America's Byways® Press Room
October 8, 2007 - Tom Bodett Interviews Carla Farrand of Top of the Rockies

Tom

Thanks for downloading this Podcast. What you’re about to hear is a true story—a story of American culture, history, and beauty. I’m Tom Bodett, and this is America’s Byways.

Carla

My name is Carla Farrand. I’m at the Top of the Rockies National and Historic Scenic Byway in Colorado. Our byway has four mountain passes with the highest elevation being over 11,000 feet. A common question we always get asked is: “At what elevation can I stop and see the deer and then go up another level in elevation and see the elk? Because we know that they change from deer to elk.” That is a very crazy question, but it’s a very common question. And it’s given at least one person a day will ask that question. They really do think that, and, you know, it’s kind of funny, but that’s what some people really think.

There’s a lot of history around Leadville. It started out as a silver town. There’s a lot of history around the whole byway that stretches for 75 miles, for mining and railroad. The mining is still part of the heritage today with the Climax Molybdenum Mine, which is getting ready to reopen again here in this next year. We have a lot of sites that deal with what has happened to our environment up there with mining, along with what mining has brought to the states — not just for our region, but for the country as a whole.

One of my favorite places to take everyone is the Hayden Meadows because it’s one of the places you can see nature. It has a little walking trail that goes through the history of that particular area, which used to be a huge ranching area. They made a lot of cattle ranches up there on top of the mining. But it was also one of those areas that was impacted by the slag piles of mining and the environmental impacts of things of what could happen to mining and to the river and to the watershed areas. And, it’s one of the things that our local students at our community college have really been working on to help revitalize…and be able to educate people on how they’ve done this process… and the whole history of that area.

We love to tell our story. We’ll all tell it a different way. Come and see us.

Tom

We’ve just heard another story from America’s Byways. I’m Tom Bodett. Travel well, act right, safe home.

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