LocaLs A celebrAtion of our fAvorite personAlities Carl Herold at home on his South Routt ranch pAGe 33
Are You a Local?
We all like to brag about how long we’ve been here. Take Steamboat Living’s simple quiz to help determine whether you’re a cheechako or a sourdough when it comes to your tenure in Steamboat. 1. White out is used to: A. turn legs into jelly B. correct mistakes on a term paper C. warm up your legs on the first run D. A and C 2. Three current postal clerks’ names are: A. Don, Tom and Ron B. Fred, Hank and Harriet C. Julie, John and Norbert 3. Locals used to gather atop Thunderhead in the early morning for: A. advice from Billy Kidd B. free coffee/mimosas C. rope drop 4. I try this ski parking sequence, in order: A. tiny lot below Knoll Lot, Ski Time Square, Knoll Lot, Meadows Lot B. Meadows Lot, Knoll Lot, Ski Time Square C. rodeo grounds, City Market, Wildhorse Meadows
5. Drink out of the Lithium Spring and you may get: A. the trots B. a euphoric feeling C. a ticket D. algae in your teeth
9. Touch the Buddy Werner statue atop Mount Werner and you’ll get: A. arrested B. good luck C. cold fingers
13. The name of our local mountain range is: A. Park B. Elk C. Zirkels D. Never Summer
6. The original name of the Yampa River was: A. Bear River B. Steamboat River C. Anything Town USA River D. Billy Kidd Brook
10. The following Broadway musical resulted from Agnes de Mille square dancing in a schoolhouse in Hayden: A. “Grease” B. “Oklahoma” C. “West Side Story”
14. These bands played at the Inferno: A. Dave Matthews, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Sonia Dada B. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Taj Mahal and the Suburbs C. Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull and Charlie Daniels
7. The original hospital in town now is: A. a medical marijuana dispensary B. Old Town Pub C. Old Town Hot Springs D. a tattoo parlor 8. The following people attended Perry-Mansfield: A. Dustin Hoffman, Julie Harris and Lee Remick B. Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake C. Marilyn Monroe
11. The word “Yampa” comes from: A. a flowering, edible root that grows along the river B. the founder of town, Herbert B. Yampa C. an Indian greeting
15. The original name of Steamboat Ski Area was: A. Billy Kiddville B. Storm Mountain C. Grouse Creek D. Wally World
12. The real name of today’s Lighted Man is: A. Tom Hanks B. Jon Banks C. Claudius Banks
16. The old Routt County license plates started with: A. ZY B. YK C. WZ
17. Lincoln Avenue is so wide because: A. it was designed to fit Hummers and Lincoln Navigators B. it was used to drive cattle to stockyards C. high school tuba players needed more room at Winter Carnival 18. The train depot once was one of the largest: A. cattle shipping centers in the West B. facilities to host Cabaret C. coal-transfer stations in Colorado How did you score? 5 points for each correct answer (90 total) 80 to 90: veritable John Crawford 70 to 79: Billy Kidd 60 to 69: five-year ski bum 50 to 59: came for the winter, stayed for the summer Below 50: just visiting
Answers: 1: D; 2: A; 3: C; 4: B; 5: B; 6: A; 7: B; 8: A; 9: B; 10: B; 11: A; 12: B; 13: A; 14: A; 15: B; 16: C; 17: B; 18: A
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ortable Grills
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Located at the corner of Pine Grove Rd. and US 40, Behind Staples 970-879-7614 | www.hotstuffhearth.com
PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: Brent Boyer
B E T T E R I N G
D O W N T O W N
Tracy Barnett Whether picking up tire-flattened soda cans and other trash from Lincoln Avenue or waking up with a start at 3 a.m. with an idea to improve the downtown business district, Tracy Barnett can’t shake free from her devotion to Mainstreet Steamboat Springs. “I love Steamboat, and having been a business person downtown, I’ve always just wanted to make things better,” says Tracy, a small-town Minnesota girl who now has called Steamboat home for nearly 40 years. She first arrived in the Yampa Valley in 1975, a fitting destination for someone who grew up loving all things Western — horses and history in particular. Fate brought her and longtime husband, Cooper, together when Tracy’s parents bought a California home from Cooper’s parents during her senior year of high school. Cooper was a student at Yampa Valley College — now Colorado Mountain College’s Alpine Campus — at the time. The young couple later was living in a tent and taking care of a Lake Tahoe campground when the two packed up their car and made the permanent move to Steamboat. Tracy got a job at the front
desk at the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association, and Cooper returned to his former job at the old Sidestep restaurant. Tracy soon found herself working in the food service industry, as well, and when the opportunity presented itself in 1985, the Barnetts bought Mazzola’s Majestic Italian Diner from previous owner Curt Weiss. They owned the Lincoln Avenue eatery for nearly 20 years before a health issue took Cooper away from the business and got Tracy thinking about her next move. It was at that time in the early 2000s that Tracy and several other business-minded folks helped to organize a local chapter of the Main Street movement that seeks to revitalize, preserve and grow downtown business districts in cities and towns across the nation. Before long, the Barnetts had sold Mazzola’s, and Tracy was hired as Mainstreet’s first manager. For almost a decade now, Tracy has made it her mission to improve downtown Steamboat’s historic shopping and dining district. Hardly a day passes when she doesn’t spend time walking Lincoln Avenue and stopping to talk with business owners and shoppers. She’s been the driving
