office lobby, announced the day’s Twylla Mahoney was the postmaster. \\ its people. As a reporter important events and for and then as editor other vital information POSTscript and manager of The of interest to Telluride’s Telluride Journal, she citizens. Even after The Telluride’s post office remained on the northeast corner of Pine understood what made Telluride Times began Street and Colorado Avenue for 34 years, though the one built the town click and she publishing, Alta’s bul- in 1965 was razed in 1980 to make way for a larger space; the carried her knowledge letin boards, according structure, the ANB building, still sits on that corner. And while of and her love for Tel- to The Times, continued the location of the Telluride Post Office changed again in 1999, luride into her job as “to operate as a Tellu- when it moved to its present site on South Willow Street, many postmaster. ride tradition.” of those special traditions that had evolved over the years Like Denison, The introduction of moved right along with it. And Jim Looney, whether he knew it Alta understood that the zip code system that or not, picked up right where Alta and Twylla had left off. what concerned postal “NICEST POST OFFICE IN THE USA” (NOTE: THE ENVELOPE IS IN endeavored to improve patrons wasn’t how the THE COLLECTION AT THE TELLURIDE HISTORICAL MUSEUM) delivery service in 1963 The post office is truly the best thing that ever happened in my life. mail arrived as much as was followed, two years it was when it showed up. The railroad had long been later, by another significant alteration in Telluride’s —Postman Jim Looney, from the culprit when it came to late-arriving mail. And by postal operations. In a move many in Telluride con- Postman Jim, the documentary the 1940s the situation had only grown worse. Just sidered symbolic, in July 1965 the post office was one half of the trains pulling into Telluride did so on relocated to Telluride’s main street, back to where it Remembering names and faces and box numbers, a time. As it was, 40 percent of the mail was delivered was first situated in 1880, on the northeast corner of talent that came naturally to Twylla Mahoney during her 25 by truck. While it was clear railroad mail delivery Pine Street and Colorado Avenue. years at Telluride’s post office, was an aptitude that Jim Loo- was on its way out, a novel plan to address the deliv- Telluride had been recently named a National ney taught himself, endearing him to just about everyone he ery issue was reported in The Telluride Tribune on Historic Landmark and the newly built, mod- met. Expressions of warmth and kindness—in the form of August 24, 1944, when the newspaper suggested, “a ern-looking, gabled-roofed post office was not what postcards, graduation announcements, and holiday cards Mountain States Aviation plane could, on a 22-com- anyone could call complementary to the town’s sent to him at the post office—found their way onto a series of munity flight plan, pick up outgoing mail with a trail- architectural heritage. (There was no HARC, his- publicly displayed bulletin boards. So many, in fact, that Tellu- ing hook which pulls the suspended mail sack into toric architectural review commission, in 1965.) ride’s postmaster at the time was directed by the “higher-ups” the air without the necessity of the airplane’s land- The possibility that one of the old frame buildings to have the boards taken down. The community’s response— like it had been in 1922 when the postal inspector changed the post office hours—was swift and angry. Jim’s bulletin boards—an enduring and much loved Telluride tradition— went back up. Postman Jim may not have been aware he’d been channeling his best Alta Cassietto all along. Special Delivery The writer would like to thank Kathy Rohrer and the Tellu- ride Historical Museum, Twylla Mahoney, Mona McIntyre, Don Oberto, and Jim Looney for their much-appreciated assistance in establishing the dates for and locations of Telluride’s several post office buildings. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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80 • ENVIRONMENT DRYING UP Can Congress save the beleaguered Dolores? By Jonathan Thompson IN MID-MAY 1948, SOUTHWESTERN RIVER-RUNNING PIONEER OTIS “DOC” MARSTON, THREE HUMAN COMPANIONS, AND ONE DOG NAMED DITTY PUT A SMALL WOODEN, SNUB-NOSED, OPEN COCKPIT “SAN JUAN STYLE” BOAT INTO THE DOLORES RIVER JUST BELOW THE TOWN OF THE SAME NAME, WHERE THE SOUTHWESTERLY FLOWING MOUNTAIN STREAM ABRUPTLY VEERS NORTHWARD, ITS PERSONALITY—AND PLIGHT—CHANGING AS ABRUPTLY AS ITS DIRECTION. They ducked under barbed wire fence strung grazed, mined, drilled, and abused for well over a and tumbled to the riverbed below. “Some fancy across the current, floated past the buried remains century. River advocates have long fought to fend off water work” was required for Marston and friends of ancient villages, ranches, and a “yellow carpet of further degradation, with only limited success. Now, to survive the resulting rapids, including Preston dandelions.” They passed the Great Cut Dike where, Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) plans to introduce Walker standing on the bow in order to see beyond for a half century by then, the Montezuma Valley a bill creating a national conservation area along the towering waves, shouting directions back to Irrigation Company had been diverting Dolores the Dolores River corridor below McPhee Dam. But oarsman Marston—and taking at least one swim in River water and sending it southward to irrigate will it be enough to save this sorrowful, spectacular the churning, icy waters. Despite their inadequate fields around Cortez. Plenty of water remained in stream from overallocation and the ravages of cli- craft, they managed to run every rapid except one, the river for boating thanks to a generous spring mate change? Or is it too little, too late? which they christened “Old Snaggle Tooth” for the runoff. But by mid-July the stream would effectively rock jutting from the water just below