Innovations in media: Yampa Yearnings

Longtime Steamboat Springs journalist Eugene Buchanan is a hustler, and that’s allowed him to freely follow his passions for decades.

Buchanan, a fellow employee at Steamboat Pilot & Today with me, is an experienced explorer, magazine editor and writer, and writer of a half-dozen books. 

His latest, “Yampa Yearnings: An Ode to One of the Last Wild Rivers in the West,” is a 412-page, self-published love letter to the Yampa River, which runs through Steamboat Springs on its way to Dinosaur National Monument near the Colorado-Utah border. 

The book, Buchanan writes, “heralds northwest Colorado’s Yampa River, the last remaining free-flowing tributary to the Colorado River Basin. From its headwaters a fly cast from the birthplace of the country’s wilderness movement to its confluence with the Green 250 miles later in Dinosaur National Monument, the Yampa River supports agriculture, municipalities, a word-class ski resort, industry, endangered fish, unique riparian zones, water rights, recreation and more. “

In addition to being a fun and informative read, the book highlights Buchanan’s entrepreneurial spirit.

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Innovations in media: Kerr County Lead

Relentlessly creative is how I describe Louis Amestoy, my former compadre at The Bakersfield Californian. Louis is passionate about local media and is constantly unearthing new ways to serve readers and advertisers in new ways. 

Over the past two decades, he’s been a leader in leveraging live video of all kinds into other content streams. A recent example of this comes via the Kerr County Lead, the 5-year-old digital-first media company he founded and operates in Kerrville, Texas. 

Amestoy is a multimedia master who hosts an hour-long livestreamed video show on Facebook every weekday morning in addition to producing a wide variety of stories, photos and video for his robust community-news site. 

Of particular note for me was Amestoy’s production of a glossy 160-page, perfect-bound “2025 in Review” magazine featuring a variety of original content, but with a primary focus on the tragic flooding in Kerr County that killed 119 people on July 4. The issue — with the overarching cover headline “Our duty is simple: Remember” — is dominated by a hard-hitting analysis of the flood and its aftermath, and a celebration of those who lost their lives. But other content spotlights the many positive things that occurred in the market during 2025. Amid the tragedy,

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Back in the saddle

As anyone who’s visited my site more than once in recent years knows, fresh posts have been few and far between. 

I've been retired for four years, but remain as busy as ever, volunteering for several non-profits, serving on two local boards and tackling personal projects. Those passion projects include more writing, specifically a book project I’ll share more about soon. 

A decade ago, I was posting here nearly every day. But my career got especially busy, and fun diversions like “My Spew” and “My Distractions” quickly became low priorities, then strangers.

I’d like to change that, not only because writing is empowering, but because my site appears dead. My Marchbanks Speedway/Hanford Motor Speedway content continues to draw daily readers even though the bulk of that content is 15 years old. 

So, rather than starting a Substack or BeeHiv like everyone else, I’ll continue to tinker here. And I said in my first post nearly two decades ago, I consider this site an experiment. It’s in dire need of fresh paint — Elon bounced me from Twitter several years ago, and I haven’t locked into Flickr for ages, so I need to ditch those page elements — but for now, I’ll start with writing more frequently and take it from there. 

Cheers!