Cold War-era Grand Junction had a widespread benefit from a uranium mill in its backyard: dirt — fine, sand-like, multipurpose dirt. The Climax Uranium Mill along the Colorado River offered an endless supply of the gray dirt that was free for the taking by anyone who needed material to use in sidewalks and roadways, in […]
Nancy Lofholm
Special to The Colorado Sun
Email: nlofholm35@gmail.com Twitter: @nlofholm
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, News, Politics and Government
Colorado’s tiny mountain post offices are hamstrung — for the second straight holiday season
Crested Butte Mayor Jim Schmidt is getting that anxious feeling again when he makes his daily trek to the post office. A yellow slip in his post office box usually means a long wait in a line to retrieve a package. Just like last year, the line sometimes wraps around the outside of this town’s […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Economy, News, Wildfire
Grape disappointment: Colorado vineyards say an October freeze will chill their 2021 vintage
The grape vines lined up in rows throughout the Grand and North Fork valleys look promising for a 2021 vintage with their usual winter-brown foliage bunched neatly on trellises. But cut into a bud, or scrape a stalk, and there are hints of the underlying damage done by a severe late-October freeze. An estimated 70% […]
Posted inArts, Coloradans, COVID, Culture, Health
Grand Junction woman transforms coronavirus’ staggering death toll into a comforting work of art
GRAND JUNCTION — Linda McBride couldn’t sleep one night last May. She was too busy doing math in her head. Multiply 100 by 1,000. Do it over and over again. Repeat. And repeat. She was trying to wrap her head around the enormity of 120,000 — at that time, the number of people who had […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, COVID, Education, News
Reimagining Denver’s Livestock Exchange Building means respecting its distinctive past
Back when Denver was a true cowtown and well over half a million cattle, sheep, hogs and horses moved through the city’s bustling livestock center each year, the Livestock Exchange Building was the grand red-brick heart of the city’s agricultural industry. With an $8.5 million sale that was finalized Monday, that ornate, turn-of-the-20th-century building is […]
Posted inUncategorized
Grinning raccoons. An under-the-weather fox. Gunnison Valley’s critters are deployed in a creative coronavirus campaign.
Wear your mask. Stay 6 feet apart. Wash your hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those COVID-19 warnings have become so omnipresent that the pandemic weary can easily overlook them. The coronavirus-is-a-hoax crowd can ignore their perceived nanny-state overreach. Not so in the Gunnison Valley. Here, a grinning raccoon with soapy paws asks citizens to “Keep your […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
More Colorado counties want entrance into Mesa County’s coronavirus “pre-check” program for restaurants
Whether some counties can give businesses a seal of approval and let them skip tougher state-imposed restrictions landed firmly on the governor’s desk Wednesday, as Larimer and Douglas lawmakers asked the state for permission to join a form of COVID-19 “pre-check” running in Mesa County. Mesa County, where virus cases have risen sharply in recent […]
Posted inElection 2020, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Coloradans are barely howling for the reintroduction of gray wolves
Colorado voters are wary of wolves. Early voting results on Tuesday showed wolf reintroduction as one of the tightest contests on Tuesday’s ballot, with voters narrowly approving of Proposition 114. The measure would direct Colorado Parks and Wildlife to come up with a plan to reintroduce gray wolves to the Western Slope by the end […]
Posted inElection 2020, News, Politics and Government
Lauren Boebert beats Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District
Republican Lauren Boebert declared victory and Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush conceded just after midnight Wednesday in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District race. Boebert held a lead at 51% to 46% over Mitsch Bush in the massive district, which spans the Western Slope and reaches around to Pueblo at 1 a.m. the morning after Election Day, according […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Energy, Environment, News
Vancouver company digs deep on due diligence in effort to revive historic Ouray silver mine
In a basin high above Ouray’s bustling tourist shops and hot springs pools, one of the precious metals that birthed this town and fired up its early boomtown days, is readying for a comeback. The first major silver mine in the San Juan Mountains in at least 80 years is on course to be in […]