Good morning, Colorado Sunday fam.
I hope everyone is managing this especially virulent bout of late-spring whiplash weather that has us dealing with high winds, rain and snow, sometimes on the same day, depending on your location.
As irritated as I’ve been about being kept from my normal May routine out in the garden — I can take cold, but not the wind — I’m pretty grateful that I’m not one of the people hanging off of Middle Bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir trying to figure out just how broken the structure is, or on a crew of road workers plowing 6 feet of snow from Kebler Pass to give another alternative to the shut down U.S. 50, or a kid trying to make it to his college graduation or to work via an icy ride boat ride across the lake.
The people up in Gunnison County are far more hale than I can ever claim. And as I learned from this week’s cover story by Nancy Lofholm, the folks trying to restore a little normal to their cutoff communities are leaning hard into their grit to make sure summer goes off as planned — even with a major detour in place.
Senior Editor
The Cover Story
Gunnison might be tough enough to work around the U.S. 50 problem
When some Gunnison County residents heard that barricades had gone up on each end of the Middle Fork Bridge over Blue Mesa Reservoir three weeks ago, their first thought was, “Oh, that’s a real inconvenience.” They figured the closure might last a few hours.
But the bridge closure soon created full-throttle panic in a county that has one through highway linking it to the rest of the state. One way out of town was now choked off in the direction that serves as the main route for supplies, for medical visits, for moving cattle and, for some, getting to school and work.
Detours required an unbelievable six to seven hours of driving for such everyday errands and trips.
The closed bridge became something akin to a prison gate cutting off many aspects of daily life.
It would not be opening any time soon because the 1,500-foot-long bridge had at least one dangerous crack. Highway officials dangling from scaffolding with handheld ultrasound equipment since then have turned up more potential cracks.
County and state officials have been working mightily to open dirt-road detours to ease some of the residents’ daily travel conundrums.
But what happens this summer when tourists would normally be rolling in on that scenic section of U.S. 50? Gunnison County residents like to think of themselves as a tough and resilient bunch. They are putting their heads together to try to answer that. They are planning. And they are hoping.
READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE
Nancy Lofholm | Reporter
The Colorado Lens
May is a great time in Colorado. The temperatures rise and the daylight lingers. Locals and their events emerge from indoors without the weight of jackets and hats. Here are the curated images from Denver to the Grand Valley recently.
Hugh Carey | Photographer
Flavor of the Week
Brothers light up historic Pueblo alley with neon
“The great thing about neon is it’s kind of sleezy,” said Jim Koncilja, a collector of neon signs that line Pueblo’s Neon Alley. “You think of dive bars and back alleys.”
Neon Alley is, in fact, a back alley. It connects West B and C streets just north of the Arkansas River, tucked behind a bakery, a salon, a cigar shop and other downtown Pueblo storefronts. But the alley doesn’t feel sleezy, it feels more like an art installation.
Koncilja and his brother, Joe, are collectors of old things — cars, furniture, signs, even buildings. (“They own everything,” one Pueblo resident told me offhandedly).
Their neon collection started with a $250 purchase from Craigslist, a burger-shaped sign that reads “Super Tommy’s Burgers” that hung over Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles for many years. Now it’s one of the first signs that greet visitors when they enter the alley.
Past the burger you’ll spot Mobil’s winged Pegasus in gleaming red and a small Shell Gasoline logo. On a massive 3-D pencil jutting from the side of the building, “Scott Office Products Inc.” glows in yellow, a pink halo emanating from the eraser tip. Around the corner hangs a Michelin Man, a couple of Joe’s Crab Shack signs, some fake Hollywood lettering and a blinking “Jesus Saves” cross (right next to the Corona bottle with a twinkling lime).
In total the alley sports about 40 neon signs, with approximately 30 tucked away in storage. Koncilja said that he hopes to get the rest restored and hung in the next year or so.
The outdoor display is open for the public to wander through at any time, though this might be the only alley I’d recommend venturing into at night.
Parker Yamasaki | Reporter
SunLit: Sneak Peek
“Galloping Gourmet” introduced Western cuisine to a worldwide audience
EXCERPT: The entertainment extravaganza known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West exported the experience of the American West to a hungry audience — both domestically and overseas. Author Steve Friesen takes a look at the multifaceted career of a Western icon by focusing on one lesser-known aspect: his fascination with food. These excerpts touch on details from the huge portable range he set up to cook for his show workers to the Mexican restaurant he launched in New York City.
THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Friesen was no stranger to the history of Buffalo Bill. For 22 years, he has directed the operation of the museum and gravesite honoring William Cody on Lookout Mountain. But it was a chance dinner conversation that steered him toward this third book on Cody that focused specifically on Buffalo Bill as a foodie.
SunLit: If you could pick just one thing — a theme or lesson — that readers would take from this book, what would that be?
Friesen: Buffalo Bill, both consciously and unconsciously, used food to bring people together. For him, dining was an opportunity for dialogue and, ultimately, understanding.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH STEVE FRIESEN
LISTEN TO A PODCAST WITH THE AUTHOR
Kevin Simpson | Writer
Sunday Reading List
A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.
🌞 Meet Dr. Sammy Ramsey, a University of Colorado professor of entomology who is on the front line of the fight against the next big threat to honeybees. Gabe Allen spent time at Ramsey’s beeyard east of Boulder and learned that the battle plan — at least in Thailand — involved turning on the YouTube channel where he sings Thai music with a touch of R&B.
🌞 The sprint to sine die somehow seemed longer than three days last week, but that’s because lawmakers covered a lot of ground, reaching a compromise on property tax relief, a suite of land-use bills intended to help make housing more affordable and rules to protect thousands of acres of wetlands in Colorado. For your skimming pleasure, the statehouse crew assembled an ambitious recap of 101 bills you should know at least a bit about.
🌞 After reporting on decades of conflict over plans to build a mountain village on Wolf Creek Pass, and honestly thinking it was a goner, Jason Blevins writes that the 10th UCircuit Court of Appeals affirmed the U.S. Forest Service’s approval of a road to an island of land owned by Red McCombs. If only he had lived to see it.
🌞 By the time you read this Joyce Vanek will be setting up for her judging assignments at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Kevin Simpson visited the Evergreen-based breeder of Portuguese water dogs as she prepared for her second go-round helping pick the pooches from multiple breeds that might end up in the Best of Show ring Tuesday night.
🌞 Nederland elected officials were somehow caught off guard when the town’s “rights of nature” ordinance, passed in 2021 and backed by two appointed water guardians, was put in play when talk of a new reservoir on Middle Boulder Creek began. Michael Booth reports on the quick repeal of the ordinance.
🌞 Children’s Hospital Colorado Research has made it possible for a 15-year-old high school hockey player to be treated for multiple sclerosis and never experience a symptom. Jennifer Brown talked with researchers looking at the siblings and children of people with MS about the early interventions they’re trying.
🌞 Native American artist and curator Danielle SeeWalker is in high demand, with murals all over Denver, paintings hanging at History Colorado, a show she designed gracing The Collective Art Center in Lafayette and a commission to create art for a new Marvel series. The one place she won’t be is at a Vail summer residency, which was yanked after she posted on Instagram a work that draws parallels between Palestinians in Gaza and Native Americans in the U.S. Parker Yamasaki checked in with the town of Vail to find out what went wrong.
Dana Coffield | Senior Editor
Thanks for being with us this morning. On the off chance that’s you’re still casting about for a tribute to your mom, or the motherly figure in your life, we suggest a Colorado Sunday subscription, which is but a few clicks away here: GIFT MEMBERSHIP
— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun
Corrections & Clarifications
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