the big hole. perish at the dike, the irrigators having pilfered As they progressed downstream, the boaters on every drop of the stream’s summer flows—a phe- the first recorded run of the lower Dolores witnessed After a big day of whitewater wrangling, they nomenon that would persist for decades to come. the traits that would lend it icon status. Dirt slopes found a “fine sandy beach camp with plenty of gave way to khaki-colored dunes which gave way to drift” to lay their beds. Another time they dined on The vastly reduced flow is just one of many burnished orange-red, desert-varnished sandstone canned plums and salad beneath the fronds of a threats to the 200-mile stretch of classic desert river walls rising up from the river’s edge. Over the mil- four-foot girthed ponderosa pine, the scent of but- known as the lower Dolores. Its banks have been lennia, boulders have broken free from the walls terscotch wafting all around, and lay on their backs TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

PHOTO: JEFFREY BEALL, CC BY 4.0 <HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0>, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS gazing up at the gorge’s terraced of water—a virtual trickle—was TELLURIDE’S ONLY walls—towering 2,000 feet above released from the dam during SKI-IN/SKI-OUT HOTEL the riverbed at places—while spring runoff (Marston had nighthawks swooped through the between 3,000 cfs and 11,000 cfs to CONTEMPORARY ELEGANCE IN STONE, lilac sky of dusk. maneuver on). Fish have died off, STEEL & HAND-CRAFTED CHERRY boating has been nearly non-exis- But even in Marston’s time the tent, and the dearth of high spring LUXURY ROOMS, place wasn’t exactly pristine. Just as water has allowed tamarisk and SUITES & CONDOMINIUMS they rounded a bend below Snaggle- Russian olive to proliferate. Mean- tooth, the sharp report of blasting while, the oil and gas and uranium POOL, from a uranium mine near the can- mining industries have continued SPA, yon’s rim reverberated through the to eye the river corridor eagerly. SKI gorge. They encountered prospect holes, mining detritus, an inactive Wild and Scenic designation— STOR AGE mill, and ochre-tinted water in trib- the most comprehensive level of & VALET utary creeks. In many places the protection—was proposed again river’s banks had been overgrazed, in 2007 and 2013. But even the Incomparable Location. Exceptional Accommodations. the fragile riparian ecosystem beat most zealous river advocates knew down by cattle’s hooves. The ura- its chances of succeeding were CAMEL’S GARDEN nium boom only intensified along slim due to fears of a perceived the river corridor after Marston’s federal “water grab.” “Holding out RESORT HOTEL & CONDOMINIUMS trip, and in recent years oil and gas for Wild and Scenic designation companies have probed the area for doesn’t work,” says Rica Fulton, TELLURIDE, COLORADO hydrocarbons. River Edge West’s Restoration Coordinator for the Dolores River (888) 772-2635 ■ WWW.CAMELSGARDEN.COM In 1976 the Dolores was nom- Restoration Partnership, “because inated for Wild and Scenic River the river is over allocated by a lot, WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 81 status, which would have prohib- more so than the whole Colorado ited mining and other development system.” That means every addi- along the river’s corridor, while tional drop released downstream also ensuring enough water would must be taken from other users. be left in the stream to sustain habitat for the native pikeminnow, All Dolores River irrigators roundtail chub, bluehead sucker, have seen cutbacks during the and other native fish that plied the megadrought, with ditches run- silty, warmer waters in the lower ning dry long before the end of sections. Irrigators wouldn’t have growing season. The Ute Mountain that, however, and leveraged their Ute Tribe’s farms got 10 percent political heft to kill the effort. of their usual amount of irrigation water this year, meaning that crop That was followed by another yields—and revenues—were also blow to the river: Construction on down significantly. It’s understand- McPhee Dam—intended to cap- able that they balk at the thought ture more of the spring flows and of giving up still more water to help honor the Ute Mountain Ute tribe’s boaters or improve fish habitat. water rights—began in 1979, the year of Doc Marston’s death. The So, for over a decade, stake- dam didn’t kill the river—not holders have been crafting a right away, at least. Rather it was compromise, and later this year like putting its manic-depressive Bennet plans to introduce legisla- flows below the dam on lithium. tion designating a National Con- The massive spring runoffs were servation Area on sixty miles of dampened, but enough water the Dolores below McPhee Dam. still flowed downstream to scour Fulton says the NCA would help beaches and preserve Snaggle- the beleaguered lower Dolores tooth’s whitewater snarl. And for by bringing more attention to its the first time in decades the lower plight and more funding for resto- Dolores carried adequate liquid ration efforts, stopping new min- through the summer to sustain ing and drilling, and mandating a fisheries and a relatively healthy new management plan to mitigate riparian ecosystem. impacts. There’s just one problem: “It doesn’t talk about flows, which But as a drought, then mega- is the elephant in the room,” Fulton drought, then climate change-in- says. The legislation does not affect duced aridification set in, the water rights and precludes future Dolores River began shrinking, Wild and Scenic designations. depleting McPhee Reservoir along with it. It soon became clear that Still, it’s a step in the right there was not enough water to go direction, Fulton says, and could around. The first to lose its share help set the stage for 2025 water of water during shortages is the rights negotiations, when perhaps riverbed below the dam, which means can be developed to incen- has not seen a spring runoff during tivize farmers to give up water in fourteen of the last twenty years. order to save the river. After all, This past year was the worst of all, she says, “You can’t have a river as just ten cubic feet per second without water.” \\

