Along the Colorado River: Where community blossoms and the economy grows

“When you have people living in your community, spending in your community, involved in your community, the community can thrive.”

— Alicia Gresley,  Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership 

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At 7:15 a.m., I climbed aboard the big blue bus in Basalt to start my daylong field trip. I was surprised to find more than a dozen passengers, most of whom were sleeping in the dim half-light of a January morning — the night shift.

The bus picked up speed down Two Rivers Road where the driver swerved around a small herd of mule deer. Going against a flood of upvalley commuters in a double flow of headlights, we soon reached the 27th Street transfer station in Glenwood Springs, where the Grand Hogback bus loaded and maneuvered down Grand Avenue. Merging onto Interstate 70 in West Glenwood, the bus motored 10 miles west to the New Castle exit. I got off at the downtown stop on an empty, quiet street with low storefronts stretching in both directions. As the bus pulled away, I realized I had stepped into rural western Colorado.

Alicia Gresley was to be my guide. She called and apologized for being late, explaining that she was held up by a highway wreck slowing traffic on the drive over from her home in Rifle, where she serves on the City Council. Gresley also heads up the Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership, a nonprofit that assists existing small businesses and encourages new businesses to locate in western Garfield County. The idea, she later said, is to provide smart growth opportunities for entrepreneurs and generate new options for local workers who call the Colorado River Valley home.

Gresley is energetic, a perfect fit for her role. She said that “Better jobs, closer to home” is the slogan that signals a potential shift in the regional workforce. If Gresley is successful, workers will have greater choice between the commuter rigors of Highway 82 and a diversity of local jobs in communities where most of them live. This could portend a boon for Colorado River communities and a challenge to the high-demand service economy of Aspen and Snowmass Village.

Gresley took me to Colorado Drifters Coffee and Fly Fishing, a quaint New Castle coffee shop run by Kyla Hemelt, who has created a warm, homey atmosphere of welcoming smiles, reasonable pricing and a laid-back vibe without attitude or pretense. The cafe doubles as a fishing and fly shop, reflecting Hemelt’s love for the Colorado River, on the banks of which she lives with her husband and their two young children.

Parents and kids welcome

Hemelt opened Drifters in the summer of 2021, after she and her family moved from Golden, where Hemelt had been a school teacher for 14 years. “I grew up in Gunnison,” she said, “and wanted to get back to the Western Slope for the river lifestyle and the small-town vibe for my family.”

Drifters is all about community, a place to gather. “When we moved here,” recalled Hemelt, “there were no coffee shops, no fly shops. There really wasn’t much. This space was vacant for about two years, and multiple spaces were empty up and down the street. We had this crazy idea to start a business with no business background.”

Hemelt had built a business plan with another partner, whom she bought out in six months. “I was really nervous about how we would be received here because there is this old-school mentality about keeping things the way they are and not wanting change,” she said. “Overall, we’ve been very welcomed. People are extremely friendly, and the younger families really want a place to go and bring their kids and be social and not drive to other towns.”

“We have a gazillion events,” said Hemelt, whose fly shop doubles as a toy room where kids play while parents gather and chat. “I’m kind of a party planner as well.” There are open-mic nights the first Thursday of every month, mostly featuring local artists. Trivia nights, held twice a month, always have a waiting list. Drifters has become a hub that spawns a homespun community.

Before dropping in at New Castle Town Hall, Gresley described her origins in Perth, Australia. Her dual U.S. citizenship comes from her American father, who was a Seabee in the U.S. Navy stationed in northwest Australia, where he met Gresley’s Australian mother. In 2005, on her third trip to the United States as a young backpacker, Gresley rode Amtrak to Glenwood Springs and decided to stay in the region. She landed a job at Vail that included housing. She worked winters for Vail Resorts and summers for a rafting company. Gresley eventually created her own role doing business development for the lodging sector in Eagle County where she worked to increase the number of second-home owners offering their properties as short-term rentals.

Ten years after settling in Colorado, she met her husband, who grew up in Basalt. The couple moved to Rifle where they are raising two children.

“For two years, I did the commute to Avon,” said Gresley, “every day, five days a week. The pandemic made me work remotely from home, which had a silver lining: I was able to spend time with my first child. It was then I became more connected to the Rifle community and wanted to get more involved.”

