CO's abandoned whiskey town; Avalanche fatality and another close call; Subzero temperatures incoming; & More...

[00:00:00] Welcome to the OutThere Colorado Podcast. I'm your host Spencer and I'm here with Seth. Hey guys, what's up? And we've got some fun stuff for you today. Starting off diving right into it. There's gonna be a frigid cold front moving into Colorado this weekend. Temperatures definitely gonna drop below below zero in a lot of the state. Could be coupled with some pretty serious snow. National Weather Service currently mentioning almost the entire state minus a little sliver.

[00:00:30] land on the western border and a tiny pocket in the northeastern part of the state. But almost all the state is at risk of heavy snow from January 18th to January 20th. So this weekend, looking ahead, could be pretty cold and pretty nasty if you're getting out in the elements. I will be in my home wrapped up in a blanket. I will be. Drinking hot cocoa that's not $25. I will be helping to belay people.

[00:01:00] We've got ice climbing up in the mountains on Sunday, which is supposed to be the coldest, coldest part of the day. Yeah. That's in the Lake George. Why don't you push that back, man? Lake George area with front range climbing. The $25 hot chocolate mention was in reference to a blurb I saw on the OutThere side. A $25. Yeah. What was that?

[00:01:20] Where was that $25 hot chocolate? $25 hot chocolate. I read something. That's a, yeah, Vail, Four Seasons Vail at the Remedy Bar. Apparently it's worth it. Yeah, we were talking about that. It published something on that earlier.

[00:01:33] I saw it, yeah. It comes with a nice house-made marshmallow. I think mine might amount to, I don't know, $0.50 at home. Yeah, right. But hey, people, all the reviews, you'd expect people to be on there being like, this is awful. I paid so much for this. Like, you know, like people paying $25 for hot chocolate. It's got to be worth it.

[00:01:51] But yeah, all the reviews are like, we came here just for this, and it was amazing, and I'll remember this experience my entire life. So, pretty cool. But yeah, it's cold this weekend, though. Perfect time for that hot chocolate. Yeah, Lake George is going to be negative 12 degrees on Sunday as low. You can't do this. You can't go. It's going to be frigid. Go to the climbing gym. You can do ice climbing in the climbing gym. You can on such a shot. You know, it's not the same. No way. The ice crashing down around you. Yeah.

[00:02:21] But yeah, anyone looking to ice climb, though. Lake George, you look up Camp Alexander, front range climbing. I think it's $35 this year, but Friday night ice climbs. Have to know how to belay, essentially, and have some of the ice climbing basics down. But cheap and easy way to get on the wall. In a way to really break in, right? I mean, it kind of lends itself to a first-timer. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. And I would say, I mean, they offer like first-time courses, and that's what I'm helping with belaying. And on Sunday here.

[00:02:52] But yeah, once you kind of have that first-time course out of the way, if you're a climber, the Friday night ice climbs, I think last year they went until April. But great way to just experience ice climbing. It's like a 50, 60-foot wall probably. Nice. You know, probably have 10 to 15 top ropes out there, so you're not worrying about, you know, laying that rope and stuff. I was there years ago. It's cool. It's worth it. They light it up at night, too.

[00:03:20] But yeah, on to other news that we've got. Seth, you covered some stuff about Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Management and some of those proposals. Why don't you tell us about that a little bit? Yeah, so this is kind of interesting, something that will be interesting to follow in the months and however much longer ahead.

[00:03:40] But it was an idea floated last year through this nonprofit here in Colorado Springs called Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, PPORA. Over the past few years now, they've kind of hosted long-ranging meetings and done surveys and done studies,

[00:04:03] all toward this kind of oversimplified question that is indeed very complicated, which is, you know, how to best meet all the demands on Pikes Peak going into the future as population increases, as concerns over conservation really come to the forefront, while also people having all sorts of ideas of what they want to do there, what more they want to do on that mountain, right?

[00:04:30] Yeah, it makes sense, too, because, I mean, Pikes Peak, it's like, I've always thought it had a lot of untapped potential in a sense. Like, you have the two trails that people hike up it, but it's a massive area, and you never hear about people doing much else. Phenomenal. Lakes there on the North and South Slope Recreation Areas, for example. Yeah, the only things you hear about. It's like the cog, the highway, the two trails. Right. That's it. Yeah. There's the Crags Trail, part of that backside route that you're referring to.

[00:04:58] So, yeah, and, you know, it is a very unique, complicated situation. Here's this massive mountain with massive potential, as you just alluded to, Spencer, up against a massive metro area, right? Up against a major population that's only growing. So, that's kind of where, again, Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance has kind of asked these questions.

[00:05:21] Kind of gathered up land managers with stakes on the mountain, along with other advocates and industry people trying to crack this nut, if you will. And an idea that came out of that, these conversations, was for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to have some kind of expanded role, you know, to oversee, right? So, like, across jurisdictions, that mountain we have to understand, largely owned by the Forest Service,

[00:05:51] right? But it's spotted with all these different interests from the city of Colorado Springs that has an enterprise that runs the highway, from the train, Broadmoor, Manitou, and Pikes Peak Cog Railway. I always have to check that. Yeah, Dave. That goes up there. And then utilities, Colorado Springs Utilities protects the waters up there, the watersheds up there. El Paso County, Teller County, right? Spans those jurisdictions.

[00:06:21] So, the thinking is that, well, Colorado Parks and Wildlife essentially manages the wildlife across those jurisdictions, right? Across those layers, if you will. What if Colorado Parks and Wildlife managed, to an extent, the people across those layers, right? What if Colorado Parks and Wildlife, with its resources and background in managing recreation

[00:06:46] lands that vary across jurisdictions, across the state, what if they had some kind of expanded role here, right? The thinking is that the Forest Service, I mean, the local ranger district here is very much on the record for more or less saying, we are focused on wildfire mitigation. That ranger district has unprecedented levels of funds to really address wildfire and try

[00:07:13] to increase, you know, decrease risks with wildfire, right? So, in terms of, you know, the Forest Service being able to meet recreation demands, the thinking is that it's just not there, right? Colorado Springs Utilities, as another example, is very much interested in protecting their watersheds, protecting waters that come to our taps, right? They, you know, the popular phrase with them over the years is that they're not in the recreation business, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:07:44] Um, so, yeah, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, what does that look like? A lot of people automatically come up with this thought of, what? Pikes Peak State Park, right? No one is saying that, right? Mm-hmm. Um, right now, right? Um, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has thrown out an example of the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, which covers, like, 150 miles of the Arkansas River, right? Out by BV. Yeah. Right?

[00:08:10] And that is, you know, CPW, it's, it's like BLM and Forest Service, I think, you know, own those properties, obviously, while CPW oversees the campgrounds, maintains the trails, um, um, maintains, like, you know, fishing areas. Mm-hmm. And, um, so that's, like, the example that they point to. Even Cheyenne Mountain State Park, people often forget, like, that's land that the city of Colorado Springs owns and acquired years ago. Mm-hmm.

[00:08:39] It was Colorado Parks and Wildlife who was relied on to manage the people at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, right? Yeah. So, so managing, essentially, that recreational experience. Right. Who manages the trails now? Well, Forest Service. Just the Forest Service. It's, they're, they're, they're, the trails that we all just mentioned there. Yeah. It goes through Forest Service properties. And that's kind of the good example of, like, can the Forest Service with its, shall we say,

[00:09:05] lack of resources or lack of, um, capacity be responsible for, um, you know, addressing all these needs, all these desires that people want? So, what does it look like? That is still, like, the big question, right? Yeah. Um, these partners that we've all, that, that I've alluded to, shall we say partners is what they're getting referred to. These different land managers, these different interested, um, groups, um, agencies signed

[00:09:35] this letter of intent very specifically drilling in on the Ring the Peak Trail. We want Colorado Parks and Wildlife to try to wrap their arms around the final gap in that long, dreamed trail wrapping the mountain. Right? So, and that's what, 40 miles, I think, or something like that? They say, I've never been too clear on all those pieces, but I think they say, like, 50. Oh, yeah. I'm seeing 63 on this, too. Completed, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. As it's, as it's currently designed.

[00:10:03] And there's, there's, they, the, the people involved have pointed to, like, one gap existing in Teller County. Mm-hmm. And that has been a nut that has been so far impossible to crack. Mm-hmm. Involving, here again, municipal watersheds, involving private lands, you know, there's, there's ideas, concepts for a trail. But there's all sorts of barriers to making that happen. So, could Colorado Parks and Wildlife make that happen? And what else could they maybe make happen? You know, that's kind of where the thinking is now, anyway.

[00:10:33] I mean, even that trail itself, like, I would imagine that would bring a lot of backpackers around. Yeah. It's kind of like a very marketable, like, go around America's mountain. Yeah. You know, like, see all angles of that. That's pretty cool. It's been decades. I mean, it was mentioned decades ago. And they've slowly chipped away at that. And now they've kind of run up to a wall, as I understand it, with this last gap. But, dang. Yeah. Kind of an interesting idea to follow. But there's, there's also pushback, right?

[00:11:00] I mean, some people who, who know Pikes Peak to be kind of this free, shall we say, you know, go as you please across Forest Service land, right? As you can. If we all know Colorado Parks and Wildlife, I mean, it's very much a pay-to-play model. Where do their resources and capacity come from? From things like passes, from things like licenses, right? From permits, from camping fees, right?

[00:11:29] So there's critics to this who say, you know, do we want to, to quote unquote, commercialize Pikes Peak any further in that kind of model? So, yeah. A lot of questions to be asked, but kind of interesting, for sure. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see where that goes. Yeah. Kind of some other news here. Colorado had its first avalanche fatality in recent days involving a backcountry skier

[00:11:56] out at Red Mountain Pass, elevation about 11,700 feet. Long story short, avalanche occurred. I think it was Red Mountain number three was what the backcountry skier was on at the time. Broke off and, and he died. And, you know, obviously a very tragic situation. I think we've had, I want to say there's been six avalanche deaths around the country so far this year.

[00:12:22] Colorado, traditionally one of the, or typically one of the most dangerous and one of the most, you know, prone to avalanche fatalities among all the states nationwide. And, yeah, so first avalanche death of the season. But that, that risk is very present in the backcountry and perhaps even more so highlighted by a different incident that took place days later on Red Mountain Pass as well, which people mostly know it as Million Dollar Highway, you know, Southwest Colorado.

[00:12:52] Yeah. Um, essentially what happened was, uh, these two snowshoers are out on a Forest Service road. Uh, they've, they're experienced snowshoers. They've been snowshoeing in that area for 30 years. Uh, had never seen a certain little slope on the side of this road slide. Uh, they make this decision to go across this road or across this little, this little precarious area along this Forest Service road that's obviously covered in a ton of snow. Uh, it's about 150 foot stretch.

[00:13:22] First person gets across. Second person is crossing. The slide breaks off, takes them about 100 feet or so down this slope. Um, ultimately though, that person was able to keep one of their hiking poles out of the snow. And while they're, while they're falling down the mountain in this slide, um, person was able to dig them out, essentially using her snowshoe to kind of unbury this, this guy's face and then kind of calling for help simultaneously.

[00:13:49] Got some other backcountry users, uh, to the scene and they were able to dig them out with shovels that they had. Um, minor injuries, uh, for the person who was hit with the slide. I think the person, the, the woman who helped uncover him with her snowshoe, uh, had minor injuries to her hands, but a very close call, very lucky scenario. But it goes to show though, how you don't necessarily have to be partaking in these extreme activities to be faced with this avalanche risk that's in the backcountry.

[00:14:17] You know, it's like, especially with snowshoeing and hiking specifically, uh, one of the incidents or one of the kind of hazards that you tend to see a lot there is people be on these flatter trails beneath a larger slope. Yeah. Maybe not noticing or not realizing that they're able to kind of cause, you know, fractures in that snow up higher on the mountain that falls down onto that flatter area they're in.

