From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

A year ago I decided to start my own blog. I researched writers’ blogs and ran a survey about blogs in the Writing World newsletter, which took a lot of time in between all my other projects. But after researching and surveying, I came to the conclusion that my blog should have a focus. It should be about something I really care about. Of course this meant I had to decide what I really care about.

I care about writing, but after 5 years of writing a column for children’s writers – Advice from a Caterpillar – I feel like I’ve done that. To make a long story short, I tried out all sorts of ideas. For a short time – a very short time – I even considered a blog about my conversations with my granddaughter, Hailey who is now 4. Here I am a year later with a blog – but no focus. So I’ve decided to focus on life in Silt, Colorado. 

My Little Silt Town

Northern Exposure was one of my all-time favorite TV shows in the 90s. Silt is a lot like Cicely, complete with funky old buildings and a cast of oddball characters. Life here is slow and sweet. There’s even a horse ranch a couple blocks from my house, inside the city limits. Though not for long. Rumor has it the school district bought it to build two new schools. Which is kind of sad, because it means within a year I won’t be able to feed carrots to Beggar and Annie anymore. But it’s a good thing the land will be used for school buildings and not another subdivision.

Since we moved here in 1996, Silt has become a bedroom community. And like all small towns in the 20th century, my sweet little paradise is undergoing gi-normous changes.

The biggest change – and challenge – has come from gas well development. Since 2000, companies like Williams Petroleum, Encana, and Halliburton have invaded our mountainsides, punching holes in the wilderness and blasting through bedrock in search of the new gold – natural gas. And eureka! They found it. Lots of it. But I think they always knew they would.

You see, Silt is located in the Piceance Basin  – pronounced PEE-awnce – one of the richest reservoirs of natural gas in the nation.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand – along with everyone else in western Colorado – that gas well drilling is inevitable. I don’t believe it’s necessary to poison the groundwater and destroy the wilderness. But it’s happening anyway, according to the Western Slope Environmental Resource Council. 

Because of my affection for this cowboy town – and because sometimes in the dead of night I am haunted by the fear that the Dark Overlord Cheney and his Halliburton minions will discover natural gas under our town, then they will condemn it and force us all to leave and I will lose my slice of heaven – I hope to show the rest of the world that a place like this is worth keeping.

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