All One River GIS

In a message dated 1/5/2008 10:13:16 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, (a friend of mine)@yahoo.com writes:

“Some of you feel guilty about not putting in the effort of maintenance down at the rink. For those of us that do put in the effort — we WANT you to feel guilty. But you can atone for such blatant disregard for the efforts of the few, the proud. Some people propose to buy our love and — it’s for sale. Reach in those pockets and donate to the Penguins! CC&V employees can get matching funds from CC&V! So, you could conceivably get twice the love. It takes over 30 hours per week to properly maintain the ice and we’re just volunteers. Nobody is getting paid. If it snows, then it takes us considerably more time to get the rink ready. If you can’t help physically, then help monetarily. Make the checks out to Victor Penguins (or you can slip me a fin or two). It can be a pretty lonely ice floe out there…

Gary Horton
Environmental Coordinator
AngloGold Ashanti (Colorado) Corp. “

That is a message from the President of the Victor Penguin Hockey Club to fellow Penguins. Victor, Colorado has a man-made (made by men we know) outdoors ice rink. It’s not regulation size and until they worked the quirks out, it was lumpy and bumpy as any open lot flooded by a fire hydrant hose in the winter would be.

They tried to get grants. They tried to get a roof (currently, they hang agricultural irrigation netting from cables across the rink to keep shade on the premise as long as possible.) For a while, certain locals and even the MAYOR were totally against the rink mostly because people don’t like change, don’t like dogs or kids and mostly, don’t like to be left out. Brian Hayes, a life-long underground miner who raised his family and now grandkids by working underground first in Leadville and then in Victor (he and Gary were miners at the Ajax Mine until it closed in 1985. Now, Brian works underground at the Gold States Mine on Tenderfoot Hill in Cripple Creek. Most people think CC&V - Anglo - is the only mine operating in the district, which it is not….) Brian Hayes (for whom the rink is named: “Brian’s Park”) fought battles against city hall (literally) until they also got behind the growing momentum to support and utilize the facility for citywide youth recreation.

Victor Penguins Hockey Club is for the local kids. No one has to pay, which is a good thing because the kids in Victor are, well, a wee-bit out of the mainstream. There’s not much to do for wholesome goodness if you’re a kid in Victor. The Penguins Hockey Club provides skates, gear, hot dogs and most importantly - something to do. You just show up.

Eventually, this loose affiliation of miners, kids, wives and other denizens of Victor became endorsed by the City of Victor with Mayor Serena Bielz. All of the sudden Penguins were selling T-shirts and hoodies at Donkey Derby and Gold Rush Days. I made a digital logo for them out of a nearly pirated hand-drawn version handed to me on a folded piece of paper. It was unique enough not to get sued by the professional Penguins. Just to be sure I tweaked it a little more.

At the end of winter Penguins have to take the nets down and at end of summer Penguins put them back up. It’s a major pain-in-the-ass task - ladders, scaffolding, ratchets and nuts-n-bolts, ladies and kids sewing up the big ragged holes with thick line and fat needles. I think Gary’s email list includes nagging about 80 people who are in some way, a Penguin or at the least — a Penguin fan.

In another email Gary writes,

“I need to change Nets Day to May 6th instead of the 5th. The annual Down Phantom - Up Shelf Road Race is the 5th. It’s a 66-mile bike ride loop on the Gold Belt Tour. We’ll have transportation in Canon City if folks just want to do the Down Phantom section and sag support for the Up Shelf portion. No one will die and the downhill is fun. Let me know who’s interested!!”

(*NOTE: Phantom is a narrow dirt road that used to be a narrow-gauge railroad bed from Cripple Creek historic mining district to the smelters in Florence and Canon City. Shelf road is another one of these narrow-gauge railroad beds turned roadway in parallel canyons that many of today’s miners in Cripple Creek commute daily. It is a precarious but spectacularly beautiful drive any time of year.)

Another missive:

“Required Bored Meeting 6/7/07 at Brian’s House. 5:30 a.m.
“Agenda:
501c3 is done and ready for submittal
Those on the board that want to bail before that need to speak up and be replaced
Election of Ron Shutts president (just kidding)
Donkey Derby Days booths
Meeting limited to 1 hour so new topics need to be brief and to the point (cuz I’m president and don’t like long meetings)
If you have concerns and you can’t make it email me and I will respond.
(Just kidding about the am time — it’s really p.m.)
– Gary Horton”

Bison Reservoir is also nearby. Sometimes the Penguins go to Bison for fishing and sometimes the Penguins go to Donkey Days for hoodies… sometimes a Penguin catches a trout at Bison after having a hot dog at Donkey days… Sometimes Gary addresses the clan as “Penguin Nation”…and of course, there are peewee Penguins, also.

Every year, the Penguins have an auction to raise funds. We often buy hundreds of dollars worth of whirly-gigs, T-shirts, bar mirrors, household stuff, and restaurant coupons. The auction is always at “Ralf’s” which is a bar that serves Rosemary’s Pizza - Rosemary is Brian Haye’s wife (and another Penguin…)

I don’t know if I am a Penguin or not because there is a loose class of actual teams, one of which has jerseys. There is a “cup” (The Victor Cup), which is a tin miners cup that used to belong to Brian. It’s nailed to a board. Victor Cup Days is the only day they keep score. Mostly, though, anyone can come and skate. There is a shed full of used skates, pads, helmets and sticks. I own my own equipment and have “played” a couple of times (if that’s what you call skating around in a stiff posture with a stick in hand trying to get in people’s way…) Maybe I’m a semi-Penguin, having once made a goal and once skated at high-velocity face-first into the equally momentum-propelled Exploration Manager, Tim Brown. I would be dead for that if I weren’t wearing a helmet. The sound of the concussion brought people running to see what happened. I also wear my horses’ ankle guards on my elbows.

It’s all about the kids. And mining. And community in a little old, historic mining town in the mountains: Victor Penguins.