It's Fire Season

And here we are again. It seems like half the state is on fire and unfortunately we are in the middle of a historic drought. All that smoke is casting an eerie pall over the city, but I can't really complain since my own house is not in danger of burning down. As of this writing, the Aspen Acres Fire is fast approaching 100,000 acres burned and at least 275 homes lost in Custer and Pueblo counties; the Ferris Fire is at over 57,000 acres, the Gold Mountain Fire is at over 31,000 acres, and the Willow Fire is at over 4,300 acres. Pray for rain.

Not Much Has Changed

I took this from the overlook in Palmer Park this afternoon. The foothills above the Mountain Shadows neighborhood still look bare, thirteen and-a-half years after the Waldo Canyon Fire torched everything in its 18,247 acre path, including 346 homes in that part of the city. I'm sure it looks different up close, but from this distance it's almost like the fire just happened, there doesn't seem to be any apparent new growth although there was actually a huge push to plant things as soon as they were able. It must all be low bushes and grasses. I know that it takes decades (or even centuries) for Mother Nature to rebuild after a catastrophic fire. I miss the way these foothills used to look.

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A nice snap of the historic Alamo Building, originally built as a hotel in the 1880s. It now houses offices.

The Resistance

I'm officially actively part of the so called resistance again. It was nice having a decent president for four years, but the time has come once more to fight for our democracy. So today I (along with a clutch of other concerned citizens) went to the offices of Republican congressman Jeff Crank, recently elected to replace the useless Doug Lamborn, who unfortunately held the seat for something like 18 years. Alas, Mr. Crank was not around, but we did have a lengthy conversation with former state representative Dennis Hisey, who is now serving as Crank's state director. He did appear to be listening to our concerns, writing them on a notepad in order to bring them to Mr. Crank's attention. I have no idea if he actually did, but that's the impression he gave us. I asked him directly if we were simply shouting into the proverbial void and he assured us that our positions would be duly logged. I wonder, though.

Each of us had a specific thing we wanted to discuss, and for me that thing was the US Postal Service. Here's a photo of the people sitting opposite me, reflected in the glossy surface of Crank's large conference table. Every one of them had important points and salient questions. We plan to visit Mr. Crank's office again next week. In the meantime, I have postcards to write and emails to send. After all, our democracy is at stake.

An Intriguing Building, and Part of Denver History

I spent most of yesterday running multiple errands in Denver with my friend JB, and on the way from errand #1 to errand #2 I spied this amazing mid-century building on Federal and Ohio. I made JB pull a u-turn and park the car so I could get a picture of it. Obviously it's a carniceria now, but I figured it probably started as something else entirely, and I was right. I posted a picture of it in the Oldskool Denver group on Facebook, and within minutes I was getting tons of responses. It turns out this distinctive Googie style building was part of a chain of convenience stores in the Denver area, originally called Auto Mart, with a business model much like 7-11's. Auto Mart soon changed its moniker to Big Top after a renaming contest (perhaps inspired by the circus tent-like roofline of its buildings), and ultimately there were 15 or 16 locations around Denver, about 8 to 10 of which still exist. Big Top was bought out in 1967 and rechristened UtoteM. It was still the same business model, though, and carried on in that vein for a few more years.

Many of the comments on my Facebook post reminisced about the heydey of Big Top/UtoteM, and it was nice reading all the little personal anecdotes. The Oldskool Denver group is great for that! There's a similar Facebook group for Colorado Springs longtime residents, called Old Pics of Colorado Springs, and threads like this happen in that group daily, too.

A couple of the comments also included links to info about Big Top/UtoteM, so if you want to know more, click HERE and HERE. Of note, the dates vary slightly based on who wrote the article, and also the number of locations. But the gist of it is that this chain started around 1958 or '59 and ended up with roughly 15 locations, was bought out and renamed around 1967, and sometime in the 1970s the chain was either bought out again, went under, or dispersed in some way. Depending on which article you're reading, about 8 or 10 locations still survive, most of which house businesses, although two of them are now apparently derelict.

At any rate, I have never seen one of these before despite all the time I have spent in Denver over the years, so this was a great find! I'm so glad that some of these unique buildings still live on and house small businesses, and also live on as happy memories for many old timer Denverites.

Exploring Victor (Part 4)

Last few from my stroll around historic Sunnyside Cemetery in Victor. Tomorrow I'll more on to other subject matter. I hope you've enjoyed these. What a peaceful place.

Exploring Victor (Part 3)

I still have a few images to share from our stroll through historic Sunnyside Cemetery in Victor. Have you ever been to a cemetery at 9,708 feet above sea level? It has a great view in all directions, that's for sure! I'll wrap up this series tomorrow.

There's a large section devoted to Elks Club members.

Some of the grave markers are wood, the deceaseds' names long lost to time and the elements.

Exploring Victor (Part 2)

More from Sunnyside Cemetery in Victor. Most of the graves are a century or more old, and a lot of them are pretty sad. Plenty of children and babies, and adults who didn't get to enjoy long lives.