Gresley ran for council and won a seat in 2021. “I wanted to be a voice for families like us,” she said. “Now I really appreciate what goes into running a town in a small community.”

Leaving her job in Avon — and the commute — in 2022, Gresley has dedicated herself to local government and economic growth, for which she demonstrates a deep passion. She also created her own consulting business, On Mountain Time, which she calls a state of mind. “Time is our most precious resource,” she said, “and it’s finite, especially when we spend a lot of time working for somebody else.

“My first goal is to provide resources for small businesses, especially women-run businesses. I found that during the pandemic, a lot of women had to get creative, many having been laid off and doing home schooling. Many women I talked to started up businesses to earn an income for their families. They had a passion but didn’t have the business side of it. How do you turn something that you’re good at into a business and make it work?”

This is where Gresley shines.

The view from New Castle

We continued to town hall where we met Dave Reynolds, New Castle’s town administrator, and Reynolds’ assistant, Rochelle Firth. Reynolds has lived in New Castle for seven years and has been in his job for six. The role that enlivened a personal mission to build community.

“When I came to this area long ago, I searched up and down 82 and I-70, and I wound up here and just fell in love with it right away,” he said. “It just felt like a family community where you would be happy to raise kids.”

As town administrator, Reynolds is compelled to maintain the attractive first impression that persuaded him to make his home here. 

“Our intention is in giving back to our community and keeping this a comfortable place where people can raise their families,” he said. “We recognize that we have a certain charm and character, and our goal is to maintain that. What we care about here is keeping that family lifestyle, that charm we have.

“Most people have only the I-70 view of New Castle, and they don’t realize that we’re a town of about 5,200, with about 1,500 households. These are primary homes, with families, with people raising their kiddos, and it’s a great place to do it.”

Community is fostered in New Castle in part by an active social calendar put together by an ambitious recreation department. “We have a full year of events,” Reynolds said, “and sports go year-round. And we’re doing it in cooperation with our neighbors, so our leagues include towns from up and down the valley, and from outside the valley. We have arts, crafts and enrichment programs that are held almost every day.”

Such positive energy pulls in families and attracts outside interest. “We have open tracts of land owned by developers who are interested in bringing in more housing,” Reynolds said. “Growth is not our goal, but we know it is inevitable, and we accept it, but the goal is to maintain our charm. People pick this fun little place to live, where the parks, the trails and the schools are amazing.”

See other “In search of community” stories

Spread out north of Main Street are quiet, attractive neighborhoods connected to town by an extensive trail system that includes single-track mountain bike and hiking trails and cross-country skiing. Farther north are bucolic valleys where creeks flow down from the Flat Tops, the second-largest designated wilderness area in Colorado, at 235,214 acres. Main Elk Creek is home to limestone sport-climbing crags that have helped put this region on the international climber’s map.

Like much of the Colorado River Valley, New Castle has grown significantly over the past two decades. The town’s population rose from about 2,000 residents in 2000 to 4,518 in 2010 and 4,923 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census, while the number of housing units followed a similar trajectory increasing from 746 in 2000 to 1,893 in 2020. Commercial developments include the 18-hole Lakota Canyon Golf Course, which opened for play in 2004. The area is rich with both small-town character and the likelihood of continued residential growth.

“I grew up here,” said Firth, “and now I live in Parachute, a 45-minute commute. Coming back here, you go to the grocery store and everyone knows you. I love it here for the small-town charm. The mayor and council are at every event. They are involved.”

Reynolds said he appreciates a sense of regionalism that links the Colorado River Valley through collaborative-minded municipalities. 

“We have a relationship with our neighbors that has formed between town administrators and mayors,” he said. “We need to know each other so that when we have issues, we can work through them together. We are deliberate about knowing each other, and that is something that has changed in just the last decade.

“We realize that a lot of our residents don’t work here, but when they get off that exit, we want them to feel like they are at home. I don’t think we’re ever going to get rid of the commute, but we hope to give people more options. We already have a large segment who work from their homes, which is COVID-driven, and that’s a huge step in that direction.”

Quiet, unpretentious and fully local, New Castle personifies rural western Colorado. Reynolds vows to work to keep it that way. “Our staff is amazing,” he said, “and our mayor and Town Council take the approach of ‘residents first’ and of maintaining who we are. Change is inevitable, but through that, we’ve got to maintain who we are.”

When coal was king

Almost a century and a half ago, early Anglo settlers discovered New Castle. Prospectors and miners arrived in the early 1880s and found rich coal veins near Elk Creek’s confluence with the Colorado River. The city thrived on mining, and merchants made their livings catering to miners’ needs and desires. As the town grew, there were restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, opera houses and hotels. At one point, there were 22 saloons. West of Elk Creek was an area of ill repute discreetly referred to as the “Peach Orchard.”

The founding father of New Castle was Jasper Ward, a freighter and farmer who was one of the town’s first settlers. Ward and his family built a one-room, dirt-floor cabin along the west bank of Elk Creek. The cabin became the town’s first post office and Ward the first postmaster. Ute Indian Chief Colorow was a friend who often visited Ward’s cabin.

Ward later served as the town’s deputy sheriff and, in August 1887, joined a unit of the Colorado National Guard that was intent on warring with some of Colorow’s followers. Ward rode to the scene of the battle with the intention of brokering a peace, but as he rode toward the gathered Utes, a guardsman fired a shot that started the battle. Ward was killed in the melee. He was 37.

First known as Grand Buttes and later Chapman, the town was incorporated as New Castle on Feb. 2, 1888. British coal miners suggested the name in reference to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, an English town noted for its coal mines. The Consolidated Mine operated just west of downtown on Ward’s Peak (now Burning Mountain) and the Vulcan Mine, to the southeast on Roderick’s Ridge, across the Grand River (now the Colorado River).

New Castle became center stage for labor strikes by coal miners in protest against subhuman working conditions in unsafe mines where accidents, many of them crippling or lethal, were commonplace. One strike, in October 1893, targeted the Vulcan Mine for failure to deliver the meager wages on which miners existed. Several safety demands were coupled with the pay grievance. Conditions improved, but at the nearby Consolidated Mine, owned by Colorado Fuel & Iron (CF&I), miners stayed out for five months.

The long strike strained CF&I, but it hurt the miners more as they survived on scant savings and labor-union allowances. The superintendent had the mine boarded up and threatened to let it fill with water if the miners didn’t capitulate. In time, they did, for a lower wage than before and with less than half the workforce rehired. With this precedent, the Vulcan Mine also lowered its wages to match CF&I.

The United Mine Workers (UMW) moved in to bolster the rights of the miners and called another strike. This time there was violence. A bridge of the Colorado Midland Railroad was burned to block the threatened arrival of 30 U.S. Marshals called in to quell the strike. This prompted the governor to call up the state militia to protect the trains.

The strike finally ended, but CF&I president John Osgood, the man who had built a model coal mine and coke-oven operation at Redstone, announced that his mine would be closed indefinitely. The Vulcan reopened, but in the aftermath of the strike, the miners eventually reverted to the low pay that had helped initiate the dispute. At that point, CF&I reopened its mine to a more compliant group of workers. By 1896, New Castle held the lion’s share of coal mining in Garfield County, with 287 miners working coal seams.

The Vulcan became notorious for an explosion that ripped through its tunnels on Feb. 18, 1896. Mine timbers were reportedly blown 400 feet from the mouth of the mine and into the Colorado River. Body-recovery efforts took three weeks. The explosion killed 49 men. A total of 37 children lost their fathers that day. The Vulcan was soon closed and flooded.

In 1899, Osgood’s Consolidated Mine caught fire. Despite efforts to douse the fire, it could not be controlled, even after the mine was flooded. Scars from this fire are still visible, and the mine was never reopened. Mining began tapering off due to economic conditions. Still, in 1905, records show that the Colorado Midland Railroad hauled 250 cars filled with coal out of New Castle mines.

During the peak of mining activity in the 1890s, New Castle was home to a population ranging from 1,500 to 2,500. Coal was transported by railway as fuel for the silver smelters in Aspen and Leadville. New Castle businesses included a cannery, a brickyard, a brewery, banks, a cement factory, dance halls, a printing office, saloons, restaurants, three livery stables, two bakeries and several hotels. The town became a small transportation hub with two train depots for the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Colorado Midland.

In 1912, the Vulcan Mine was purchased by a new operator, Rocky Mountain Fuel Co., which started a new tunnel near the original tunnel that still smoldered from the fire that occurred 16 years before. There were rumors among the workers that mine gas was still a problem, but management did nothing to address the issue. On Dec. 18, 1913, residents of New Castle heard “a giant clap of thunder” as the Vulcan exploded a second time.

Rescue was stymied by a massive cave-in, and it was a full day before the rubble was cleared to access the tunnel. All 37 miners in the tunnel were killed, and a long mourning period followed in New Castle. The president of the company arrived the day after the blast and offered surviving families $75 for each victim of the accident to help cover funeral expenses. A subsequent investigation by the state coal mine inspector found fault with Rocky Mountain Fuel, but concluded that $75 was “adequate” compensation for the bereaved.

Four years after that second mass-casualty Vulcan Mine explosion, the Vulcan exacted another human toll: Five men were killed in 1917 while clearing rubble from a cave-in. Shortly after the wagon bearing its grim cargo from Roderick’s Ridge reached New Castle, a violent explosion from the Vulcan shook the earth, reminiscent of earlier blasts. Fire spread along the coal seam, which is still burning today inside what is known as Burning Mountain.

The local economy turned to ranching, agriculture, sawmills and fruit farming. According to the 1900 census, after mining dwindled, the population dropped to 431. For the next seven decades, that population slowly grew to about 600 to 800 residents. In the late 1980s, former ranchland north of downtown was built up into housing developments.

New Castle history remains palpable with signs marking the town’s historic landmarks on 11 downtown buildings designated by the New Castle Historic Preservation Commission. A lifesize memorial statue honoring all miners lost in a decadeslong legacy of tragedy was dedicated in 2004 in Burning Mountain Park on Main Street.

Better jobs, closer to home

On the 7-mile drive from New Castle to Silt, Gresley described how regionalism is creating a powerful synergy for economic development in the region. “The four municipal managers of New Castle, Silt, Rifle and Parachute/Battlement Mesa came together and said, ‘We need a more regional approach,’” she said. “So, they collaborated about two years ago to see how we can move the needle on the mission — better jobs, closer to home. Because, when you have people in your community spending in your community, involved in your community, the community can thrive. How do we make realistic steps toward that?”

The first step, Gresley said, is to make local residents aware of job opportunities closer to home that could alleviate long upvalley commutes, although workers are reluctant to alter habitual patterns or give up wages and benefits. 

“We’re comfortable with what we’ve always known,” Gresley said, “even if that is an hour-and-a-half drive each way. I did it and it became part of my daily life because I had a career and a good salary and great benefits, and I had worked really hard to get that. And there are people who feel quite happy to have an escape by getting on the bus or having that quiet time in their cars. Not everyone is unhappy commuting, but it’s about having the options. There are a lot of businesses here that don’t have the ability to provide certain benefits that bigger companies can do. And that’s something the Economic Development Partnership could do — become a marketplace for insurance benefits and other services.”

Population growth within Colorado River Valley communities has been boosted by the pandemic and regional economics. Between 2010 and 2020, the combined populations of New Castle, Silt, Rifle, Parachute and Battlement Mesa increased 16%, according to census data, while growth remained stagnant in the Roaring Fork Valley (1.4%) despite a growing economy. Housing costs have been increasing regionally, with the median sale price in 2023 reaching $1.9 million in Carbondale and $919,500 in Glenwood Springs, while the Colorado River Valley remains relatively more attainable ($645,000 for a 2023 median sale price in New Castle and $467,000 in Rifle), according to reports published by the Aspen Board of Realtors.

 “We are growing whether we like it or not,” Gresley said, “because the cost of living is pushing people down here.

“Our local town governments are conservative and very wary of making sure we make the right decisions about growth. We are slow moving and not looking for growth for the sake of growth or to grow to support an industry that isn’t necessarily benefiting our communities,” Gresley said. “On the other end, if you don’t grow, you don’t adapt to conditions. You change or die. I hope to be the connector for that vision to show people the opportunities.”

That’s a tall order for a region that appears to be ripe for development. Yet, as Gresley and other town leaders emphasize, the quality of rural life has become a sacred covenant. Many residents have witnessed growth that has displaced locals, and they don’t want to repeat that here.

“People here basically want a roof over their heads, food on the table, and enough left over to do something they enjoy or spend time with their kids or get their kids into college,” Gresley said. “We don’t need to have all the bells and whistles. It’s a bit more of a simple outlook on life. That’s what makes these communities a little different than Vail and Aspen. No one here really wants to grow to be at that level. We want to keep the identities of our individual towns. We’re taking a regional approach, but every town has its uniqueness.”

Silt is more than fine sand

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad laid tracks along the Colorado River to Silt in 1889. Railroad builders named the location “Silt” because of the makeup of the soil. Soon, one- and two-story buildings lined the main street for six blocks, from the railroad depot to Cozza Gulch. In Silt’s early days, there were pool halls, clothing stores, a theater and a dance hall. 

In 1881, not long after the Utes had been ordered out of Colorado by Gov. Frederick Pitkin, John Harvey filed a claim on land nestled against the Grand Hogback, a prominent topographical feature of connected hills that form a straight line from Meeker to McClure Pass. Hog Back Pass became Harvey Gap, where a coal mine was later developed. This region was also known as “Old Squaw’s Camp” for an elderly Ute woman who presided over a gathering place for Utes where horses were kept, plus a herd of 50 to 75 cattle.

Silt became a farming and ranching community that incorporated in 1915, seven years after the Silt Bridge was built across the Colorado River to accommodate the homesteaders who lived up Divide Creek to the south.

Silt has a population of 3,600, according to Jeff Layman, Silt’s town administrator at the time of this interview, who recently retired and is now working for the town on certain projects. “We don’t have a lot of employment opportunities in Silt yet, so 90% to 95% of Silt residents go somewhere else to work, mostly tradesmen and hospitality workers who commute. They are willing to put up with that because of the paycheck. That drive is part of the bargain. I commute just three blocks to my office, and I feel for those people who have to make that drive and don’t like it.”

Born in Kansas, Layman moved to Silt in 2018 after spending 37 years in the Eagle Valley, where he worked 30 years in law enforcement. He served as police chief in Avon for seven years and as Eagle County undersheriff for five. With a master’s degree in public administration, Layman was hired as Silt’s town administrator, where he found a perfect fit.

“Silt is affordable, and it’s got a really nice small town vibe,” said Layman, pointing out that Silt is the smallest town of the three along the Colorado River Valley. (According to Aspen Board of Realtors reports, the median sale price for a single-family home in Silt reached $540,000 in 2023.) “Silt attracts people who want a two-block main street, don’t need all the bells and whistles, and who don’t mind stopping at City Market on their way home because there’s no grocery store here. Silt is for people who like a little more relaxed pace of life and a place where you can walk downtown and see your neighbors, stand around in the middle of Main Street and hobnob, listen to music, watch fireworks, and have your kids sit on Santa’s lap. It feels like western Colorado.”

Layman allowed that the river communities have moved away from “a history of parochialism” thanks to a new generation of municipal managers who have cemented collaborative relationships. “Over the last five years,” said Layman, “we have made a real effort to compare notes, get in touch, and encourage our boards to meet their counterparts and talk about regional issues.”

For example, Layman noted a collaborative rapport between Silt and the city of Glenwood Springs, which is crucial since Silt depends on the Colorado River as its municipal water source. During fires, mudslides and floods, Silt relies on good relations upstream with Glenwood Springs to protect its water quality.

“Our challenges are like everywhere else,” said Layman, adding that housing is a key issue. The town has 96 apartment units under construction, with 70 more units of single-family housing and 104 more units on the drawing board. The town has an opportunity to build an events center on the Colorado River.

“We have a lot of great opportunities going,” said Layman, “and we’d like to offer regional employment that will allow people to work in a meaningful job closer to home where they don’t have to make that commute. That’s our big challenge. But housing in Silt is getting more expensive now, so our board is working on addressing affordable housing before it becomes as acute as it is in the Roaring Fork Valley.”

Layman’s 37 years of experience in the Eagle Valley makes him well suited to his administrative role in Silt. “I’ve seen growth, and I’ve lived it,” said Layman, “so it’s pretty easy for me to see the same kinds of challenges that are starting to show up in the Colorado River Valley. I’ve really become attached here to a place and a people who have made an impact on my life. I love the people I work with, and it’s just a wonderful place.”

Dave and Matt’s big manufacturing adventure

On the 7-mile drive from Silt to Rifle, the largest municipality in Garfield County, Gresley steered us to a small industrial park where a manufacturing dynamo is changing the complexion of the region. A vast parking lot is filled, bumper to bumper, with 80-plus camper vans, specifically, a fleet of Dodge Ram ProMasters being outfitted with state-of-the-art camper technology.

