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Since 1976, Frank and Barbara Sanders have lived quietly on the northern edge of Pleasant Valley along the banks of Camp Creek, giving them a front-row seat to Rock Ledge Ranch and Garden of the Gods.

Last June, the Sanders had a front-row seat for the Waldo Canyon fire. They watched in horror as the hills above the valley became choked in billowing black clouds of smoke and the forest glowed a sickening orange at night as trees torched in the spreading wildfire.

Now, the Sanders may have a front-row seat to the aftermath of that disaster.

Experts fear the Sanders and much of Pleasant Valley could face devastating flooding from ash and debris-laden water with the next hard rain.

The inferno that killed two people and burned about 350 homes in Mountain Shadows also scorched upwards of 18,250 acres in the Pike National Forest, especially in Queens Canyon and the headwaters of Camp Creek.

Experts agree it’s not a question of “if” a hard rain will bring flooding. The question is “when” and “where” the flooding will occur. There are several drainage basins where rainfall, especially a notorious Colorado microburst, could unleash a raging black torrent.

Flooding could occur in Woodmen Valley, below Peregrine, where Dry Creek runs. Or in Mountain Shadows and surrounding neighborhoods along Douglas Creek. Certainly Manitou Springs and the communities up Ute Pass already have suffered and remain vulnerable from Williams Canyon and Waldo Canyon flooding.

But perhaps no neighborhood is more at risk than Pleasant Valley,  a 1950s-era subdivision of about 800 modest homes. It’s a likely target because it’s the first neighborhood below Queens Canyon, where the fire raged for days before exploding down the foothills and into Colorado Springs on June 26.

Any significant rain is expected to carry tons of sterilized soil, rocks and burned timber down the mountainside, through Glen Eyrie and Garden of the Gods before it slams into Pleasant Valley.

A photo by Frank Sanders shows the washed out culvert and portion of Chambers Drive damaged in a 1999 flood near his Pleasant Valley home.

The Sanders’ tidy little home would be swamped by the first wave.

“We are very apprehensive about the next summer or two,” Frank Sanders said. “I don’t know how much mitigation they can do, really.”

The couple bought federal flood insurance. And they have a new weather radio so they’ll hear any storm warnings.

But they keep thinking back to April 1999 when a wet spring and late snow caused Camp Creek to jump out of its banks and into their driveway and lawn.

“The water coming down the street and flowing through our driveway like a river,” Frank said. “It was calf-deep and very swift.

“It gives you a really helpless feeling. All you can do is watch the water rise. It was pretty bad.”

Frank ordered a pallet of sandbags from a hardware store and the city arrived with a long rubber bladder that workers filled with water to create a dike to divert floodwaters around the house.

In this photo courtesy of the Sanders family, Frank Sanders, right tries to remove water from his Pleasant Valley property during a 1999 flood.

“We had an inch of water in the basement,” he said. “We’d have had it a lot worse if the city hadn’t showed up.”

That relatively small flood was bad enough to wash out two corrugated steel drainage pipes that carried the creek under the intersection of 31st Street and Chambers Way. Asphalt hung like a rolling, black tablecloth across the void.

The road was closed nearly a year as crews rebuilt a concrete culvert to carry the creek under the intersection.

“You just wondered how it would ever get back to normal again,” Barbara Sanders said.

Already, they’ve had a frightening hint of what they might expect. Last July, a moderate rain brought swirling black water choked with ash and gravel down Camp Creek.

“It was black as tar,” Frank said. “And it smelled like fire.”

Fortunately, city crews had cleared dead trees at the mouth of the culvert before the rainfall so there was no repeat of 1999. In fact, Kurt Schroeder, of the city parks department, said crews removed hundreds of dead trees and even more live New Mexico locust trees from the creek as it winds through Garden of the Gods.

In addition, he said city engineers are looking for ways to slow any floodwater as it pours through the city park, reducing its possible impact on Pleasant Valley.

El Paso County Commissioner Sallie Clark said the Sanders were smart to buy insurance and get a weather radio.

And she urged the Sanders and their neighbors to attend public meetings like one scheduled Tuesday being sponsored by the city to discuss flood risks and mitigation efforts.

“I don’t mean to scare people, but they need to be aware that this could be very serious,” Clark said.

The Sanders are sufficiently aware, if not downright scared.