[00:14:40] Uh, reminiscent of a scenario in 2022, uh, on Hoosier pass that were a couple and their dog were killed in an avalanche while they were snowshoeing along relatively flat terrain. So just something to be on the lookout for that avalanche risk is very present in Colorado, especially with the snowpack we've, we've had this season and, and we've chatted about that a bit before. Yeah. Uh, you can hear us chat about that on other, other episodes, but yeah, either way.

[00:15:06] Early in the season, the avalanche information center kind of warned about this, this persistent slab issue shaken up, you know, where weak layers were settling and how was future snow gonna settle slash lack thereof on these weaker layers. So yeah, I mean that is danger. It's, it's, it's been one of those seasons that's, that's shaken up to be, uh, very dangerous. Yeah. No, all with that big gap in December and we've had something like, I mean, there've been, I think,

[00:15:36] 16, 17 avalanches that have hit people in the state so far this season. Uh, I think one person had been injured in those slides prior to prior or, and that happened prior to this death, uh, that did occur. Um, so yeah, I mean that the slides are happening and they're hitting people somehow we just hadn't had a, had a death yet. So I hadn't been getting as much attention as maybe it should have been, uh, just with that, that level of risk.

[00:16:02] Um, but yeah, check the Colorado Avalanche Information Center website before you go out into the back country. They post the risks very, very clearly on their page and with a nice little map there. Always bring a beacon. Always bring a shovel. Always bring a, you know, your probe. Uh, don't go, don't go alone. And if you are ever going across precarious terrain, make sure you're staggering positions with your buddies so that everyone doesn't get hit by a slide and there are people that are able to, able to help.

[00:16:29] Um, but yeah, moving to a different subject here, uh, here, Seth, uh, kind of speaking of back country travel, you were, uh, you wrote something about boot packing. Speaking of avalanches, right? Yeah, speaking of avalanches. So, uh, you wrote something about boot packing here. Kind of interesting. Pretty interesting content. Yeah. I was drawn to it because, uh, Keystone, it's been on my list, I guess, for a while, but I saw Keystone, um, last month put some photos out, kind of showing like behind the scenes what patrollers do earlier in the season.

[00:16:59] And one of these is boot packing, right? So like these pictures, you look at these pictures and it's just someone stomping along this slope and creating this like grid of holes, right? With their feet. Looks like honeycomb on the mountain, you know? Oh yeah. I'm looking at it now. It looks like thousands of steps of someone just walking back and forth. Yeah. I mean, I remember some comment was like, talk about a leg day or something like that, you know? So in that photo, he's packing down the snow to make this terrain safer.

[00:17:25] So it's worth mentioning, you know, uh, for those who, uh, who are unaware, I mean, we, we, I think a lot of us all too, um, quickly enjoy skiing at these resorts without thinking of the threat of avalanche. Right. But these resorts are very much founded in avalanche terrain. Right. I mean, people love skiing steep slopes. Yeah. Speak for itself, hopefully. Yeah.

[00:17:51] Video of Brett went viral last week of this massive avalanche that was triggered, intentionally triggered, right? Yeah. But clearing terrain, massive avalanche falling down that Imperial bowl terrain. Exactly. Highest stretch. And yeah, it was big too. People videotaped it from the lift and it was, yeah, it was big avalanche. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, you know, the reason why we don't often anyway, again, knock on wood, hopefully we don't hear about people getting stuck in avalanches at ski areas.

[00:18:20] Is as the avalanche information center director told me, you know, patrollers are really good at what they do. Right. They know how to, how to mitigate. Um, one of these ways that we all know is by blasting. Right. Um, which you, I believe just referred to. Yeah. And you hear the booms when you're at the resorts, you know, and above highways, right? Yeah. Above highways. So this is a form of literally getting rid of the, getting rid of that, um, that vulnerable snow there. Right. And just blasting it out in a controlled way before it gets too big. Right. Right. Yeah.