“It started off with two guys building vans — Dave and Matt, friends from college,” said Arran Shrosbree, head of manufacturing for Dave and Matt Vans, or DM Vans, as the logo has it. “They came to vans from looking for an affordable place to live and a great way to access the outdoors. The timing was fortuitous with the pandemic, when the van life just took off.”

The company started in Gypsum five years ago and, because rural Garfield County is more affordable, moved the manufacturing branch to Rifle in 2022, followed by the administrative side in 2023.

“We looked countrywide and settled on staying in Colorado,” said Shrosbree, a transplanted Brit with a high-tech background, “because a lot of our team is from here, we’re local, and we appreciate everything that Colorado offers and wanted to stay very grounded to that. We are all avid skiers, bikers, climbers and hikers.”

DM Vans began with custom build-outs on whatever vans customers brought in. “We then partnered with local dealerships,” said Shrosbree, “like Berthoud in Glenwood to get our hands on the chassis and control the whole build.”

In 2023, the highly skilled and selected 22 employees at DM Vans built 157 units with state-of-the-art cabinetry via computer cutting and milling, and expert finishing and assembly. The company sold about 130 units last year and earned $14 million. There are 511 DM vans on the road today, marketed as an alternative to buying a home and as offering rugged mobility with total comfort.

“Our take on the RV space is that we are creating a tool for people to improve their lives,” said Shrosbree. “The vans are perfect for travel nurses, yoga wellness teachers, ski instructors and those who choose vans as affordable housing. We want our product to be as reliable, efficient and as intentional as possible. We call our vans ‘LVs,’ or lifestyle vehicles, because we believe they are tools to improve your lifestyle.”

“We’re creating a Swiss Army knife of a vehicle,” said Joe Smith, DM Vans’ youthful president, who came to DM Vans with a wealth of retail and managerial experience, “because our vans have innumerable uses and are significantly less expensive than a house. We’re young, and we have an extremely powerful team because we hire on values-fits. You have to find the right people and know what you’re looking for. Making the leap to Rifle is our next iteration of business.”

“We all share core values,” said Shrosbree. “We’re all driven to achieve excellence. We’re all transparent with each other. We work together intentionally, not playing any games. We’re all just looking to get to the best answer, and that makes for a pretty harmonious workspace. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, and I’m not painting it as a utopia, because we don’t want to rule out friction. In challenging each other is where you find the genius.”

DM vans are now sold nationwide, not only direct to consumers, but through dealership partners on both coasts. The company is planning to release custom Ford Transit vans beginning in 2026, and that design process is where the team’s melting pot of ideas comes together, said Shrosbree.

The DM Vans workforce lives in New Castle, Rifle, Grand Junction and elsewhere. In fact, as testament to the van life, 14 of the 22 employees live full time in their vans either on-site, on nearby Bureau of Land Management property and, on weekends, in Moab and beyond. Equipped with solar panels and super-efficient, gas-powered heating, DM vans define a new level of off-grid mobile living.

“I have lived in my van for one year,” said Smith, “and it works for me because I like to live somewhat simply. And rents are insane because, basically, you’re paying for someone else’s mortgage. Moving to Rifle, we have created our own small community, and as we plant our roots, we want to expand that. We’re getting to know other businesses and more people here, and we’re passionate about community.”

Driving a short distance farther west on rural Highway 6, Gresley listed a handful of other business ventures that are taking root here: EcoDwelling is an ecologically attuned modular home manufacturer. Natural Soda is one of the largest producers of sodium bicarbonate in North America. “What I love about this,” said Gresley, “is that it’s about the past, present and future coming together and driving us forward as a sustainable community.”

In Rifle, Gresley introduced me to Mayor Sean Strode over lunch at the Whistle Pig, an eatery on the town’s attractive Western-themed Main Street.

Sighting in on Rifle

Rifle is laid out on a grid of streets in a valley surrounded by mesas and mountains. Rifle, the largest municipality in Garfield County, with a population of 10,600, is 40% Latino, making it the region’s most ethnically diverse community. According to Strode, the city is energized by an emerging entrepreneurial spirit born, in large part, out of its Latino culture. 

Strode represents a new generation of leadership in this historical farming and ranching community, founded in 1882 and incorporated in 1905. President Teddy Roosevelt came hunting here in 1901, lending a sportsman’s character to the region.

There are three theories from the 1880s regarding the town’s unique name, two of which relate tales of absent-minded pioneers leaving their rifles leaning against a tree. Another legend claims that the town was named for the frontier custom of firing one’s rifle to signal an approach.

In 1882, Abram W. Maxfield was the first man to travel west of Glenwood Springs with a wagon, having to take it apart to pack it around cliffs and ledges and then put it back together. He was the first known Anglo settler in Rifle. Farming and ranching were the original industries in the area, and Rifle became a trade center when the railroad came through in 1899.

Rifle’s economy fluctuated with dependence on historic coal mining. The most profound resource development took place in the early 1980s with the promise of massive oil shale extraction that was to convert western Garfield County into a global energy producer. Workers had come from all over the world to profit from oil shale, and Rifle’s population doubled with a nearly overnight boom, jumping to about 4,500 from 2,700.

All that vanished on Black Sunday, May 2, 1982, the day Exxon, the Colony oil shale developer, quit the project, locked the gates, and left more than 2,000 people suddenly unemployed. Workers fled in droves. It was said that the only local business still viable was U-Haul rentals. The economic collapse was felt countywide.

Despite the devastating impacts of the 1982 crash, Colorado River communities had benefited during the buildup as oil companies invested millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements. The region began rebounding financially after a 3/4-cent sales tax passed in 1996. Today, local governments along the Colorado River are wary of monolithic enterprises that could wreak similar boom-bust havoc, a traditional liability of the extractive industries.

Rifle’s culture fosters a growing arts community, with performances at the renovated historic Ute Theater and with decorative murals and other visual arts. A historic modern art sensation focused the world’s attention on Rifle from 1970 to 1972, when big-wrap artist Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, chose canyon that Rifle Creek carved in the Grand Hogback as the site of a unique and elaborate display known as Christo’s Valley Curtain.

Christo’s curtain fabric was a parachutelike material of 250,000 square feet that weighed 6 tons. It rose above the valley floor suspended 350 feet at the ends on steel cables. The sagging center had an archway at the bottom to permit traffic on Highway 325. Anchors weighed 70 tons, and the fabric was fastened by 59 stressed steel rods that went 40 feet into the sandstone canyon walls.

Construction started in 1970 at a cost of $250,000 with teams of engineers, site supervisors, 35 construction workers and 64 temporary staff made up of college students and itinerant art workers. The first attempt to raise the curtain failed as wind blew it down. The second attempt, in August 1972, was successful, until wind blew it down the next day. The final cost was more than $600,000, and the only evidence is photographic.

Rifle’s economy today is diversified with agriculture, oil and gas and tourism. Rifle Falls State Park is a popular destination 14 miles north of Rifle. The falls spill over a limestone cliff where, in 1910, the town of Rifle built the Rifle Hydroelectric Plant. Rifle has gained an international reputation, drawing world-class climbers to crags at Rifle Mountain Park, touted as the best limestone sport climbing in North America. Mountain biking has also taken off, thanks to the Rifle Area Mountain Bike Organization (RAMBO), which was started in 2012 as a trail-advocacy program that now boasts many miles of single track for all levels and ages with trailhead parking a few miles north of town along the Grand Hogback. In the valley, more than 20 miles of bike and pedestrian trails crisscross the city.

Strode, founding director of RAMBO, moved here in 2012 with a musical background that includes a bachelor’s degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied guitar, and a master’s degree in jazz from Northwestern University. Originally from Wisconsin, Strode was a member of the music faculty at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and at University of Colorado Boulder, where he met his future wife.

“My wife is from Rifle,” said Strode, “so we came up to visit, and I fell in love. We moved here and never looked back. When I got here, I started learning about community — that you can volunteer time and become part of something. I realized you can make a difference in a small town.”

Strode first volunteered on the Rifle Planning and Zoning Commission for four years, then was elected to Town Council, where he served for six years. He was elected mayor in 2021 and reelected to a second term in November 2023. Multiple roles have given Strode an intimate understanding of Rifle.

