EXPLORING OFFBEAT DENVER

Recent Stories from Colorado Community Media newspapers

What do muskrats, 1950’s nightclubs, ghostly hippies, flirtatious wild ducks and Denver socialites of the Gilded Age have in common? They are all things I never expected to write about. But the pandemic of 2020 had a way of upending expectations.

It all began with owls. In April 2020, as pandemic quiet settled over Denver, my husband Tim burst into the house and ran for his camera. I went back out with him for a look. Under a towering spruce, which overlooked the rich supply of squirrels in Washington Park, we joined a small group of neighbors staring upwards. An enormous owl with tufted head-feathers gazed down on us. The bird was huge, two feet high maybe.

Tim took such a good photo, I decided to send it to our neighborhood newspaper, The Washington Park Profile along with a little background on great horned owls. Unfortunately, my owl-knowledge extended about as far as the character who spells his name W-O-L in Winnie the Pooh. I did some research and soon a single paragraph had grown to six. Owls are interesting. Who knew? And throughout the year, that kept happening. Every story I worked on opened a door into a new and compelling little world.

I am grateful for the warm encouragement of Christy Steadman, editor of The Washington Profile (https://washparkprofile.com/) and Life on Capitol Hill (https://lifeoncaphill.com/). Both newspapers are published by Colorado Community Media, a locally-owned and operated publisher of 25 community newspapers covering the Denver-metro area and foothills. To learn more, visit http://www.ccmengage.com.

Thank you, Tim, for taking such terrific photos for these stories. And for all the times you pestered me about revisiting my early love of journalism.

Kirsten Dahl Collins

April, 2021

Shortly before she boarded the RMS Titanic in the spring of 1912, wealthy socialite and activist Margaret Tobin Brown played tourist in Egypt.

Winning the Unknown Writers’ Contest sent aerospace engineer Petra Perkins’ career on a new trajectory.

Here’s a pleasant spring activity: staring into a ditch. Smith Ditch in Washington Park, to be exact.

Despite the cold temperatures, a hot singles scene is developing in the middle of Washington Park’s Grasmere Lake. Many species of wild ducks have arrived in Colorado from points north — and they are not about to let their gorgeous new breeding plumage go to waste…

The jazz was hot, the martinis were cold. From the dance floor, fox trotting couples watched the sun set behind a sweeping 200-mile vista of the Rocky Mountains…

This spring, visitors to Washington Park can glimpse a startling sight: striped bass cruising through the clear waters of Grasmere Lake. The bass are not new to Grasmere, but water clarity is. Once murky and dominated by Canada geese, the park’s southernmost lake is being reborn as a wildlife sanctuary…