“We’ve gone to several meetings,” Barbara said. “We’ve gotten maps of the floodplain and read everything we can.”

In addition, they volunteered their house for taping of a video to teach volunteers how to fill and place sandbags as the city and county trains for possible flooding.

They’d prefer to return to enjoying their quiet old life. But they are preparing for the worst, with a scrapbook full of Waldo Canyon fire photos handy to remind them why they need to worry.

“Our only saving grace,” Frank said, “is that it is going to be a dry summer. There’s not much more to say. We just sit and wait. The more mitigation work they can do on the burn area, the better. We just hope it doesn’t rain hard.

Last August, Camp Creek ran black with ash and soot from the Waldo Canyon fire burn area far above the Pleasant Valley neighborhood in Queens Canyon.

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IS PLEASANT VALLEY COUPLE ON DOORSTEP OF DISASTER? is a post from: Side Streets

Lizzy Butts, 10, of Green Mountain FallsManitou Springs artist Steve Wood and his Concrete Couch nonprofit group created SCAMP, a summer camp program that lets volunteers of all ages create public art in downtown Colorado Springs.Manitou Springs artist Steve Wood and his Concrete Couch nonprofit group created SCAMP, a summer camp program that lets volunteers of all ages create public art in downtown Colorado Springs.

Manitou Springs artist Steve Wood and his Concrete Couch nonprofit group created SCAMP, a summer camp program that lets volunteers of all ages create public art in downtown Colorado Springs.

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Lizzy Butts, a small mason’s trowel in hand, eased a ceramic tile into a dab of concrete.

She was oblivious to cars zooming past on East Pikes Peak Avenue downtown or the folks coming and going from the CenturyLink office building.

Lizzy, 10, was simplly enjoying a week at SCAMP — the Concrete Couch version of summer camp. Her group was transforming a large sidewalk vent into a piece of art.

And she was loving it.

“I always have a lot of fun doing this,” Lizzy told me as the mosaic “Tapestry Road” took shape atop the vent.

This wasn’t her first time working on a project with Concrete Couch, a Manitou Springs nonprofit founded by artist Steve Wood dedicated to creating a better community by working with kids and others to create public art.

SCAMP is a perfect example of what Wood and Concrete Couch are about.

SCAMP stands for Summer Community Art and Mural Project. Over the next three months SCAMPers like Lizzy will create a series of public art projects in the downtown area — benches, murals and a circus-style performance.

Already, the group built a concrete, ceramic and stone bench on Nevada Avenue in front of City Rock Climbing Gym. The CenturyLink bench is its second project. Six more are planned through August.

The Concrete Couch SCAMP program is transforming a sidewalk vent into a mosaic artwork.

Best of all, it’s free to participate and all are welcome. The crew Thursday included kids like Lizzy, teens and adults.

The city asked Wood to host SCAMP and is helping him secure permits and providing free parking at project sites. But it is giving no financial support.

The Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore is contributing ceramic materials and area concrete companies are giving reduced-price materials.

Still, Wood is seeking sponsorships, such as contributions he received from City Rock and CenturyLink, to cover the costs of each project, which total about $2,000 apiece.

“But we’re going ahead with this whether we get the sponsors or not,” Wood said. “That’s just how we work.”

Concrete Couch teachers and volunteers with the SCAMP program worked on a mosaic art bench Thursday, June 7, 2012, outside the CenturyLink building on East Pikes Peak Avenue.

All are welcome and sign-up is easy. Go to his website: www.ConcreteCouch.org and look under the “What’s New” tab. Or call program coordinate Lisbet Rattenborg at 347-1142.

The website also has details of coming projects including one starting June 18 in the Middle Shooks Run Neighborhood where a mural will be built alongside the creek.

“Kids like it because you get to work with tools,” said Jennifer Hanson, a professional potter who also teaches at Concrete Couch. “They get to use tile cutters and nippers, tile saws, do mortar and grouting. We even fire up the kiln sometimes and do glazing.”

Lizzy nodded agreement.

“I’ve been cutting tile,” she said. “But I’m not so good with the nippers.”

Concrete Couch volunteers in its SCAMP program built this rock and concrete bench, with a planter, on Nevada Avenue outside City Rock Climbing Gym.

The Concrete Couch website has information on the SCAMP program.

