It wasn’t clear yet whether any structures were threatened as of 7:45 p.m.

The Mary Carter Greenway Trail is an 8 mile trail along the South Platte River from Chatfield State Park to Englewood.

Earlier in the day, South Metro Fire Rescue responded to several grass fires along the High Line Canal that the agency deemed suspicious. One grass fire at 1181 S. Parker Road spread to a commercial building with several businesses. All the businesses were evacuated, and the fire was under control as of 3 p.m.

Additional details about the fire were not yet provided.

The proposed settlement agreement, announced Monday, mandates that the railroad will pay the sum over the course of 10 years, beginning in July. The agreement must still be approved by a federal judge.

Though both federal and private fire investigators concluded hot cinders spewed by a train sparked the 54,129-acre wildfire in 2018, Durango’s historic railroad continues to deny it caused the 416 fire, and the settlement is not an admission of liability.

The settlement stems from a 2019 lawsuit brought by the federal government as it sought damages from the extensive firefighting effort. The 416 fire, at the time, was the sixth-largest in Colorado history, though 2020’s three historic wildfires surpassed it, .

Federal prosecutors, in the lawsuit, said the 416 fire cost $25 million to extinguish.

“The Durango & Silverton Railroad represents an important historic and cultural icon in southwest Colorado,” U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan said in a news release. “We intend for this settlement to enable the railroad to continue to operate, but in a manner that will avoid causing future catastrophic wildfires. In addition, this agreement ensures fair compensation for the damages caused by the 416 fire.”

Representatives with the railroad could not be reached.

Under the proposed plan, the railroad cannot run its famous coal-burning trains during periods of elevated fire risks. The railroad, over the past several years, has begun converting its fleet to oil-based engines, which don’t spew the type of hot cinders that the government found started the wildfire.

The railroad also must prepare an annual operating and fire prevention plan, which will be submitted to the U.S. Forest Service for review and approval every year.

Other terms of the settlement include:

• The railroad must establish a catastrophic wildfire fund, used to reimburse costs incurred by the federal government responding to wildfires
• The railroad must hire a full-time fire management officer to provide monthly plans and reports
• The railroad must hire an independent consultant to conduct yearly audits and inspections of the railroad’s fire mitigation and prevention measures

The 416 fire sparked around 10 a.m. on June 1, 2018, after a train cast burning cinders while it chugged up Shalona Hill in the San Juan National Forest, fire investigators found.

The embers ignited a brush fire next to the railroad tracks and quickly spread, triggering thousands of evacuations, causing millions of dollars in damage to the local economy and shutting down the San Juan National Forest for the first time in its 113-year history.

Firefighters battled the blaze for two months before it was fully contained at the end of July.

The fire didn’t burn many homes, but torrential rain following the fires sent feet of mud into people’s kitchens and living rooms.

More than two dozen citizens and business owners sued the railroad over damages to their homes, while others said they lost substantial tourism revenue when the train was forced to halt operations that summer.

The suit caused a rift in the Durango community, which owes its existence to the train, which serves as the economic lifeblood for many in town. The legal action created two camps: those who believe the railroad should be held responsible for the fire and those who believe its owners should be forgiven because of all the good the locomotive has brought to the region.

That lawsuit, filed in La Plata County Court, is ongoing.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) — As the Missionary Ridge Fire raged in 2002, the Valley Fire, a second fire, broke out and destroyed six homes within hours near the Falls Creek Ranch subdivision north of Durango.

When residents returned after the Valley Fire, they saw red and green ribbons hanging on trees next to driveways and houses.

Red, they learned, meant firefighters were not able to defend their homes during the fire. The brush and trees were too overgrown for firefighters to access safely, said Paulette Church, a resident of 22 years, recalling a community discussion with fire officials after the fire.

“When we came home from the meeting that day, you could hear chainsaws all over the ranch,” Church said. “People were trimming up their junipers and oak brush. … Everyone was looking at what they had around their house very differently.”

Close calls with wildfire have spurred several La Plata County communities into action on wildfire risk mitigation. But getting a community to keep that momentum can be a puzzle – one that takes years, even decades, to solve.

About 3,500 structures burn each year in the United States by wildfire. Reducing risks, such as hazardous plant life near buildings, before a fire can help communities adapt to living with fire, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

But not everyone is ready or willing to invest the time, effort or money to mitigate. Three La Plata County community mitigation leaders say a mixture of know-how, a sense of community and neighborly persuasion can help.

“Changing attitudes is the most difficult thing you can do,” said Church, who has been nationally recognized for her role in the Falls Creek community mitigation effort.

More than 70,000 communities and 44 million homes nationally are at risk from wildfire in the wildland urban interface, or WUI, where vegetative fuels and the built environment meet.

That includes communities in La Plata County, like Durango. On wildfire risk maps, the city is surrounded by seas of reds and oranges indicating higher-than-average wildfire risk.

