Another Name for Paradise: A Journey through the History and Nature of Northern Colorado

By James Hess

“I cannot say with certainty when I came to love the place that I call ‘home’,” notes writer James C. Hess, in the introduction to an effort that spans time and space, history and nature. “I can, however, cite reasons for why: It is a wonderful and wondrous place of light and sound at once mysterious and magnificent, savage and pastoral, defined by and recognized for the landscapes and the land, the geological and the geographical, the people, the legends, the myths, and the mysteries manifested as History and Nature.”

So begins a journey that starts in the cold of winter on New Year’s Day and ends the last day of fall among the forgotten dead, with one pursuit in hand: To know the place called Home, and why it is so.

Along the way he comes to an understanding about his place in this place, which involves snowshoeing with bison, starring contests with mountain lions, moments of joy with curious bobcats, and the acceptance of the truth of mortality we must all face as we are watched over by the sentinels of time made of sandstone and granite, that rise to meet the sky and the heavens beyond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Hess
• Release date: Aug 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301439317

James Hess

James C. Hess graduated from the University of Colorado, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, with additional studies in Editorial Journalism and Cinema Studies. He divides his time between his home in Colorado and all points west.https://www.instagram.com/j.c.hess/

Book preview

Another Name for Paradise:

A Journey

through the History and Nature of

Northern Colorado

By

James C. Hess

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

James C. Hess on SMASHWORDS

Another Name for Paradise:

A Journey

through the History and Nature of

Northern Colorado

Copyright 2013 James C. Hess

All Rights Reserved

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be re-sold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with others, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of the writer.

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Essays

Mitakuye Oyasin

Niinowoohut: Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, City of Fort Collins, Larimer County

Paa: Horsetooth Mountain Park, Larimer County

Ho’e (ni): Devil’s Backbone Open Space, Larimer County

Tiienoyiyikwinut: Lory State Park, Larimer County

Peta: Bingham Hill Cemetery

Afterword

References

Historical Notes

The Colorado Territory

The State of Colorado

The Homestead Act of 1862

Animal and Bird Notes

Butterfly Notes

Flower Notes

Grass Notes

Indigenous People Notes

Reptile Notes

Shrub and Tree Notes

Personal Notes

Biography

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For my father and mother,

Daniel and Jane

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Another Name for Paradise:

A Journey

through the History and Nature of

Northern Colorado

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Foreword

The work contained is, at best, modest in scope. No claims are made that the information presented is authoritative or definitive. Undeniably accomplished, educated, and more knowledgeable individuals recognized for their literary works have produced far more substantial tomes, and to many I owe a debt that cannot be repaid for all the information provided and knowledge imparted through acts of generosity without equal as I literally made my way back and forth across the state, and as I came to appreciate what the state has to offer in the form of their formidable writings.

The material presented is a humble effort to make a worthwhile contribution to the body of work about Colorado that exists, and, in part, as a thank you to all those who came before, providing inspiration and motivation through their action, word, and deed.

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Introduction

I cannot say with certainty when I came to love the place that I call home: The 38th addition to the Union, the Centennial State, Colorado. I can, however, cite reasons for why: Colorado has been and is home to the famous and the infamous, the renown and the acclaimed, the award-winning and the honored, the despised and the favored, and the profound and the profane.

It has provided inspiration and motivation for artists and writers, painters and filmmakers, business tycoons and entrepreneurs, leaders and liars, politicians and con artists - among others.

And it is a wonderful and wondrous place of light and sound at once mysterious and magnificent, savage and pastoral, defined by and recognized for the landscapes and the land, the geological and the geographical, the people and the cultures, the legends, the myths and the mysteries manifested as History and Nature.

The State of Colorado encompasses 66,624,000 acres, measures 280 miles north to south, 380 miles east to west, includes over 50 mountain peaks with elevations of more than 14,000 feet above sea level, and counts among its treasures national forests, national parks, national monuments, state parks, and open spaces.

As I realized my love I also realized how little, relatively-speaking, I knew about it, and resolved to correct the deficiency simply: I read articles and books about the state, visited some of these places, took photographs, and became a familiar face at bookstores and libraries where I laboriously amassed a body of knowledge and painstakingly gathered information that impressed some, intimidated others, and confused more than a few because they did not know or understand my reasoning for doing so.

Seated among bulging file folders, dog-eared index cards, worn sticky notes, and sun-bleached and rain-mottled notebooks I decided on a different path when it came to what I could do with all the information and knowledge accumulated: Because I wanted to know Colorado I decided I needed to know it first-hand.

After more than a few miles walked, hiked, biked, and traveled on snowshoes, I came to a certain conclusion: Colorado is another name for Paradise.

The essays included are not intended as all-encompassing. They are samples of what the State of Colorado has to offer, what attracted and still attracts so many: Opportunity, possibility, and the ability to embrace and realize the seemingly impossible: Paradise.

