Manitou Springs, Colorado; Musicians, Artists and Law Enforcement

I would describe today as an eclectic mix of musicians, law enforcement officers and geology. Manitou Springs, Colorado looks like a train set scaled up for people to live in. The town is set in a narrow valley leading down from the Colorado Plateau into foothills with houses perched on every available patch of land. I actually had flashbacks to the little town of Agua Amarga on the Spanish Mediterranean where I spent some time. Narrow streets, colourful houses and arid, yet somehow lush, vegetation.

Photo of the Manitou Springs

Manitous Springs has a long history of human habitation. Before European colonizers settled here in the late 1800's, first nations peoples frequented the area, attracted by mineral rich springs throught to have healing powers. The area was an oasis of peace between the often warring tribes allowing them to drink from the two dozen springs.

Today Manitou Springs is a town of around 5000 with hippies appearing to make up a large portion of the population. The unofficial town moto is "Keep Manitou Weird". Here's a house on a side street constructed with local materials and rocks. It is actually two buildings, connected by a raised outdoor living space. It has a flat roof and a parapet.

The Sawatch Sandstone was once again the subject of my interest. It is well exposed on the side of an onramp just west of town. Here's a picture of the unconformity between the Sawatch and the Pike's Peak Granite. Fantastically well exposed, as usual it seems. What is amazing is how little relief there is on the unconformity. Perhaps a decimeter in the area I saw it, which is impressive considering there is about 500 million years of time missing.

In this picture, looking in the other direction at the other side of a narrow valley, you can see the Sawatch basal unconformity and the overlying unconformity with the Manitou Formation. The upper one is a bit more difficult being between a sandstone and a dolomitic siltstone.

Near my sample site is "Painted Falls", a popular place for graffiti artists to ply their trade. Artists of all calibres have, in the past, come here to leave their mark on the natural landscape. The area underlies a bridge on Hwy 24 and was delightfully shadey and cool even though it was nearly 30 degrees today.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your worldview, the county is attempting to end the tradition of outdoor art exhibits at Painted Falls. More than 50 fines had been issued to aspiring artists in the previous 3 weeks by undercover police officers. In order to gain control of the situation the county now stations an officer in the parking lot on busy days and has installed cameras. I got to chatting with the officer and mentioned that I was from Canada. Well, he was a massive Gordon Lightfoot fan! As soon as he found out where I was from it was Gordon Lightfoot this and Gordon Lightfoot that. Apparently he just got a truly magnificent live album of Mr. Lightfoot recorded in Massey Hall. Here's a photo of the officer. If you look closely, every album in the case is Gordon Lightfoot!

Near the end of the day I was coming down from the outcrop when I heard what sounded like someone repetitively hammering a propane cylinder. Intrigued I peered, in a very clandestine manner, over the edge of an outcrop to see. Turns out it was a fellow who goes by the name Joshi (pronounced Yoshi) who was tuning a hand pan he had made. Here's a photo of Joshi and his newly minted drum.

A hand pan consists of two domed pieces of 18 gauge steel formed into a specific shape so that each dimple, when struck with the hand, creates a different note. The lower domed piece of steel has a hole to let the sound out and the instrument is usually played while sitting in the musicians lap. The drums have a sound similar to steel drums (characteristically found in Carribean music) but are tuned to have different harmonics. They are often said to have a more mystical sound to them. Joshi was attempting to copy a Bali Steel Pan as they are as difficult to get as unobtanium with waitlists going into the years. He was using a drummers mallet to strike the drum and then adjusting the harmonics with another mallet. He was doing this in the back of his truck near my rocks to avoid driving the neighbours crazy. Here's a link to a video of one being played.


Video of Hand Pan Player

If you want more information they have their own forum.

www.handpan.org

Tomorrow I will likely drive to Durango, Colorado my next sample location. I say may because the truck is not idling well and Colorado Springs would be a great place to have it looked at. We'll have see how be both feel in the morning.