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Where Research and Tourism Collide

By: By MICHELLE NIJHUIS Dateline: GOTHIC, Colo.
Date: July 22, 2008
DetroitGothic MountainAuroraDenverTucsonAspenRocky Mountain Biological LaboratoryGothicCrested ButteZonotrichia leucophrysMarmota flaviventrissalamanders

Summary

When Michael Soule researched butterflies in this mountain valley in the early 1960s, the nearby town of Crested Butte was little more than a busted coal-mining settlement. ''You couldn't even buy a mug or a T-shirt,'' said Dr. Soule, now a conservation biologist. Crested Butte, reborn as a skiing a