82 • INNOVATION THE HERO’S JOURNEY Local music teachers create new video curriculum By Jen Parsons The hero’s journey structure is so embed- REFUSAL OF THE CALL MEETING WITH THE MENTOR ded in our culture, that when Mark Galbo “I didn’t think I needed any help,” he said. “Then Johnson and Galbo are both talented—Galbo as described his attraction to myth as a God, or the Universe, whatever—well, really my wife a musician and teacher and entrepreneur, and launching point for the new path the Jessica—­i­ntervened and said, you need this guy.” Johnson as a musician and videographer and illus- Rock and Roll Academy is blazing, I couldn’t help trator. It’s almost as if the mentor for Johnson and but grab onto the journey elements in the tale Tim Johnson also hemmed when asked to Galbo is just the creativity itself, the breakthrough he unfolded for me in his studio. This particular meet. As a producer at Telluride TV, he held the of consciousness “demanding to come through us, hero’s journey is the story of how an innovative expertise to edit Galbo’s sprawling video catalog. into the world,” Galbo explained. new music curriculum was created. I’ll give him 15 minutes, he thought. “Then, I CROSSING THE THRESHOLD THE ORDINARY WORLD entered the Galbo-sphere,” joked Johnson. Their Together, they created a split screen format for vir- In a time before Coronavirus, a Rock and Roll shared energy clicked. “I’d almost do these proj- tual bands. Kids watched online video instructions Academy existed, created in Telluride by Mark ects in my spare time for fun.” for their instrument—they showed me kids in Ohio Galbo. He licensed the program elsewhere, too. playing “Ocean Eyes” by Billie Eilish, from home. Students gathered, learned music, shredded gui- With their own iPhones, they recorded their parts. tars, smacked drums, sang, screamed in mics. In On split screen, the parts were mixed. “I didn’t know a room. Together. Parents gasped: That’s my kid, if Rock and Roll Academy could work in this non-syn- being who they are! chronous way,” Galbo said. “I do relationships. These were kids who never met, recording together.” “I don’t teach music. I teach self-directed freedom and moral independence. I get out of Yet, he saw powerful results. “Some kids find the kids’ way,” declared Galbo, the Rock and Roll it hard to socialize. They blossomed. It was more Academy founder. meaningful than I imagined.” THE CALL TO ADVENTURE THE ROAD OF TRIALS Galbo said he realized in March 2020 that “busi- With four months of Academy after COVID under ness is never going to return like it was.” The their belts, they were approached by Arizona’s pandemic had changed things. He returned to Virtual State Academy to create a K-5 music cur- his studio at Telluride Mountain School, alone, in riculum for younger kids…in a very short time April. He had a new vision: He shot hundreds of frame. Impossible! Their tech support chorus of videos of himself playing instrumental parts with two shouted. We can do it, Galbo and Johnson said. his iPhone; he would use them in his new Virtual Learning Academy. They approached educators. How do we reach K-5 students with music? TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

“Through stories,” they were advised. Jewelry in Silver, or Gold, Here, they looked to myth: classic tales to model new stories or in Diamonds, Ruby’s & Emeralds upon. Johnson found the key—he learned that forty-two animal constellations exist. He imagined animal characters, based on Iconic Necklaces & Charms those star shapes. Johnson revealed the colorful, friendly charac- Mountain Rings, Telluride Watches ters he had drawn. “Having the impetus to create is good,” he said. He illustrated story panels to be shown by a teacher on FINE ART GALLERY with beautiful jewelry screen during class. One creation: a giraffe with a heart so big, it split into a trinity. Telluride’s oldest, continuously owned business THE ORDEAL established 1991 “I had not been songwriting in years,” Galbo said. It was eight p.m., and he wanted to go home. He had just 204 W. COLORADO AVENUE, TELLURIDE finished zoom teaching. “Then, I heard the intro.” 970-728-5566 • ELINOFF.COM I’m exhausted, he thought. It had been ages since he wrote. “Next, I heard the bridge.” He picked up his guitar, despite fatigue. © 2019 Elinoff Gallery. Patents Pending. I’m free, he sang. My heart is broken to three. “Oh my god, I’m writing about a giraffe!” He laughed. “The uni- WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 83 verse says you are writing about a giraffe.” His songwriting, too, was inspired, just as Johnson’s illustration talent re-emerged for him. They awakened a dormant creativity in each other and got to work. THE ROAD HOME They’ve developed a half year of teaching stories; each unit takes nine weeks. The animals are characters who embody traits, emo- tions, and relationships. For example, Chameleon illustrates the classic hero’s journey. The town needs protection from bad guys, and Chameleon must seek the Lion to protect them. Lion doesn’t want to fight, so Chameleon disguises himself as the Lion, and drives out the bad guys with his newfound bravery. Galbo and Johnson created a massive amount of work in a short time, in the name of giving children the gift of music. The curriculum launches in twelve states in November. “These are songs about being seen for who you are,” Galbo says. “This is the culmination of a lifetime of work.” \\