“For a long time, Rifle was a gas and oil bedroom community,” he said. “Now, friends say, ‘I own a house here, but I live in Aspen,’ because they drive up there and spend all their time there. Progressively, this has become more and more of a community by creating a sense of place through events like town holidays. We are making downtown a place where people want to be.”

Strode said the Rifle economy is based on “hardworking people” who display a drive for entrepreneurship, such as opening a restaurant, a painting business or a construction company. The median age is 31, and 51% of the population is female. “People here want to pursue their own passion and independence,” said Strode. “The trades are very big here, and we have a very successful hospital, movie theaters, a vibrant airport and county administrative buildings. All of it is making us less dependent on other economies.”

Still, Strode advocates for regionalism by joining with economic partners to coordinate on challenges from Aspen to Parachute. “The issues we’re encountering are not per town. They are per region,” said Strode, “There is strength in teamwork, so I work hand in hand with the mayor of Glenwood and the mayor of Carbondale. We take a lot of pride in our town, but what we’re doing is looking at the bigger picture.”

Patrick Waller, Rifle’s director of planning, said, “We’ve always been connected regionally because of jobs. We get more and more folks coming here and chatting about economic opportunities. Folks who need larger facilities find it very expensive upvalley, and anything that can locate a business here is a benefit to our region. Rifle is very careful about growth because the oil-and-gas bust still resonates here. It devastated the local economy.” 

Major employers in Rifle today are the hospital, Walmart and Colorado Mountain College. A regional airport boosts Rifle’s connectivity far beyond its boundaries.

Top among growth concerns, said Strode, is affordable, attainable housing. “That’s an issue everywhere. We’re partnering with Habitat for Humanity for income-based housing units expected to start this year.”

“We are growing,” said Strode, “and I want to be conscious of that and grow smartly, intelligently — honoring our history while moving forward. We are working with Garfield Clean Energy, and we’re energy net-zero, or close to it, with solar on all of our government facilities.” Strode added that making fiber internet available to people who own and run businesses is a pressing goal for the future.

Waller said Rifle’s planning department identifies tiers of development in areas already connected with water and sanitation, ideally within city boundaries served by adequate roads. “We want to avoid sprawl, which doesn’t make sense fiscally,” Waller said. “Rifle is set up well for the future. We have water rights annexed in from new development, and our current Tier 1 sites can accommodate 5,000 new residents, for a population of 15,000. Houses here are reaching $500,000, which you would not have thought of even five or six years ago.”

Politically, Strode celebrates community diversity. “Rifle is a great city,” he said. “We have strong, differing views on council, but we’re all able to come together, amicably, state our positions, democratically take a vote, and move on. There is no animosity, and I think that’s representative of our community. I’m constantly impressed.”

Waller, who grew up in Glenwood Springs, brings to his role community-planning experience in Pitkin and Garfield counties. “Rifle is a cohesive community,” he said, “with people who serve on committees and work together. We certainly have economic disparity here, but it’s not billionaires versus affordable-housing folks. Second homes are not an issue; we don’t have that here, and there are only eight listings for Airbnb. You go by the pool in summer and it’s exploding with kids. Rifle reminds me of a small town because it doesn’t have the tourism these other towns have. Walking around town, folks flag me down and talk. And it’s really cool in that way.”

“Community is what supports you,” said Strode. “Community is what makes your life good, whether it’s people building trails or businesses supporting one another. Community is about support, camaraderie and acceptance. It is why we live where we live. As the largest municipality in Garfield County, we think a rising tide lifts all boats, and that’s good for Rifle and our neighbors. If there is something we can do to help support Silt or Parachute or wherever, that makes our region better and makes Rifle better.”

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I climbed back onto the Grand Hogback bus at the end of the business day and watched rural landscapes pan by my window. As the bus merged onto I-70, it was met with regular pulses of long streams of headlights beaming from commuters returning to homes, families and perhaps the promise of a future with “better jobs, closer to home.”

Next up this series, a look at Community Builders, a Glenwood Springs-based consulting firm that works to inspire and restore community cohesion in rural places.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Alicia Gresley commuted between Rifle and Avon for two years, not six; to correct a reference to her husband’s family lineage; to accurately state the membership of the Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership, which does not include Glenwood Springs; and to update a photo, which according to its caption showed construction of Habitat for Humanity’s Wapiti Commons project in Rifle but in fact was of a different project in the area. The image has been replaced with a new one showing Wapiti Commons.