There are many ways to reduce that risk, such as creating community wildfire protection plans, defensible spaces around structures like homes and businesses, and carefully chosen construction materials and building codes, according to the Forest Service.

Many people move to subdivisions in the WUI, such as Falls Creek, Rafter J Association and Elk Stream Ranch, because they want to live within a wildland environment.

The residents value seeing wildlife inhabiting nearby trees or wandering through bushes, and they want to protect the “natural” forest landscape. Some resist cutting down plant life, even when it����ap limited to hazardous fuels, according to mitigation leaders in some communities.

Several communities have bylaws prohibiting tree removal to preserve the forest and worry that assessing risks might deter people from moving to the area or negatively impact insurance rates.

Removing hazardous plant life can be too time-intensive or costly for some residents. Others are interested but do not know where to start.

“I think a lot of people are concerned that if they take too many trees out, it����ap not going to have that forest feel or it����ap not going to be healthy for the forest,” said Charlie Landsman, La Plata County coordinator for the Wildfire Adapted Partnership, a nonprofit that connects communities to mitigation resources.

“Really, when it comes down to it, fire mitigation is directly beneficial for the forest,” Landsman said. “The forests are over-densely populated because of our historical fire suppression.”

Wake-up call

In La Plata County, 85 community volunteers with the Wildfire Adapted Partnership, called firewise ambassadors, in 61 communities are trying to get their neighbors involved in pruning back hazardous plant life.

For three of those communities interviewed by The Durango Herald, it was a brush with wildfire that ultimately motivated residents to take action.

The Rafter J Association, about 7 miles southwest of Durango, is a subdivision within the Rafter J Ranch. Its 170 homes are built on ridgetops with views of gullies and ravines, said Lou Fontana, a firewise ambassador and resident of 21 years.

In 2017, the Lightner Creek Fire burned 412 acres within sight of Fontana’s home.

“You could see what was going on down there for most of the people on Ridge Road,” Fontana said. “At one point, they did a pre-evacuation order for Rafter J.”

Before the fire, fewer than 10 people in the Rafter J subdivision were regularly mitigating their land.

“The most we’ve had participate is 90 – which is good, but it����ap still not 100% participation,” Fontana said.

Elk Stream Ranch, made up of 35 lots and 15 homes, sits in East Canyon along the border between Montezuma and La Plata counties. The residents created a community wildfire protection plan in 2008.

“I remember hearing about the local fire department saying they might not come into our canyon if they cannot safely do so,” said Gertine “Gem” Ganje-Boone, a firewise ambassador for Elk Stream since 2012. “Well, that����ap a pretty good wake-up call. Then of course, there is nothing more convincing than an actual fire.”

In 2012, the Weber Fire swept through the area, burning 10,000 acres. Then came the 2,905-acre East Canyon Fire in 2020.

“I would say everyone that has a home participates in some form of fire mitigation,” Ganje-Boone said. “It����ap much harder to convince vacant landowners to participate in fire mitigation, but we have had success with about half of the lots.”

In Durango, it was only after the 416 Fire burned 52,778 acres in 2018 that city and La Plata County leaders began several concerted efforts to leverage community, state and federal partnerships to address the area’s wildfire risk.

“There’s an incredible amount of work being done on pretty much every level, from homeowners to the city, county, state and federal level,” Landsman said. “One of the main limiting factors is there’s always going to be more to do. And there’s only so much capacity, people, time and energy to do the work on the ground.”

Falls Creek residents have volunteered thousands of hours since 2002 to mitigate fire risk on their land and roads. In 2018, that work helped firefighters redirect the 416 Fire. After nearly two decades, about 80% of the 96 households in Falls Creek remove plant life from communal property each year and about 90% of the landowners mitigate their own properties.

It����ap a high percentage, but there are still “hold outs” who don’t want to mitigate, Church said.

“There’s only a couple,” Church said. “And they’ve done more than we ever did before.”

Finding solutions

The neighborhood mitigation leaders found success through a mix of community-building events, continuous outreach, financial assistance and results.

At community meetings, Rafter J brought in fire experts from the Durango Fire Protection District, the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Wildfire Adapted Partnership. Their first step: drafting a community preparedness assessment, Fontana said.

They focused on road improvements, then clearing the ignition zone around homes. They used grants to pay for mitigation projects, such as cutting and chipping scrub oak, which went over budget because of higher-than-expected participation, Fontana said.

“I would like to see it codified that you couldn’t sell property in any community in Southwest Colorado without proper mitigation being included,” he said. “You require a septic system, you require mitigation. Do it.”

In Elk Stream Ranch, ambassadors speak at annual meetings and hand out literature, continually bringing information back to the community. The association used a cost-share program to create fuel breaks along roads and is seeking grant funding to continue the project, said Ganje-Boone.

