A Case Made For Tourism

A Case Made for Elbert County Tourism

Bayou Gulch Regional Park and Trail, Columbine Open Space and Trail,Dawson Butte Open Space and Trail, Glendale Farm Open Space and Trail, Greenland Open Space Trail, Hidden Mesa Trail, Lincoln Mountain Open Space Trail, Sharptail Ridge Trail, Spruce Meadows Trail and Spruce Mountain Trail are all open space areas in neighboring Douglas County. I encourage you to open the links I have provided  to you so that you can see these amazingly beautiful day tourism areas.  As a landscape and wildlife photographer for several online web sites, I frequent Douglas County with some regularity during the Spring, Summer and Fall seasons.  I also am a person who has always enjoyed nature walks and bicycle trail riding. 

Douglas County is beautiful, but no more so than our home county of Elbert.  I also want to encourage you to view a local photography site, Elbert County Beauty and History so that you can compare the wildlife and scenery between the two counties.  We share, particularly around the towns of Elizabeth, Elbert and Kiowa, a very similar topography with Douglas County.  I would argue that Elbert County has an even wider array of wildlife due to fewer people living here.  (Douglas County has an area of 840 square miles with a population rate of 340 people per square miles. In contrast, Elbert County has 1850 square miles with an average of 12.5 people per square miles.)

I find it somewhat amazing,that Elbert County, arguably one of the most equestrian-based counties in Colorado, has almost no  trails for riding unless they are privately owned.  Elbert County is home to one of the most beautiful Boy Scout Ranches in America, but hiking on anything other than privately owned land is a virtual impossibility.  When I go out to take pictures around here, I have to obtain permission from private individual landowners in order to access historical sights or any one of hundreds of our scenic wonders.  

By way of example, when I first moved here nineteen years ago, I was able to take panoramic pictures of the Bijou Basin from several old platted roads along its rim.  It is such an amazing view, that it was commented on by the likes Major Long in the1820’s and Captain  John C. Fremont in the 1840’s. The view rivals any painted by the great German born American painter Albert Bierstadt.  Yet today, this view has  become a luxury afforded to only a very few individual land owners because access is almost entirely denied to the public. The old roads along the edges of the Bijou Basin no longer are county maintained and have been fenced for agricultural purposes for many years.

On two recent occasions, I have visited Douglas County to use their open space trail system.  It was amazing to me that both times, the parking lots at many of the listed trailheads were filled to capacity. It is that way on every weekend and often the same traffic can be anticipated on weekdays.  What I also noticed was that the areas were clean and well maintained.  The trash cans around the picnic tables were generally filled with the remnants of family outings.  What that says to me is that these places bring people and their families. They are spending money for snacks and beverages and that these supplies are likely purchased in locally owned markets.  It represents vibrancy to local merchants who sell gas, snacks, tack and tourist memorabilia.

All too often, when the subject of how we bring commerce to Elbert County comes up, along with the discussion about the resulting financial rewards it might bring, our elected officials push the idea to the back burner. It seems the trend is to look for the “home run”  types of project.  Over the years I have heard some call for factories, housing developments, unlimited fracking, water sales, and even race tracks to bring the money into Elbert County.  But with these types of development dreams comes the inevitable question that always raises its ugly head, “If these big ideas are so good, then why haven’t these visions of instant prosperity  ever reached fruition?”

The truth is complicated but fixable.  There is little to no exposure to all Elbert County has to offer.  There is very little transportation infrastructure in terms of roads and bridges.  Almost every residential structure is on well and septic.  We are a closely knit group of agricultural families on one hand coupled with a rapidly growing segment of metropolitan commuters trying to escape the schools, crime and overpopulation associated with the two major metropolitan areas located to our west.

If the majority of people in Elbert County truly want a better source of income via growth then it will require cooperation from everybody. Some residents would resist this notion of tourism fiercely while others would openly embrace it.  There are huge questions to be answered before any of this type of growth could be realized.  

The first step is to ask if our local landowners wish to be participate in partnerships with our county government to form a system of open space trails and local tourism similar to those in Douglas County. If there is interest, the next step is to find out what kinds of incentives might entice large land owners like John Malone into this type of growth. The third step would be to ask county residents if they would be okay with paying for a cost/benefit analysis  being  done that could potentially answer the questions that would inevitably arise.  

This is not fantasy here.  Douglas, Jefferson and El Paso counties have all undertaken such prudent growth.  They did not do it capriciously to essentially waste tax payers’ hard earned money.  Would it be worth our while to approach our neighboring counties and ask them how they feel about open space and what the pros and cons of this concept are? 

Of course, I have a selfish desire to gain more access to the beauty of Elbert County without having to go to such lengths to receive the necessary permission.  But make no mistake about it, small towns make huge money when people visit. When Peaceful Valley hosts a jamboree the local businesses can make more on a single weekend than they can in a month. The upside for a photographer such as myself is that people generally take care to follow the rules in these areas and the public areas remain pristine.   Well maintained trails draw return crowds.  It would also give many more options to those horse owners who are not fortunate enough to live in a development with equestrian trails.

In keeping with the tradition of this blog’s theme, “mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur,” I believe we deceive ourselves when we do not recognize the potential of our local natural beauty.  This notion might not bring hundreds of jobs, but it could bring more people into Elbert County who might want to live here and perhaps even start businesses that complement our rural lifestyle.  I believe it is worthy of a discussion.