Legends & Legacies
The Highland Tunnel entrance on Castle Creek in the 1960s Aspen’s longest tunnel. Willoughby collection
Aspen’s longest tunnels, and those with longevity, had several things in common. Most of their length was driven after 1900, all of them were designed to tap ore at the lowest possible tunnel level that could exit to the outside and they drained water from workings above.
The longest tunnel on the face of Aspen Mountain was the Durant. It exited near the Aspen Alps not far from the eastern edge of Little Nell. It was best known, until a cave-in blocked it almost at its entrance, as the tunnel that took you to the underground waterfall, a favorite of Aspen teenagers for decades.
Legends & Legacies
Early spring wildflowers at the mercy of a return to winter. Photo by Willoughby/Courtesy photo
My sister was four years older so she dictated, and I mean that literally, many of my activities. That included preparing for Mother’s Day, except for my own attempt at personal gratitude.
In grade school our teachers used the occasion for art projects, Crayola drawings and colorful construction paper cutouts with some original phrases. I couldn’t color between the lines if my life depended on it. I couldn’t operate scissors. I got more glue on me than on a project. My most creative phrase started with ‘roses are red and violets are blue’, but I misspelled the words and couldn’t make the words fit on the paper.
Karl Herchenroeder/The Aspen Times file photo
Longtime Aspen resident and former city clerk Kathryn Koch died on Friday peacefully at home with hospice care. She was 74.
Koch served as Aspen’s city clerk from 1974 until she retired in 2014. She also volunteered her time for decades in the community, whether it was sitting on the board that issues grants to nonprofits and arts culture organizations, or supporting Aspen Music Festival, helping with costumes for Aspen Community Theater, or serving as an election judge after retirement.
And when she was not volunteering, Koch was an avid traveler, reader, knitter, sewer, moviegoer and active grandmother to her three grandchildren.