Letter from Eugene D. Lorig
Growth – August 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Valley of the Shadow
Ed and Martha:
All right, all right, you don’t have to hound me, here’s my twenty for another year.
We are leaving the I-70 Corridor, the so-called Vail Valley, which now stretches from Georgetown to Glenwood Springs. We are leaving the Valley of the Shadow of Greed, and henceforth shall fear no evil, for the shanty peddlers are not with us. Or only a few.
We are moving to Paonia. Some ask “Where is Paonia?” That is good. If they don’t know, we aren’t telling. It has no Interstate. It has no ski resorts. It appears to be a community. I hope we don’t destroy that by our move there.
We moved to Eagle in 1961 because:
1) it was a community, and,
2) we wanted to eat. The city of Grand Junction was no longer our cup of tea and it didn’t especially like me either. Eagle then had a diversified economy, with ranching, logging, sawmill, the D&RGW Railroad, and an occasional tourist. Ha!
We fought Fred Kummer and his Adam’s Rib Recreation Area for twenty-five years, and now he has given up and there will be no more fighting to keep his ill-conceived ski resort out of here. Our fun is gone. No more challenge.
Eugene D. Lorig
formerly in Eagle