force behind the successful summertime Mainstreet Farmers Market, and she’s always looking to tackle the next big challenge. At the top of her list: Yampa Street. “It has to be the way we go next,” Tracy says. “But it has so many challenges to improve it while maintaining its funkiness.” The Barnetts’ two adult children, Brady Worster and Casey Barnett, call Steamboat home, as well, and often can be found alongside their mom helping at the Farmers Market and other Mainstreet events. Tracy’s dedication to a clean, safe and visitor-friendly downtown first kicked into high gear when she owned Mazzola’s and would walk Lincoln Avenue at 4 a.m. to pick up trash in front of businesses. Her “Auntie Litter” nickname still holds true as does her grab-the-bull-by-the-horns approach to work. “If you don’t do anything, nothing gets done,” she says. “And it takes passion. If you want to get something done, find someone who’s passionate about it and let them run with it.” The downtown Steamboat Springs business community might not know how lucky it is to have found Tracy — or that she found it. Summer 2012 |
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A
FLOWERING
EFFORT
Emily Seaver PhoToS: John F. ruSSell STorY: nicole ingliS
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Emily Seaver remembers when the Yampa River Botanic Park had no shade. The collection of towering trees had just been planted, and the east Steamboat park — once a flat pasture — was budding into the six-acre, 40-garden retreat it is today. “It’s so wonderful to watch it evolve,” says Emily, who has been volunteering at the park since it first opened. “I find it to be a very peaceful place.” Emily first visited the Yampa Valley in the 1970s. Like so many others, it was where she and her husband, Tony, chose to finally move in 1996. “We wanted to ski, and we wanted to live in a real town,” Emily says. “That narrows it down real quick.” Back in New Jersey, the Seavers had a garden that went by the wayside as the deer population got out of control. Emily recalls looking through the gates of the botanic-park-to-be with curiosity when she first moved to Steamboat. Shortly thereafter, she was a part of the crew of volunteers who put together the first rock garden. Now, a team of 15 regular volunteers — and sometimes as many as 40 — take care of the park with guidance from a design committee. And Emily is right there helping with every task. As a member of the Over The Hill Gang, Emily also helped start a garden sponsored by the group. She’s at the park at least once per week tending to the plants and trees from small perennials to aspen and crabapple trees. Bob Enever, who along with his wife, Audrey, founded the park and donated the land for it to the city, says Emily has been an indispensable part of the Botanic Park’s development; in addition to volunteering, she’s served on the board for more than a decade. “She organizes members of the Over The Hill Gang to come and maintain that garden, and it’s probably the best maintained garden in the park,” he says. “She always works hard on everything to do with the park. She does a terrific job, and the park is never far from her mind.” Enever says that it’s volunteers like Emily who will carry on the park’s legacy. And to Emily, there’s a good reason to keep at it. “It’s a wonderful, peaceful and quiet place,” she says. “It’s a wonderful place to come almost anytime of the day ... to mediate or to work in the quiet. It’s healing when you look at nature. Some things you think were so important maybe aren’t.”
PhoTo anD STorY: toM roSS
M E S H I N G
W I T H
T H E
M O U N TA I N S
Art and Milly Judson Art and Milly Judson met in a snowstorm during a mountain rescue mission west of Fort Collins. Although not exactly a first date, it was a fitting initial encounter for the two University of Colorado students whose lives have been full of mountains and snowstorms. He was a child of New York’s Adirondacks transplanted to Northern California. She grew up in Chicago and became enthralled by the Colorado Rockies. Their paths crossed as members of Rocky Mountain Rescue Group. If you ask Art, he’ll likely confess that he fell in love because she was a better climber than he was. “I was a better climber then, and I’m still a better climber,” Milly says. “Jud,” as friends know him, freely acknowledges that his wife once extricated him from a tricky situation on a volcano in Oregon’s High Cascades known as Mount Thielsen. “I was leading and got myself stuck,” he recalls. “Milly had to take the lead and belay me up.”
The two married in 1956 while Art was studying geology at the University of Colorado and then moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis, where Art earned his bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1960. The couple will have been married 55 years in December. After reading a magazine article about snow rangers practicing avalanche control in preparation for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, Calif., he found his calling. That interest in avalanches and snow safety brought the couple back to Colorado where Art landed a job as a snow ranger with the Arapaho National Forest. He became a protege of veteran snow ranger Dick Stillman, conducting research on avalanche zones on Berthoud Pass. Milly, meanwhile, enjoyed careers as a high school English teacher and manager of a travel agency. She also is an accomplished fine-art painter. The two built their home in Steamboat and moved here in 1969.
