On a recent sunny October morning, Gene Mackey sat outside his home in Allenspark with his dogs, his Bible, and a cup of coffee.
Mackey is one of the better-known folks in this small mountain town. He has been the editor of The Wind newspaper for close to 30 years, on and off. And this morning was time for a little reflection.
Emmy Hesse started The Wind in 1974. A series of editors ran the paper over the next many years including Mary Stern, Jack Zumwinkel and Jordan Dietrich. There were no salaries, everyone volunteered.
“There were times when we didn’t know if The Wind would continue,” Macky said. But somehow, it always did. Today there are about 600 subscribers, and that number has held more or less steady for about 40 years.
Mackey grew up in Fort Morgan, Colo. He graduated from high school in 1972 and went to Morgan Community College for two years.
When he began looking for a job, he had two choices. He could have been a copy clerk for the Brush Tribune for $3 an hour, or a truck driver for Canfield Drilling at $4 an hour. He went for the big bucks.
Later he joined the seasonal road crew at Rocky Mountain National Park.
“I moved to Allenspark in 1985 for a simple life,” he said. “It felt like home.”
Mackey rented a cabin for $75 a month located behind the store that was then Distant Harbors and is now Treehuggers. Shortly thereafter he started writing a column and articles for The Wind and became the editor. He joined the Fire Department. When he was a seasonal worker with down time in the winter it was easy to keep up with the demands of The Wind.
But then Mackey hired on with the Boulder County Department of Transportation and found time was a lot more scarce and family demands increased. Mackey and his wife, Carole, took care of his mother from 1995 to 2000, during which time he did not work for The Wind at all. Elsie Mackey died in 2000.
“She gave us many blessings,” said Mackey.
As Mackey’s tenure as editor has grown, so has his philosophy of local journalism.
“I let people write about what they want,” he said. “This is a newspaper for the people. I edit as little as possible and let people vent, good and bad.”
He values education and information on fire mitigation and sees that as one of his responsibilities. He also values the community and efforts people make to take care of each other. And he values the voice of the people.
“We stay away from big-button issues like abortion,” he said. “We inform people about events, and we present a lot of local history.”
Mackey said Allenspark is a diverse community with some very wealthy people and some people who are struggling.
“But we support each other,” he said. “If you want to come here and get involved, that’s fine. If you want to live like a hermit, that’s fine too.”
Mackey has never been paid for his work.
“But they gave me that,” he said, pointing to a wind chime in his yard.
He has been helped by numerous volunteers over the years, too many to mention but each one invaluable.
Now Mackey is retired and takes care of Carole who has Alzheimer’s. He still puts out The Wind but says more responsibilities have fallen on his shoulders. Super volunteers like Rayenell Snead and Betty Anne Newton died. Others have moved away.
“What I do now is almost a full-time job,” he said. “I couldn’t do it if I wasn’t retired.”
So, it is no wonder that The Old Gallery gave Mackey the Dan Crane Community Excellence Award in 2024.
“His countless volunteer hours spent crafting each issue (of The Wind) and documenting the rich history of our area have provided us with a sense of continuity and connection,” said Darlene Bushue, The Old Gallery board chair, who also commended him for his work over many years on the Allenspark Fire Department.
Ever modest, Mackey shakes his head when asked why he received the award.
“I don’t know,” he said.