< PREVIOUS ] [ 1995 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
For the third consecutive year, Colorado has somehow
attracted about 100,000 new residents. While this may make
you wonder how bad things must be elsewhere, one part of
the report I saw also inspires contemplation: more than
52,000 people moved to Colorado between 1993 and
1994.
I did indulge in some traditional revelry a year ago as
1993 ended and 1994 began. But it was low-key celebration,
a flock of middle-aged people sitting around a kitchen,
trying hard to stay awake until midnight and speculating
that 1994 would be an average year: worse than 1993, but
better than 1995. I would have noticed if anything had
happened between 1993 and 1994.
In my recollection of that evening, at one moment it was 1993, and then suddenly the clock began to chime and it was 1994. There was no interval, not even a nanosecond, between the two.
I was about to observe that saying between 1993 and
1994
is like saying between Colorado and New
Mexico,
but there does appear to be a gap along our
southern boundary. At every place I've crossed the border,
a sign on one side of the road says Welcome to Colorful
Colorado.
About 100 yards south on the other side of
the road, the traveler is Welcome to the Land of
Enchantment.
What's with this strip of No Man's Land? Who's got jurisdiction? The Jicarilla Apache? Could you go about your life along there without being bothered by government agents, social improvers, tax collectors and other blessings of civilization?
Perhaps this mystic zone is where those 42,000-plus
people appeared between 1993 and 1994.
Anyway, Colorado has gained 361,000 residents since
1990. This shocking fact is often disguised as something
harmless Like an 11 percent increase since the last
census.
But look harder at 361,000. It took almost 30 years after the 1858 gold rush for Colorado to get that many people, and we just did it in four years.
Based on 1990 figures, that's like building three-quarters of a Denver in four years. Or a new combined Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which took more than a century of hard work by land speculators and millhands. That's four Arvadas, six Greeleys, or a dozen Grand Junctions -- in four years.
Historically, the problem with big waves of migration in the West is that the new arrivals do not assimilate into the existing patterns; instead, they bring their culture and institutions with them.
For instance, when only a few traders and trappers ventured into the Rocky Mountains in the 1830s and '40s, they lived pretty much like the Indians, who were not displaced.
But the Indians were displaced -- almost exterminated -- by the big waves that came along later in the 1870s and '80s. The new arrivals did not adapt to the local culture, wherein a successful horse thief was a big hero to be admired by all the little boys in the village, but instead brought and enforced their own ways wherein a horse thief was hanged by the neck until dead.
So the real issue is scale. If migrants just trickle in, they'll adapt to our ways. But if they're a torrent, they'll force us to live like them.
Already, along the Front Range and the Resort Belt, our most popular attractions, we have congested roads with deep chuckholes, cookie-cutter housing developments, franchise strips and bad air. The migrants obviously didn't adapt to the local culture -- they imported their own civilization, such as it is, so the populated part of Colorado looks a lot like the rest of America.
Is there a solution? Controlling the flow appears impossible. People are either surging in or pouring out, but never is there a manageable trickle.
Perhaps we could enculturate all new arrivals. Before
they would be allowed to hold property or a job, they'd
have to pass a simple test so we'd know that they had
learned a few simple things, such as, When you come upon
a gate in the back country, leave it the way you found
it.
Other questions on the Are you ready to live in
Colorado?
test:
To which institution does the phrase get out and give
us more
apply?
Would a double shot of straight rye chased by Perrier be the drink that best combines the Old West with the New West, or would it be fresh ground Kenya AA Arabica coffee beans steeped in alkali water?
Identify David F. Day, Big Bill Haywood, Bloody Bridles Waite, Brick Pomeroy, Ellis Meredith, Charlie Bent, Josephine Roche, Corky Gonzales, Lauren Watson and Tom Uzzell.
Colorado has counties named Lake, Montezuma, Garfield, Dolores, Las Animas and Kiowa. In which counties would you find the towns of Lake City, Montezuma, Garfield, Dolores, Las Animas and Kiowa?
What is the difference between a galloping goose and a mudhen and when is it legal to hunt them?
And finally, in 5,000 words or less, what is the difference between a conditional and an adjudicated water right?
Tough test, perhaps, but worth the trouble when you consider the alternative: becoming part of mainstream America. We've got to do better than that in 1995.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1995 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >