Diemoz: Cows at Dinkle Lake

A broad smile spread across my face when I read John Hughes’ July 21 letter to The Aspen Times. He believes ranchers should take more responsibility for their cows since they are spreading E. coli bacteria and other unsanitary things, especially near Dinkle Lake.

His concern is livestock roaming freely at the Lake and other U.S. Forest Service properties. They “poop wherever they choose — often indiscriminately.” John asks why we allow cows on our wild lands since they are not even species to Colorado. Ranchers are also polluting the taxpayers’ public lands and they and their cows are rarely ever penalized.

Near 1900, my father, Adolph Diemoz’s family, came to the Aspen Valley as did my mother, Edith Vallet’s family. The Vallets and Diemozs came from the Valle D’Aosta of northern Italy, not knowing each other until arriving in Woody Creek. They eventually settled on a farm on the Crown, near the base of Mt. Sopris.

Their cows and horses would be turned loose at the base of Sopris for summer grazing. Dad was one of the cowboy’s assigned to the Sopris Cattle Association Range, extending from Dinkle Lake to the Thomas Lakes. His camp was at the primitive cabin at Dinkle Lake, and he told of often having to, with his old west six-shooter, eliminate pack rats scurrying in the rafters in the middle of the night. Dad was well known from Aspen to Burns, Colorado as a champion roper, bronco rider and boxer in the Golden Age of the 1930s.

A bit of history to be told … and yes, cows have been pooping here for nearly 130 years.

Floyd Diemoz

Glenwood Springs