Grey Wolf

Another cool mural downtown. This one is on the southwest corner of Weber and Colorado. The text around the edge says, "The grey wolf is native to Colorado. Grey wolves were exterminated from Colorado in the 1940s." People were so misguided then! (And still are, but hopefully not as much.) Apex predators are very much necessary for a healthy ecosystem. Just so you know, grey wolves are being reintroduced in our state and there are high hopes that they will be permanently reestablished. You can read more about the initiative HERE.

New Roof

The tiny kiosk by the pond in Green Mountain Falls is getting a new roof. As I always understood it, this was formerly the town's land office, but there's a plaque nearby that mentions a depot. I never knew that the hamlet of Green Mountain Falls ever had train service. What a tiny little depot indeed. It must have become the land office after the train service ended -- or perhaps it did double duty. On the other hand, look at the illustration on the plaque and compare it to the kiosk. Does it look like the same building to you? Perhaps the plaque refers to another building entirely, one that no longer stands.

Fourth of July (Part 5)

Our leisurely 4th of July drive to Pueblo on back roads eventually landed us in, well, Pueblo. I've always thought that the Steel City had particularly nice architecture. Pueblo's downtown is chock full of beautiful old brick buildings because it was once the primary producer of bricks in the state. Unfortunately, most of these structures currently stand empty, but not necessarily in a derelict state. I hope this gorgeous example of Pueblo brick is occupied again soon!

South Platte River (Part 5)

Our driving adventure along the South Platte eventually brought us to this place, which was a fun surprise. We always take the left fork in the road when we wander through these parts, and I'm glad we decided to go right this time. This old building was a neat discovery! HERE's a picture of what it looked like in its prime in the 1920s (check out the ten gallon hat on that guy on the right!). And HERE's some more recent history on the place.

High Water Pressure

The old "Pikes Peak or bust!" saying has everything to do with Cripple Creek and Victor, two frontier towns up Ute Pass that went boom and bust in concert with the gold rush. But just because that era is long over it doesn't mean there isn't still gold in them thar hills. In fact, Victor still has a working gold mine and it looks nothing like the ones of yore. Mining is a dirty business. It leaves horrible scars and environmental damage behind and uses up resources like crazy. It ain't pretty. So here's the mine in Victor, and as you can see, they are using some mega powerful sprinklers to do I-don't-know-what. I think possibly it has to do with dust mitigation, since wind is always a problem around here.

The backlighting in this image makes it look quite dramatic. Tomorrow I'll show you the same subject but from the other side of the hill, and you'll understand what photographers mean when they say that lighting is everything.

St. Luke's Episcopal

This charming church, built in 1879, is only a block away from the building I featured in yesterday's post. I think it's great that Westcliffe still has most of its beautiful old frontier era buildings.

Est. 1887

This is the Wolff Hotel in Westcliffe, established 1887. I love old western buildings like this. I wish I could have explored more than just the outside of it, but I think it's a private residence (or two) now, and no longer a hotel.

The Stanley

Today I went all the way to Estes Park to do some engagement portraits in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a gorgeous day for it! On the way back out, we stopped at the Stanley Hotel because my clients wanted a quick snapshot posed in front of it. You may have heard of the Stanley as the very hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. In the book and the film, it's called the Overlook Hotel and it's creepy as hell! I don't like horror movies as a rule, but I think Kubrick's "The Shining" is brilliant, a masterpiece, and I've watched it countless times.

Anyway, as you  can see, the Stanley Hotel is quite beautiful, and yes, it can be a little creepy I suppose, but that's part of the fascination. If you're ever in Estes Park you should check it out (it's hard to miss). To learn more about this famous Colorado landmark, click HERE.

Nolon House

Nolon House can be found less than a block from the Cliff House and next door to the Post Office in Manitou Springs. I've always wondered about this old mansion, so when I was at the Cliff House a couple of weeks ago I made it a point to grab some pictures. A few years ago Pat gave me a great book called Historic Homes of Colorado Springs and the Vicinity, and it has a section on Nolon House. I'll paraphrase what it says: Nolon House was built in 1890 for Edward Newton, owner of Newton Lumber Company, and it was originally called New Carlon. In 1900 it was bought by John and Mary Nolon and rechristened. Originally a Pony Express rider, Mr. Nolon made a fortune in Cripple Creek, running a saloon and gambling hall during the gold boom.

Nolon House's architectural style can be described as a blend of Queen Anne and gothic revival. As you can see, it's four stories tall and features an awesome cupola. The Nolon family sold the house in the mid 1940s, and since then it's been converted into apartments. It would be cool to live in this gorgeous, historic old home!

Beaver Dam

Yesterday I showed you the rock formations of Cathedral Park. There's a lake directly in front of it, thanks to the beaver dam that's just visible at the bottom of this photo. I took this picture from the washboard road high above. A hundred or more years ago that road was a railroad bridge.

7 Minute Spring

As I mentioned in my last couple of posts, I was in Manitou Springs the other day on business. While I was there I stopped by Memorial Park (not to be confused by the park of the same name in Colorado Springs) to grab a picture of 7 Minute Spring, one of the many therapeutic springs for which Manitou was named long ago. You can read more about 7 Minute Spring's history, complete with some cool old pictures of it, HERE.

More of the same

Another view of the old Presbyterian church that I blogged on Monday. It's in beautiful condition. I did a little research and found that it was built in 1889. You can read more about it HERE.