In The NoCo

On Nov. 7, 1893, men in Colorado did something extraordinary for the time: They granted women the right to vote – which made Colorado the first state to do that not by legislative action or executive order, but by a vote of the people.  

It was a moment of triumph for activists who fought for women's suffrage for decades. It meant women in Colorado could vote 27 years before that right was granted to all women, with the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. 

And they used that victory as a springboard to get things done – from e...

For decades, Warren Miller was synonymous with a very Colorado genre of film. 

In Miller’s films, skiers glide across pristine winter terrain and hurtle down near-vertical slopes. Over the decades, Miller and his film crews turned those images into dozens of feature-length documentaries that celebrated the thrill of a day on the mountain – and also captured the poetry of skiing.  

Miller died in 2018 at the age of 93. Now, his work and legacy are the subject of a new exhibit at the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail.  

The museum’s executive...

Every summer in Colorado’s high country, yellow-bellied marmots race to gain enough weight to make it through months of hibernation. But this year’s meager snowpack and early spring have put that survival strategy under new pressure.  

Scientists with the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory near Crested Butte have studied individual marmots in the wild for more than six decades. And they say that understanding what's happening with these mammals reveals a lot about the overall health of high-alpine ecosystems. 

This month, the RMBL Marmot Project is set to turn serious science into a...

If you read the Colorado Sun, you might be familiar with the comic strip called ‘What’d I Miss?’ It follows conversations between Ossie, a young Black man, and Myra, an older white woman who has awakened from a long coma.   

Together they struggle to understand modern day politics and culture. Ossie and Myra talk about issues like artificial intelligence, disinformation on social media and more recently, the rise of the ultra-rich in America. 

‘What’d I Miss?’ is written by Denver-based artist R. Alan Brooks. He also writes graphic novels and teaches graphic...

Railroads transformed the American West – and immigrant labor made the railroads possible. But many of those immigrants’ stories haven’t been well documented - including those of the Mexican railroad workers known as traqueros. 

Beginning in the late 1800s, railroad companies recruited thousands of Mexican and Mexican-American workers to build and maintain the tracks.  At one time, Mexican workers made up more than two-thirds of the railway labor force in the U.S.  Many traqueros brought their families with them to settle in Colorado and other parts of the country. 

These workers played a k...

The soldiers who trained in Colorado for alpine combat in World War II helped turn the tide of the war. And later, many of them changed outdoor recreation in Colorado as we know it.  

The U.S. Army built Camp Hale in the high country near Leadville. Thousands of soldiers there trained for skiing, rock climbing and other elements of high-altitude combat.  
 
But the story of Camp Hale and the 10th Mountain Division didn’t end there. After the war, many of those veterans became trailblazers in the outdoor sports world. Some became athletes; other...

During World War II, the U.S. Army built a unique training ground in the mountains outside Leadville.   

At Camp Hale, soldiers in what would become the 10th Mountain Division trained for combat in extreme alpine conditions. And that led to key victories for Allied forces in the mountains of Europe. After the war, some of the soldiers returned to Colorado and helped launch the state’s ski industry.  

A new History Colorado exhibit called Winter Warriors explores the legacy of Camp Hale and its impact on surrounding communities. It’s on display...

There's a trend in Colorado that has higher education officials concerned.  

The number of high school graduates is declining -- and that means the state's colleges and universities are expecting a dropoff in enrollment in the coming years.  

Colorado is one of three dozen states bracing for what's become known as the "enrollment cliff." And the prospect of fewer students only adds to the pressures that many colleges and universities are currently navigating, like recent cuts to federal research grants or a drop in international students. 

Education reporter Erica Bre...

The Colorado River has been under strain for years from hotter temperatures and prolonged drought. It supplies drinking water to tens of millions of people and provides irrigation for more than 5 million acres of farmland.  

And demand has been growing for a shrinking supply. The seven states that rely on water from the river have spent years trying - and failing – to agree on how to divide up less water.  

Now the federal government has stepped in with a plan that could mean steep cuts for some users, especially in the lower-basin stat...

Colorado has played a leading role in many films. The state’s western landscapes can be seen in movies like The Hateful Eight and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.   

Then there’s the famous scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in which Paul Newman and Robert Redford leap off the edge of a cliff into the rushing river below. That scene was filmed near Durango, above the Animas River.   

Robert Redford famously spent a lot of time in Boulder. And actors like Don Cheadle and Pam Grier have all come from Colorado...

