The new governor maybe said it best when he recently accused rural areas of "backward thinking". Certainly rural areas in Colorado often have a different value system than urban dwellers. Political ideologies too often are different from city dwellers. In my experience, rural dwellers often get passed over or passed off as lower class, less than enlightened citizens. It's also my experience that because of the low inherient population density, high technology resources are thought to be neither affordable nor politically or personally important. This site both underwrites and strives to provide access to the many free or low cost resources that fast-living urban dewellers typically can't be bothered with.

Certainly farming and small businesses make up a major portion of life in Western Colorado. An awful lot of people retire to this very scenic area so healthcare services are a major industry as well. Major portions of Western Colorado are known for the very large energy reserves located here. Natural gas and coal are currently major players on the energy front. The area is also known for significant reserves of uranium. I know of no fortune 500 companies that are headquartered here. People here range from the well to do living in places like Aspen and Telluride to migrant farm workers needed to harvest fruit and other types of crops.

Bigger cities like Grand Junction have many of the same resources as, say, Denver. Local merchants, however, don't have the wide selection of items common to Denver. In this regard, the Internet is your friend (assuming you can even get the Internet). Unfortunately, the Colorado Legislature, in it's infinite wisdom, has arranged for rural Colorado dwellers to pay both shipping and tax for needed itmes not available locally. Local telephone service is marginal at best. Business friendly services like VOIP are not available from local carriers. It's up to the individual to provide such resources again assuming some flavor of broadband can be obtained. Electrical power is many times available from only a local "member owned" REAs. Such organizations tend to be highly political and lack many of the benefits, such as help with net metering and solar power installs, available elsewhere. It would be quite helpful if local merchants would make their inventories available over the Internet. I know of really no local merchants that have, however, provided such a function.

A major portion of the local economies are tied to Federal Government provided installations and functions. Issues surrounding water has always been and will continue to be of major importance here. A large number of local farms depend on irrigation water supplied as the result of Bureau of Reclamation dam and canal projects.

Additional Pages At A Future Date - - Future

• Oil & Gas Issues
• Fluid Injection Issues
• Aspen Chamber
• Ouray, Colorado
• Telluride, Colorado
• Lake City, Colorado
• Crested Butte
• Colorado National Monument
• Grand Mesa
• Glenwood Hot Springs
• Silverton, Colorado
• Durango Silverton Railroad
• Crystal, Colorado

• National
• Regional
• Local
• NRCS Colorado
• NRCS Local