Billionaire investor Mark Walter, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is staking a claim in Gunnison County. A lot of claims, actually. The Chicago financier this year has quietly acquired six high-profile commercial properties, including the Almont Resort and several iconic buildings in downtown Crested Butte that are home to restaurants, bars and shops. […]
Gunnison County
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Economy, News, Outdoors
Colorado mountain, resort communities are rebounding — and then some — from coronavirus-scarred 2020
John Norton, Gunnison County’s tourism czar, was talking to his board last April. The ski resort had closed abruptly. Lodging and restaurants were closed. Visitors were being told to leave. The pandemic was triggering a panic in tourist-based economies across the country. A board member asked how much the Gunnison River Valley tourism community could […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Crested Butte ending free-for-all camping bacchanal with designated sites, plans for reservations
Dave Ochs spent some long days last summer working on a new bike trail up the Slate River above Crested Butte. The executive director of the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association was driving down to town one July evening when he counted a train of 20 cars a minute heading up the drainage. “All the […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Economy, News
Online sales boom poses challenges for Colorado tax forecasting — and for brick-and-mortar retailers
For the past several years, business at Oveja Negra in Salida has grown a healthy 15-20% a year. In 2020, Lane and Monty Willson said sales of their custom-designed bike bags tripled. And all those orders from bikepackers were made online. “We are so, so lucky to be in this position, but there are major […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Environment, News
Colorado’s North Fork Valley finds “baby-step” solutions to tackle its big problem with methane-leaking mines
Chris Caskey points across the river to a thin thread of steam rising from a snow-caked cliff. “That’s methane,” he said of the emissions seeping from the long-shuttered Bear Mine. “Millions of cubic feet, every day. That’s the equivalent of tens of thousands of cars.” Across the North Fork Valley in Gunnison County, nearly 20 […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News, Newsletters, Outdoors, Outsider
Climbing coronavirus cases in Colorado’s high country aren’t tracking back to ski resorts
Colorado’s resort communities are teetering on the edge of increased restrictions as a potential surge in COVID-19 cases from the busy holidays looms. But public health officials in eight tourism-dependent communities have not linked any outbreaks to ski areas. “It’s not the activity of skiing that is the risk but all the things that go […]
Posted inColoradans, News, Politics and Government
Lauren Boebert vowed to shake things up in Congress. She has delivered in her first week.
As she barnstormed across the 3rd Congressional District last year with a pistol on her hip and a steady stream of Democrat-aimed insults rolling off her tongue, Lauren Boebert promised to make a big, loud splash in the nation’s capital if voters sent her to Congress. Colorado’s newest U.S. representative has delivered on that – […]
Posted inCOVID, News
Small Colorado mountain counties aren’t sure how bad their COVID situation is. So they’re testing the masses.
With the thermometer well below zero, cars full of Crested Butte residents lined up on a private air strip starting at 7 a.m. last week to stick swabs up their noses. While that doesn’t sound like a fun morning for anyone involved, Gunnison County residents and public health officials were eager for the chance to […]
Posted inCOVID, Politics and Government
Colorado is expected to certify its election results soon — and without controversy
Colorado’s election results will be official within a week at the most and without the controversies surrounding lawsuits and certification seen in other states. All but one of the state’s 63 counties certified their election results last week. Gunnison County experienced a delay after elections officials contracted COVID-19 and expects to certify results this week. […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Outsider, Politics and Government
E-bike rules for BLM, Forest Service trails both thrill and rile backcountry users
Their bikes — made by internationally dominant brands Specialized and Giant — look like high-end mountain bikes. Except the bikes pedaled by Dimitri Moursellas and his wife, Audre Engleman, take them to places they never could go on traditional bikes. With electric power that kicks in when they pedal, the pair of Vail septuagenarians every […]