Click here to read a Side Streets column I wrote April 27, 2011, about Wood and Concrete Couch.

To read the associated blog entry, follow this link.

Click this link to see another cool Concrete Couch project.

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SUMMER CAMPERS CONVERGE DOWNTOWN, LEAVE ART IN THEIR WAKE is a post from: Side Streets

Some are two story with panel doors and wood windows. One is solar-powered. Another is adobe. Several are split level. Virtually all are fenced.

And all of them are open for visitors this weekend if you want to take a peek!

It’s not a springtime Parade of Homes. It’s the third-annual 2012 Take a Peak Chicken Coop Tour.

This weekend, about 20 coops from Black Forest to Manitou Springs to downtown Colorado Springs will be open for viewing.

Anyone interested in raising chickens is invited to take the free, self-guided tour and learn how to start your own coop.

The tour was the idea of “chickenman” John Conner.

“A couple ladies I worked with got interested in keeping chickens and came over and saw my coop,” John said. “Then they said they’d like to see more.”

So he arranged for a dozen or so folks with chickens to allow folks to see their coops. That was 2010.

“The first year, we had 80 people show,” he said. “Last year, I lost count after 120.”

And that was with mininal advertising.

This year John’s not sure what to expect. He hopes people will learn how easy it is to raise chickens.

“They are pets that give you breakfast,” John said with a laugh.

He started raising them about five years ago and now has five birds. He said they are quiet and no more work than a big dog.

“You have to clean up after them and feed them,” he said. “But they don’t go outside and start barking. They may cluck, but you won’t hear them.”

John created a CoopTourDirectory_2012_draft_2 for tour. It’s 22 pages of photos and tips about raising chickens.

I was intrigued at elaborate coops some build.

John’s coop, at his Shooks Run neighborhood home, is solar-powered with panels on the roof.

Another fellow made his coop out of “cob.”

“Basically, it’s mud and straw,” John said. “And tree limbs and things.”

Then there’s a coop in Black Forest on wheels.

Coops on the tour range from basic plywood to elaborate structures disguised as small cottages or playhouses.

There are a few rules for tour-goers. Don’t bring pets. Don’t scare the chickens. And some coops will only be open for limited times during the weekend.

John also provides information on Colorado Springs codes. For example, residents can have 10 chickens but no roosters in the city. And chicken coop poop must be picked up every few days and kept in a sealed container.

Basic stuff.

Follow this link if you want a  CoopTourMaps_2012, of print one off at John’s website. Or just drop by his house 712 N. Cedar Street east of downtown.

A pet that gives you breakfast, huh? My dog won’t even get me the morning paper!

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GET A LOOK AT A PET THAT BRINGS YOU BREAKFAST is a post from: Side Streets

The Ute Pass Regional Trail will pass through meadows and also along steep, winding, rocky passages west of Manitou Springs as it climbs toward Cascade. Courtesy El Paso County Parks Department

The Ute Pass Regional Trail west of Manitou Springs will travel along a Colorado Springs Utilities service road for a stretch.

David Johnson is a retired teacher and an avid hiker. Brags he’s done all the area trails and many more.

“I’ve hiked all over the country,” Johnson said. “I enjoy it.”

I figured he’d be the last guy trying to block construction of a trail connecting Manitou Springs with Woodland Park.

But Johnson is campaigning loudly against efforts by El Paso County to complete the Ute Pass Regional Trail.

To rally his neighbors and convince the county it shouldn’t build a 3-mile stretch of trail that includes a frontage road along busy U.S. Highway 24 in Cascade,

Historic trail marker. Courtesy El Paso County Parks Department

Johnson is using scare tactics, painting one extreme scenario after another.

“I’ve seen a lot of cigarettes thrown into the brush,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen fire rings where they’re not allowed. Booze bottles.

“There are so many idiots using public facilities. If they build this trail, we’ll have all these people coming in and it only takes one.”

You’ve probably figured out the trail would run past Johnson’s home, one of a half-dozen or so on the frontage road.

Johnson insists he doesn’t want to stop people from enjoying their public land.

“I’m not against anybody hiking or learning about nature,” he said.

But he said the frontage road is private land. A trail would violate his privacy.

“I’m objecting to them being on my property,” Johnson said, though county officials say it’s public and a utility easement gives them the right to build the trail.

