More Than Just a ‘Good Dog’

We are sad to report that Ellie, the little yellow Labrador retriever who appeared on our winter 2009-10 Telluride Magazine cover (photo by Ben Knight) riding a chairlift with handler Kim Richard, has passed on. At age 9, Ellie was at the peak of her career as an avalanche search and rescue dog for the Telluride Ski Patrol when cancer took her down. Owned and trained by Gary and Kim Richard, Ellie came from a long line of respected search dogs. Her great aunt, Jane Watenpaw (who appeared on a 1997 cover of Telluride Magazine) was the ski area’s first official avi-dog.

Ellie—named for one of Telluride’s respected octogenarians, Elvira Wunderlich—had been on the mountain since she was just a few months old. The ski patrol uses the dogs to search for avalanche victims on the occasion of a slide, but the dogs do more than just work; they are also a source of companionship and comfort. Gary and Ellie participated in several avalanche searches over the years, for the ski resort and San Miguel Search and Rescue. Ellie was a quick learner, with a solid search drive and keen nose. The job is tough on dogs, requiring them to negotiate deep snow, steep slopes, ride on snowmobiles and in helicopters, and load on moving chairlifts. Days can be extremely cold and long, often working into the dark. The physicality of the job takes its toll over the years. But the dogs seem to love it, and are often unable to contain their excitement for the day to begin, barking at their handlers and spinning in anticipation as they wait to load the chairlift in the dim light of dawn. Ellie was no exception and she touched many a patroller’s heart with her catlike display of affection by rubbing against their legs. She often participated in educational demonstrations for the ski area and at area schools, and was a big hit with the kids. At the end of the day, she went home to be a family dog, beloved by the Richard’s two children, Belle and Mattheau.

Ellie and Jane hold a special place in my heart, since both dogs were donated to the Telluride Ski Patrol by my parents. They have since retired from raising labs, but Dulce, Ellie’s sister, still plies the trade for the Telluride Ski Patrol, as the last of a great line of working dogs.

—MDuffy

“BIT” of Telluride history gone up in smoke

Photo courtesy of Ben Knight

Jerry Greene’s Brooklyn-inspired “Baked in Telluride” or BIT went up in flames Tuesday night (February 9, 2010). Greene opened the bakery on Fir Street in 1977, making it the oldest dining establishment in Telluride. Initially a New York style bakery that served up homemade bagels, pizza and bread; pastries and foods with a Latino influence were added in the 1990s.

BIT was operated out of the historic Tomboy Warehouse that Greene leased from the Zoline family. Joe Zoline, the founder of the Telluride ski area, purchased the building from the Western Colorado Power Company in the early 1970s, about the same time he acquired the Telluride Transfer, Stronghouse and other buildings in that neighborhood. According to Billy “Senior” Mahoney, when the power company owned it, you could drive a truck into the front of the building. Parts of the structure were possibly over 100 years old. Dry wood beneath an old oven was determined to be the fire’s cause.

Greene and his bakery were profiled in Telluride Magazine’s 20th Anniversary Issue, winter 2001-02.—MDuffy

My livelihood depends upon the written word. I write, I read, I research, I edit. I consume magazines and books, web content and news. I like my reading to be fresh, well written and artfully presented.

I’m not a fan of rambling blogs, and I don’t Twitter. Who has time? In today’s techno-immersed world, my attention is torn between radios, cell phones, computers, iThings, newspapers, magazines, books, DVDs and television. No wonder neuroenhancing drugs that help us focus are becoming so popular.

What is the fate of reading? Are we really going to give up a good article for YouTube videos and tweets? It was not that long ago that literacy amongst the general public was the exception, not the rule. In recent times, kids were thought to be abandoning reading for television and computer games. Then the Harry Potter books hit the shelves and sold in the hundreds of millions. Just about everyone is reading their emails, text messages, social networks or blogs.

I have no doubt that future publications will take new forms: Many newspapers are now available only online; wireless readers are quickly improving; and magazines sport virtual alter egos on the Web. Regardless of the vehicle, the content is still sought after.

If you want reliable information and respectable articles, you have to go to the sources that pay for that quality of work: writers who research, interview, fact check and are subject to editors; photographers on locale who capture the image; and designers who marry the two—all benefit the community they serve. There is something innately pleasurable about things that are crafted by many in a creative and mindful effort.

In the pages of this magazine, a taste of summer in Telluride is offered. Whether you’ve attended the Bluegrass Festival or not, join Rob Story as he delves into the utilitarian arts of queuing up and claiming ground. You’ll encounter the sated, sunburned and over-served who come for the music and stay for the scene.

If music is your calling, and up on that stage is where you’d rather be, meet a lady who’s had that age-old fantasy come true. Writer and rock star Suzanne Cheavens will take you on a mystery tour: Discover how a middle-age mother became a guitar-ripping member of an all-female rock-and-roll band.

If you’d rather play outdoors, then get to know the denizens of this sanctuary: Trees—the barometers of change—color the landscape, cool the planet and provide wildlife habitat. Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale, said in an article for The New York Times Magazine, “People like to be close to oceans, mountains and trees…. Being in wild places reduces stress.” Well, Telluride has wild mountains and trees aplenty. Take a gander at what’s playing out for the area’s forests.

When the first explorers came to Southwest Colorado, the landscape was very different. The Spanish passed through the region in the 1700s, looking for riches and a route to the Pacific Coast from Mexico. Paul O’Rourke weaves a historic tale of virgin exploration and tenacity, driven by that age-old desire to claim and conquer.

A century later, the first prospectors came to the San Juans. They quickly cut down the trees and erected a town. Even though Italians, Swedes, Finns and Austrians settled in Telluride, the architecture of the United Kingdom dominated home design. Lance Waring, writer and housepainter, lays out the palette for a Victorian veneer, with a splash of lavender and a hint of green.

Speaking of green, go to work with editor Lise Waring. You may not be able to keep up, but in an effort to offer a bit of a reprieve to our carbon-choked atmosphere, she challenged herself to commute via calorie power—all year long. The mind wanders when one elects to take time away from all the rhetoric.

This is the gut of Western civilization—we communicate…about everything.

Enjoy the read,

Duffy