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86 • NATURE NOTES MOOSEThe Magnificent Behold (and beware) as moose encounters increase By Deanna Drew MOOSE SIGHTINGS ARE BECOMING MUCH MORE COMMON IN COLORADO, THANKS TO MORE THAN FORTY YEARS OF EFFORT BY STATE WILDLIFE OFFICIALS. LARGE POPULATIONS OF MOOSE HAVE ALWAYS INHABITED THE FORESTS OF ALASKA, CANADA, AND THE NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS, BUT ASIDE FROM OCCASIONAL WANDERERS PASSING THROUGH, THE GREATEST MEMBER OF THE DEER FAMILY WAS LARGELY ABSENT FROM THE CENTENNIAL STATE UNTIL IT WAS INTRODUCED HERE BEGINNING IN 1978. Now, moose can be seen in several tiple chambers that allows them to digest parts of the state. The more you get to woody particles,” explains Bergman. In know this large mammal, with its odd fea- winter, when quantity and quality of food is tures and unusual habits, the more you’ll at its least, moose can eat spruce boughs or come to appreciate these curious crea- pine needles to survive. “This characteristic tures from the North. enables them to utilize different landscapes Moose are twice as big as elk, the sec- than other native herbivores would use.” ond largest member of the deer family. The Moose are less social than deer and type of moose in Colorado is the Shiras (A. elk. These solitary and reclusive animals alces shirasi), the smallest moose subspe- usually stick around a specific home range cies, which can weigh up to 1,000 pounds for most of their twenty-year life. In the and stand up to six feet tall at the shoulder. winter, moose don’t hibernate but instead Generally found at elevations of 7,000 may “yard up” or come together in a small feet and higher, moose live in northern group close to water and food, and stay coniferous forests, usually at forest edges nearby for most of the season. “It is not and openings near water. Unlike deer and uncommon for an individual animal to set elk, moose eat aquatic vegetation in addi- up shop in a fairly small willow complex tion to plants on land, and are adapted to and stay there all winter long, if there is live in and out of water. nothing to bump them out. They don’t have Moose wade into lakes and wetlands THEY ARE EXCELLENT SWIMMERS, the desire to wander on their own, a strat- AND THEIR LONG, BULBOUS SNOUT IS egy that we don’t see in other species. “ to eat plants on the bottom or suspended in water, and have large, pointed hooves to Colorado is sometimes the envy of help support the heavy animal in deep snow EQUIPPED WITH A FLAP INSIDE THAT CLOSES other states because of its large variety and mud. They are excellent swimmers, TO KEEP WATER OUT WHEN THE ANIMAL and abundance of wildlife. According to and their long, bulbous snout is equipped Bergman, it’s the state’s diversity of hab- with a flap inside that closes to keep water IS SUBMERGED. itat that stabilizes populations and leads out when the animal is submerged. Bergman. “They can use higher elevations in the win- to the wealth of animals that can live According to CPW Wildlife Researcher and here. “Aspen and oak brush communities lend large mammal specialist Eric Bergman, the special ter to access forage that other animals can’t get to.” themselves to robust and healthy elk populations, ability of moose to live in mountainous and watery The name moose is said to be derived from a while expanses of rolling sage and piñon/juniper habitats reduces competition with other ungulates northern Indian word which means “eater of twigs.” are important for mule deer. Moose prefer valley and helped make the animal’s introduction into the The animal’s massive height allows it to reach up bottoms and riparian areas,” he says. “We’re also state such a success. “Their long legs allow moose to to feed on trees and shrubs like aspen and willow, learning that moose can surprise us and move into take advantage of aquatic vegetation more easily, and which make up to 90 percent of its diet. “Moose have upland mountain shrub communities that histori- to move through deeper snow and not flounder,” says a complex digestive system and stomach with mul- cally we did not associate with moose.” TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

Because there is minimal competition for ers fewer resources to manage the herds. But by cally covered most of the state. Wolf populations food between moose, elk, and deer, along with an and large, Bergman says, initial concerns from the have been restored in northern Rocky Mountain abundance of moose habitat, most residents and livestock community based on uncertainty and States, but not without steady opposition from scientists advocated for the moose’s introduc- perceived risks did not play out and the introduc- some ranching communities. tion. “The people saw a habitat type that was not tion has been successful. being used by a native herbivore, and thought that In 2020 Colorado voters directed state wildlife moose could thrive in these areas. And they were With a lack of natural predators, harvest by managers to begin efforts to bring back the spe- certainly right about that.” humans is the only tool currently available to cies no later than the end of 2023, so biologists keep moose populations at a manageable level in like Bergman have rolled up their shirtsleeves and Bergman notes that unlike some other animals, the state, both ecologically and socially. For this, gotten to work finding a place for wolves to get a moose are not an endangered species, so the state CPW currently issues about 300 total hunting per- foothold. CPW is currently holding public scop- has latitude to manage herds without collaboration at mits for bull or cow moose statewide each year, ing meetings across the state, to gather input on the federal level. And besides occasionally damaging based on herd management plans with objectives potentially suitable habitat for the missing wolves a fence or getting into a hay yard in winter when nat- for each region to keep up with ecological and that once freely roamed the Colorado landscape. ural food supplies are low, moose have little conflict social changes. “Wildlife populations are continually adapting to with the agricultural community, so the introduction change, whether it be natural succession of plant program was executed with limited controversy. “No Moose are not the only animals to be intro- communities, a warming environment, drought, doubt from a watchable wildlife standpoint they are a