He also suggests upwards of 30,000 people a year will tackle the steep, twisting trail officials hope to build between Manitou Springs and Green Mountain Falls, where the trail now ends.

Eventually, Johnson gets to the heart of his opposition: “Our goal is to re-route the trail away from our neighborhood.”

He doesn’t care where it goes as long as it’s not in his front yard.

His wailing has achieved some success.

This is the view from GoogleEarth of the frontage road where neighbors are fighting a stretch of the Ute Pass Regional Trail.

The county abandoned an idea of building a trailhead at the end of the frontage road, easing fears of traffic and parking.

“The trailhead has been completely ruled out at this time,” said El Paso County Commissioner Sallie Clark, “because of the concerns of the neighbors.”

But the frontage road remains a possible link in the trail, depending on the outcome of upcoming meetings to gather opinions.

“We’re going to do a more robust public hearing process and get input from all residents and stakeholders on that leg of the trail,” Clark said.

She noted there aren’t a lot of options for threading a trail through the steep, narrow terrain of Ute Pass.

Here's the approximate route of the trail from Ruxton Canyon in Manitou Springs as its heads west of Ute Pass.

And, frankly, she believes it will attract only a fraction of the volume Johnson predicts.

Still, it’s an important link and the county is committed to completing it.

After all, even boozing, pyromaniacal idiots deserve to hike!

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AVID HIKER PROTESTS PROPOSED TRAIL: NIMBY is a post from: Side Streets

Tom McGee built this house atop Iron Mountain overlooking Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs in the distance. Photo courtesy Steve Garufi.

For years, Tom McGee and Steve Beisel stood side-by-side on Iron Mountain, battling Manitou Springs and the courts as they tried to develop land they owned overlooking the village.

Tom McGee

McGee’s war with Manitou began in 1989 after he bought 99 acres stretching from city limits to the 7,131-foot summit.

He offered Manitou 90 acres and asked the city to annex the rest and extend utilities so he could develop houses. The city refused and he retaliated by building a house smack on top the mountain.

The city punished him by blocking him from carving a driveway down the mountain. Lawsuits followed.

Last year, as trial over the driveway was to start, McGee grudgingly agreed to sell Manitou his land for $1.1 million. The deal will close in July. Already there are plans to demolish the house and build trails there.

I wondered if Beisel, too, was ready to sell his 70 acres, purchased in 1996.

“Hell no,” he barked at me in his typical bravado.

Though he insists he has mellowed, Beisel remains mad at Manitou.

Like McGee, Beisel says he was the target of an illegal campaign to deny him access to city streets and prevent him from building a driveway, drilling wells, installing a septic system or building a house.

Steve Beisel stands by his Rainbow Trout pond on Dec. 12, 2011. The state made him drain the century-old pond shortly after he bought it in 2009.

Beisel retaliated by barricading a trail that crosses his land, leading to a confrontation with then-City Councilman Marc Snyder.

Beisel said Snyder provoked

him by trespassing on a rock above his house and singing loudly at him.

Snyder denied he trespassed and accused Beisel of beating him. Beisel says he never touched Snyder.

This photo shows Manitou Springs police celebrating the promotiong of Sgt. Russ Elliott to state liquor cop. Elliott is seen sitting next to an under-age woman and her mother, Mary Jo Smith, a Manitou cop.

In 2006, a jury convicted Beisel of misdemeanor assault and harassment and he served 19 days in jail. But his conviction was overturned as he wasn’t properly advised of his right to an attorney. Ultimately, charges were dismissed when Snyder declined to testify again.

Beisel says he is victim of harassment from the town and courts dating to 2001 when he blew the whistle on a night of drinking by Manitou police and an under-aged woman — the daughter of one of the cops. (They were celebrating Sgt. Russ Elliott’s promotion to state liquor cop!)

Beisel filed a complaint with the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. He supplied photos of the cops and the 20-year-old woman sitting at a table with glasses of booze and beer.

 Elliott was reprimanded by his new bosses at the state Revenue Department. But only the woman was charged with underage drinking. Several police officers apologized for their actions.

Manitou Police Sgt. Russ Elliott licks the face of an under-age woman as he celebrated his promotion to state liquor cop in 2001. The under-age woman's mother looks on. She is Mary Jo Smith, also a Manitou cop.

The photos of Elliott seemed convincing to me, but no charges were filed.

