Fall colors at Great Sand Dunes National Park? White?

Looks like snow to me.  From the Department of Interior:

Fall colors have arrived at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. #nature #autumn #colorado pic.twitter.com/34RXSkuBLe

A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the memory of Sand Creek – at SMU, September 19, 2013

Painting of the Sand Creek Massacre, Colorado Historical Society

Sometimes the e-mail I get brings wind of real history discussions, and this one sounds interesting even if the Texas State Board of Education is trying to run away from U.S. history on the issues of war on Native Americans.

Teachers, you can get an hour of CE credit, if you phone and let them know in advance.

And it’s free.

These sessions are good, and if you think you don’t know enough to ask good questions, you should understand that SMU faculty will be there to grill the author if you don’t.

A Misplaced Massacre:
Struggling over the Memory of Sand Creek
Ari Kelman, University of California-Davis

Thursday, September 19, 2013
6 pm reception followed by 6:30 lecture and book-signing
The DeGolyer Library
6404 Hilltop Lane at McFarlin Boulevard, on the campus of SMU

In this lecture, Kelman will examine the ways in which generations of Americans have struggled to come to terms with the meaning the Sand Creek Massacre and its aftermath, most publicly at the 2007 opening of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Kiowa County, Colorado.

Books will be available for purchase and for signing.

Although this event is free and open to the public, seating is limited. Please register on the link below.  If you have questions or need special accommodations, please call 214-768-3684 or email swcenter@smu.edu

More:

• Colorado History Museum Closes Sand Creek Display (denver.cbslocal.com)
• Denver museum closes Indian massacre display (denverpost.com)
• History Colorado Center closes Sand Creek Massacre display (denverpost.com)
• Editorial: Right call (but late) on Sand Creek Massacre exhibit (denverpost.com)
• Article on the incidents at Legends of America

Fly your flags on August 1 in Colorado: Statehood day

August 1 is the anniversary of the day in 1876 when Colorado was proclaimed a member of the union, the 38th state in the United States.

U.S. and Colorado flags flutter from the same flagpole. Denver Library image

According to Colorado newspaperman and politician Jerry Koppel, Colorado’s path to statehood started in 1864, in an attempt to get another Republican state to boost Abraham Lincoln’s re-election chances.  Coloradans rejected the proposed constitution in a plebiscite, however, which pushed the effort into the next Lincoln administration — which, sadly, a month into Lincoln’s new term, became the Andrew Johnson administration.

High politics:  Colorado’s path to statehood was not straight.  While Colorado was not frustrated so often nor so long as Utah, proposed laws to bring the state into the union were vetoed twice by President Andrew Johnson.  History from the Andrew Johnson National Historical Site in Greenville, Tennessee:

Colorado Statehood

First Veto:

1. There was such a small population in the area, Johnson felt Colorado would fare better as a territory without the added taxation of statehood.

2. Also due to the small population, Colorado would have only one representative to speak for the people in Congress. (New York, on the other hand, had thirty-one).

3. Johnson felt the citizens of Colorado were not prepared for, and not all wanted, statehood. Johnson wanted to hold a census or an election there first. This would ascertain the number of people in the area, as well as find out what their strongest desire was.

Second veto:

1. Johnson didn’t agree with the Edmunds Amendment which said that Nebraska and Colorado had to give equal suffrage to blacks and whites as a statehood condition. Johnson felt this was unconstitutional because Congress couldn’t regulate a state’s franchise, and the people had not been allowed to vote on it.

2. After holding a census, Johnson felt the population was still too small for statehood.

NOTE: In addition, Johnson did not feel right about adding new states to the Union when the Confederate States had not yet been readmitted to the Union and were still unrepresented.

Congress sustained the veto.

Jerome B. Chaffee, one of Colorado’s first U.S. Senators, and the man who earlier pushed through Congress the law admitting Colorado into the Union. Library of Congress description: “Chaffee, Hon. J.B. of Colorado” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Colorado Republican and millionaire Jerome Chaffee, serving as the Colorado Territory delegate to Congress, managed to get a statehood bill passed in 1875, in the second term of President Ulysses S Grant; Grant signed the law.   Colorado drafted a state constitution that passed muster, Coloradans approved it, and President Grant declared Colorado the 38th state on July 1, 1876.  Chaffee was elected one of the first U.S. Senators from Colorado by the new state legislature.  In an odd footnote, President Grant’s son, Ulysses S Grant, Jr., married Chaffee’s daughter Fannie in 1881.  In 1875, Chaffee claimed 150,000 people lived in the state, but most historians think that figure was inflated; the 1880 census counted 194,000 people, but some historians doubt that count was accurate.

No doubt there are at least that many people in Colorado today.  Several counties in the northeast corner of the state recently got together to explore the possibility of separating from Colorado to form their own state.  Does the political cauldron in Colorado ever cool?