[00:18:49] There's thousands of, of, of intentional avalanches along all the roads too, from Colorado Department of Transportation every year. Right. A thousand. Right. And of course, where that's a way of getting rid of snow, ski areas, you know, they depend on snow. They want their product to be there. Right. Yeah. So, hence boot packing, right?

[00:19:08] So typically earlier in the season, in the past several weeks and months, patrollers have been going off to this terrain and literally stepping step by step across these slopes to create essentially a different layer. Right. To create essentially a layer of different texture rather than that soft powdery stuff we all come to love. It's like when you take a, when you walk out of your house on your snowy sidewalk and your footsteps stick around longer because they get packed down. Exactly what it is. Yeah.

[00:19:36] So packing it down in the hopes that more snow will fall better and stick better. Build cohesion, right? Is, is, is how these nitty gritty people would refer to it. Had another guy like at Copper Mountain refer to like, you know, if you see someone like, um, you know, putting in a concrete foundation with like these pillars, right? Mm-hmm. These holes, think of these holes essentially as holding in that pillar, right? Um, that's the, that's, that's the idea anyway.

[00:20:03] Um, but yeah, I mean, something that's been going on for decades at Ski Eros, whether we know it or not. Um, there's like volunteer programs like at Aspen Highlands and at Copper. Like for, for years, people sign up to go and do this boot packing alongside patrollers to get a season pass for free. Oh, that's a good deal. Like dozens of volunteers. I like that. I've done this, like, but spending a full day, you know. Hey, if I get a season pass for a full day. Yeah, man. No pain, no gain, as they say. Yeah.

[00:20:32] Your description here is stomping through thigh high snow. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I, um, uh, the Keystone head of patrol over there called it type two fun, you know? Maybe type three fun. You get to see the gains. You get to see the gains. Uh, and of course it's all in this hope of opening that terrain quicker, right? State, essentially stabilizing it to get it open to the public. All at the expense of, uh, burning legs, right?

[00:21:03] So I thought it kind of would be fun to do a story letting people know of, you know. Yeah. When you're enjoying these places, don't forget, uh, a lot of work. It's funny that still, they don't have some sort of a machine that they can do. Well, there is. There is. Rollers. They call it rollers. All right. When you, you need a snowcat to operate it.

[00:21:29] Machinery comes with its, its typical problems, right? And especially when you're going way out there, you know, you really want to bring the machine out there. You know, there's questions on that. And then you literally need a plate. Like you need the, uh, you need the space to put the machine there, which is not always the case with some of this avalanche terrain. That makes sense too. So. Yeah. Dang. But yeah, I mean, they will, that, yeah, that's like the inevitable question. There's gotta be a better way.

[00:21:56] And there is, but that way doesn't always work practically. Yeah. Well, hey, there you go. If you want a free pass, look into these volunteer programs. I've heard. I think there's a waiting list, man. Oh, I bet. I think there's a waiting list for this stuff. Yeah. Here's a, here's one also from a, also from a ski resort, ski resort news, so to speak. Did you see the thing about the, uh, ski coach at Steamboat that got allegedly punched in the face? Saw the headline. Yeah. Don't know the details. Crazy situation in Steamboat.

[00:22:24] And this is all allegedly, um, this is basically, you know, the report of, of the man who says he was assaulted. Ski coach, uh, coaching his, coaching young athletes at the time, um, in a terrain park area. Apparently this altercation rose up about, basically this person was mad about where he was standing in relation to a jump.

[00:22:47] Um, the guy, the coach, uh, says he attempted to kind of diffuse the situation, uh, was not diffusing the situation. The, the person who was kind of confronting him, right? Uh, just got angrier and angrier. So the coach decides to leave the scene with his athletes in, in tow. So they all ski off. Um, this dude who apparently was not happy about the ski coach standing close to, or where

[00:23:17] he was standing in proximity to this jump decides to follow the ski coach down the mountain, uh, where he allegedly grabs a ski coach from his, by his coat. Yeah. Grabs him by his coat. Um, and then starts punching him in the face. What? And, and like bad, like to the point where like probable concussion was what I think I saw reported. Uh, the ski coach got a photo of the dude, um, which the Steamboat Police Department shared and they were like, who is this guy? Yeah.