Art is keenly aware that more people than ever are skiing and snowmobiling in the backcountry these days, and he doesn’t understand the chances they’re taking. “It’s a different kind of thinking,” he says. “People have more knowledge (about avalanche conditions), and they don’t want to be told you can’t really forecast these things accurately.” Milly has the distinction of having an avalanche path on the northeast flank of Hahn’s Peak named after her, the Milly O (her maiden name is Opie). In 2006, Art received recognition for his contributions to the field of avalanche forecasting and safety by the American Avalanche Association. He faithfully records weather data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at 7 a.m. every day. And he still drives up Elk River Road in the winter with a pair of binoculars and a camera to keep an eye on avalanche activity across Routt County.
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T E A C H I N G
M O R E
T H A N
A C A D E M I C S
Beth Wendler
PhoTo anD STorY: Scott Franz
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Teachers in Steamboat Springs are wondering how Beth Wendler finds time to do so much good. After she and her husband, Todd, moved to the Yampa Valley from Denver in 2004 to raise their three kids, Beth found solace volunteering in classrooms and giving teachers a helping hand. Her dedication to students quickly caught the attention of local educators. “I couldn’t imagine having a family and giving so much time outside of it to volunteer,” Steamboat Springs Middle School teacher Jennifer Spurlock says about Beth. “Her effort and energy is impressive.” In 2009, Beth helped open a store in the atrium of the middle school that rewards students for good behavior with Nerf guns, jewelry, pizza and root beer floats. “We have a whole bunch of stuff to reward students with,” she says. Beth also spearheaded the effort to have local businesses donate prizes to the store. When it’s closed, the room is a dark space not much larger than an oversized closet. But when Beth gets behind the counter, the store is mobbed by crowds of kids anxious to cash in the tickets they earned for being good students. The store is part of the middle school’s Positive Behavior System. Sitting in the school’s cafeteria in May, Beth predicts the store and its impact on students will only continue to grow next school year. “This is not just a fun, neat idea,” she says. “It’s something that has proven to really work. I think the potential impact the store has on the school is important and profound. I love that it serves all kids, not just the ones who get accolades because they’re a jock or they play instruments in a band.” Teachers report that since the store opened, referrals to the office for bad behavior have fallen. When she’s not volunteering at area schools, Beth is leading music classes with families and their young children and infants. “It’s fun to see families have 45 minutes in their week to focus on their children and play music with them,” she says. She adds that she’s not the only volunteer who deserves praise in Steamboat. “Like so many of us who live and stay here, it was important for us to be in a place with a strong sense of community,” she says. “There are hundreds of amazing volunteers in this town.”
H O M E
O N
T H E
R A N G E
Carl Herold PhoToS anD STorY: Scott Franz
On the picturesque acres he nurtures in Yampa, Carl Herold easily could stay away from public service and debates. The lifelong Routt County resident has sweeping views of the Flat Tops and a healthy list of chores on his cattle ranch that sits far away from traffic signals and bustle. But Carl always has had a strong voice in his community. “If you live in a community, you should be involved in it,” he says while leaning on a tractor parked near the old white house he and his wife, Rita, have lived in since 1968. “So many people give and help you to raise your children. A person needs to give a little bit back.” Carl’s resume of public service is impressive. He is an active member of the Community Agriculture Alliance and the Northwest Colorado Sage Grouse Committee as well as Routt County’s Farm Bureau and Extension and Weed advisory boards. He also has shared his passion and skill of leatherworking with 4-H members for decades. “People listen to what he has to say,” Community Agriculture Alliance Executive Director Marsha Daughenbaugh says. “He’s very well-read, and he thinks before he speaks. He’s a very kind man.” Carl, 71, grew up on a homestead near Stagecoach Reservoir. He and Rita have two grown children who live in Routt County. But much has changed during the seven decades he has called South Routt home. “Things have gotten faster around here,” he says, as he describes how new technology and advanced farming equipment have weakened some of the relationships between community members. “You don’t work together like you used to. It’s lost the community flavor a little bit, and that’s too bad. Sometimes, we stay within ourselves.” He says he has watched new smartphones hinder simple conversations between schoolchildren who walk together along the quiet dirt roads that lead to his ranch. But despite the advent of new technology, much of Carl’s ranching lifestyle remains unchanged and pleasantly predictable. “All of the valley is usually consistent,” he says. “Most of the time, I know how many days I can plant on. You don’t have the flies and the worms near as bad here as they are in other places.” Before driving his old, dusty Dodge pickup truck to check on his herd, Carl says that aside from brief departures to serve in the U.S. Army and attend college in Oklahoma, he never had a desire to leave the Yampa Valley behind. “There’s good people in this county,” he says. “And there always have been.” Summer 2012 |
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PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: nicole ingliS
BUILDING
A
COMMUNITY
OF
READERS
Sherry Holland Sherry Holland is more than a librarian because today, the media center at Strawberry Park Elementary School is much more than a library. With the advent of digital and social media, today’s children consume information and read in a completely new way. “It’s exciting right now because no day is the same,” Sherry says. “I’m working with something that opens the world to these kids. They’re becoming more critical in their thinking and more inspired.” Although the school has a couple of Nooks, 40 iPads and 25 iPod Touches, Sherry never loses sight of the value of the physical book and the transformative powers of stories. “It builds language and understanding of each other,” she says. “It builds compassion and an understanding of the
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humanity in all of us.” Sherry has been working at Strawberry Park for 12 years and has lived in Steamboat Springs since 1981, when she worked for the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Northwest Colorado. She has two grown sons in Wyoming but hundreds of children per year in which to cultivate a passion for stories, literature and writing. She does that with her undeniable energy, cheery sense of humor and unwavering passion for allowing kids to just be kids through exploring the literary world. Local resident Blair Seymour has had three sons go through Strawberry Park. Two of them participated in the student council program Sherry runs, and all of them have taken part in her extracurricular book clubs. But Seymour says that’s not all
Sherry does beyond her librarian duties. “She puts on these book fairs twice a year, but she goes above and beyond,” Seymour says. “She dresses up, decorates the entire library and has a weekend event for parents. She has so much enthusiasm — she’s always super upbeat and going a million miles a minute. My kids love her.” Seymour adds that the book clubs, which Sherry runs before and after school, have directly impacted her children and their love of books. “They love reading, and part of it is from her,” she says. “She directed them to books they’ve really enjoyed.” Sherry says the book clubs offer some of the highlights of her job. “I see these kids flourish from first to fifth grade,” she says. “I love seeing how they become such great readers and lovers of books and stories.”
