Overview: Melanie Roth is a historian who has been a huge part of historic preservation efforts in the Buena Vista, Colo., area, working on many projects during the past nearly 50 years. She talks with Adam Williams about the history of St. Elmo, now known as a ghost town. One Read more…
Overview: Nathan Ward is the Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker behind “The Rider & The Wolf,” which dug into the legend of mountain biking innovator Mike Rust — and his mysterious disappearance and death. Nathan also is a writer and photographer who has spent many years roving the farflung corners of Read more…
Overview: Lara Richardson is a rancher in Salida, Colo., and author of The Table, a memoir that dives into her and her family’s life on the ranch, growing hay and raising cattle, and connecting deeply as a multigenerational, extended family. She talks with Adam Williams about The Table. They also Read more…
Overview: John and Coleen Graybill, of the Curtis Legacy Foundation, are doing their “life’s best work” in retirement. Through the Foundation, they are focused on raising awareness of indigenous peoples and their cultures. They use the iconic work of Edward Curtis, John’s great-grandfather, to do that. They talk with host Read more…
Overview: Reed Dils and his wife, Karen, were river outfitting pioneers in the Arkansas Valley (Colo.), in the mid-70s. They owned 4-Corners Rafting, the second outfit to establish itself in the area. Within a handful of years, there would be several dozen rafting companies. It was a Wild West industry Read more…
Overview: Josh and Maddy Chance were high school sweethearts. The persistent football star and the resistant cheerleader. Over time, they’ve traveled near and far with their shared interests in farming, until deciding to put down roots, start a family and begin building Headwater Farms in the Arkansas Valley (Colo.), in Read more…
Overview: Krista Jarvis grew up in communist Czechoslovakia and witnessed the Velvet Revolution. By the time she was a teenager, the country split into two nations: Slovakia and the Czech Republic. She talks with Adam Williams about creativity under communist constraints and the pivotal experience when she became an artist. Read more…
Overview: Rama Yigit is a baker of Kurdish bread and baklava. He’s a circus performer and a paralegal who helps fellow asylum seekers document their stories. He also is a shepherd and farmer from Kurdistan, a region in eastern Turkey that is not recognized by Turkey. Rama is most of Read more…
Overview: Mike Harvey has been at the heart of the river scene in Salida, Colo., for more than 25 years. As a river guide and a competitive freestyle kayaker, a whitewater park designer and an entrepreneur carving out a market for river surfing and paddle boarding through Badfish, the manufacturing Read more…
Overview: PT Wood grew up in Boulder in the ’70s, skating and skitching around town. He came to the Arkansas Valley in the ’80s, like many drawn by the river and the skiing, and has been part of the scene in Salida, Colo., since. He and Adam talk about the Read more…
Overview: Ryan Heckart talks with Adam Williams about barbering history, the fall of barbershops through the late 20th century (thanks Beatles!) and the rise again in more recent years. He tells the story of his barber shop, which he recently opened in Cockeyed Liz’s old brothel, and why he named Read more…
Overview: Derek Scott talks with Adam Williams about skateboarding culture, history and music. They talk about the failure and perseverance that’s a necessary part of skating. And about how a kid growing up in Salida, Colo., with not a lot of skating terrain became a competition skater traveling and winning Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Tim Brown Tim Brown might be most known for Read more…
Overview: Tim Brown probably is most known for his tintype photography these days. But he also had many exciting years of globe-traveling as a rarely skilled kayaker-slash-adventure photographer. He talks about both with Adam. As well as his dive into the mid-19th century techniques of tintype photography after opportunities for Read more…
Overview: Ken Brandon seems to be a kind of philosophical Stoic, Buddhist, absurdist Spartan, who is known for riding a bicycle around Salida, Colo., while wearing a giraffe head and a three-piece suit. And yet he describes himself as “boring.” Ken also is a designer, a painter and a screenwriter, Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Anna Heinauer If you missed the word in last Read more…
Overview: Anna Heinauer is an integrative nutrition health coach and she’s co-owner of The Lettucehead Food Company. Host Adam Williams talks with Anna about many things nutrition. Like, what is it, really? And why should we care about it? They talk about the value of local food sources and the Read more…
Overview: In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Jon Pray and Ken Matthews join host Adam Williams for half-interview, half-coffee chat. Ken hosted a radio show called Chaffee Housing Report for several years. Jon was the radio engineer behind the scenes on that show as he often Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Jason Marsden Jason Marsden recently joined Read more…
