Friday, June 29, 2012
Are You a Local? Quiz
Take Steamboat Living’s simple quiz to help determine whether you’re a cheechako or a sourdough when it comes to your tenure in Steamboat. 1. White out is used to: A. turn legs into jelly B. correct mistakes on a term paper C. warm up your legs on the first run D. A and C 2. Three current postal clerks’ names are: A. Don, Tom and Ron B. Fred, Hank and Harriet C. Julie, John and Norbert 3. Locals used to gather atop Thunderhead in the early morning for: A. advice from Billy Kidd B. free coffee/mimosas C. rope drop 4. I try this ski parking sequence, in order: A. tiny lot below Knoll Lot, Ski Time Square, Knoll Lot, Meadows Lot B. Meadows Lot, Knoll Lot, Ski Time Square C. rodeo grounds, City Market, Wildhorse Meadows 5. Drink out of the Lithium Spring and you may get: A. the trots B. a euphoric feeling C. a ticket D. algae in your teeth 6. The original name of the Yampa River was: A. Bear River B. Steamboat River C. Anything Town USA River D. Billy Kidd Brook 7. The original hospital in town now is: A. a medical marijuana dispensary B. Old Town Pub C. Old Town Hot Springs D. a tattoo parlor 8. The following people attended Perry-Mansfield: A. Dustin Hoffman, Julie Harris and Lee Remick B. Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake C. Marilyn Monroe 9. Touch the Buddy Werner statue atop Mount Werner and you’ll get: A. arrested B. good luck C. cold fingers 10. The following Broadway musical resulted from Agnes de Mille square dancing in a schoolhouse in Hayden: A. “Grease” B. “Oklahoma” C. “West Side Story” 11. The word “Yampa” comes from: A. a flowering, edible root that grows along the river B. the founder of town, Herbert B. Yampa C. an Indian greeting 12. The real name of today’s Lighted Man is: A. Tom Hanks B. Jon Banks C. Claudius Banks 13. The name of our local mountain range is:A. Park B. Elk C. Zirkels D. Never Summer 14. These bands played at the Inferno: A. Dave Matthews, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Sonia Dada B. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Taj Mahal and the Suburbs C. Grateful Dead, Jethro Tull and Charlie Daniels 15. The original name of Steamboat Ski Area was: A. Billy Kiddville B. Storm Mountain C. Grouse Creek D. Wally World 16. The old Routt County license plates started with: A. ZY B. YK C. WZ 17. Lincoln Avenue is so wide because: A. it was designed to fit Hummers and Lincoln Navigators B. it was used to drive cattle to stockyards C. high school tuba players needed more room at Winter Carnival 18. The train depot once was one of the largest: A. cattle shipping centers in the West B. facilities to host Cabaret C. coal-transfer stations in Colorado How did you score? 5 points for each correct answer (90 total) 80 to 90: veritable John Crawford 70 to 79: Billy Kidd 60 to 69: five-year ski bum 50 to 59: came for the winter, stayed for the summer Below 50: just visitingEmily Seaver remembers when the Yampa River Botanic Park had no shade.
The collection of towering trees had just been planted, and the east Steamboat park — once a flat pasture — was budding into the six-acre, 40-garden retreat it is today.
“It’s so wonderful to watch it evolve,” says Emily, who has been volunteering at the park since it first opened. “I find it to be a very peaceful place.”
Emily first visited the Yampa Valley in the 1970s. Like so many others, it was where she and her husband, Tony, chose to finally move in 1996. “We wanted to ski, and we wanted to live in a real town,” Emily says. “That narrows it down real quick.”
Back in New Jersey, the Seavers had a garden that went by the wayside as the deer population got out of control. Emily recalls looking through the gates of the botanic-park-to-be with curiosity when she first moved to Steamboat. Shortly thereafter, she was a part of the crew of volunteers who put together the first rock garden.
Now, a team of 15 regular volunteers — and sometimes as many as 40 — take care of the park with guidance from a design committee. And Emily is right there helping with every task.
As a member of the Over The Hill Gang, Emily also helped start a garden sponsored by the group. She’s at the park at least once per week tending to the plants and trees from small perennials to aspen and crabapple trees.
Bob Enever, who along with his wife, Audrey, founded the park and donated the land for it to the city, says Emily has been an indispensable part of the Botanic Park’s development; in addition to volunteering, she’s served on the board for more than a decade.
“She organizes members of the Over The Hill Gang to come and maintain that garden, and it’s probably the best maintained garden in the park,” he says. “She always works hard on everything to do with the park. She does a terrific job, and the park is never far from her mind.”
Enever says that it’s volunteers like Emily who will carry on the park’s legacy.
And to Emily, there’s a good reason to keep at it.
“It’s a wonderful, peaceful and quiet place,” she says. “It’s a wonderful place to come almost anytime of the day ... to mediate or to work in the quiet. It’s healing when you look at nature. Some things you think were so important maybe aren’t.”
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