duced—or reintroduced, the term used when a spe- or habitat loss as Colorado’s human population very valuable species. Compared to a fleeting glance cies once existed here but has been exterminated by grows. Reintroduction of wolves to Colorado is of a pronghorn, moose behaviorally don’t have the humans—into Colorado. The state has also success- another source of change. CPW will continue to same flight strategy. They are fun to watch.” fully established lynx and black footed ferrets, and collect data so that we can hopefully detect the worked to supplement river otter populations, too. impact of these changes, and subsequently use However memorable it may be, the moose’s that information to make informed wildlife man- larger-than-life appearance can also make for scary The next major reintroduction project for Col- agement decisions.” \\ wildlife experience. They can be brazen; moose orado Parks and Wildlife is the gray wolf, an apex are generally fearless and do not see humans as a predator now gone but whose population histori- threat. They have little to fear in Colorado: in the north, wolves are the principal predator of moose, and bears can kill calves. But here in Colorado, there are no wolves, and black bears live in a dif- ferent habitat than moose. And because of its size, it is rare for moose to be attacked by predators like mountain lions, coyotes, or lynx. Moose will usually stand their ground if encoun- tered, but don’t let their casual demeanor fool you: Moose are territorial and can charge if you come too close, especially if cows are protecting their calves or if you have dogs with you. There were five moose attacks in 2021 in Colorado. “The scary part people need to be aware of is that like people, every animal is different. Some are more tolerant than others, and even that can change quickly. It could be a negative human-wildlife interaction, if you get too close.” There are currently around 3,000 moose in the state, compared to about 300,000 elk and 400,000 mule deer. Their relatively low numbers make moose less of a priority and give wildlife manag- WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 87

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90 • FICTION TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

The Master’s Castle By Anthony Doerr Illustrations by Stephanie Morgan Rogers BASIL BEBBINGTON FROM BAKERSFIELD ISN’T GOOD AT BASKETBALL, WOODSHOP, OR TALKING TO GIRLS, BUT HE’S FAIR AT PHYSICS, AND GUTS HIS WAY THROUGH TECHNICAL COLLEGE, AND LANDS A JOB GRINDING LENSES FOR BAKERSFIELD OPTOMETRY, AND HIS PARENTS MOVE TO TAMPA, AND HURRICANE ANDREW FLOODS THEIR BASEMENT, AND BY AGE TWENTY-TWO BASIL BEGINS TO WORRY THAT HE’S MISSING OUT ON THINGS—WOMEN, JOY, ET CETERA— SO ON A WHIM HE APPLIES FOR A JOB AS AN OPTICS TECHNICIAN AT AN OBSERVATORY ON THE SUMMIT OF MAUNA KEA ON THE ISLAND OF HAWAII. The interviews take place at sea level, with ists gobble deepfried prawns, but up here it Sunday, after they have traded shifts for five a rotating slew of astronomers in flip-flops who feels to Basil as though life is finally beginning. months, she pokes him on the shoulder and warn him that the job involves heavy-duty sol- says, “I always say, Basil, if you want some- itude, weeklong shifts alone atop the volcano, He measures wind speeds, radios reports thing, you need to just go for it.” “like being a lighthouse keeper on Mars,” one to the astronomers in Waimea, analyzes Muri- says, but Basil is eager to adjust the trajectory el’s handwriting in the log. At night he puts on How many times during the next week, of his life, so he signs the papers, completes “Higher Ground”— alone on the volcano, does Basil parse the pos- the training, leases a Jeep, and on the day of sible implications of that sentence? Did she his first shift, drives from sea level to fourteen People keep on learnin’ mean “you” as in the impersonal you, or did thousand feet in two hours. By the time he Soldiers keep on warrin’ she mean “you” as in Basil, and “something” gets out of the truck, the wind is throwing snow World keep on turnin’ as in her? And could she have meant “it” as in across the summit, and his skull feels as if a —and dances idiotically in the mirror doodle-bopping, as in jingle-jangling, as in hatchet has been dropped through it. barn beneath the burly arm of the Milky Way, sexual relations, and has she been waiting all and when Sunday finally arrives, and Muriel these weeks for him to “just go for it”? A tiny flame-haired woman opens the churns back up the summit road to relieve observatory door, seizes him by the collar, and him, his heart kicks against his sternum like The next Sunday, after seven straight hauls him inside. a frog. He makes her coffee, tells her he saw nights at fourteen thousand feet, Basil cuts fifty-six meteorites; her green eyes turn like fifty paper hearts from the pages of a protocol “Ow, what wa …” Basil stops midsentence. whirlpools; she tells him she believes most manual, writes a different simile on each—I “Get in here, Mr. Basil Bebbington from stars in the universe support solar systems. love you like a fish loves water; I love you like Bakersfield.” She force-feeds him four aspirin “What if,” she says, “every star has planets we’re eggs and bacon—and stashes the hearts and twelve ounces of Fresca, and shows him circling around it? What if there are hundreds all over the observatory: behind doors, rolled the composting toilet and the telescope— of billions of Earths? Earths where you can up inside the toilet paper, taped to the back which is not the big Copernicus-type cylin- high-jump eighty feet! Earths where little tur- of her Raisin Bran. Muriel comes up and Basil der-with-eyepiece you might expect, but a tle-people build little turtle-people cities!” heads down, and all that week he imagines her three-hundred-ton compound mirror thir- All week in Hilo, flush with oxygen, Basil discovering his valentines. She’ll be euphoric, ty-three feet across that adjusts its position dreams of her, brushing her copper