More:

• Free Admission Into Colorado State Parks On Colorado Day (k99.com)
• Rebellious Colorado Counties Move Forward With Plans To Secede (patdollard.com)
• Secession push highlights Colorado’s growing political schism (watchdog.org)
• Firestone: North Colorado secession public meeting recap (coyotegulch.wordpress.com)
• Marking the passing of maybe the most-criticized president ever (constitutioncenter.org)
• ‘North Colorado’ statehood movement could grow (denverpost.com)
• Grand Lake, at North American Educational Explorers, a site for teachers

One of the more dramatic images from Colorado in recent years, courtesy the U.S. Air Force. Captioned in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 15, 2013: An American flag hangs in front of a burning structure in the Black Forest, a thickly wooded rural region north of Colorado Springs, Colo. Authorities reported early Saturday that 473 houses had been incinerated.

PRCA Rodeo in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; photo from SeaSweetie’s Pages

Powerful argument for limiting bullets in a clip: Colorado Sen. Mike Johnston pleads to give victims a chance to escape

Here’s one of my nominees for the next editions of Great Speeches of the 21st Century, and Great Speeches in American History.  Sen. Mike Johnston, on March 11, in the Colorado State Senate, spoke against coward, “hollow men,” who commit mass shootings, and how to protect from them:

Notes from YouTube posting:

Published on Mar 12, 2013

March 11, 2013: Sen. Mike Johnston (D-Denver) describes how gun safety legislation, particularly HB 13-1224, can make a difference.

What do you think?

Colorado State Senator Michael Johnston – Wikipedia Photo

‘Eleven kids saved in eleven seconds’ seems like a powerful argument, to me.

And this:  “And so the bad news is that at that moment will be outgunned.  The good news is that in America that never means we will be outfought.”

And this:  “The task of taking lives, and the task of saving lives, are fundamentally different endeavors, and they require different tools.”

At about 6:04 into this, listen to Sen. Johnston talk about the “cost of living and loving is that it takes up so much space in our lives.”

Wow.

More:

• Colorado Senate passes raft of gun bills; House Democrat now wavers (denverpost.com)
• New gun control laws pass Colorado Senate (capitolhillblue.com)
• Colorado Senate OKs gun bill (politico.com)
• Text of Colorado HR 13-1224 (I think this is the final version, as passed by both houses)
• Mike Johnston’s campaign website
• Johnston’s page at the Colorado General Assembly site; note he’s the vice-chair of the Education Committee
• And in opposition, a site that favors the shooters over the school kids:  Colorado Senate Dems push through gun control bill (americanthinker.com)

Light pollution-free area, near Little Snake River, Colorado

Take a look at this sunset shot:

Sunset on BLM land near the Little Snake River, in northwest Colorado. Photo by Shannon Diszmang, via Royal Gorge National Recreation Area.

Note from America’s Great Outdoors blog:

Earlier this year, the Royal Gorge Recreation Area staff had a photo contest on their Facebook page and here is one of the great photos that was submitted. Here’s what photographer, Shannon Diszmang, had to say about it.

“This is BLM land in Northwest Colorado (Little Snake River district). I fell in love with this place. The red haze in this photo is the smoke coming from the wildfires on the west coast at the time. This is one of the lowest light pollution spots in our state which makes star gazing the absolute best.”

So, if you’re nearby, and you want a good place to look at the Geminid meteor shower tonight, odds are high there will be little light pollution here.  If there aren’t many clouds, you’re in luck.

More:

• New Earth at night images reveal global light pollution problem (phys.org)
• U.S. Light Pollution Captured in Stunning New Satellite Images (Video) (ecorazzi.com)
• Colorado: Snowmaking impacts Snake River flows (summitcountyvoice.com)
• Light Pollution May Actually Help Some Migratory Birds (treehugger.com)

P.S.: The stunningly beautiful photo above is NOT the winner of the photo contest(!).  BLM wrote in a November press release:

CAÑON CITY, Colo. – Today the BLM Royal Gorge Field Office announced the winners of its BLM-sponsored photo contest.  The two winners were decided by the public via the RGFO’s Facebook page: one winner is based on the most “likes” and the other is based on the most “shares.” Only those “likes” and “shares” that originated from the Royal Gorge Facebook page were tallied towards a winner.

Chris Nelson’s photo was the most “liked” and is a scenic shot taken from Chaffee County Road 175 between Cañon City and Salida. Nelson’s photo received 64 “likes.”

The most “shared” photo was submitted by David Madone and portrayed several deer in an alfalfa field near Cañon City. Madone’s photo received 20 shares.

Both photos will be featured on the RGFO’s Facebook page throughout November and may be featured in future BLM Colorado publications and social media sites.

The photo contest began Oct. 2 and ended Nov. 4 with more than 60 photos submitted. All the photos that were entered into the contest may be viewed via the “Photo Contest” album on the RGFO’s Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/BLMRoyalGorge

Yeah, were I you, I’d go see what the winners looked like.

White-breasted nuthatch in action

White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) (male?), cracking a nut on a pine limb, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, Colorado, July 2012:

White-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)works over a seed, Colorado, 2012 – photo by Ed Darrell

 

Look on the cloudy side of the street . . .

. . . for the rainbow.

A view from Elbert Road, a few miles north of U.S. Highway 24 in Colorado, on July 18, 2012:

Start of a dual rainbow in an afternoon rainfall, Elbert Road, Colorado – photo by Ed Darrell