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Essays

Mitakuye Oyasin

For some New Year’s Day is a day of resolve and resolution. A resolve not to drink as much on New Year’s Eve when it comes around again because of the probable after-effects involving headaches, an aversion to bright light and sound, and a less-than pleasant feeling brought on by indulgence and excess. A resolution to lose weight, get into shape physically; learn a new skill, or language, and forgo the sins and omissions committed the year before without consideration or thought to the consequences.

I do not make New Year’s Resolutions because I consider them weak and insincere attempts at promises that tend to go unfulfilled. My preference is to compile lists comprised of realistic goals and pursuits, and realize pleasure and satisfaction as one item after another is completed.

For me New Year’s Day comes as a day of quiet, when I can contemplate the past, present, and future: In the past year goals were set and accomplished; in the forthcoming year goals will be set and pursued; in the future other goals and plans gather, each to be pursued and, presumably, realized.

Because I am not inclined toward heavy drinking and excess the night before the New Year is greeted early. On one occasion I arose just after dawn, delighted in the discovery of a fresh layer of snow, and realized the opportunity to go snowshoeing awaited.

Although the first rule of outdoor activities is DON’T GO ALONE, patience is not a virtue for me in such matters, and I admit I tend to violate it frequently it in my pursuit of adventure and experience. [1]

The first day of the New Year was no exception. I donned appropriate clothing, gathered my snowshoes, selected a small notepad, a pen, and a workhorse camera I have owned for many years, and made my way to a place where snowshoeing is appropriate: In the best of circumstances the unpaved road leading into a series of valleys is hard-packed and pock-marked with punishing ruts and teeth-jarring potholes created by naturally-occurring erosion. Due to neglect and disuse some portions of the road have succumbed to ever-growing ravines, resulting in an undeniable fact: In the winter travel is pursued with an inherent but accepted risk.

It was a risk deemed worthwhile because of the conditions: According to a portable anemometer I carried the relative temperature was zero. There was no wind, the sky was cloudless, and the whiteness almost covering everything suggested infinity.

After about a mile of breaking trail, the only sounds my labored breathing and my snowshoes huffing through the fresh, deep powder, I paused. A breeze originating from the high mountains not far away passed between frozen blades of yucca, resulting in celestial-like sounds.

Then, beyond the rise a few hundred yards from me, a sound antithetical to the melodic tones: Something rather heavy in weight crunching the snow, compressing it with each step. In the relative quiet the sound, otherwise inconsequential, was amplified and my heart rate increased in response. Against better judgment I took a dozen, careful and quiet steps toward the rise, pausing with each, listening.

The weight upon the snow crunched again and a deep breathing, almost guttural, followed. Common sense suggested I turn and quickly flee. The desire to know, the curiosity that more often than not motivates people to do things they might not otherwise do won out. I proceeded, taking one step at a time to approach the back side of the rise. In my thoughts were fragments of stories of self-styled experts who had failed to respect Nature, and who had paid the ultimate price.

I took a deep, quiet breath, and moved forward, to the top of the rise.

Just beyond the top of the rise were fresh track. Deep and well-defined they suggested an animal of a great weight and size, with a girth that could prove fatal to me. Initially parallel to me, then perpendicular, the track led away, downward, into the valley. I followed the track with my gaze, and saw the cause:

The American bison (Bison bison).

The animal looked at me, and all I could do was look at it because the last thing I had expected to see on the first day of the New Year, a cold winter’s day, was a mighty bison. After a few moments it turned its attention to the snow, pushing at it to gain access to grasses that tried to protrude.

The land on which we stood was once home to Native Americans. [2] Evidence of their presence endures in a teepee ring a few miles to the north. The land on which we stood was once home to pioneers who came for opportunity realized through hardship and seemingly impossible odds. Remains of their presence are found throughout the area in the form of fallen fences made of salvaged tree branches and rusted, twisted, barbed wire.

In this modest place the past, present, and future intersected in the form of the noble animal that stood before me.

I took a step toward it. The great head came up, one eye balefully considering me. I stopped, trying to recall if bison charged presumed predators and perceived threats. It watched as I slowly brought my camera up and took the shot.

The head went slightly up and then down, as if to approve, before it resumed searching for food.

Although the American Bison is not the presence in the American West it once was, numbering in the millions, it remains a formidable presence, and stands as a symbol of past, present, and future. Throughout Colorado there are numerous bison ranches, and the ranches where bison reside represent a way of life in Colorado that endures, in large part because they embody what the Oglala Lakota elder Black Elk was credited with saying:

Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related.)

We are all related: The land to the sky, the earth to humanity, man to beast as we make our way through life.

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Niinowoohut: Bobcat Ridge Natural Area, City of Fort Collins, Larimer County

The relationship between the land and the sky, humanity and the earth, man and beast showcased as history and nature takes form a few minutes southwest of Fort Collins, at the end of a two-lane unpaved road, in a place called "Bobcat