For 112 years, through two pandemics, ‘Bonedalers have harkened the fall with a celebration of spuds. At the time of the very first Potato Day, 1910, Eugene Grubb had just published his book, “The Potato” and Irish immigrant Thomas McClure’s red variety, unique to this valley, was gaining national prestige. “The Roaring Fork and Crystal […]
Marble
As Lincoln Memorial turns 100, Marble town history is written in pure white stone
After visiting the beginnings of Colorado-Yule Marble Company in the town of Marble, architect Henry Bacon insisted on using its luminous, white stone for the Parthenon-styled exterior of the Lincoln Memorial he was designing. Its color was, he asserted, “immeasurably superior” to the four tried-and-true marble sources also being considered by the Lincoln Memorial Commission. […]
LKL: Another chance at collaboration
The Lead King Loop (LKL) may just be the next frontier for a collaborative public land management plan. With many diverse interests, cohesion has been elusive to date. At the close of the year, converging interest groups agreed to come together with the intent to form comprehensive suggestions to hand over to the three decision […]
Marble Wetlands Preserve created through land donation
A long-sought Marble-area land donation was completed at the end of 2021 between an anonymous donor and the Trust for Land Restoration (TLR), a Ridgway-based nonprofit. The property, a 54-acre strip of land with wetlands on one side and steep forested hillside on the other, has been used by the public for river access for […]
CVEPA Views: To trap an elk in 1972…
The 500-pound cow elk was wild-eyed as she kept trying to escape the trap. She continued to jump up on the eight-foot-tall walls of her plywood pen until she finally broke down a section. The “wapiti” (the Shawnee and Cree word for elk) struggled to get her front legs over the wall. When she succeeded, […]
Letters – Oct. 14, 2021
Re: Marble Ski The board of the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association would like to thank Lynn Burton and The Sopris Sun for the terrific article on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Marble Ski Area (Sept. 22, 2021). Entering CVEPA’s 50th year of service, we are so indebted to our founding fathers and […]
CVEPA Views: What’s all the fuss about Marble?
Every time you pick up the paper it seems there is an article about Marble. It might be about the Marble Quarry, off highway vehicle (OHV) impacts, Wild and Scenic Designation or simply overcrowding. Why all the interest in this little hamlet way up the Crystal River? For those of us who have called Marble […]
Marble Ski Area fight raged 50 years ago
As Colorado ski areas boomed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a couple of Denver developers decided they wanted in on the action. They eventually set their sights on Marble, a near ghost town about 25 miles as the crow flies, west-southwest of Aspen. The developers, Lee Stubblefield and John Zakovich, thought that Mt. […]
CVEPA shares perspective
On Aug. 29, the Crystal Valley Environmental Protection Association (CVEPA) board conducted their annual public meeting at Propaganda Pie in Redstone. Longtime Western State University professor of history Dr. Duane Vandenbusche was the keynote speaker and focused on the importance of water conservation in the West. CVEPA formed in 1972 in opposition to a proposed […]
