Letter from Roger Williams
Mountain Life – March 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Lots to comment on in this interesting [January 2007] issue. For a start, where was that cover picture taken? (A bison, grazing below a snowcapped range, with not a sign of human activity). The Zapata Ranch, near Great Sand Dunes?
I read F.R. Pamp’s letter (p. 32) with interest. Sure enough, there was his ad, “F.R. Pamp. Attorney at Law” on p. 46, one of several lawyers’ ads in this issue. Long ago, these were infra dig as unprofessional, an outdated idea.
In regard to “A growth-control measure,” Laird Campbell’s letter, p. 35 — he’s not from Scotland by any chance, is he? — I liked his listing of 12 of the mighty Sawatch Range’s “14ers,” which are what lured me to this beautiful state (thus contributing to growth, one lowly person) back in 1973. I have had the pleasure of climbing them all, up to 4 times, (Mt. Harvard, my alma mater), along with the other 3, Elbert and Massive in Lake County and Holy Cross in I’m not sure what county — a source of a lifetime of wonderful memories along with the many other peaks I’ve visited around the world.
As for the redoubtable George Sibley’s column, “Power from the People,” p. 38: What became of those low-interest REA loans made in the 1930s New Deal to light our countryside? Were they ever paid off? Decentralized renewable power is all very well; but as some have pointed out, it must be backed up by “spinning reserve” that is quickly available when the sun goes in or sets and the wind stops blowing — i.e. a coal-fired or nuclear plant — unless you have a way to store this “green power,” hydrogen perhaps.
Roger Williams,
a Front Ranger
in Boulder, Colorado
Dear Roger,
All we know is that the January cover features a National Park Service Picture taken near the Sand Dunes, and that Holy Cross is in Eagle County. M&E