When it comes to creating a community consensus, Ganje-Boone said she focuses on the idea of “when,” not “if,” a wildfire will come.

“Being better prepared is key to saving lives and property,” she said. “Having conversations with your neighbors and volunteering to help has worked for our community.”

Falls Creek ambassadors, like Church, also continually send out educational information about reducing wildfire risk. The neighborhood brought in experts to help identify mitigation projects. Residents have used grants and other funding sources to complete thousands of hours of mitigation projects.

Landsman has worked with dozens of communities on fire mitigation projects with the Wildfire Adapted Partnership. Addressing concerns, he said, comes down to having open and honest conversations with people.

“Learning what their concerns are, instead of going in there and saying, ‘You need to do this, and here are the reasons you need to do it,’” he said.

Church’s secret to success: the potluck.

“After you work together on a project like that, everyone is really tired, hot and dirty,” she said. “You come together and you celebrate … and you see the results immediately. It builds an enthusiasm and a shared vision for what a healthy forest looks like.”

Seeing the results of mitigation projects – that did not include clear-cutting the forest, as some neighbors feared – helped convince more people to participate over time.

“People thought … our forest would never burn. There was no risk. When they saw the Valley Fire and Missionary Ridge burn, there was risk,” Church said. “Seeing people they respected do the work, they realized ‘Yeah, I don’t want to be the neighbor to burn my neighbor’s house down. I want to do my share.’”

La Plata County and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe said Monday they plan to build the station on tribal lands about 15 miles south of Durango.

The radar system is expected to fill a notorious blind spot for weather and radar modeling, the Durango Herald reported. The area’s major hubs currently process data at elevations too high to accurately model the region.

“It might not be perfect, but it����ap good,” said La Plata County spokeswoman Megan Graham of the proposed weather station. “It����ap going to fill the gaps that are currently problematic for this region.”

The Four Corners consists of the southwestern corner of Colorado, the southeastern corner of Utah, the northeastern corner of Arizona and northwestern corner of New Mexico.

In Grand Junction, the current radar system cannot locate storms coming into the Four Corners below 28,000 feet in altitude. That means weather forecasters miss many incoming storms.

The proposed site is currently the location of an air monitoring station that tracks air quality. The new radar system is scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2021.

The need for a functioning radar system in the area was made evident after the 416 fire in 2018 in southwest Colorado created flood danger when storms hit the fire’s burn scar, the Herald reported.

In 2019, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs allocated $1.7 million to fund a new weather radar system.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat, has sought in recent months to contrast his work as governor with the efforts of Gardner, a Yuma Republican, during this year’s pandemic and referred to the Senate’s regularly scheduled August recess as a vacation for Gardner.

“When Colorado faced wildfires and floods, we didn’t go on vacation while people were suffering,” Hickenlooper said during a virtual event last week.

But governor’s office calendars and previous news coverage show that least twice while governor, he left Colorado for apparent vacations while parts of the state were on fire.

A recent — Hickenlooper’s first negative one in his 17-year political career — also called Gardner out for going on vacation instead of passing coronavirus relief.��Gardner campaign spokesperson Jerrod Dobkin said Gardner didn’t vacation in August but rather spent the month crisscrossing Colorado. Gardner’s social media accounts show him visiting different parts of the state, taking part in several wildfire briefings, and campaigning.

Hickenlooper traveled June 7, 2018, to Bilderberg meetings in Turin, Italy, where Colorado’s Independent Ethics Commission subsequently by accepting free meals and a ride in a Maserati limousine from Fiat Chrysler. Hickenlooper acknowledged that he used vacation time for the trip but “was always on the job as governor,” one state ethics investigator wrote.

Six days before he left for Italy, a train near Durango allegedly ignited what came to be known as the 416 fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in the state’s history, forcing thousands to evacuate, destroying 54,000 acres and resulting in tens of millions of dollars in economic harm.

Sweetie Marbury, who was the mayor of Durango then and who has endorsed Hickenlooper, says the governor was always in contact with her and others in the southwest mountain town, even while traveling.

“John was always right there in our corner,” she told The Denver Post.

Hickenlooper took another trip on July 22 of the same year, after the 416 fire was largely contained but continued to burn. He flew to New Hampshire for a summer vacation, according to . His heavily redacted calendars indicate his only state business over the course of about a week was a speech in Boston.

Kevin Klein, the state’s director of homeland security and emergency management, said he kept in touch with Hickenlooper that summer as the governor traveled.

“When Colorado faced crises, Governor Hickenlooper didn’t stop working, and Coloradans got the help they needed,” said Melissa Miller, a Hickenlooper campaign spokesperson. “The same can’t be said for Senator Gardner, who said it would be ‘unfathomable’ for the Senate to go on recess without passing coronavirus relief and then did exactly that, multiple times.”

In recent weeks, the U.S. Forest Service has ordered the railroad company to stop two projects along its tracks.