Pictured: Hunter Douglas Designer Roller Shades with Custom Wood Valences
PhoTo anD STorY: Scott Franz
L O O K I N G T O N E W O P P O R T U N I T I E S
Draperies, Romans, Top Treatments, and Side Panels in 400 beautiful fabrics
Jake Barker
Howelsen Hill always will be Jake Barker’s second home. Sitting at the base of the hill’s dormant ski jumps in early June, the Steamboat Springs High School graduate estimates that he has spent a quarter of his life skiing and playing at the city park. “I’m excited to come back here in five years and see how the young kids who are in training now have grown,” he says. “This is the coolest place ever. I was down here almost every day during the school year.” Jake, a lifelong Steamboat resident, will leave the Yampa Valley in the fall to study at Middlebury College in Vermont. He may be stepping away from his familiar “paradise,” but the 18-year-old says he’ll just have to take Steamboat with him to the East Coast. “I want to take part of my community with me wherever I go,” he says. “Whether it’s with my Moots bike or my Fischer Nordic skis, I want to take the experiences I’ve had in this town with me.” Jake skied for the Steamboat
Springs Winter Sports Club and his high school’s Nordic and Alpine ski teams. He also graduated summa cum laude and earned the 4.2 GPA he needed to address his classmates during his high school’s graduation ceremony. Steamboat Springs High School Principal Kevin Taulman says his campus graduates several students like Jake each year who master athletics and academics. Still, Taulman says Jake’s name jumped out of the list of 2012 graduates. “He just embodies Steamboat,” Taulman says. “He’s a good smalltown kid. He’s generous. He’s caring. He took rigorous courses and still excelled at sports. And yet he’s humble.” Now Jake hopes Vermont will offer him as many opportunities as Steamboat did. “Hopefully, I can get a taste of everything while I’m there,” he says. “The key to Steamboat is you almost have to leave it to realize how much you appreciate how much it has affected you and defined you as a person.”
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PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: nicole ingliS
RUNNING
ON
ALL
CYLINDERS
Hiram Martin Fast cars are just in his blood. Hiram Martin spent most of his life in Wisconsin, where his father’s body shop and a drag-racing uncle had him turning wrenches before he could legally drive. Now the manager of Four Star Repair, Hiram is as dedicated as ever to keeping cars — commuters and hot rods alike — on the road and out of the shop. In 1999, Hiram came to Steamboat Springs, where he first worked for a local taxi service. It originally was just a visit, but he’s been here ever since. “I love how nice the people are here and how they take care of themselves and their things,” Hiram says. If those things involve motors, Hiram helps out however he can. On a sunny afternoon at the shop, a deep orange 1968 Ford Mustang sits up
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on a lift. Hiram says it belongs to a local man who looks to him to keep his ’Stang running year in and year out — plus a few extras. When Hiram reaches inside the black leather interior and turns the key, the 351 roars to life. “He just wants to be able to put the key in and start it,” Hiram says about the owner. “You want that for anyone’s car.” But beyond just keeping it running, Hiram takes pride in adding a supercharger to the engine and lowering the gear ratios to offer the driver extra “oomph” off the line. Four Star Repair owner Tom Corl says it takes a special kind of personality and work ethic to do the kind of work Hiram does. “He just works real hard at it,” he says. “He’s very knowledgeable in
all aspects. He’s been through a lot of courses, but it’s a lot of common sense, not just school.” Hiram married Candice May in 2004, and the couple has a 4-year-old daughter named Greta. Yet he still finds time to get involved in community events like the Rocky Mountain Mustang Roundup, which he judges, as well as service the Horizons Specialized Services van fleet that transports residents with developmental disabilities. And Hiram goes above and beyond for that, as well, coming in on weekends to record the work done on each one. It’s that and more, he says, that truly makes a Steamboat local. “It’s somebody that cares about the community and tries hard in their field,” he says. “If you’re a mechanic, be the best mechanic you can.”