In an era of high-speed gondolas and sprawling ski resorts, it's easy to forget how some of Colorado's smaller mountains shaped ski culture as we know it today.
 
Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs is one of those mountains. It's a fraction of the size of the resorts in Aspen or Vail – or the bigger resort across town.

But Howelsen Hill made a huge impact when it opened back in 1915. The hill bears the name of its founder, a champion ski jumper from Norway named Carl Howelsen. Over the years, Howelsen Hill got more people ski...

Colorado marks its 150th birthday this Saturday, Aug. 1.

Experts at History Colorado have been thinking for a while of different ways to help commemorate the state’s anniversary. One idea was to track down the earliest known photograph of Colorado.   

And what they uncovered is striking: It’s a daguerreotype from 1853, taken during an expedition across the West more than 20 years before Colorado became a state in 1876. 

The image depicts a Cheyenne village with two people facing the camera, near what is now Lamar, Colo. 

For the curators at Histo...

It was one of the deadliest disasters in Colorado history: Fifty years ago, a flash flood swept through Big Thompson Canyon between Estes Park and Loveland. It killed at least 144 people on July 31, 1976. 

A torrential rainstorm that formed suddenly unleashed more than a foot of rain on the area that evening. Emergency crews rushed to warn people. Many residents and tourists hurried to safety. But many others were caught off guard. 

That disaster changed how emergency responders operate in Colorado. It helped underline the need for better emergency alert systems. And lessons fr...

When a wildfire breaks out in Colorado, scores of emergency responders help fight the blaze and protect residents: wildland firefighters, pilots for air tankers, and law enforcement to help evacuate people. 

There's one job you don't hear about as much — but it plays an integral role in how crews respond to a fast-moving wildfire. 

A team of incident meteorologists with the National Weather Service dispatches weather experts to disasters like wildfires, hurricanes and blizzards. They help emergency crews plan their response based on how weather conditions are likely to change. 

Juan Hernandez is an in...

On a given night, there are more than 800 people experiencing homelessness in the city of Aurora.  

That's according to the most recent survey from the Metro Denver Homelessness Initiative. Some of them find shelter and support at a regional center designed to house up to 600 people.  

On Friday nights, one of those people is the city’s top elected official.  

Since late February, Aurora mayor Mike Coffman has spent his Friday nights sleeping on a cot at the shelter. He says it gives him unique insight into the program and h...

If you're like most people, you've probably gotten at least one alert over the years saying that your mobile phone or favorite tablet is being put out to pasture.  

It's that moment when the tech company behind the product is no longer supporting or updating the technology. That's often when you're forced to buy a newer (and more expensive) version. 

A Colorado consumer group says this is unfair -- and they want consumers to have a say. The group, called CoPIRG, argues that consumers deserve ongoing support for a product they purchase. An...

Some Colorado ski resort managers are trying a new strategy as they recover from an unusually warm and dry winter, in hopes of making next season better. 

The concept is called snow storage. Basically, resorts gather piles of leftover snow from the end of ski season and shield them from the sun and heat. The hope is that most of that snow will make it through the summer – and translate into a solid base of snow when the next ski season begins later this year. 

So, what makes snow storage possible? And does...

Nearly one in five new moms experiences anxiety or depression during pregnancy or after giving birth. These conditions can lead to difficulty bonding with a newborn, or a higher risk of suicide, if left untreated.   

But a new experimental treatment is giving some researchers hope. It's a psychoactive substance derived from mushrooms called luvesilocin. 

In a recent set of FDA trials, a single dose of luvesilocin turned out to be highly effective – and worked more quickly – in improving patients' postpartum depression and anxiety.  

Dr. Camille Hoffman is an OB-GYN and Prof...

Summer is a great time to see Colorado by car.   

And this summer in particular, with high fuel prices pushing up airfares, more Coloradans may decide to keep their summer vacation plans a little more local.  

Many Colorado highways provide stunning alpine views, scenic forests, wildflowers and waterfalls, and a connection to the state’s historic communities and culture.  

Today on In The NoCo, we present a few interesting drives for your summer to-do list. Lenore Bates, manager of the state’s Colorado Byways program, joined Erin O’Toole to share s...

A poison control center is the place to call if your child accidentally swallows something dangerous, like paint or a detergent pod.   

But the Rocky Mountain Poison Center based in Denver also tracks the things that poison Coloradans. It monitors prescription drug misuse, tracks new substances Coloradans might ingest and helps hospitals treat venomous snake bites. 

Dr. Richard Dart first led the center, which serves Colorado and three other western states, in 1992. In the decades that followed, he saw many changes, from how the center handles phone calls to how it trains the...

