Welcome to

Boulder Magazine is celebrating 30 years of being “The Voice of Boulder County.”

We’ve been blessed to have some of the community’s best minds share their thoughts in this issue about where Boulder’s been, where it is now, and where it’s headed. These people are the real movers and shakers, and their comments are sometimes startling, sometimes reassuring.

Enjoy our special 30th Anniversary print and additional web features.

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Publisher's Note: My Link to the Ink
The birth of Boulder Magazine
By Tom Brock

Taking Boulder's Pulse: Part I
A dozen notable locals weigh three decades of change and progress

Empty Spaces, New Trends and Faces
Dorothy Rupert, former State Sen. D-Boulder, looks back ... and ahead

It Was 30 Years Ago Today: A Boulder Love Story
By Brigitte Mars

Taking Boulder's Pulse: Part II
Experts weigh in on compassion, immigration, education and lasers

On the March
Tracing Boulder's culture of protest
By Wendy Underhill

Taking Boulder's Pulse: Part III
Arts, food, sports and health—our conversations with Boulder’s best continue

Hummin' Along
The music scene matures
By Dave Kirby

Taking Boulder's Pulse: Part IV
The overwhelming response from the community to share thoughts about the past 30 years was far greater than we anticipated or have print space for, so here are additional commentaries, photos and memories.

Have a memory you'd like to share? Submit your 200-word story using our online form, or snail mail to Brock Publishing, 1919 14th Street, Suite 709, Boulder, CO, 80302.

Our Favorite Interviews
The chance to meet and interview governors, senators, congressmen, mayors, commissioners, world-class athletes, Nobel Prize winners, scientists, remarkable visionaries and movie stars has been unbelievable for everyone at Boulder Magazine. Read PDF reprints of four of our favorite interviewees—Walter Orr Roberts, Scott Carpenter, Joan Van Ark and John Echohawk.

Joan Van Ark

Joan Van Ark was interviewed in Summer l991. She was funny, smart, quirky and very cute. Her interview evoked more response from readers than perhaps any other, usually from males who had attended Boulder High School with her. We asked her why she loved coming back to Boulder. Joan replied, “It’s those mountains, right there in front of us. Some people love the ocean because it gives them a feeling of peace or rejuvenation. For me, it’s the mountains. I’ve always said the mountains are my church.“ Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Scott Carpenter

Boulder native Scott Carpenter, one of the Mercury 7 astronauts, was the third American to enter outer space, doing so in l962. We interviewed him in Summer 1992. When asked to describe the experience of going into outer space, he replied, “Transcendent, in a word. I was very busy, but the experience is unforgettable. It was different from the way it is now—every second a new truth was learned, you were deluged with new sights, new understandings and new experiences. It was just another day in the office until I saw the Earth as it really is, and experienced prolonged weightlessness. Those two things can’t be simulated, and that’s part of the experience that makes it transcending.”Photo courtesy NASA

John Echohawk

John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, was interviewed in Winter 1991. One of NARF’s missions has been to establish the legal existence of tribes. In commenting on why this was so important, Echohawk said, “A tribe is sovereign. It is a political entity. It is a government that allows tribal members to make their own decisions, run their affairs they way the want to … to be Indians. To maintain their traditions, their culture, their religion. Our people were not vanishing Americans. Tribes were not doomed to extinction. All of those great American myths and assumptions were just wrong. We can be a contributor, once again, to this American Society. We’ve got a lot to contribute; we just haven’t had the chance.”

Read the full interview (PDF, 2.2mb)

Dr. Walter Orr Roberts
(Shown at right with architect I.M. Pei at NCAR)

Dr. Roberts was a gentle giant of science whose vision of a climate research center made Boulder what it is today. His original field of study in the solar coronagraph led to a keen interest in the influence of sun on weather. In Summer 1988 he told Boulder Magazine, “ I started searching for a cause of the recurrent droughts that had caused the Dust Bowl of the ’30s. Every 22 years there appears to be a drought in the high plains. Janet and I had driven though the Dust Bowl area with dead trees, abandoned farmhouses and so on, and I became intrigued by the coincidence with the Hale sunspot cycle. I decided to get to work on it and discover a cause that might explain the droughts.”

At the end of a far-reaching interview, we asked Dr. Roberts what one question he still wished he could answer after all the years of his esteemed scientific career. He quickly laughed and replied, “Why does the sun’s activity affect the Earth—why does a drought occur on the plains every 22 years?”