HELPING
OTHERS
AND
THE
ENVIRONMENT
Andy & Craig Kennedy Craig Kennedy, a T-12 paraplegic, sits back in his wheelchair, happy to be back home in Steamboat Springs. He has just returned from a consulting gig in London, training staff from 86 airlines about how to handle wheelchairs and other assisted devices. He’s glad to be back home rather than Heathrow Airport. “The people here are the reason I stayed after my accident,” he says. “That and the quality of life.” Craig, 40, who moved here in 1994 from Lake George, N.Y., still remembers the day that changed his life forever: March 28, 1996, when he broke his back skiing Vertigo after taking a jump, hitting some ice and landing on his backpack. As program director for Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports — or STARS, a local nonprofit offering outdoor camps and programs for people with disabilities — he’s made it his mission to help others better lead changed lives, as well. His STARS programs and camps include skiing, biking, archery, fishing, water skiing, swimming and more. Craig and his wife, Andy, also co-authored the book “Access Anything: Go Anywhere and Do Anything,” an inside look at sports easily accessible to people with disabilities. Andy, 39, who moved here in 1998, has altruistic callings, as well, serving as program director for the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council. “I’d been to Colorado and knew I was always going to wind up here,” Andy says. “It’s like a big family here — everyone has a million things going on, but everyone still connects with one another.” While her passion now is sustainability — “You can apply it to the economy, community and environment,” she says — Craig’s passion still is firmly rooted in helping people with disabilities lead active lives. That, of course, and sit-skiing the slopes of Mount Werner. On any given powder day, he’s regularly the first person in line, leaving his telltale threetracks before able-bodied skiers have even clicked into their bindings. “Honestly, I think I enjoy skiing more now,” says Craig, who logs as many as 80 ski days per year. “It’s been more of a challenge to get to where I am, which makes me love it that much more.”
PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: eugene Buchanan
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PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: luke grahaM
LOVING
WHERE
HE’S
AT
Tom Simmins One step into Tom Simmins’ office is all it takes to see why he loves where he’s at. Two old pictures of Steamboat Ski Area hang on one wall and a retro skiing illustration on another. There’s also a map of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, of which he’s climbed 31 of the 51; a signed picture of boyhood favorite Pete Rose (ask him about Game 7 of the 1975 World Series); and, closest to him, a collage of family photos, most of which are in the outdoors. While all are a testament to his love for the outdoors, family remains the most important reason Tom has been here for 23 years. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been,” says Tom, a vice president for Resort Group. “It’s the best my family has ever been. We’ve succeeded in raising two kids in a small town, and I’m making a decent living.
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Things couldn’t be better.” Tom, 55, always has been an adventurer. He grew up in Dayton, Ky., just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. When he turned 18, he and a buddy hitchhiked to California. On their way, they went through Colorado. “When I got home, I packed my stuff and went west,” he says. He worked several seasons at the Grand Canyon before meeting his wife, Mary. He spent time in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Telluride before the two settled in Colorado Springs in 1981. Eventually, the couple had two children, Emma and Natalie, and Tom realized that Colorado Springs wasn’t where he wanted to raise them. They had been taking trips to the mountains for five years, trying to find a place to settle down. Glenwood Springs was in the running, but in 1989,
Tom received a call that the Sheraton was looking for someone to manage a restaurant in Steamboat. “When Mary saw Steamboat in the summer, it was an easy sell,” he says. Tom has worked at Resort Group since 2005 and has fallen in love with everything outdoors as well as the Steamboat community, as illustrated by his volunteer work with Mainstreet Steamboat Springs and maintaining Eagle Scout Park. “He’s like my rock,” says Tracy Barnett, Mainstreet’s manager. “He just really gets it. He really loves this place.” As far as he’s concerned, Steamboat has given him everything he ever wanted and more. “You couldn’t ask for a better town,” he says. “I don’t want to hear people talk bad about Steamboat. If you do, you’re not seeing this town.”
M A K I N G
S T E A M B O A T
W H A T
I T
I S
Ulrich & Janet Salzgeber A trip to the grocery store with Ulrich and Janet Salzgeber is never normal. It simply can’t be when you know just about everyone in town. “I love that it can take 45 minutes to get a gallon of milk at City Market,” Ulrich says. The two were born and raised in Lakewood in a time when the now Denver suburb was more of a cow town. They married there in 1976 and moved to Steamboat Springs the following year to help Ulrich’s parents run Ski Town Campground. “I was a little nervous,” Janet says. “I wasn’t an avid skier and hadn’t skied much. Plus, I was moving away from family.” When the two moved here, there were about 3,000 people in town. When you have two people like the Salzgebers, it didn’t take long to make friends with nearly all of them. “You knew everybody,” Ulrich says. “The only time people would honk was to say, ‘hi.’” Nine years later, they decided to have kids, resulting in daughters, Elisabeth and Anya. “We said we would wait until we matured,” Ulrich says. “Well that never happened, but we figured we’d have the kids.” Although the two were young when they married and came to Steamboat, they grew with the town and each other. Ulrich calls Janet “perfect,” saying, “I challenge you to find someone who will say something bad about her.” She calls him charismatic. “Ulrich always says ‘hi’ to somebody whether he feels like it or not,” Janet says. “He’ll walk across the street to shake your hand. He makes people feel good about themselves.” Janet works in food and beverage services with Steamboat Ski Area, a position she has held for 35 years (she was hired the same year as Billy Kidd). Ulrich was the general manager of Alpine Taxi until 2004. He now is a Realtor with Buyer’s Resource and was named Steamboat’s Realtor of the Year in 2010. The two relish their roles in town. Knowing everyone is just part of the perks — even if it takes 45 minutes for a quick run to the store. Remembering back to 1976 as a new couple in a new town, Ulrich says, “Back then, we were still young and bulletproof. We thought nothing could go wrong. Really, though, looking back on it, nothing has.”