I suppose I don’t blame Beisel for distrusting government. Consider this: in 2009, shortly after he bought a century-old Rainbow Trout pond in Cascade, a state water cop showed up and ordered him to drain it. The one-acre pond was illegally diverting Fountain Creek water. It operated for a century unchallenged, but as soon as Beisel bought it, the pond was illegal.

Such a coincidence!

But Beisel is a survivor. He’s converting the trout pond to a campground.

And he’s making the best of McGee’s decision to sell.

“They did me a favor,” Beisel said. “My 70 acres is worth a lot more now, surrounded by open space.”

Not long after Steve Beisel bought the Rainbow Trout pond in Cascade in 2009, the state ordered him to drain it. The pond was built to service the Cascade Train Depot in 1888. But officials said it illegally diverted water from Fountain Creek. Beisel is filling the one-acre pond with dirt and plans to open a campground on the property.

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MCGEE ENDS WAR AND BEISEL ‘MELLOW’ BUT STILL ANGRY AT MANITOU is a post from: Side Streets

The big project for the city's trail staff in 2011 is completing the 3.5-mile Midland Trail from America the Beautiful Park to Manitou Springs. A $2 million grant from Great Outdoors Colorado paid for the project, due to be completed in October.

Perhaps the most exciting three-day sports weekend in Colorado Springs history culminates Monday when 135 or so pro bike riders launch themselves from Garden of the Gods and race downtown at upwards of 50 mph.

It’s the prologue of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, and it follows the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon over the weekend.

I’m totally psyched!

And it reminds me how lucky I am to live in a community that embraces cycling and encourages it with a network of neighborhood trails.

The trail system isn’t perfect. I’ve done my share of bushwacking when a trail abruptly ended. And I’ve gotten lost a few times trying to find connections.

But I’ve also lived in cities where I wouldn’t dare commute 10 miles on a bike, as I do from my Rockrimmon home to downtown.

Check out a video I made of my commute.

Hang on as you climb onto the handlebars of my old Stumpjumper and rocket along with me at 60 mph — thanks to the magic of time-lapse editing — down the Pikes Peak Greenway along Monument Creek, over to the Shooks Run Trail and finally to The Gazette.

Or take a longer, full-length 40-minute trip with notes inserted to point out landmarks and street-crossnigs.

It was a blast making the video. And I’d love to see videos of your commutes.

Signs like these help trail riders find their way through the city's network.

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Some signs are in better shape than others.

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Here's another map in the Patty Jewitt Neighborhood

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It got me wondering about the status of area trails, especially with the severe budget cuts experienced by the parks agency.

Actually, a lot is going on.

Kurt Schroeder, manager of the city’s parks, trails and open space, said his staff remains committed to developing trails and piecing together missing links that sometimes frustrate folks on two wheels.

“It’s a slow process,” Schroeder said. “We have little money for rebuilding old trails. But we can still get money for new trails.”

In fact, the city expects to finish in October most of the 3.5-mile Midland Trail from America the Beautiful Park to Manitou Springs, thanks to a $2 million lottery grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, or GOCO.

Trail is being built along Sand Creek out east as well as from North Nevada Avenue to Dublin Boulevard near Cottonwood Creek, said Sarah Bryarly, the city’s trail guru.

Her wish list includes expanding the Rock Island Trail, punching Shooks Run Trail south to Fountain Creek and expanding Cottonwood Creek Trail from Vincent Drive.

It all sounds great to me. I can’t wait to ride them.

And I can’t wait to see your photos and videos!

Here’s some of the sights you’ll see on my video:

On my commute, I enjoy crossing the bridges over Monument Creek and its tributaries.

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Going under bridges can be spooky like this crossing under Pikes Peak Avenue.

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Stay alert. You never know when you might encounter wildlife . . . even the prehistoric kind.

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The city has placed mile markers along the Pikes Peak Greenway to help you keep track or your progress.

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This is one of my favorite spots popping up from under the Garden of the Gods Road bridge and seeing the sunflowers along the edge of Pikeview Reservior and Pikes Peak in the background.

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I like this overpass that carries you over Cache La Poudre Street and into Shooks Run Park.

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Down along Monument Creek near Roswell neighborhood.

Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department has a trails page with tons of useful information.

