Grand GOP Happenings
Western Heritage Month
Local perspective
By Koll Gardner,
Edits made for clarity by Dan Osborne
Happy June 2025
June should be declared as Western Heritage MONTH, because we are PROUD of Grand County, where we commemorate the History and Culture of Middle Park Colorado. We acknowledge that we occupy, play, and see the intensifying gentrification of land that was traditionally visited and used by the Arapaho Nation and the Ute Peoples previous to permanent settlement by American Citizens.
We recognize the hard work of homesteaders in developing magnificent ag land, and the work of lacing shimmering ditches for irrigation feeding life into soils fostering unmatched high altitude hay crops. Noting the efforts of those who’ve maintained and improved upon these efforts for over 140 years.
Currently, it appears that the many small family ag businesses with privately owned land, water rights, and leased public lands, used for grazing beef cattle are currently targeted by corrupt Political and Corporate interests. These interests want takeover via various intentional pressures (including wolf reintroduction), social conflicts, interference by misguided proxies’ intent on making a scene in an effort to control and/or force a hostile takeover of tens of thousands of acres and institutions statewide.
We champion our Western Heritage and take pride in the strong Spirit, resourcefulness and Self Reliance that has built and sustained Grand County from 1860 to today. We should strive to support, preserve, and protect our Ag businesses and employees who work here. We are working for the next 25 years, and beyond, to work with our neighbors as an active local GOP, to listen to and work on behalf of the invaluable Ag Community members.
Let’s not be spectators to the demise of Ag and common sense in Grand County as the entire front range has experienced over many decades. The 2026-28 Elections, and rapid suburbanization of our mountain community, will serve to exacerbate the need to defend our allies in Ag, their success, and their future. Let’s work to keep our mountain towns from becoming like the towns on the eastern side of the Divide.
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“Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be.”
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