PhoTo: Joel reichenBerger STorY: luke grahaM
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A L L
P U M P E D
U P
Eric Dorris
PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: Suzi Mitchell
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When artist and local businessman Eric Dorris first rolled into Steamboat Springs in July 1992, the college grad planned to stay through winter. That was 20 years ago. After a summer playing rugby and a winter on the mountain, all intentions to study law melted with the snow. He opted for a career in retail, powder mornings and Cow Pie Classic-filled rugby seasons. During the next 12 years, he ran more than 30 resort-based retail stores across the country and met his Steamboat-raised wife, Jodi. After the birth of their first son, Tate, in 2002, followed by Quinn the next year, the entrepreneurial duo started cleaning firm Yampa Valley Services and, a year later, bought Central Park Laundromat. Constantly seeking commercial opportunities, Eric was approached about reopening Space Station in 2009. Both were excited about turning the corner of Seventh Street and Lincoln Avenue into an inviting downtown hub. Today, the busy convenience store employs eight people and houses Jeff and Danielle Hubler’s 7th Street Liquor and Tacos del Barco. Eric prides himself on providing friendly service and selling local products. He also is proud of the framed Cow Pie on display. “It’s a real talking point for visitors,” he says. So are the “I’ve Got Gas” Space Station T-shirts worn by locals and visitors. This summer, Eric will pump gas south of the valley, too. He will reopen the Oak Creek gas station, after buying it in April. Once again, he is anxious to create a welcome pit stop for those needing more than gas or a gallon of milk. While busy running four businesses, his real passion is art. The son of a Taos, N.M.-based artist, Eric inherited his mother’s creative spirit, now focusing on sculpture. When he was 4, his mom salvaged 10 rounds from a black walnut tree in their Tennessee yard. Nine moves and three states later, that wood still sits in Eric’s workshop. Coy about his talent, he succumbed to two exhibits several years ago and sold his first sculptures. His work is an abstract interpretation of the human body. When asked about inspiration, he says, “I guess it began when Jodi was pregnant with Tate.” His first stone carving just left town for New Mexico. The busy father also can be found at the rink assisting his sons’ youth hockey teams, riding the Yampa River Core Trail with his family or working out at Manic Training. That is, if he’s not watching rugby.
PhoTo anD STorY: Matt StenSland
MANIC
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Graham Muir When Graham “Bushy” Muir opened Manic Training in Steamboat Springs, it would have been an understatement to say he was a little nervous. Despite the urging by friends to open a gym, Graham was unsure whether the people here would be attracted to the type of training he had to offer. “It’s definitely not a social hour,” says Graham, 41. For an hour three times per week, Graham developed a program aimed at increasing strength, endurance and agility for the mountain athlete. Located at a warehouse off Downhill Drive, his training equipment includes things you traditionally would find in a gym such as weights, but there also is a pile of sandbags, ropes, hurdles, rowing machines and sleds. Three years after opening, Graham says Manic has been successful, with a following of elite athletes, housewives and grandmothers who have relied on the gym to help shape a healthy, active lifestyle that so many people in Steamboat are drawn to. “It’s disappointing if I can’t go three times a week,” Manic athlete Lori Elliott says. “He has an amazing passion and a gift for
knowing people’s abilities and getting them to work toward their potential.” This holds true even for elite athletes. Local Nordic combined Olympian Todd Lodwick says Graham’s program has helped him with his skiing and well-roundedness. “He’s funny, a hard worker and makes us train hard,” he says. “If he thinks we’re slacking, he’ll push us. When you’re done, you always have a big smile on your face.” The popularity and presence of Manic continues to grow. At the Steamboat Pentathlon in March, 42 athletes competed in their Manic shirts and more than 50 are signed up for the Steamboat Mad Mudder in July. Steamboat always will be the home base for Manic, but satellite gyms have opened up in Rhode Island and Eagle County. Another one is planned for Golden. Graham, a New Zealand native, developed Manic after a career spent playing and coaching rugby. He lives in Hayden and moved to Routt County in June 2007 from Chicago after being recruited by former Steamboat rugby captain Michael Hurley. Hurley heard Graham was planning a trip to Colorado, and he called Graham
to invite him to Steamboat. At the time, Graham was watching a Warren Miller ski film with his wife, Summer, and a segment from Steamboat came on. They couldn’t help but laugh, especially after the narrator said, “Pack up your car, give up your job and move to Steamboat.” “I hadn’t planned to live here, but once we got out here, this was definitely somewhere we decided we could stay,” Graham says. The couple has embraced the Steamboat lifestyle, and they are teaching it to their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Zoe. She is a few years away from taking her first Manic class but already has taken an interest in the Russian kettlebell, a piece of equipment often used during Manic classes. Before her first birthday, Graham had taken Zoe over Devil’s Causeway, and she has reached the summit of Rabbit Ears Pass, Emerald Mountain and Mount Werner with her dad’s help. Graham has embraced fatherhood and says there isn’t anything he would do without his daughter. “It’s awesome,” Graham says. “It’s put everything into perspective and changed my focus.” Summer 2012 |
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PhoTo: John F. ruSSell STorY: luke grahaM