On May 27, the Forest Service sent the railroad a cease-and-desist order after concerns were raised that the railroad was removing and selling mass amounts of trees along its right of way to reduce fire risk.

Then, on July 2, the Forest Service told the railroad to stop emergency repairs at a bridge that was recently damaged by debris. The damage has cut off most routes to Silverton, one of the company’s hubs.

A spokesman for the Forest Service referred all questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for the department, said in an email, the “U.S. attorney is pleased with the court����ap decision,” but he declined to comment further.

The rejection comes amid a lawsuit filed by the Forest Service against the railroad over the 416 fire, which burned just under 86 square miles of land in 2018.

Judge Robert E. Blackburn said he rejected the railroad’s plea because they were unrelated to the case at hand. “Although this line of road is the same as that involved in this lawsuit, the issues which underlie the motion are otherwise completely unrelated to the issues before the court for resolution in this case,” Blackburn wrote.

John Harper, general manager of American Heritage Railways, which owns the D&SNG, said because of Forest Service actions, it����ap unclear when the railroad’s fire mitigation project and bridge repair may resume.

“We have never in the history of the railroad needed to ask the Forest Service for permission to repair our own tracks,” he said. “So this is unfamiliar territory.”

For the past two years, the D&SNG’s crews have worked to convert the No. 493, an early 1900s coal-burning locomotive, to be able to run off oil. It����ap the first of what����ap expected to be several conversions from coal-fired to oil-burning engines, as the city’s top tourist attraction braces itself for the future.

“We need to be prepared and just recognize the changing climate,” owner Al Harper said in an interview with The Durango Herald.

D&SNG has prepared for a couple of years to convert some locomotives to burn oil and turn away from coal. Coal-burning engines can emit small cinders from their smokestacks and can start fires.

Harper has said it����ap important to have the option of running oil-powered locomotives during extreme drought.

This issue came to a head in summer 2018, when drought, high fire danger and the 416 Fire caused the D&SNG to shut down for more than 40 days. Since then, Harper has said the railroad would have to adapt.

“You’re talking to a guy who 15 years ago said I’ll never have anything beside coal engines,” Harper said. “But we have to evolve. We all have to evolve. That����ap just part of life.”

No. 493 revives railroad history

Locomotive No. 493 was built in 1902 and ran for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad all over Colorado. But in the mid-1900s, it was taken out of service, and when the D&SNG bought the line in 1981, No. 493 was determined too big for its needs and was put on display at a museum in Silverton.

And there it sat for decades.

That is until around 2016, when the D&SNG decided to add a seventh locomotive to its fleet and looked to the coal-fired No. 493 as an engine that could be converted to burn oil. Crews got to work in winter 2018, breaking down and putting back together the historic locomotive.

After more than an estimated 7,500 work-hours and $625,000 in materials and labor, the No. 493 will make its official debut Saturday.

“It����ap a pretty proud moment,” said Jeff Jackson, chief operating officer of American Heritage Railways, D&SNG’s parent company.

A cleaner ride, without a coal shovel

No. 493 is expected to join the railroad’s lineup this spring and work its way up and down the rails to Silverton.

Randy Babcock, D&SNG’s mechanical foreman, said there’s not much of an operational difference, though No. 493 won’t require someone to shovel coal. Crews gained experience last year on an oil engine when the SP-18 locomotive was brought in on loan.

For passengers, the experience will be largely unchanged. Each locomotive billows iconic steam out its stack, blows its nostalgic whistle through town and provides riders with the same breathtaking views of the San Juan Mountains.

But for a community that has continually called for the D&SNG to burn a cleaner fuel, especially after the 416 Fire, the conversion to oil has much bigger significance.

“I’m really pleased the train is rolling out a new oil-burning engine and is working to convert another as well,” said La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt. “The train is an important part of our economic engine, and it����ap critical that these new units be used to avoid future disasters.”

Neighbors welcome cleaner air

Nathan Morris says he is not against the D&SNG or trying to shut down the beloved train. But living just blocks from the train depot, Morris and his family have had their fair share of complaints.

“When trains come back to the yard, they run all night long because the coal boilers need to stay hot,” he said. “Then we get a nighttime inversion almost every night, and there’s this plume that covers most of the south side.”

Morris said he keeps his windows closed to keep smoke out of his house, but sometimes the floors or the blinds will still turn black. He can’t put out laundry to dry because it will become discolored. Plants in his garden usually have a layer of soot.

But neighbors’ complaints, for the most part, have been anecdotal, Morris said. So, after the 416 Fire, he and a few others installed air quality monitors at their houses, and the findings were shocking.

At night, between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., Morris said the data show air quality on the south side of Durango is worse than Beijing’s.

“People over the years have always said the smoke is bad, but we’ve never had the data to see just how bad it is,” he said. “Now, we’ve had a full year of this air quality study.”

