Crested Butte Climate Research ~
Crested Butte Climate Research was not his intention. When billy barr moved to Gothic, a tiny ghost town in the hills above Crested Butte, he just wanted to be alone. “If I had any social skills at all I wouldn’t be here,” says billy bar, who prefers to have his name spelled in all lower case letters. “I’m from inner-city Trenton, N.J., which is pretty funny when you consider the contrast.”
For the past 46 years billy has lived in a tiny, remote cabin in the town of Gothic which is nestled in the West Elks above the town of Crested Butte, Colorado. The now 67 year old began taking notes in 1974, recording the low and high temperatures, measuring new snow, snowpack depth and the snow-water equivalent. At first, it was more out of boredom that he was taking these notes. Now, billy has stacks upon stacks of notebooks containing years and years of data. Billy’s collection has made him a legend, an accidental apostle among climate researchers.
“I recorded all this out of a personal interest in the weather. And because I’ve done it for so long, it has some benefit and some value. It wasn’t like I was some sort of fore-thinker, thinking ‘Oh, I’m going to write all this down and have absolutely no life whatsoever so I can stay here for 50 years.”
Read more about Crested Butte climate research and how billy barr’s decades of record keeping has benefited climate researchers and scientists who come to the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab each summer. His story is truly amazing! From A Remote Cabin In The Snowy Hills Above Crested Butte, Billy Barr’s Historical Records Make Him An Accidental Apostle Among Climate Researchers.
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