Check out this

trails page: http://www.springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=1881
pikes peak greenway trail: http://www.springsgov.com/units/parksrec/maps/pdfmaps/24x36ppgy.pdf
midland trail map: http://www.springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=2289

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IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE A BIKING FAN is a post from: Side Streets

Joyce Cheney and her dog, Poodles

Joyce Cheney, seen here with her dog, Poodles, loves to hike.

She especially enjoys the Mount Manitou Incline and Barr Trail in Manitou Springs, as well as Section 16 and Waldo Canyon.

Of course, those are four of the most popular trails in the region.

Cheney wishes they got a little less use from members of the military who regularly go on training runs on those same trails.

Cheney said she regularly sees soldiers from Fort Carson and Air Force Academy cadets on the trails.

It bugs her.

Why, she asks, can’t they train on the thousands of acres set aside for them?

“I wish they’d train somewhere else,” she said. “These are public recreational trails. They have thousands of acres of base land available to train on.”

Isn’t it bad enough we have to share them with every Texan who wanders into town? (OK, the Texan crack is my smart-mouth remark, not Cheney’s words.)

And something else really bugs her. Some of the military smoke. And, she said, they drop cigarette butts on the trails. Even lit butts!

Dropping cigarette butts on trails is not cool. Doesn’t matter who you are, military or civilian. It’s like letting your dog drop something on the trail. It’s just wrong.

And lit butts are dangerous. Stupid and dangerous.

I was shocked at the idea soldiers and cadets are puffing and dropping butts after a 10-mile jaunt up Barr Trail. So I called a trails expert, Susan Davies, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, to see how bad the situation really is.

She said it’s true our friends in the military, when they aren’t risking their lives for us halfway around the world, do like to run our trails.

“But so what?” Davies said.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Davies added that the military doesn’t just run the trails, they volunteer regularly to perform trail building and maintenance.

Here’s proof: Air Force cadets with picks and shovels building trail in Red Rock Canyon Open Space and collecting trash along the Pikes Peak Greenway downtown Colorado Springs.

Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon Open Space on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition

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Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition.

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THIS IS A PUBLIC TRAIL, SOLDIER. BUTT OUT! is a post from: Side Streets

Chances are, you have heard about the mysterious Keithley Log Cabin National Historic District in Manitou Springs but you’ve never seen it much less toured its cabins, which date to 1919.  

Well now is your chance to see it.  

It’s a living history museum. Hand-built log cabins in a hilly valley and on a ridge with spectacular views of the Garden of the Gods.  

Everard Keithley in a photocopy of a 1937 newspaper clipping.

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The district was created in 1983 because folks deemed valuable the collection of cabins built by legendary Pike National Forest superintendent Everard Keithley.  

After working summer jobs for the Forest Service, Keithley came to Colorado and took a fulltime appointment in Durango in January 1912.   

He moved to the Pike in 1913 to oversee planting trees among other duties.  

In 1919, he paid $1,700 for 10 acres on the eastern edge of Manitou Springs and started building a cabin.  

Eventually he would own 16 acres and by 1956 there were seven cabins on the property.  

Nancy Galles Bower owns 8.6 acres and six cabins that make up the bulk of the Keithley Log Cabin National Historic District in Manitou Springs. They were built by her grandfather, Everard Keithley, over a span of 1919 to 1956. Keithley was supervisor of the Pike National Forest for 20 years who became a legend for his efforts to plant trees, build roads and protect the forest.

He became Pike superintendent in 1925,  three years after the Forest Service had moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs.  

By the time he retired in 1946, Keithley was credited with overseeing the planting of 30 million trees across the Pike. It was a massive job to reclaim the land, which had been stripped by loggers, miners, homesteaders and wildfires.  

In addition, he is credited for building the Rampart Range Road, fighting to open Gold Camp Road to the public and developing tree nurseries used to reforest mountain ranges.  

Keithley practiced what he preached. Besides building cabins on his land, he created a tree nursery and planted trees all over his land, which had been a goat pasture.  

Each cabin was named for a type of tree, such as Blue Spruce.  

In this image from GoogleEarth, the Keithley Log Cabin National Historic District can been seen. On the north end is a tree nursery planted by Everard Keithley, legendary Pike National Forest supervisor. Millions of trees were planted in the forest during his 33 years with Pike National Forest, the last 20 as supervisor. His efforts reclaimed land descimated by logging and wildfire. He also built seven cabins from 1919 to 1956 designated a historic district in 1983.