[00:23:46] Um, the dude in the photo, you know, he kind of has this weird like grin on his face and he has like a clenched fist. Like it looks at least what looks like a clenched fist. Apparently one of the athletes that the coach was training, uh, was able to videotape the entire encounter too. Um, either way they use social media to track this guy down. Uh, I think they might've misidentified a suspect at first, but they tracked the suspect in the case down. And so that's ongoing now. And, and last I heard they, I think they knew who he was.

[00:24:15] But he was still, or the, who knew who the suspect was, but he was still kind of not, he wasn't in custody yet. So I don't know if there's an update there or not, but pretty wild scenario. People just need to chill on the mountains. Everyone's there for the same reason, you know? To chill. Yeah. Chill and have fun. And the thrill. But yeah, I mean. And there was another case too, uh, same week, uh, Keystone Resort where a dude's heading down the mountain with his young kids, father and young kids.

[00:24:43] Um, and they kind of get to like a pinch spot on the mountain. And, uh, there's a bunch of snowboarders laying, kind of like laying down, chilling in this little pinch spot. One of the young, the, the father's young daughter stopped. And he was like, he was like, come on, get out of the way or something like that to try to like keep her moving so that these skiers coming down the hill when it hit her, uh, as they're trying to like dodge people chilling on the slopes.

[00:25:12] Um, and yeah, one of the snowboarders ahead of him, apparently again, verbal confrontation stops this, this father with his two daughters, uh, allegedly spit on his chest, the, uh, the chest of the father, uh, the father is skewed off told, told patrol summit County Sheriff's office got called to the scene. Um, they identified the snowboarder snowboarder essentially said that, uh, he thought that whenever the father was telling the daughter to move out of the way that he was talking to

[00:25:40] him, that made him mad or talking to all the snowboarders that made him mad. Uh, hence the altercation. He did claim that he spit on the ground, not on the father. Um, there were no, no criminal charges in the case. Uh, the father didn't want to press charges or pursue any sort of potential of pressing charges, but either way, another wild west, just chill on the slopes. I don't understand the hostility lately. It's like, you know, it's like everyone's been cut off on the slopes.

[00:26:09] Everyone's been, you know, had a situation go unintended because of someone else's either just ignorance or, or then maybe they're just being a jerk, but you don't have to get angry. Right. Just move on with your day in a way, you know? Yeah. What a shame. Yeah. There's gotta be lighter news that we can talk about. Lighter news. I know we gotta wind down here. We're a little shorter on, uh, our podcast time today, folks. Yeah. So how about, how about we chat about, uh, the whiskey town?

[00:26:39] You want to speak in a wild west? Yeah. Let's go wild west whiskey. So I had a lot of fun coming on this story recently. I had no idea about this. So I've lived in Colorado Springs like eight years, a little over eight years now. Right. And I'm always, uh, I'm always thrilled when I can just find new little slices of history. And this was that the story of Ramona, the ghost town that surely that I'm willing to bet you dear listeners have not heard about. Um, because there's no sign of it anymore.

[00:27:05] Ramona rose on the west side of Colorado Springs, kind of blocks north of what we now know as old Colorado city, right? That wonderful spread of Victorian downtown, um, buildings, you know, the restaurants and shops recalling the, uh, the heyday of the gold rush. That was kind of like an epicenter of the Pike's peak gold rush going back to the late 1800s. Still worth visiting today. No doubt. Yeah. Very bustling still today.

[00:27:31] But you, again, there's very little sign of the town that sprouted to the north of that, uh, over a hundred years ago. And this was Ramona. Uh, I'll take you to 1913 when, uh, the temperance movement was in full swing across the country. You know, cities in Colorado had voted to go dry. Um, this is all leading to prohibition statewide prohibition in 1916 in Colorado city joined that cause against the odds.