Overview: In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Jason Marsden, executive director of the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA). Adam talks with Jason about his early years growing up on a farm, his studying post-WWII poetry at Harvard, and his time as Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Jed Selby I wasn’t going to Read more…
Overview: In this episode of We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Jennifer Dempsey, founder of the Salida (Colo.) Circus and former director of the Belfast Community Circus in Northern Ireland. They talk about what a social circus is and the good it serves in a community. Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Shane McNeil, singer-songwriter-guitarist, auto mechanic and jack-of-all-trades. In this conversation, Adam talks with Shane about tattoos and Shane’s autobiographical song, “Guy with the Chevy Tattoo.” They talk about the early influences in Shane’s life, Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Thordis Simonsen I think it’s difficult Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Thordis Simonsen, the founding director and curator of the Museum of Authenticity in Salida, Colo. Thordis is a painter, photographer, writer and curator. She’s the author of three books, including “You May Plow Here.” Read more…
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for We Are Chaffee’s Looking Upstream podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida). ‘We Are Chaffee’ with Eric S. Lee There’s a spark Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Jed Selby, co-developer of South Main in Buena Vista, Colorado. That includes the Surf Hotel, the bar and restaurant Wesley & Rose, and the concert venues of the Ivy Ballroom and the Lawn, among Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Alpheus “Alf” Rudd, a master blacksmith with a family lineage in the trade, dating back to at least the 1600s. Adam and Alf take a ride through history and stories of a time gone Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Keith Baker, Chaffee County (Colo.) Commissioner, retired U.S. Naval Commander, and former owner of The Trailhead (Buena Vista, Colo.), to name just a few chapters in Keith’s story. Keith talks about his country roots Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with historian and rancher Suzy Kelly. Suzy is a local historian and nearly lifelong resident of the Arkansas Valley here in Colorado. She holds a wealth of knowledge on the history of the area, and Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with entrepreneur and activist Kimi Uno. Kimi shares about the influence of the movement on her life when she was coming up in the Pacific Northwest. She and Adam talk about female empowerment and feminism, Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Rick Bieterman and Katy Welter. Rick Bieterman and Katy Welter. Katy and Rick are married partners in a life of ranching and historic renovation, and other adventures. They met on a 75-day outdoor leadership Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, Adam Williams talks with Eric S. Lee, executive director for Full Circle Restorative Justice. Eric has a rich history of entrepreneurship and service to others, including as a chef and restaurateur, life coach and fitness trainer, book author Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Elisia Parham, poet, activist and social worker. Elisia is a poet who grew up in unconventional circumstances. She and Adam talk about how those circumstances helped her to develop resilience and her voice, Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Wendell Pryor, the retired former executive director of the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) in Chaffee County, Colo. Wendell tells about growing up in what was then a rural area outside Denver, coming up Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Amy and Lenny Eckstein, the married couple and entrepreneurial energy behind the craft distillery Deerhammer. Lenny and Amy tell about their East Coast origin story, how they met and made their way west, Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Les Messamer, a 96-year-old World War II veteran who one might swear has lived multiple lives simultaneously. Adventurous ones and otherwise. Les tells about his upbringing in a fundamentalist religious farm community in Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Dominique Naccarato, executive director of the Greater Arkansas River Nature Association (GARNA) and city council member in Salida, Colo. Dominique’s story is Salida’s story, at least in part. She talks with Adam about Read more…
Overview: In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Miki Hodge and Becky Gray. Becky and Miki share stories from their extraordinary lived experiences, and about how those tie to their roles in the development of Jane’s Place, an innovative housing, nonprofit Read more…
Overview: Art Hutchinson joins Adam Williams, host of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, to talk about a rare history and perspective in Chaffee County, Colorado. The Hutchinson Homestead & Ranch is located along highway 50 between Salida and Poncha Springs, Colorado. The ranch has been a keystone in Read more…