Hi friends and supporters! Happy Colorado Sunday to you all.
When I was growing up in what was then a small town in northern Colorado, there was a big daily paper plus a scrappy weekly (funded, in part, by my grandfather after he got mad at the big daily) chasing news and telling the stories of people in our community.
I mention this not to confirm the point at which printers’ ink started flowing in my veins, but to evoke a time when publishers sensed the importance of reporting, no matter how small the town, and somehow managed to make a buck doing it. There was value in holding government accountable and helping to make connections among neighbors.
So what happens when a publisher shuts down a newspaper, whether by means of a corporate cold shoulder or an invested local simply unable to keep funding his labor of love? This is the question Kevin Simpson examines in this week’s cover story about two towns on the brink of losing their papers — and the people stepping up and doing their best to keep the presses running.
Editor
The Cover Story
A tale of two towns, two at-risk newspapers, and what comes next
Concern about the state of journalism is baked into our collective DNA here at The Sun. So when five weekly newspapers on the Eastern Plains announced they would shut down — all within days of each other — we sadly understood the forces at work behind the closures. But we also wondered: What happens next?
That led to this week’s story about the fate of two rural papers, both with more than a century of history. One, discarded by corporate interests, found new life thanks to a publisher from a neighboring town who quickly became a local hero. Another, just 150 miles south, already had been rescued a couple of times — most recently by a man with five generations of agricultural roots in the Dust Bowl region who has done his best in the face of economic headwinds. Together, they tell a tale of hope and uncertainty, and take measure of what these legacy institutions mean to their communities.
READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE
Kevin Simpson | Writer
The Colorado Lens
Yeah, Colorado has scenery, good jobs and good towns. But people really are the straw that stirs the drink. Here are a few of our favorite recent shots of folks making a difference.
Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler
Flavor of the Week
Silverton’s 150-year survival story, in 14 minutes
What’s older than the State of Colorado, was once viewed as this state’s Silicon Valley, and is the home of unicorns?
The answer, of course, is Silverton.
The little town of 800 celebrated its 150th birthday earlier this month. The community birthday potluck was a big hit. The chance to throw pies in local officials’ faces was immensely popular. But it was a short film festival starring the town and its many characters that really gave the birthday its sparkle and shine.
A standing-room-only crowd crammed into the basement theater at the Grand Imperial Hotel to watch the portable-screen premiere of “Where the Unicorns Live,” along with the town classics, “Hi, Ho Silverton” and “Rocks 4 Sale.” The night’s big winner was the 14-minute unicorn film.
The film tells the story of a town born two years before Colorado gained statehood. Miners had streamed into the area to chip away at the gold and silver glittering in the snaggle-toothed San Juan Mountains. These gold diggers slung up their tents at a 9,318-foot notch in the mountains; the saloons and bordellos quickly followed. Voila! There was Silverton.
The film tips an animated hat to Silverton’s whoop-it-up mining culture that stretched into the 1970s when buses carrying miners back to town from work would drop them off in front of their favorite saloons.
When Silverton’s last mine closed in 1991, the celebration stopped. The town went into survival mode before it hitched up its britches and learned how to draw tourists, adventurists mining for backcountry thrills, and newcomers looking for a place where their children could safely roam an entire town that is akin to a high-altitude, high-spirited Mayberry.
Survive it did. The film directed by Los Angeles filmmaker David Dibble (formerly of Durango) and produced by DeAnne Gallegos with the Silverton Chamber of Commerce, zips by like a slap-happy lesson in how to love where you live. It intersperses gritty images from Silverton’s historic archives with present-day beaming and town-boosting citizens. It wraps up with the Silverton Brass Band tootling a joyfully off-key “Happy Birthday.”
Gallegos said she originally envisioned the film being a birthday gift to the town’s citizenry — something more memorable than commemorative T-shirts or tote bags. But the premiere was so enthusiastically received that she and Dibble decided to put it out to the world. They posted it on YouTube, where it has been racking up views and thumbs-ups from those who are learning why Silverton is home to unicorns. Curious? Or, just feel like celebrating a big birthday? Check it out here: “Where the Unicorn Live”
Nancy Lofholm | Reporter
SunLit: Sneak Peek
“Raising Elle” evokes small-town America as a woman tries to come home
EXCERPT: Author Sarah (S.E.) Reichert packs a lot into this slice of “Raising Elle,” her novel that was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award in Romance. We meet Elle, the abused young woman venturing back from L.A. to her small-town roots; one of her many antagonists from school days; and the former love interest who suddenly appears and comes to her defense. A fourth character is also introduced — the community that’s a far cry from the big city where she’s trying to carve out a life.
THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: Reichert spent her first 22 years growing up in a small Wyoming town, and only after she’d moved away did she realize the unique qualities of her upbringing. That experience formed the basis for “Raising Elle” and influenced the theme of community throughout the narrative. Here’s a small segment of her Q&A:
SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write?
Reichert: So much of this book came from memories of growing up. From the small town back roads, to trying to irrigate in a drought, to Elle’s sisters, and the way Elle’s parents talk to each other. There are little pieces everywhere in the book that are just, pure rural life.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH SARAH REICHERT
Kevin Simpson | Writer
Sunday Reading List
A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.
🌞 Dirt matters. Shannon Mullane went with a soil scientist on his rounds in super-arid southwestern Colorado to learn how the Colorado Soil Health Program is working with farmers and ranchers to improve their soils to become more resilient when water is scarce.
🌞 In political news, 13 candidates for statehouse seats — 10 Democrats and three Republicans — are running unopposed; that’s up from 2022. One of the most controversial ballot measures we’ll vote on in November looks like it will pass — if polling on ranked choice voting is to be believed. Donald Trump cost Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman his seat in the U.S. House, even though he kept Trump at arm’s length. Coffman says he wants to pull the candidate a little closer to fix the reputational damage Trump has done to his city. State lawmakers cut taxes four times in the past 12 months and now budget analysts say the government will start the lawmaking term in January nearly $1 billion in the hole.
🌞 There are 66 Colorado towns and cities with 7,000 or more residents. Only one doesn’t have a public swimming pool within 3 miles. People living in Cañon City hope two hot summers without a place to swim will convince voters to change that and fund a new aquatic center, Sue McMillin reports.
🌞 Search and rescue teams are by their nature filled with risk-takers, but they are not risk-seekers, Jason Blevins explains. This is why one team made the rare and painful decision to end work to recover the body of a hiker who fell from Arikaree Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
🌞 No question, lots of organizations and businesses are psyched about Colorado’s Quantum Hub designation. Tamara Chuang went out to Arvada, where the Colorado School of Mines helped take a big step toward turning the excitement into reality with the purchase of a 70-acre business park that will become Quantum COmmons, a kind of co-working space for young quantum technology companies. Will it turn into our Bell Labs?
🌞 No pictures of the kits were released, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife says they have evidence that at least two litters of endangered black-footed ferrets were born on the massive May Ranch this year. Michael Booth talked with biologists overjoyed to learn that transplanted ferrets survived and bred.
Dana Coffield | Editor
Here in entrepreneurial land, we are acutely aware of the need to not waste time or precious resources. This is probably why we’ve written so many stories about recycling in the past six years, including this one by Michael Booth, about a $100 million investment in Colorado’s “circular economy” at the DADS Landfill out by the Denver airport. But how can we, as individuals, participate? That’s the topic of Booth’s “Can I Recycle It?” game show/panel during SunFest 2024.
It’s too late to get a ticket that includes a box lunch, but you can show up at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver starting at 7:30 a.m. Friday for general admission. We hope to see you there and learn what you think will help make a better Colorado.
— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun
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