So, it����ap welcome news that the D&SNG plans to convert locomotives to oil, which won’t create that plume at night.

“I think it����ap a great first step in the right direction,” he said.

Morris is part of a local group called Sustain the Train, which wants D&SNG to find more eco-friendly ways of operating. He said the group has a mailing list of a couple hundred people.

“I think a lot of people who push back against us are under the assumption that any criticism of the train is aimed at shutting it down,” he said. “But we chose our name carefully. We’re supporting the train staying here, we just want the train to do so in a more sustainable way.”

“Part of this evolution”

More than a year after the 416 Fire, the U.S. Forest Service investigators last summer confirmed community speculation and announced that a cinder from a coal-fired D&SNG locomotive started the blaze north of Durango.

The D&SNG has denied it started the fire, which burned more than 54,000 acres, mostly in the Hermosa Creek watershed. And a lengthy court battle is ensuing as the U.S. government seeks to recoup an estimated $25 million from the railroad for firefighting costs and damages.

In many ways, though, the 416 Fire pushed the D&SNG to enter an era of more eco-friendly fuel sources.

For years, public sentiment favored coal-fired engines.

But Harper said about 80% of riders don’t come for a coal-fired locomotive, they come for the steam-engine experience, which oil will provide.

It����ap unclear how many of D&SNG’s nine locomotives will convert to oil. Already, crews have started on a second conversion.

But for Harper, whose family has owned the railroad since 1998, the D&SNG will maintain a presence with coal-fired engines, if only to preserve the tradition of the 130-year-old railroad.

“Part of this evolution,” Harper said, “is to make sure the railroad has the equipment it needs for all conditions, at all times, so it can be here another 137 years.”

In July, the U.S. government named the railroad as the cause of the 416 Fire, which started along the train’s tracks north of Durango in summer 2018 and went on to burn more than 54,000 acres of mostly national forest lands in the Hermosa Creek watershed.

After eyewitness accounts and months of speculation, federal investigators determined a cinder emitted from a smokestack from a coal-burning locomotive of the railroad, which was running at a time of extreme drought in Southwest Colorado, sparked the fire.

At the same time, U.S. officials said the railroad denied starting the fire, prompting a lawsuit that seeks $25 million from the company for damages and fire-suppression costs.

In September, the railroad filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying there is no federal law that allows claims to recover fire suppression costs, and the only Colorado law on the issue allows for recovering actual damages from a fire on property – but not firefighting costs.

that the judge overseeing the case – U.S. District Court Judge Robert E. Blackburn – asked for a recommendation from U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter on interpreting the law and on whether to dismiss the case.

On Friday, Neureiter filed his recommendation, which supported the U.S. government.

“First, I reject the (railroad’s) argument that, as a public entity providing a civic service by fighting a forest fire, the United States is not entitled to recover fire suppression costs,” he wrote.

“The United States was protecting its own property, the National Forest, and acting like a property owner in fighting and attempting to suppress the fire … the United States is entitled to whatever protection is afforded to other landowners in Colorado – including entitlement to recovery of fire suppression costs.”

Attorneys for both the railroad and the U.S. government declined to comment for this story. Both have the opportunity to challenge Neureiter’s recommendation. It����ap unclear when Judge Blackburn will make an actual final decision.

Neureiter, however, said previous decisions by the 10th Circuit Court, which Colorado falls under, have already made clear an entity can sue to recover firefighting costs.

As to the railroad’s claim that an entity can recoup costs only for damaged property, but not firefighting costs, Neureiter wrote, “The 10th Circuit drew no distinction between fire damage to physical property and the expenses incurred in fighting the fire.”

“I conclude that fire suppression costs are damages that may be recovered … because they are directly related to, inextricably intertwined with, and indeed an integral element of damages to property by fires.”

Neureiter, in his recommendation, shot down each of the railroad’s reasons why the case should be dismissed.

The company, for instance, said allowing the U.S. government����ap lawsuit to proceed would open the door to unlimited claims for damages from fires, like “a person hundreds of miles from a fire who suffers health effects due to smoke.”

“(The railroad’s) depiction is an exaggeration,” Neureiter wrote. “It is nonsensical to say that the law cannot compensate a plaintiff who has expended money on fire suppression to protect property out of fear that someone a hundred miles away might later complain about respiratory problems.”

And, if the railroad’s interpretation of the law on the matter were true, it “would lead to perverse incentives,” he wrote, because a property owner, if confronted by a fire started by a train, would have little economic incentive to extinguish the fire because suppression costs are not recoverable.

“By contrast, allowing property to be completely consumed would ensure full recovery from the railroad for the value of the burned property. Interpreting a statute that is intended to protect property from fire to instead create incentives to allow property to burn makes little sense.”

Ultimately, it appears Neureiter found little merit in the railroad’s attempt to throw out the case.