hair, fling- flattered, at least amused, but the following twice per second—and she apologizes for the ing appliances off the summit. Cumulonimbi weekend, as he is packing for his next shift, the absence of a microwave, which, she explains, gather along the flanks of the volcano like bat- supervisor calls from Waimea to say that Basil made spooky noises at night, so she dragged tleships, and Basil watches them flicker with has been reported for making inappropriate it to the edge of the road and pitched it off. lightning: blue ignitions, as if Muriel were a advances, that a lawyer is involved, that they Her name is Muriel MacDonald, and she’s his god, incinerating things up there. are going to have to let him go. age, and looks like a woodland elf but moves One hour each Sunday: that’s all the time like a caffeinated jaguar. Before she leaves, she he ever sees her, sixty minutes on the bound- He finds a job at an ophthalmologist’s in pours him a bowl of Raisin Bran, hands him a aries of their respective shifts. Yet on the cal- Eugene, then a LensCrafters in Pocatello, the Stevie Wonder CD, and says, “When you get endar of his life, what hours have shone more ninth happiest city in Idaho, hoping that an lonesome, put ‘Higher Ground’ on repeat.” brightly? Muriel never touches him, or asks increase in distance will correspond with a By the time Muriel drags her duffel to her about his week, or notices his haircuts, but decrease in heartbreak, but every few nights Dodge, orange hair blowing everywhere, yell- neither does she mention a boyfriend, and she he dreams of volcanoes and flame-haired god- ing, “See you in a week!” Basil is ninety-six always meets him at the door looking woozy desses and humiliation. I love you like the percent in love. and grateful, and ensures the cot in the con- sky loves blue. I love you like putting up the All that first night he listens to the wind trol room has clean sheets, and one wondrous Christmas tree. What happens to all the one- crash against the walls. Fourteen thousand sided desire in the world? Does it dissipate into feet below, waves explode onto reefs and tour- the air, or does it flit around from soul to soul, anxious, haunted, looking for a place to land? WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022 TellurideMagazine.com 91

92 • FICTION The ’90s turn into the 2000s. One Thurs- Pocatello, shedding pounds like he’s shedding home environment, that he’ll outgrow it, but day at a foosball tournament, eleven years insecurities, and on his best nights he stops soon Otis is six, then eight, and Mags is reg- after leaving Hawaii, Basil is handcuffed by a brooding over what life could have been and ularly heading to the guest room at bedtime drunken English department secretary named starts appreciating it for what it is. with a Solo cup full enough of Wild Turkey to Mags Futrell who makes fun of his name for half tranquilize a zebra, and Otis won’t take off an hour, then kisses him right on the mouth. But when Otis turns five, Basil catches Mags his cape even to shower, and for Basil, driving mixing Jack Daniel’s into her morning Pepsi, and home from LensCrafters every evening has Mags drives a Ford Ranger, has eyes like discovers a fifth in her glove compartment and a started to feel like a prison sentence. holes burnt into a blanket, prefers Def Lep- pint in her snow boots, and when he confronts pard to silence, and wears a T-shirt to sleep her, she says, “Sure, Basil, I’ll cut down on my In October Al’s Comix Warehouse goes out that says, Lips that touch liquor touch other drinking, how about I only drink on days that end of business, and a portly, white-bearded con- lips quicker. She and Basil have a backyard with Y.” Then she books a room at the Ramada tractor named Nicholas starts putting crews wedding and mortgage a two-bedroom rancher and does not come home for four nights. to work on the building, erecting drum towers on Clark Street across from Al’s Comix Ware- on the façade, and hanging a portcullis above house, and Mags stays mostly sober through Around this time Otis starts wearing an the entrance, and in March a sign goes up that a pregnancy, and produces a bug-eyed infant off-brand black superhero cape day and night, says, THE MASTER’S CASTLE COMING SOON, named Otis, and during Otis’s first year on every hour of every day—to kindergarten, to flanked by two aluminum skulls on posts with Earth, Basil pushes his stroller up every hill in dinner, to sleep. Dr. O’Keefe says the boy is spotlights shooting out of their heads. responding to “an atmosphere of stress” in his TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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94 • FICTION Nicholas assures Basil that it’s all fami- Today though, the first of April, Mags face that blooms across his iPad belongs to ly-friendly, zoned for “entertainment”—“just wakes up before Basil and scrambles a dozen Muriel MacDonald. keeping it secret to generate interest,” he eggs, and announces she’s going to clamber says, and winks over his bifocals, and tries to back on top of the heap, vacuum the truck, get Same green eyes, same narrow nose, slim, high-five Otis, who wants nothing to do with an oil change, and promises Basil she’ll drive dignified, posed against a pillar in a lab coat, high-fives from strangers—and although Nich- Otis to his appointment with Dr. O’Keefe after an orange-haired Joan Didion for the telescope olas has a kind face and even resembles a saw- school, and Basil leaves LensCrafters at 4:00 set. Even now, after twenty years, to see the dust-covered, dentally challenged Saint Nick, p.m. feeling buoyant, and he empties the house pale knobs of her collarbone floods Basil with a it’s hard not to worry that the Master’s Castle of alcohol—pouring out the cooking sherry, longing that threatens to capsize the kitchen. is going to be some kind of S&M dungeon, that the mouthwash, even the vanilla extract—and soon Clark Street will be clogged with perverts prepares a mushroom casserole, and preheats The article