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Emily Hannah When her acceptance letter didn’t arrive like all her friends’ letters did, Emily Hannah wondered what she had done. Should she have applied to other schools? Should she have applied to more schools? Then one day, it was there. She had been accepted to Harvard. “Disbelief,” Emily says. “It took awhile to realize I was actually going there.” Emily will make the trudge in the fall to Harvard, a choice that wasn’t as easy. Understand that Emily is lights-out smart. She also is one of the brightest cross-country skiers in the country. Emily had to debate whether to put school off for a year and try to
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make the U.S. Ski Team. With her ability, she likely would have. “I think Emily could ski and win World Cups,” says Brian Tate, the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club’s cross-country director. “She could make the Olympics, if she wanted.” Emily still has interest in skiing and will ski competitively for Harvard. But her passion doesn’t sit with two skis. She’s more interested in the brain and how it works. “It’s an exploding field,” she says. “I want to use what we know about the brain and couple that with super computers. I want to artificially create a part of the brain with a computer.”
Skiing and school, however, have gone hand in hand for Emily. She trained 475 hours last year, with schooling receiving even more attention. Although she isn’t quite sure what she wants to do, she knows she wants to continue her education and eventually get a Ph.D. Chemical and physical biology interest her. She also may want to be a high school or college teacher. Whatever the next four years and beyond hold is unclear. The only certainty is that Emily will be working hard and achieving great things — just like she has in Steamboat. “Whenever I’m busy, it makes me more productive,” she says.
PhoTo anD STorY: Joel reichenBerger
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Cara Marrs You don’t have to hide behind the bakery racks, shuffle cookies to the bottom of the cart or slide ice cream to the cashier like a CIA agent swapping national secrets. Cara Marrs has seen it all, and she’ll happily relate the benefits of healthy living to anyone willing to listen, as she does on a regular basis in her career as a dietitian. But she’s not in the business of looking into your shopping cart. “I don’t try to stick my nose in people’s business,” she says. “Unless you seek me out.” That said, she’d definitely like to help. Healthy living never was a choice, Cara, 42, says. In fact, much of her life today, with her husband, Dave, and 8-month-old son, Max, has its roots in her youth.
She grew up in a resort community on Hilton Head Island on the South Carolina coast. She moved to Fort Collins for school and eventually to Steamboat Springs, which she found even more comfortable than most newcomers thanks to the lifestyle similarities with her childhood home. “It’s fun to constantly have an influx of new people,” she says. “I’d like to live in a resort the rest of my life. It’s not putting up with it for me. I love it.” Like life in Steamboat, life on the coast lent itself to healthy eating and plenty of physical activity. She certainly has no problems staying physically active in Steamboat. Cara was involved early in the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club’s
Telemark program and helped coach that bunch until her son, Max, was born. And she runs, which might be her largest contribution to the community. Running is a natural extension of everything else she does. She’s been the director of the Steamboat Springs Running Series for four summers, and her aggressive, inclusive management has helped grow the series’ events from local get-togethers to widely respected, highly attended races. “There are people in there competing but also first-timers just trying to get in shape,” Cara says. “We’ve created a nice atmosphere. Exercise can save people’s lives — not just physically but mentally, too.”
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PhoTo: John F. ruSSell STorY: eugene Buchanan
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634 Oak Street, Steamboat Springs, CO| 970-879-5764 | mtnarch.com
Lil Gonzalez
When Lil Gonzalez, 68, moved to the Yampa Valley from Los Angeles with her husband, Ben, and three sons in 1974, she didn’t know that she’d leave her mark on far more than the apparel at the T-shirt store they came to manage. From employees to neighbors, everyone she interacts with sings nothing but praise. “She’s the best boss in the world,” says longtime employee Karen Dooley. “She’s fair, honest and one of hardest workers you’ll ever find. She’ll never give you a job she wouldn’t do herself.” Managing The Shirt Shop while raising her three sons — Armando, 46, a TSA employee at the airport; Tony, 39, a lieutenant fireman in Denver; and Michael, 43, captain of Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue — she saw her business in Ski Time Square expand into operations in Breckenridge, Aspen and downtown Steamboat. Later, Shirt Off My Back purchased the lease and brought her on board as manager. It’s an apt name for her business as she tirelessly gives the shirt off her back to friends and family. “I become friends with my employees and show them that I 44 |
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care about them,” she says. “They come to me whenever they have issues, and I listen to them.” Case in point: When an employee went through a relationship breakup, Lil bought her a ticket to visit her aunt in Los Angeles. Whether the good-natured style of small-town living has rubbed off on her or her on it, that’s what she loves about living in Steamboat. “Initially, it was a major adjustment moving here,” she says. “Back then, there wasn’t anything here ... just a couple of traffic lights downtown. We were living at the beach, and all of a sudden I had to get all three boys winterized. But then that first summer came, and it was so beautiful here there was no turning back.” And she couldn’t be happier leaving the hustle and bustle behind. “Even though some people think it’s getting pretty busy here, I come from L.A., so I still think it’s great,” says Lil, who now has three grandchildren and takes care of her mother at home, as well. “I just love the beauty, intimacy and closeness of the community and the support it gives whenever it’s needed.”