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Keithley died in 1973 and the homestead passed to his son, Joseph.  

 However, his son didn’t have the same passion for trees and the property was neglected, says his daughter, Nancy Galles Bower. 

Still, in 1983 the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Joseph Keithley loved trains and built a small-gauge track around the property. He even built an exact replica of a coal-fired steam engine which he rode around the tracks.  

 By the time he died in 1999, the nursery was overgrown and most of the fruit trees on the property were gone.  

Nancy Galles Bower and her son, Doug Edmundson, stand on the porch of a cabin built by her grandfather, Everard Keithley.

 Today, Nancy Galles Bower is matriarch of the property. When Joseph died, she was able to keep 8.6 acres and six cabins.  

She and her 44-year-old son, Doug Edmundson, live in cabins on the property and they rent the other four. They also share a passion for restoring the property and preserving the legacy of Everard Keithley. 

Nancy Galles Bower looks at the coal-fired steam locomotive and tender her father, Joseph Keithley, designed and built as an exact replica of an actual train. He used to ride it around the family homestead.

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Doug Edmundson stands on the old narrow-gauge railroad tracks built by his grandfather, Joseph Keithley. He hopes to restore the train.

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One of the first cabins built by Everard Keithley, supervisor of the Pike National Forest from 1926-46. He built a group of cabins that were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

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This is a photo of a plaque erected on a boulder near Balanced Rock in the Garden of the Gods honoring Nancy Galles Bower's grandfather, Everard Keithley.

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The U.S. Forest Service brand is visible in the logs of the cabins.

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NATIONAL HISTORIC DISTRICT TO MOST IS JUST HOME TO SOME is a post from: Side Streets

Steve Wood is a Manitou Springs artist who is convinced the creation of public art, involving children and adults from across a region can foster better communication and lead to a deeper understanding and strong overall community.

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Wood, pictured with a whimsical bear sculpture, is such a strong believer art can change the world that he founded “Concrete Couch” to pursue his passion.

This week, he’s going even farther by hosting “Off the Couch” — a regional conference to bring people together across the Pikes Peak region to create public art as a way to build a better community.

And he wants you and your friends to participate for free in any of five workshops.

WORKSHOPS:

1) Art Bench Workshop at Fort Carson: military and civilians work together to make a concrete and ceramic tile bench for a playground on post (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays, with a Sunday session)

2) Environmental Restoration Workshop: Manitou teens and community work with Rocky Mountain Field Institute on several Manitou trails (3 to 5 p.m. weekdays)

3) Mosaic Workshop: community works with mosaic experts on a direct project in downtown Colorado Springs (1 to 4 p.m. weekdays)

4) Design Workshop: community works with design professionals to develop public art models and schematic drawings for a site in downtown Colorado Springs (9 a.m. to noon weekdays)

5) Marimba Workshop: Ute Pass Elementary students and community work with musical playground professional to make a marimba at their school (3 to 5 p.m. weekdays)

His conference is under the umbrella of the national Community Built Association, a California-based nonprofit founded in 1989.

To get involved, just email Steve at conference@concretecouch.org

Here’s a look at a couple Concrete Couch public art creations:

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CAN ART SAVE THE WORLD? STEVE WOOD THINKS SO! is a post from: Side Streets

Everyone, it seems, wants to be a Manitoid . . .  someone who identifies as a Manitou Springs lover.

Of course, being loved by people far and wide is a great thing for a tourist town.

Unless, that is, you are trying to launch a hyper-local social network as the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce is doing.

They’ve found their efforts are being hijacked by wannabe Manitiods all over the globe.

These folks have good intentions. They just want to be associated with the wacky coffin-racing, fruitcake-tossing, drum-beating crowd that has made Manitou famous.

Trouble is, the new site was designed for locals. The 5,200 or so people actually living in Manitou.

It’s supposed to be about chicken dinners and school plays and concerts and water-main breaks and book club meetings and other stuff of little interest outside the village.

But Manitou’s fan latched onto the site after learning of it from the chamber’s Facebook postings.

Now the chamber has the delicate task of dissuading the tourists from clogging up the new site and attracting only residents.

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MANITOIDS ARE EVERYWHERE is a post from: Side Streets