U.S. Geological Survey

Gilpin County's Negro Hill is renamed Aunt Clara Brown Hill. Finally.

Negro Hill: Official name of spot near Central City finally changed to honor Aunt Clara Brown

The controversy that broke last fall over Rick Perry's "Niggerhead" sign at a family hunting camp got Roger Baker, manager of Gilpin County, thinking that it was time -- long past time, actually -- to change the name of "Negro Hill." Yes, in 2011 that was still the official name of a spot near the c ... More >>

Hermaphrodite fish? CU's David Norris on how chemicals can bend creek life genders

Male? Female? Both?​We tend to think of water treatment safety in terms of potential harm to people. But CU-Boulder professor David Norris is also concerned about humans' impact on fish -- specifically the way chemicals we either dump out or excrete may be feminizing male fish, or creating on ... More >>

BP spill flow much worse than we estimated, says United States Geological Survey director

Marcia McNutt calls the spill a "significant environmental disaster." ​It's official: Even with the corrective measures British Petroleum is undertaking to try to contain the oil leak flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the massive spill has been flowing at a rate two to four times greater than o ... More >>

Top-notch topos now free from USGS

Getting up close and personal with Coffeyville, Kansas (click to enlarge).​Finding the right map for the trip at hand has always posed certain hard choices. Do you go for one heavy on the topography contours, or one with legible road numbers? Hydrographic features or better trail markings? I ... More >>

Glacier explorer Charlie Love weighs in on Aaron Million's pipe dream

Charlie Love​As detailed in this week's cover story, "Pipe Dream," Fort Collins entrepreneur Aaron Million's plan to pump massive amounts of water from the Green River in southwestern Wyoming to the thirsty Front Range has garnered opposition from lots of sources. That includes Charlie Love, a ... More >>

The Obama administration: a Colorado College cabal?

​Every presidency has its own biases about the kind of education that makes for good leaders. JFK stacked the deck with Harvard grads; Bush I and Bush II leaned toward Yalies, of course. Snobbery, Eastern elitism, Ivy Leaguism--it's been expected of the White House since the days of Woodrow Wi ... More >>

Colorado is suddenly earthquake central

The blue square on the map represents the location of an earthquake earlier today (click to enlarge).​Earlier today, an earthquake struck near Craig; the U.S. Geological Survey rates it a 3.7 magnitude temblor. That follows a 3.9 magnitude quake near Eads yesterday. So where will nature's ven ... More >>

Ken Salazar wants windmills in the ocean, but first he'll have to save the Interior Department

The blue square on the map represents the location of an earthquake earlier today (click to enlarge).​Earlier today, an earthquake struck near Craig; the U.S. Geological Survey rates it a 3.7 magnitude temblor. That follows a 3.9 magnitude quake near Eads yesterday. So where will nature's ven ... More >>

Let the Buyer Beware

Little meth house on the prairie.

What Lies Beneath

The effort to reclaim a historic mining district has consumed years and millions of dollars. But will it hold water?

Loved to Death

Besieged by crowds and Front Range pollution, Colorado's premier national park is a vanishing wilderness.

Raiding the Roan

Rich in wildlife and natural resources, the Roan Plateau survived the last energy boom. Will this one destroy it?

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Rich in wildlife and natural resources, the Roan Plateau survived the last energy boom. Will this one destroy it?

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U.S. Geological Survey

Off Limits

The bottom line

A Matter of Trust

Who paid what to clean up Lowry Landfill? That's confidential.

The Lowdown on Lowry

The city thought it had settled any questions about the Lowry Landfill. The truth is a toxic shocker.

The River's Edge

As the South Platte flows out of Colorado, the water wars continue.

This Place Is a Dump!

Rocky Flats was designed to produce plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs. But what it really produced was waste -- lots of hazardous waste.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of June 22.

Shifting Sands

From the week of June 22.

A Dunn Deal

How're you gonna keep those biosolids down on the farm?

Field of Schemes

A gem of a story about diamond mines--real and fake!

Dark Days on Black Mesa

The Hopi want one of the largest coal mines in North America to stop using their groundwater. If springs and wells dry up, their ancient culture may disappear.

Premature Eruption

The Hopi want one of the largest coal mines in North America to stop using their groundwater. If springs and wells dry up, their ancient culture may disappear.

The Unknown Sailors

Over fifty years after these boys first set sail, their ship has finally come in.

Gasoline Alley

Diamond Shamrock's pipeline isn't built yet, but it's already brought a flammable mixture to Elbert County politics.

LIFE OF THE PARTY

AT THIS NORTHWEST DENVER WAKE, A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL--EVEN THE GUEST OF HONOR.

WESTWARD HO!

AT THIS NORTHWEST DENVER WAKE, A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL--EVEN THE GUEST OF HONOR.