describes how Muriel leads a in hot pants, that Basil’s already battered home the broiler, and watches an internet video of NASA astronomical team that has discovered value will sink to zero, that his wife needs the a cat doing yoga, and another about a dolphin 540 extrasolar planets, including a sister-Earth kind of help he can’t give, that his son might be who turns pink when he’s sad, then clicks a sixty light-years away, a rocky world only damaged in some fundamental way, and that his link to a story about a new best-selling book slightly smaller than ours, with life-friendly life has descended to a nadir only a few, very called Memoirs of a Planet Hunter and Basil’s temperatures, and now she is slated to win a particularly sorry lives reach. heart catapults into his mouth because the National Academy of Sciences medal, appear on The Today Show, and eat lamb shanks with Queen Elizabeth. TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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96 • FICTION He downloads Memoirs of a Planet Hunter. On page forty-eight, he reads: and skids past the casserole and comes to a Chapter one opens with seven-year-old Muriel Every seven days the other optics techni- stop with its front bumper inside the hedges. building cardboard rockets. Chapter two cov- cian, a man—they were always men—would ers high school. By page forty she’s in Hawaii, roll back up, blinking and slow from the alti- Otis sprints through the front door sobbing, interviewing with the observatory. tude, and I’d be blinking and slow from seven making for his bedroom—no cape flying behind days of thin air and sleep deprivation. him—and Mags leaves the truck lights on and “Okay,” Basil says to the empty kitchen. I was learning things in the cold nights, the driver’s door open and comes seesawing “Okay, okay, okay.” in the silence, in the spray of stars that would through the door with her giant handbag. show when the big door rolled back and Out the window Nicholas exits the Master’s poured their ancient light onto the mirror. I “Reeks like fuck-all in here.” Castle carrying plywood. The sky is purple. was learning how to see. “What happened to Otis?” Somehow it has become 6:15 p.m., and shouldn’t When the other optics tech came up, I Mags paws through the cabinets. Mags have had Otis home by 5:00? Basil slides didn’t ever want to go. “Where were you? Where is Otis’s cape?” his casserole onto the center rack, and sits at Then it’s chapter three, and Muriel is off A half-dozen bottles roll across the floor. the table beneath a waterfall of memory. to Caltech, the Kepler program, a photoshoot “I took it.” with Annie Leibovitz, et cetera, and is it pos- “Dr. O’Keefe said to confiscate his cape?” The way the observatory loomed in the sible that in the 460-page story of Muriel’s life, “Not Dr. O’-Flipping-Keefe, me, me, me. I dusk, its dome pale against the sky. The way Basil didn’t warrant a single sentence? took him to O’Keefe’s and then we stopped at he’d have to rest his hands on his knees when He scrolls ahead, scans for his name, uses the Ramada and everyone agreed that third he’d get out of the Jeep just to catch his the search tool—no results found. The clock grade is too old to wear a cape, that all the kids breath, heart thudding, dust blowing across reads 7:15 p.m., Clark Street is dark, every- who don’t think he’s a freak already will think the summit. He brought Muriel his grand- thing smells like a forest fire—the kitchen, his so soon, so I took it.” mother’s macaroni and cheese; he bought her life—and the smoke detector screeches, and “You brought our son to a bar?” a Michael Bolton CD because the guy at the Basil opens the oven door to a rolling wave of “I took him to see people. Sane people!” and record shop in Hilo said Bolton was the white smoke and hurries his smoldering casserole she slides to the floor, and Basil drops the smoke Stevie Wonder. out the door and flings the pan into the front detector in the sink and puts a frozen pizza in the yard. At 7:20 he’s standing on a kitchen chair, oven and goes out the front door and backs the I love you like Saturday mornings when yanking the smoke detector off the ceiling, still-running, still un-vacuumed Ranger off the you wake up and realize you don’t have school. when Mags’s Ford Ranger rolls over the curb lawn and parks in the driveway and sits a moment behind the wheel wondering about distance and I love you like the wind loves kites. the other world Muriel found sixty light-years away. Maybe he came on a little strong, maybe he was a little naïve, but at least what he offered was pure, wasn’t it? TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022

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98 • FICTION When he goes back inside, Mags is slumped nightfall half of America will be wearing capes, shape of Mags on the floor, the key in his hand. against the dishwasher. “April,” she says, “the everyone superhero-ing everything, and Al will Then he walks into Otis’s room and stretches month to throw yourself off things.” Basil can invite them to spend the weekend in his brown- the band of a head lamp around his son’s head. just see the hem of Otis’s cape sticking out of stone, and Basil will cook his mushroom casse- her handbag, so he balls it up in his back pocket role, and Basil and Otis will monitor storms on He leads Otis out the back door so he and slides the half-cooked pizza from the oven Al’s rooftop V-band Doppler radar, and Al will doesn’t see his mother, and they switch on their and hacks it into slices and carries two plates poke his head through the hatch onto his roof head lamps and cross Clark Street and stand in and a glass of milk into Otis’s room and shuts deck and say, “Basil, that was the best damn front of the Master’s Castle. In the strange, pur- the door and the two of them sit on the carpet, casserole I’ve tasted in my life,” and Basil will ple light it looks large and frightening, a temple and Otis sips his milk, and Basil ties the cape say, “Thank you, Al, but