“The entire purpose of this strict liability statute was to shift the unavoidable cost of fires started by coal-burning trains to the railroads who run the trains,” he wrote. “It would be nonsensical … to not include the expense of fire suppression as part of the damages for which a railroad is strictly liable.”

It����ap unclear how Neureiter’s recommendation may affect a lawsuit filed in September 2018 by more than 50 residents and business owners against the railroad, which accuses the train of starting the fire and looks for compensation for damages suffered. Attorneys for that case did not return requests seeking comment.

Colorado watched as the state’s population exploded, marijuana became legal, a beloved sports icon died and gay marriage became the norm. The state grieved over mass shootings and celebrated a Super Bowl.

And on the eve of a new decade, we can only imagine what’s next.

With that in mind, here’s a look back at some of the decade’s biggest news stories, as selected by the editors of The Denver Post:

Explosive growth and development

Colorado added nearly 800,000 people to its population over the decade, pushing it from under 5 million to above 5.7 million. The bulk of that gain came from people relocating to the state, rather than births, which are decreasing. Most newcomers settled in metro Denver and in a narrow band of counties from Larimer and Weld to the north to El Paso and Elbert in the south.

The construction industry, devastated in the housing crash the previous decade, has struggled to keep pace, and median home prices in metro Denver have doubled, one of the biggest gains in the nation. As Denver-area homes became less affordable, buyers moved up and down Interstate 25, making Fort Collins and Colorado Springs some of the hottest housing markets in the country.

In Denver, developers snapped up land and scraped off old homes and buildings to make room for luxury apartment buildings and row homes. Many long-time residents of Denver’s older and poorer neighborhoods have been dislocated, contributing to concerns about gentrification that weighed heavily in the last city election.

— Aldo Svaldi

Aurora theater shooting

Colorado remembers their names: Jonathan Blunk, A.J. Boik, Jesse Childress, Gordon Cowden, Jessica Ghawi, John Thomas Larimer, Matt McQuinn, Micayla Medek, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, Alex Matthew Sullivan, Alex Teves and Rebecca Ann Wingo.

Those are the 12 people killed on July 20, 2012, when a gunman opened fire in a crowded movie theater during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Another 70 people were wounded in the killing spree that happened in a decade that witnessed some of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.

A jury found the killer guilty of murder in 2015, but spared him from the death penalty.

The shooting would have significant political ramifications in Colorado. State lawmakers passed a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines and approved mandatory background checks for private and online gun sales. Those laws continue to be controversial and challenged by gun rights groups. Tom Sullivan, the father of Alex Sullivan, who was killed inside the theater, was elected in 2018 to the Colorado House of Representatives.

— Noelle Phillips

Advancements in equality

Hours after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Utah’s ban on gay marriage in June 2014, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of then-Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. Suthers failed to stop Hall, and pretty soon, Denver and Pueblo counties began issuing licenses to same-sex couples.

In July 2014, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered Boulder County to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But by October of that year, the state high court legalized gay marriage across Colorado — and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit in 2015.

Same-sex marriage became part of the normal fabric of the community. In 2018, Coloradans elected Jared Polis, the country’s first openly gay governor, and welcomed First Gentleman Marlon Reis into the governor’s mansion.

The fight over a balance between LGBTQ rights and religious freedoms dragged on. In 2012, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips refused to bake a wedding cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins. The couple sued, and the case eventually went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Phillips’ favor, saying the Colorado Civil Rights Commission failed to act as a neutral party in the dispute.

— Noelle Phillips

Marijuana legalization

Stoners everywhere celebrated in 2012 when Colorado voters blazed the trail for legal recreational marijuana. Colorado not only became the first state to legalize pot, but it became the only place in the world with such a liberal policy on pot sales.

Since Amendment 64 passed in 2012, Colorado businesses have sold more than $6 billion worth of weed and related products, and the state has collected more than $1 billion in tax revenue.

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have followed Colorado’s lead.

Being a trailblazer, though, means being the first to encounter big questions: Just how much THC should be in one serving of an edible; how should pesticides be regulated; does legal weed mean a spike in traffic deaths; where can businesses deposit their money. Meanwhile, the federal government still says marijuana is illegal.

— Noelle Phillips

Transportation growing pains

With the addition of nearly 800,000 newcomers to the state, government planners had to figure out a way to keep them moving. Officials turned to rail, toll roads and more airport gates to alleviate congestion, and they found controversy at almost every turn.

An express toll lane on U.S. 36 opened in March 2016 between Denver and Boulder, and a toll lane is under construction on a heavily traveled stretch of Interstate 25 just south of Castle Rock known as The Gap.

Federal, state and local officials broke ground in January on a $1.2 billion, 10-mile Interstate 70 upgrade through Denver that will build new bridges, add lanes and adjust the interstate’s path by eliminating a two-mile viaduct between Colorado and Brighton boulevards. The project was opposed by residents in the Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods, who worried about pollution, noise and ultimately gentrification of their neighborhoods once the project is complete.

