Joining Up
The herd of horses gallop up the ranch lane in a clatter of hooves, snorts, and swirls of dust. Sorrel, palomino, dapple-gray, buckskin, and black blend in a multicolored tapestry. The moist, earthy aroma of horse fills the corral. This is the first of my six days at the Vee Bar Guest Ranch in Laramie, […]
Travel Memoir: The Great Wall
“My name Susie. I your tour guide.” A young Chinese woman with straight black hair hops on the minibus. Since 6 a.m. I’ve been jouncing through Beijing on this vehicle that is collecting foreigners for a day tour of the Great Wall. There are a dozen of us from Germany, England, Canada, Australia, Thailand, and […]
George E. Kerr: Early Homesteader and Community Leader
Pat Benedict Jurgens and Mark A. Joyce, Co-authors Colorado history was built on the larger-than-life men and women who came west to build new lives. The wagon drivers, farmers, miners, lumberjacks, mercantile owners, teachers, preachers, lawmen, and scoundrels who all formed the web that would become the 38th state. In Jefferson County the life of […]
Delivering People, Goods, and Mail In the Mountains of Jefferson County
In the winter of 1873 Isabella Bird, a Victorian Englishwoman, journeyed through Turkey Creek Canyon alone, on horseback. Undaunted by harsh weather, spartan accommodations, or her own safety, she exemplified the hardiness of early Colorado travelers. Like others before her, she relied on herself and the animal that carried her.
Zoe, the Happy Hunter
The day is full of delightful smells. Old leaves rotting beneath layers of snow melt and the warm whiff of morning air that blows across the pine needle duff under the sun. I plunge my snoot into the brush again and again, inhaling the delectable aperitif in short, swift snorts. But the best scents are those pungent ones…