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Where research and tourism collide; "We've gone from being fairly isolated to wondering, any time we drive out

By: Michelle Nijhuis, New York Times Service Dateline: GOTHIC, Colo.
Date: July 28, 2008
DetroitGothic MountainAuroraTucsonAspenGothicRocky Mountain Biological LaboratoryCrested ButteZonotrichia leucophrysbutterfliessalamandersMarmota

Summary

GOTHIC, Colo. - 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 Soule, now a conservation biologist. Crested Butte, reborn as