< PREVIOUS ] [ 1993 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Finally I know someone who made the cover of Time. The Maroon Bells part of the cover is from a photograph by Bob Thomason, now of Westcliffe, where I've been consulting recently on a computer installation at the weekly newspaper, the Wet Mountain Tribune.
Part of the installation is a sophisticated graphics program, Corel Draw, for producing display ads. People whose judgment I respect recommended it highly.
However, I know more about international finance than I know about Corel Draw. When Jackie Stoppe, the production manager, had questions, I was even more ignorant than the general run of overpaid out-of-town consultants.
Bob takes pictures for the Tribune as well as Time, and he knows his way around Corel Draw. The problem of my ignorance was solved.
And to think, just a few days ago, Martha and I were cruising the back roads of Custer County with a Time Cover Photographer while Jim Little, the Tribune's publisher, took us on a short one-sixpack tour of Rosita in the mist.
This connects to the cover article, Boom Time in the
Rockies,
because Bob Thomason is one example of the
surprising reservoir of talent and expertise that you can
find around mountain towns these days.
Thanks to electronic mail, fax machines and overnight express services, talented people can set up shop just about anywhere, and why not go for some scenery?
It was just two years ago that Newsweek devoted a cover
story to America's Outback
-- a depopulating and
depressed zone trying to cope with plunging mineral and
crop prices.
Either the Effete Eastern Liberal Establishment Media can't figure out what's happening out here, or we've changed almost overnight from a backwater into a hot spot.
Assuming the latter is true -- and the rush on local real estate that went begging five years ago seems to confirm this -- the economic opportunities from improved telecommunications explain only part of the new appeal of the hinterlands.
The cultural isolation of rural areas has been breached, too. The remote ranch that didn't get any TV at all 15 years ago now has dozens of channels from a satellite dish. We have two public-radio repeaters now, two more connections than we had five years ago. We don't have to worry about missing movies; even if they never show at the local theater, the VCR versions will eventually come. Interesting restaurants open, supplementing the traditional meat and potatoes.
Many of the cultural amenities that made big cities appealing are now available in the boondocks.
There are a lot of things to like about this transformation. But there are things to fear, too.
Rising real-estate prices may be a good deal if you own
property, but they hurt everyone else because wages don't
go up as fast as housing cost. Thus many people who work in
town -- waiters, carpenters, teachers -- can't afford to
live there. We lose the sense of community, that we're
all in this together,
and we get twisting, narrow roads
jammed with nerve-wracked commuters.
Towns become less livable as a result -- they lose the
very qualities that attracted people and made real-estate
prices rise. It's a pity that all those new arrivals who
praise cultural diversity
don't also believe in
economic diversity.
That's just a start on the challenges that our region faces. If you're interested in hearing those and related issues argued with passion and eloquence in oft-infuriating ways, then set aside the last weekend of this month for a trip through the turning aspen to Gunnison.
The annual Headwaters Conference runs there Sept. 23-25, and of all the conferences, seminars and workshops I've ever attended, Headwaters is by far the most provocative and interesting, inspiring malty discussions that continue till last call and beyond.
For particulars, write to George Sibley at Western State College, Gunnison, Colo. 81231, or call 303-943-2055.
And if Gunnison seems like an unlikely spot, remember that the cover of Time came from Westcliffe. The New West may turn out to be a lot more interesting than the Old West.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1993 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >