This is the print page; it reads best on a desktop. Download the PDF. Print: Letter, landscape, two-sided, flip on the short edge, 100 percent (no fit to page). Sheet 1 is the outside (cover and back); sheet 2 nests inside. Fold once, no staples: eight pages. Got a counter or a library box? We bring the stack and swap stale ones. For a box that sits for weeks, use the box edition, which has no dates inside. Reading it on a screen or with a camera app? The page-by-page copy reads in order.
Get it Thursday morning
One email a week, free. Call, text or email and we'll sign you up; no email, we'll hand you the next one.
westsidewherewithal.com
hello@westsidewherewithal.com
call or text 719-201-5462
It's free. If a Thursday was worth something to you, throw a few bucks in the jar; it pays for the email and the printing.
The Westside Wherewithal · Jeff Adkins, editor · hello@westsidewherewithal.com · call or text 719-201-5462 · 2320 W Colorado Ave Ste 122, Colorado Springs, CO 80904 · Thursday mornings, free · See you Thursday.
Take one, it is free. Good till Oct 24. Fold only, no staples, so it composts.
Sanborn fire insurance map, Colorado City, November 1902. Library of Congress.
Thursday mornings · Free
The Westside Wherewithal
Because living west of I-25 takes a little wherewithal.
A free paper for the Westside of Colorado Springs, written by the people who live here. Thursday mornings, starting January.
Good till Oct 24. Just visiting? Page 2 is your weekend.
The next two weeks
The avenue is West Colorado Avenue; OCC is Old Colorado City.
Sun Oct 11
all month Scarecrow Days: the storefront scarecrows, with a public vote, through Oct 31 (the avenue)
Thu Oct 15
5 p.m. Mushroom Zombie Haunted House opens, through Oct 31 (Mush Love Tee, the shirt shop, 2627 W Colorado)
Sat Oct 17
7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Farmers market, last Saturday of the season, 80-some vendors (Bancroft Park)
Sun Oct 18
evening Legends and Lore of Fairview Cemetery, a two-hour guided tour; tickets online, kids 12 and under free (Fairview Cemetery, 1000 S 26th)
Wed Oct 21
5:30 to 7 p.m. Howdy Neighbor prize bingo, doors at 5, all ages, no sign-up free (Westside Community Center)
Sat Oct 24
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Emma Crawford Coffin Races, the 32nd; Manitou Avenue closes at 9 (Manitou Springs)
noon to 6 p.m. Pumpkins in the Park: pumpkin patch, painting, face painters, costume and carving contests, the ZOOmobile, live music, a beer garden free (the avenue)
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Send it in
The shop that closed, the thing the city's about to do on your street, the neighbor everybody should know. Photos and drawings count, with your name on them.
Send it however you like: email, text or mail, hello@westsidewherewithal.com, a call or a text to 719-201-5462, or mail it to 2320 W Colorado Ave Ste 122, Colorado Springs 80904. (Mail only; nobody is at the door.) We write back.
Rather talk than type? Call or text 719-201-5462 and tell me out loud; I'll write it down and you hear it read back before it runs.
Under 18? Send it anyway; we'll check with you or a parent before it runs. Teachers, send the whole class.
En español: mándenos un texto al 719-201-5462 o escríbanos a hello@westsidewherewithal.com, en español: su cena, su misa, su aviso. No lo hablo de nacimiento; lo traducimos con un vecino y se lo leemos antes de publicar.
Want a desk? The pages signed by a desk are open; here's how to take one.
Got a counter, or a box on your fence? Say so and we'll bring a stack, free, and swap the stale ones.
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Sanborn fire insurance map, Colorado City, November 1902, index sheet. Library of Congress, public domain. Draw on it.
Three stories from this avenue
- Two tame elk, Thunder and Buttons, pulled a tourist carriage down this avenue in 1888.
- Tunnels ran from the saloons on the north side to the houses on Cucharras. Some of them, the historians admit, may be something else.
- The town voted itself dry in 1913 and had to join Colorado Springs four years later.
Circle three things: the word INDEX, a street you have walked on, and the biggest block. One question, one answer: the map company printed the town's population inside the round seal. What was it? 4,000 Got a photo of one building here still standing? Send one; the best run with your name on them.
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Every week
Mon Boom Box Bingo, 7 to 11 p.m. (Mother Muff's)Tue Math tutoring, 4 to 5:30 p.m. (OCC Library)Wed Toddler Time, 10:30 a.m. (OCC Library)Wed Open mic, 6 to 9 p.m. (Jives Coffee Lounge, 16 Colbrunn Ct)Thu Trivia, 7 to 9 p.m. (OCC Brewing)Fri Storytime, 10:30 a.m. (OCC Library)Sat Paws to Read, 10:30 a.m. (OCC Library)Sun Brunch Jam Band, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Mother Muff's)Westside five
The key is at the bottom, upside down.
- The easy one: what pulled John O'Byrne's tourist carriage down this avenue in 1888? Two camels, two elk, or two goats?
- In 1903 the Teller County sheriff chained a Pullman sleeping car to a siding in Cripple Creek over unpaid taxes of: $66.32, $663.21, or $6,632.10?
- Just after midnight on September 9, the top of the Colorado City Glass Works furnace collapsed and fiery glass poured out. 1872, 1892, or 1912?
- The Golden Flake potato chip factory on the avenue is now part of: the Goodwill, the library, or a brewery?
- Before it was a park, Bancroft Park held a: fire station, a school, or a jail?
1. Two elk · 2. $663.21 · 3. 1892 · 4. Goodwill · 5. School
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What the city is deciding
About your street, before it is done.
Open now Colorado Avenue lane test. Four lanes to three from Limit Street to 30th Street, for up to a year from June 2026, paid for with $375K from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority sales tax. The city survey is open.
Oct 21, 2026 The community center's neighbor group meets Wednesday Oct 21, 4 p.m. It helps steer what the center at 1628 W Bijou becomes.
Oct 26, 2026 The city's 2027 budget. Public hearing Monday Oct 26, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 107 N Nevada Ave. Anyone can speak.
Vote Ballots are in the mail. Register or check by Oct 26 at GoVoteColorado.gov. Drop boxes till 7 p.m. Nov 3: 3141 W Colorado, Bear Creek park, Manitou City Hall. Ballot book a brick? Call and a neighbor helps.
The rest, and where each came from: westsidewherewithal.com
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I never stepped inside
Base Camp, 2611 W Colorado Ave, closed October 4, and I never ate there. Tell me the place you'd go back to.
Base Camp closed on October 4. I thought it looked cool, but the menu never appealed to me in the moment, and it's hard to take me away from the dozen places I adore already. I never stepped inside.
Not everyone can afford to eat out or shop on the avenue. I understand that; I don't feel obligated to, and neither should you. I'm fortunate that I can budget for a meal out, and I try to go during the week, when places are less busy and could frankly use the business. So I can't complain about Base Camp closing if I didn't eat there. Tell me the place you'd go back to.
The whole piece, with everything we found, is at westsidewherewithal.com.
Need something this week?
- Food, rent and utility help: Westside CARES, 2808 W Colorado Ave, 719-389-0759. Open Monday to Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. They prefer you walk in. Closed when the schools close for weather. Serves everyone west of I-25.
- Westside Community Center, 1628 W Bijou St, 719-385-7920. Open Monday and Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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