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Beyond Telluride

Onearchitectival The  Winter Solstice is one of two times of year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator. The summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere occurs about June 21, when the sun is in the zenith at the Tropic of Cancer. The winter solstice occurs today, December 21, when the sun is over the Tropic of Capricorn. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year and the winter solstice is the shortest. The winter solstice is also the true Yule, which in pagan times and pre-historic culture did not involve a baby Jesus, a manger, wise men, or angels on high.

21 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Dr. Scott Ortman]

Ja_Scott On Tuesday, December 8, 6 - 8 p.m., the lecture series, Telluride Unearthed, continues at the Telluride Historical Museum. The speaker is Dr. Scott Ortman on the subject of "Archaeology, Oral Tradition, and the Mesa Verde Migration." Ortman is currently Director of Research and Education at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

Ortman picks up where his Crow Canyon colleague, Dr. Mark Varian, left off on December 1. Varian's overview,  "Life is Movement: Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde Region," began about 2,000 B.C. Ortman focuses on two of the longest-running debates in North American archaeology: the famous abandonment of the Mesa Verde region in the 13th century, and the relationship between ancient Mesa Verde peoples and the present-day Pueblo peoples of New Mexico.

06 December, 2009 /

by Art Goodtimes

IMG_5178  Archaeologist Dr. Mark Varien spoke recently in Telluride at the Telluride Historical Museum. If you missed it, you missed a wonderful talk. I know that to be true, even if I was out of town and wasn’t able to attend myself.


I’ve heard Mark talk in Cortez and at Grand Junction. His lectures are riveting – not because of any verbal histrionics. He has a quiet voice and demeanor. But because he has a brilliant mind and speaks with authority and knowledge.
05 December, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Dr. Webster talk about pre-European Southwestern textiles] Telluride Unearthed, a lectures series at the Telluride Historical Museum, continues on Thursday, December 3, with guest speaker Dr. Laurie Webster. The subject: "The Telluride Blanket in Context: An Overview of...

02 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Dr. Mark Varien speak about Crow Canyon]

Painted bowl 1 The Telluride Historical Museum, 201 West Gregory Avenue, has arranged an early holiday treat for the community. "Telluride Unearthed" is a series of lectures about way back when, when cultures lived sustainably without benefit of Al Gore, solar panels, or The New Community Coalition because, well,  that was the way it was. There were no movies thousands of  millennia ago either, so no popcorn with butter. But there was corn and lots of it, which is part of what archaeologist Mark Varien will talk about, when the vice president of programs at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, opens "Telluride Unearthed" with insights about "Life is Movement: Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde Region."


In his two-hour talk, Tuesday, December 1, 6 – 8 p.m., Mark Varien plans to trace the Pueblo culture over a period of four millennia, beginning with the introduction of corn about 2,000 BC. He ends at the end of the 13th century with the mass exodus of the Mesa Verde Pueblo people.
30 November, 2009 /

Telluride radio host Maribeth Clemente takes us on a tour of America's best zoos on her popular program, Travel Fun. The show airs tomorrow, Tuesday, November 17, 6:30 p.m., on KOTO radio in Telluride and at www.koto.org.  Visiting a zoo is one of the most...

16 November, 2009 /

Active from Nov. 13th to 20th, the Leonid Meteor Shower peaks on the morning of Nov. 17th. It will be daybreak before Leo reaches it’s zenith, but the Lion will be fully above the horizon by 4:00 a.m. here in southwestern Colorado – the...

15 November, 2009 /

Last year, the sunrise on el Dia de los Muertos was nothing short of magical. I awoke in morning twilight to the turquoise blues, deep crimson and pumpkin orange of an Indian Summer dawn. Slowly, a gigantic, ominous cloud began forming above the eastern...

01 November, 2009 /