PhoTo: Matt StenSland STorY: Brent Boyer
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Dave Terranova Dave Terranova and his wife, Jodi, once dreamed of going back to school to earn degrees in veterinary science. But with a couple of kids and a mortgage, a return to campus wasn’t an option. So they did the next best thing: They bought a pet supply store. That the business purchase allowed them to move back to Steamboat Springs for good was icing on the cake. Most local canine and feline lovers recognize Dave as the smiling face behind the counter at Paws ’N Claws ’N Things in Sundance Plaza at Fish Creek shopping center. It might seem like a far cry from his previous career in pharmaceutical sales, but Dave sees the similarities as well as the differences. “People are happy in our store,” he says. “It’s nice. I was selling medicine to sick people. Now I’m selling healthy products to customers who are having fun with their animals.” And having fun is the atmosphere Dave maintains inside his store. He knows most
customers — both human and pet — by name, and he takes pride in working with pet owners on solutions to whatever might ail their four-legged friends. “Customer service is absolutely of the utmost importance to us,” he says. “I try to treat customers the way I want to be treated in a store.” The Terranovas have owned Paws ’N Claws for eight years, which might seem like an eternity for Dave, who like many young Steamboat transplants spent his first few years hopping from job to job. After graduating from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a degree in business and finance, Dave moved to Steamboat to be a ski bum for a year. He worked at SportStalker, where he met and became friends with Jodi. But he soon returned to his home state of Delaware to begin a career in banking. Then the Yampa Valley called him back. It wasn’t long before he and Jodi became a couple. They eventually owned and operated Cody’s bar at Yampa Valley
Regional Airport before Dave took a job in pharmaceutical sales back in Delaware in 2000. A call from a business associate here informed them of the pet supply shop for sale, and the rest is history. “That was the ticket back to Steamboat,” he says. When not at the store, Dave and Jodi spend most of their waking hours chasing their three children: Samantha, 14, Tyler, 13, and Anna, 10. There are weekend swim meets in the summer and Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club Nordic skiing competitions in the winter. And if there’s any time to spare, you can find Dave trail running on Emerald Mountain or schussing down the slopes of Mount Werner. But more than likely, you’ll see him helping a customer load a 40-pound bag of dog food into the back of a Subaru. “I love this community,” Dave says. “The people are awesome and very supportive of a small business, which I’m very, very thankful for.” Summer 2012 |
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PhoTo anD STorY: Joel reichenBerger
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Richard Tremaine Richard Tremaine likes to get his hands dirty. In the literal sense, that defines much of his free time, whether it’s spent at his Steamboat Springs home or his North Routt cabin. A tour around his house showcases what this means. He points to projects left and right, explaining the details of the garden he and his wife, Judy, maintain. He’s in charge of the potatoes and the garlic, but the fenced-off plot overflows with strawberries and other produce. A small greenhouse bristles with flowers and, a true test of any mountain-town gardener, tomatoes. “That’s an ongoing learning experience,” he says. “We had a garden back in Virginia,
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and that was easy.” There’s a large playhouse in back that he built for the grandchildren, but that pales in comparison to the North Routt cabin, which he and his wife also built themselves. It wasn’t easy, he confesses, but for him, there was no other way. Richard, 64, doesn’t mind getting dirty at his day job as a local attorney, either, taking on the cases of concerned citizens. Moving in 1988 from the high-speed legal world of Washington, D.C., to the slower-paced world of Steamboat Springs took some adjustment. His first case was helping a group of citizens oppose a proposed Walmart. “One of the first things I did was sue the city and the city council,” he says, laughing as he recalls how sheriff’s deputies were
sent to serve the council members and the grief that move still can bring upon him from those same council members, many of them now longtime friends. Richard, who has one son in town, eventually served on the Steamboat Springs City Council in 1993, helping craft the community plan. He’s fought similar fights throughout the years, his tactics changing as he learned the community. He’s served with the Community Agriculture Alliance and Yampa Valley Land Trust. One of his most recent cases proves that not everything has changed, that he still likes to get his hands dirty: He took on the ultimately successful case to keep hunting restrictions in place for sandhill cranes.