please don’t swear in risen from some Mephistophelean underworld. around his son’s neck, over his parka the way front of my son.” he likes it, and Otis brings its hem to his face “We’re going in there?” asks Otis. Basil turns and wipes his eyes. They eat their pizza, and the Lego men colonize Basil’s ankles. He the key, imagining ball gags and pommel horses, house is quiet, and after a while Otis runs Lego retrieves the carbonized casserole from the yard middle-aged men in latex trussed up in clothes- cars over the carpet. Basil imagines driving Otis and scrapes the remains into the garbage can in lines, but in the beam of his head lamp, maybe straight to the Pocatello airport and flying all the garage. Across the street, the twin spotlights twenty feet away, he sees what looks like a ten- night and queuing up outside The Today Show of the Master’s Castle rise into the sky. He says, foot-tall toy castle complete with battlements just as Muriel begins her appearance. She’ll see “We could go to Florida. Stay with my parents.” and turrets and pennants. Spiraling around it him pressed against the studio window and cock are pastures and villages, populated with waist- her head in amazement; she’ll tell Al Roker— Back inside, Mags snores against the dish- high windmills and stables, and what appears to right in the middle of Today’s Take—that she is washer. He places a pillow under her head, be an actual flowing river, and everywhere five- realizing only now that she made a mistake, that and hand-washes the dishes, and the boiler foot-tall miniature oaks hold up thousands of you never lose by loving, you only lose by holding in the basement exhales its ancient, burnt- real-looking leaves, and three-inch woodcutters back, and at her insistence security will escort hair smell, and when Basil next looks out the stand beside wagons, the whole thing metic- Basil and Otis onto the set, and Al Roker’s window, he sees Nicholas the contractor set ulous and miraculous in the strange light, and producer will whisper into Al’s flesh-colored something on the front step. The old man gives Basil blinks on the threshold, confused, over- earpiece, Twitter is going bananas, keep this a wave, and his truck drives off, and Basil is whelmed, until Otis says, “Dad, it’s Putt-Putt!” rolling, and Muriel will throw her arms wide still a moment, then opens the door and there and say, “Get in here, Mr. Basil Bebbington from on the front step are two head lamps and an To their left, down a cobbled path, stands a Bakersfield,” and Basil will look thin on TV, and envelope that says, Seems like you and the kid sign saying, Hole #1, with two putters and two Al Roker will don a cape in honor of Otis, and by could use a night out. golf balls and a little scorecard waiting on an apron of real-looking grass. Otis, in his big blue Inside: a skull key chain bearing a single key. coat with his cape trailing off the back and the Basil looks at the iPad still on the table, the little cyclopic light off the head lamp glowing TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022



100 • FICTION in the center of his head, looks up at his father tion from Mags, custody, schools, the size of his on the battlements lower their bows, and lights and says, “Ready?” parents’ condo in Tampa—but rather than feel glow in the windows of the keep and in the tow- overwhelmed, he feels light, even dizzy, as if he ers and in the miniature oaks, and what looks They pick up the putters, one long-han- has rapidly ascended from sea level to fourteen like real smoke rises from the chimneys, and dled, one short, and set their balls in the little thousand feet and can see the vast glimmering the drawbridge comes down like the maw of a dots, and begin. platter of the Pacific stretched out below. terrible beast, and a royal guard of bannermen marches out from the castle and stands to each They play over ramps, through tunnels, They reach the eighteenth hole, Otis up by side, and between them a harpist slides out, under staircases, little wooden ponies drowsing twenty, and the castle walls loom in the beams moving on some kind of indiscernible track, and in little wooden stables, mini blacksmiths frozen of their head lamps, little wooden guards in begins to pluck her tiny instrument, and though beside mini anvils, tiny swallows nesting under guardhouses peering down at them and lit- it might be his imagination, Basil hears the tune the eaves of the tiny cottages, everything detailed tle archers in archer loops and little golden of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”… down to the tongs in the blacksmiths’ hands. chains holding up the drawbridge. Otis places With each hole they wind closer to the great cas- his ball on the tee and looks at his father and No one’s gonna bring me down tle at the center, and Otis keeps score, and they says, “I’m not ready to give up my cape.” Oh no roll their balls over moats, and Basil watches his Till I reach my highest ground sweet, mysterious son bend over each stroke, “I know, kid.” ... and the harpist plays and the castle concentrating hard. And so what if he’s not a “I just need it a little longer.” glows, and when the song ends she turns, and shadow in Muriel’s memory? She dreamed her “You take your time.” slides back into the castle, and the royal guard dream after all, found her other Earth, just like Otis sets his feet and whacks his ball retreats, and the drawbridge rises, and the Nicholas found his, and sometimes people just straight up a ramp, and it flies right into a hole lights in the windows wink out one by one, and love who they love and what can you do about in the center of the drawbridge, a one-in-a-thou- the warehouse goes dark again. \\ that? There are advantages in not getting what sand shot, and some kind of machinery inside you want. Basil starts computing the realities the castle comes to life. The three-inch guards of moving to Florida—plane tickets, separa- lower their four-inch halberds, and the archers TellurideMagazine.com WINTER/SPRING 2021-2022