Do your eyes sting? Is your throat sore? Is it happening pretty regularly this summer? 

You're not alone. It's already been a grueling wildfire season across Colorado: thousands of acres burned, hundreds of structures destroyed, three firefighters dead and a helicopter pilot lost in a fatal crash over the weekend. 

But even if you're not that close to a wildfire, the secondhand effects of wildfire season are real.  

Delphine Farmer is a chemistry professor at Colorado State University who specializes in air quality.  She shared a few tips on how to respond when...

The winter sport Nordic combined requires intense effort. Athletes launch themselves off towering ski jumps – then push their endurance in cross-country ski racing the same day. 

But the women's Nordic combined team in Steamboat Springs got attention in recent years for a different kind of effort. They called for a chance to compete in the Winter Olympics.  

Men have competed in the sport in the Olympics since 1924, but women's Nordic combined had never been part of the Games. 

Colorado lawmakers even got involved earlier this year, sending a letter urging the International Olympic Commi...

Colorado recently reached a major clean energy milestone: In the first three months of this year, the majority of its electricity – 53 percent – came from renewable sources, like wind, solar and geothermal.  

That's according to an article from the news website Big Pivots. And it marks a significant step toward Colorado's goal of getting to 100% emission-free electricity by the year 2050. 

 But despite hitting this threshold, energy officials say the most challenging part of the transition may still lie ahead — and big questions remain about how to keep the grid reliable while keeping costs down.   <...

A discovery by paleontologists working in Colorado is giving scientists a slightly revised history of primates. That’s the group of mammals that includes apes – and humans.  

Scientists working at Corral Bluffs near Colorado Springs recently discovered tiny teeth and bone fragments belonging to a species called Purgatorius.  

Purgatorius was an early and distant cousin of humans. It thrived 65 million years ago  – not  long after an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Purgatorius fossils had never been found as far south as Colorado before this recent dig. And scientists say the discovery suggests that, once dinosaurs were out o...

Drive through some communities in Colorado, and your movements may be monitored by a network of cameras that track your license plate. Police say they use these cameras to respond to crime and track down suspects. 

A company called Flock Safety operates dozens of these cameras in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins. They’ve quietly photographed millions of cars over the last year.  And right now, these cities are grappling with the question of whether these cameras help fight crime – or are an abuse of privacy and civil liberties.  

In June, Fort Collins...

This year marks the 250th birthday of the United States – and it’s also the 150th anniversary of Colorado becoming a state.  But it was not an easy journey to get there. 

In December 1875, a group of 39 elected delegates from the Colorado Territory gathered in a brick building in Denver. Their mission was to lay out a constitutional framework for the state of Colorado – on a very tight deadline. 

There had been four previous attempts at statehood, and Congress had given these delegates an ultimatum: If they couldn’t write and pass a constitut...

Headlines and video images from across Colorado and the West this week illustrate a brutal reality: Wildfires are deadly – and so is the work of fighting them. 

News of three casualties in the Snyder Fire west of Grand Junction drove home that sentiment earlier this week. Three wildland firefighters who to traveled to Colorado died fighting the blaze.  

So today on In The NoCo, we’re looking at the story from a different angle. We want to hear about how wildland firefighters protect themselves in the worst of circumstances.  

Tim...

If you ask a wildlife official – moose are relatively new arrivals to Colorado. 

In the late 1970s, wildlife managers released two dozen moose captured in other states into Routt National Forest near Walden. Before that, moose may have occasionally wandered in and out of Colorado, but didn’t have a permanent home here, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s official moose webpage. 

But a researcher at the University of Colorado says that history is all wrong – and that moose have been part of Colorado’s ecosystem for centuries.  

William Taylo...

Colorado leaders have a unique plan to make cheaper prescription drugs available. It’s starting to move forward after seven years in development – but the chances of success are uncertain.  

Governor Jared Polis says Americans are getting “ripped off” when it comes to prescription drug prices. And he's looking to Canada to help remedy the situation. The plan calls for importing drugs from Canada, where prices are lower. 

The project just passed a key milestone for approval from federal regulators. But it still has some major hurdles to clear before it actually lowers the price of what’s...

Wilderness areas are designed partly to let people escape the sounds of civilization – to get away from noise like traffic.  

But a handful of recent decisions by Trump administration officials could bring a more jarring sound into wilderness areas in Colorado and other western states: the sound of chainsaws ripping through timber.  

