George Sibley is a freelance writer and retired educator who has lived in the Upper Gunnison River valley most of the time since 1966 – in Crested Butte, in Gothic, in Gunnison (except for a few years in Crawford and then Ft. Collins.) Writing is the thread that runs through his life: as owner/editor of a newspaper in Crested Butte he realized that journalism is more interesting when you can write about things that could or should happen as well as what has happened, and he found himself collaborating with a number of local people making new things happen: the Crested Butte Arts Festival, the Crested Butte Mountain Theater, the Crested Butte-Gothic 4th of July half-marathon, and the end-of-winter Flauschink festival, all still happening. In Crawford, George wrote the centennial pageant and started the theater program that continues today. After returning to Gunnison in 1988, he worked a dual job for two decades at Western Colorado University teaching writing, journalism and environmental studies; and organizing and running community-interaction conferences. Following his retirement from Western, George served on the board of the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy for 13 years, and on the Gunnison Basin Roundtable (working on the Colorado Water Plan). He currently is working on a blog – www.sibleysrivers.com. His books include Water Wranglers; Dragons in Paradise (essays on contemporary mountain life), Long Horn & Short Tales (Crawford area history); Part of a Winter (memoir of years in Gothic and Crested Butte); and essays which have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Technology Illustrated, High Country News, Colorado Central and the Mountain Gazette.
Listen to George’s musings on the Gunnison Valley Audio Journal podcast at Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