[00:28:00] Kind of when you think back on it historically, because this was like, you know, this was the town for gambling or drinking or fighting and dancing and mingling with the ladies of the night through tunnels underground, right? There's been still tours through those tunnels where people went to the bars and saloons. Allegedly connected to Colorado Springs where the citizens of Colorado Springs could go underground to old Colorado city and visit the brothels there in the gambling halls.

[00:28:30] Well, so finally Colorado city decided it was called Colorado city then to be clear. Yes. Old Colorado city now. Um, and they voted to go dry time to sober up. Not according to some of the saloon keepers and residents of Colorado city who said nay. And, uh, turns out, uh, you know, kind of at the forefront were a couple men who had some land, um, to the north, uh, to build a town of their own.

[00:29:00] And they got a petition to, uh, justify a town of their own incorporated and everything. I'm looking for this old description from the newspaper, uh, that came up. Um, but essentially saying, you know, this is the new Ramona El Paso County's new town in the latest addition to the map of Colorado offers a spectacle similar to the pioneer mining camps of the West. And that's exactly what it was, you know, just saloons.

[00:29:29] Um, there was like a cigar shop. There was a pool hall. There was a, what was called an athletic club for boxing matches. Um, I love this description. There's a book. You can read all about this in the book by David Swint called bars and brass rails. And this seemed to like kind of encapsulate Ramona in one, in one sentence next door to Ramona city hall and the jail was a brothel, you know, that was the town where civility and incivility,

[00:29:58] if you will, we're kind of all packed into one thing. So it's just a town meant for consuming, et cetera. It was the sin city of Colorado Springs. Very, that very briefly lived. Um, again, statewide prohibition finally came in 1916 and that was pretty much the end of Ramona. So Ramona was around for, was it 1913? A few years really just had this blaze of glory. And, and I mentioned there's no sign of it now.

[00:30:24] Um, but if you know, like you went to in 24th streets, Thorndale park, make that your landmark kind of the, um, you know, there's basketball courts there, a playground there, ball field there. It was all right around there where there's now homes. Dang. Yeah. But Ramona was raised. So we're by the King Soopers for people. Ramona was raised, demolished, and all that stuff kind of sprouted on top of it. Dang. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking at a map.

[00:30:51] That's like literally like half a mile away, half a mile, like North ish of old Colorado city. Well, and this all came up cause I like, you know, was just hanging out with a buddy and another buddy. And those two buddies were meeting. Oh, where do you live? If I live over on a Willamette in 24th and this other buddy who's 81 years old and would be into history was like, Oh, so you live in Ramona. I was like, what the heck are you talking about? Mac? And it's like Ramona. There was Ramona back in the day.

[00:31:21] It's like, you're 81. You're not 200. How do you know about Ramona? Well, there you go. So yeah, that's the story. A little bit of the story. Yeah. A little bit of Colorado history, which you can always hear about. Yeah. You can always hope to find that on your out there pod out there, Colorado podcast. Yeah. There you go. Didn't the Broadmoor, weren't they able to like serve, serve booze during the prohibition? I have not heard that story. I think it has like some sort of a club or something like it was a club membership loophole or something. Don't quote me on that. I don't know.

[00:31:51] Yeah. But look into it. If you are curious to learn more about that. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go. So in anticipation of, this is just on broadmoor.com that I'm reading from, right? In anticipation of the prohibition, Penrose stockpiled more than 300 cases of assorted liquor for the hotel. Yes. I am familiar with that story. There you go.

[00:32:19] Apparently Colorado Springs had plenty of loopholes. Yeah. Around that time. But awesome. Well, yeah, that's about all we got for you today. A little bit of a shorter episode, but we will be back next week with more Colorado news, more Colorado stories. But until then, that's it from us. Once again, I'm Spencer. I'm Seth. And we will see you out there in Colorado. See you, folks. We'll see you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You just love it.