Denver International Airport announced two projects: It will add 39 gates at a cost of $1.5 billion and it will expand its terminal in a project that will exceed $650 million. The terminal project has overrun its projected cost amid a fight with the original lead contractor, a lengthy delay and the selection of a new company to lead the construction.

Finally, RTD expanded its train lines, opening the University of Colorado A-Line’s 23-mile route in April 2016 that connects downtown Denver to DIA. The G-Line was overdue when it finally started running in April between Denver, Adams County, Arvada and Wheat Ridge. The starts were less than perfect, with construction overruns, problems with gate crossings and delays that frustrated travelers.

— Noelle Phillips

Oil and gas regulation

While Colorado’s economy chugged along, the oil and gas industry remained a critical, albeit controversial, piece of the pie. Whether it was an up-and-down oil market, fracking in neighborhoods or defining the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s mission, the industry dominated business news.

By the end of the decade, natural resources and mining represented $13.1 billion of the state’s gross domestic product and made up 1% of the state’s jobs. In the past decade, crude oil production topped $10 billion at its peak in 2017, up from $2.3 billion in 2010. Natural gas production ended the decade just below $5 billion, down from almost $7 billion in 2010, according to the 2020 Colorado Business Economic Outlook produced by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

But Coloradans grappled with the health, environmental and public safety impacts of natural gas extraction and drilling.

Earlier this year, Colorado officials announced their intention to toughen oversight after a scientific study found operations could expose people to unhealthy levels of benzene and other chemicals. In 2017, a fatal home explosion in Firestone killed two people and injured another because gas was seeping through a cut-off underground pipeline into the house. That incident forced an audit of�� A found that at least 51 oil and gas workers were killed on the job between 2003 and 2014, amid lax industry oversight.

— Noelle Phillips

Women in sports

From Olympic podiums in Canada, Brazil and Russia to the wrestling mats at Denver’s Pepsi Center, Colorado’s female athletes pushed the boundaries of excellence.

The world watched Vail’s Lindsey Vonn became one of Alpine skiing’s all-time greats, while fellow skier Mikaela Shiffrin became the youngest slalom champion in the sport����ap history.

Domination didn’t end on the slopes. Centennial’s Missy Franklin set world records in the pool, Golden’s Lindsey Horan took home the National Women’s Soccer League MVP trophy, and she and Littleton’s Mallory Pugh helped the U.S. women’s national soccer team win the 2019 FIFA World Cup. Boulder middle-distance runners Jenny Simpson and Emma Coburn pushed the U.S. women’s track and field team to new heights in the Olympic games.

As veterans like Vonn retire, the next generation of Colorado stars are ready to shine. Regis Jesuit����ap Fran Belibi dazzled the nation with one-handed power dunks on the basketball court while Valley High School’s Angel Rios and Skyview High School’s Jasslyn Gallegos shattered wrestling’s glass ceiling.

— Sam Tabachnik

Devastating wildfires

Colorado’s renowned forests are a statewide treasure that can all too quickly turn to kindling. And as the state’s climate shifts toward greater aridity, the decade has seen some of Colorado’s most devastating fires, which consumed lives, homes and natural habitats.��

In June 2013, the Black Forest wildfire in Colorado Springs became the most destructive fire in Colorado history, scorching 14,280 acres, burning 489 homes and killing two people. The blaze caused an estimated $420.5 million in property destruction.��

The state’s second-most destructive fire, the Waldo Canyon fire, came a year earlier, killing two people and wiping out 347 Colorado Springs homes. And the decade opened with the Fourmile Canyon fire in Boulder County, which destroyed 169 homes in 2010 — and that, too, was the state’s most destructive fire at the time.

Then in the summer of 2018, the Spring Creek Fire��ravaged more than 108,000 acres of Costilla and Huerfano counties, and a��coal-fired train operated by a historical railroad started the 416 wildfire that burned more than 50,000 acres north of Durango.

Experts blamed extreme drought conditions for making 2018 one of the most destructive fire seasons in the state’s history, but 2019 was much milder thanks to large amounts of snow in the mountains.

— Elizabeth Hernandez

The Broncos and the Bowlens

On Feb. 7, 2016, minutes after the Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers to win the team’s third Super Bowl, president and general manager John Elway grabbed the Lombardi trophy and declared, “This one’s for Pat.”

The touching tribute was an ode to owner Pat Bowlen, who in 2014 gave up day-to-day control of the team because of his Alzheimer’s disease. Although he wasn’t able to be in the stands to see his team win Super Bowl 50, “Mr. B” was omnipresent, the guiding presence for four decades of team success.