That's something that was prohibited for decades. But officials recently said they'd allow the use of chainsaws to remove fallen trees that were blocking trails in Idaho.   

So, does this mean we can expect the sound of chains...

Colorado's Western Slope is famous for the fruit that’s grown there. Cherries, apples, and peaches are a staple of farmers' markets. 

But Colorado is also famous for wild, unpredictable weather. And this past April, a spring freeze devastated many of the western slopes' fruit orchards. Some growers saw total losses of this year's crops.  

We wanted to know how fruit growers survive, and keep their farmstands stocked, after a devastating freeze like that one. 

So, we reached out to Harrison Topp to learn more. He’s a co-owner of Topp...

Scientists have a new tool in the fight to eradicate a fish that’s been causing havoc in some of Colorado’s mountain streams.   

Brook trout are a nonnative species introduced in the state more than a century ago. They breed prolifically and edge out many native fish species for food and other resources.  Over the decades, "brookies" have steadily pushed out Colorado's native cutthroat trout.  

Now, scientists and wildlife officials are trying a new approach that involves altering the very biology of the brook trout.    

Reporter Michael Booth covers the...

 
Since 1960, the National Repertory Orchestra has brought talented college-aged musicians to Colorado to practice the art of playing in an ensemble.  

Each season, about 80 young musicians are selected to join the NRO in Breckenridge. They spend eight weeks rehearsing and performing in Summit County. Many of them go on to pursue careers in professional orchestras across the country.  

 
To get a glimpse behind the scenes at this unusual – and influential – summer orchestra, Erin O’Toole spoke last year with Michael Stern, their music director and conductor. He shared what makes a summer in the Nat...

A new stage production in Longmont and Boulder examines the displacement of Black residents. 

In the 1950s, thousands of Black families in Indianapolis were pushed out when their neighborhood was destroyed to make way for the expansion of a university.   

That area, known as Indiana Avenue, had been a thriving community, with Black-owned businesses, churches and newspapers. 

A new play, 13 Fires, is a historical drama that explores one family’s experience. They live in a shack with carboard partitions. A severe winter storm is coming in. They’re worried about st...

This might be the end for text messages from the school lunchroom and Instagram pics from the hallways. At least if students follow the rules.
 
Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, announced last week it's banning cell phones, smart watches and other devices during the school day. Previously, different schools in DPS had different policies on when or if to allow kids to use devices. 

A growing number of Colorado school districts have enacted bans similar to the new DPS policy — or are considering them right now. That’s...

The city of Longmont last week took an unusual step toward limiting the impact of data centers on the community and its energy grid. 

Data centers are built to support the growing tech and artificial intelligence sections. And they consume huge amounts of electricity and water, which makes them especially controversial in an arid state like Colorado. 

The Longmont city council voted to restrict the development of especially large – or “hyperscale” – data centers that would consume more than 5 percent of the city’s available power. That’s about 70 megawatts, or enough energy to power rough...

Federal wildlife officials asked the public earlier this year for feedback on how Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program was going. It’s been two and a half years since Colorado wildlife managers began releasing wolves into the wild. 

And one of the responses from the public contained a stunning admission.  

The owner of one of the largest ranches in Colorado said — in writing — that a worker on their ranch had recently killed a female wolf to defend livestock on the property, according to The Colorado Sun.  

That's a serious admission. Killing a wolf is illegal...

Fifty years ago, two men came to the Boulder County courthouse seeking a license to get married. 

Marriage equality was not the law of the land in 1975. But Clela Rorex, the newly elected Boulder County clerk, could find nothing in Colorado state law that would prevent her from issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple. So, she did. And she issued five more in the next few weeks before she was ordered to stop. 

It was a historic moment in the movement for LGBTQ rights, and her actions made her a he...

A few years back, federal regulators gave an ultimatum to negotiators from the seven states that rely on Colorado River water. It boiled down to find a path forward, or we'll figure one out for you. 

It was a big ask. The agreement over how to share river water was a century old and overdue for an update. Severe drought strained the river and its reservoirs. Cities in the region, from Denver to Los Angeles, had grown dramatically over the decades.   

So negotiators from various states talked for years without agreeing how to divvy up the...

In 2004, Tom Mowle was a political science professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.  

It was early in the Iraq war. The U.S had invaded just the year before. A top general asked for help understanding the landscape in Iraq, and Tom volunteered. 

A few weeks later, Tom left his desk job and flew to Baghdad. He had no idea what he was getting into. He lost colleagues throughout the war and lived on a base that was frequently under fire.   

He revisited those experiences in his...