But as Bowlen disappeared from public eye, the team struggled to regain its championship glory. Since Peyton Manning’s retirement, the Broncos have missed the playoffs four consecutive years and finished the last three season with losing records.

On June 13, Bowlen died at the age of 75. Team ownership remains a question as the Bowlen family engages in a bitter, public battle for control. A three-person board of trustees oversees the team, and will pick Bowlen’s successor. And as the decade comes to a close, there is no sign that any of Bowlen’s children has a clear path to succeed their father.

— Sam Tabachnik

Changing telecom industry

An iconic Colorado phone company evaporated in 2011 when CenturyLink acquired Qwest in a $24 billion deal. The merger created the country’s third-largest landline phone company that employed 47,500 people and served 15 million phone and 5 million broadband customers in 37 states.

Qwest was founded by Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz and invested heavily in building fiber-optic internet infrastructure. Its growth was fueled by a mega-merger of its own in 2000 when it absorbed US West, the Denver-based progeny of the antitrust breakup of AT&T, in a $45 billion deal.

After the CenturyLink deal, Qwest����ap bright blue sign was removed from its 52-story downtown skyscraper, and in 2011 the building at 1801 California St. was sold for $215 million.

The merger was part of shifting communications landscape as more people dropped landlines in favor of mobile phones and companies gobbled up each other to expand their networks across the country.

As a new decade dawns, Douglas County-based Dish Network is poised to reestablish the Front Range as a telecom hub. If a T-Mobile-Sprint merger is finalized, Dish (and its stockpile of wireless spectrum) has been approved to become the country’s fourth major mobile phone service provider.

— Noelle Phillips and Joe Rubino

Flood of 2013

The clouds swelled in September 2013, dropping a five-day deluge of rain across two dozen counties along Colorado’s Front Range. Rivers overflowed. Homes flooded. Roadways crumbled.

Nearly a year’s worth of precipitation pounded the state in less than a week, causing a that was deemed Colorado’s costliest natural disaster with damage reaching $4 billion.

Nine people died, more than 1,800 homes were lost, almost 500 miles of roads were shut down and more than 1,000 people had to be rescued and evacuated by helicopter.��More than 17 inches of rainfall cut access to entire communities including Jamestown, Lyons and Estes Park.

The flood re-shaped entire towns and neighborhoods, displacing thousands of Coloradans and prompting upward of $2 billion in federal, state and local money allocated toward recovery efforts.

— Elizabeth Hernandez

The beer industry

Changes brewed in the Colorado beer industry over the last decade — and, in particular, this past year.

Coors, a 147-year-old company, made Chicago its new headquarters, leaving its Golden brewery as its major presence back home. New Belgium Brewing, the largest craft brewer in the state and the third-largest in the country, sold to an international conglomerate. And Colorado’s oldest craft brewery, Boulder Beer, planned to shrink from distribution across 34 states to solely selling pints out of a local brewpub — until Denver-based contract brewer Sleeping Giant swooped in, keeping Boulder Beer on shelves.��

And longtime Colorado residents now only have fond memories of beer with 3.2% alcohol by volume��after Jan. 1, when 1,600 grocery and convenience stores across Colorado were allowed to sell full-strength beer for the first time since Prohibition.��

Looking back on the 2010s, sales to private equity or big beer, growth in specialty brewpubs and second taprooms were other common themes. Starting in 2015, Fireman Capital invested an undisclosed amount in Longmont-based Oskar Blues, and Anheuser-Busch InBev bought out Breckenridge Brewing. Then Denver’s founding Wynkoop Brewing in 2016 stopped all of its retail sales. By 2017, Boulder’s Avery Brewing had sold a 30% stake to Spain’s Mahou San Miguel (). Meanwhile, cash infusions and competition led to Colorado breweries opening taprooms as far afield as North Carolina or closer to home in Denver, as was the case for Oskar Blues, New Belgium, Odell and now Ska Brewing.

For all the upheaval, Colorado still ranks second-highest in the U.S. with 396 active craft breweries, based on the . We also rank first for craft beer’s economic impact. ��

— Josie Sexton

Updated Dec. 31, 2019, at 3:47 p.m. Because of an error by a reporter, the original version of this story misidentified one of the two major wireless carriers that are looking to merge. T-Mobile is the company seeking to acquire Sprint. Also, in the section about the Aurora theater shooting, John Thomas Larimer’s last name was left out.

The Durango Herald reported Saturday that Animas River fish populations are down about 80% due to runoff filled with ash from the 416 fire.

The fire burned an estimated 84 square miles of mostly U.S. Forest Service land in the Hermosa Creek watershed in southwest Colorado.

State wildlife officials say heavy rains and flooding from July to September 2018 caused the runoff.

The first full-scale Colorado Parks and Wildlife survey conducted since then found a 64% decline from the river’s historical average amount of trout.

Officials say there was a 95% decline from the river’s historical average of fish longer than 14 inches.