Photos by Lyndsie Ferrell Local owner of the General Specific Store, Corey Hubbard welcomed Colorado Governor Jared Polis for a brief meet-and-greet visit on Monday in Del Norte. Though the Governor didn’t stay for long, he met local leaders and perused the unique store Hubbard opened a year ago. Courtesy photo Governor Jared Polis also made time to swing by the heritage Off Ranch on his way through the Valley after signing SB 22-028 in Alamosa. Polis had heard about a touching story behind an adopted bison calf and grieving mother cow and was welcomed by the Off family.

DEL NORTE — Colorado Governor Jared Polis stopped in Del Norte for a quick visit Monday afternoon, May 23. Polis and his team had read about the General Specific Store located in the small mountain town through the Del Norte Prospector and wanted to swing in to meet proprietor Corey Hubbard. Hubbard is getting ready to celebrate her one-year anniversary of being open and was excited to welcome Polis and a few key locals to her store for the afternoon.

Hubbard opened her store on May 22, 2021, after a long and adventurous world tour that brought her to this sleepy little town in the dead of winter. Her vision for her General Specific Store was exactly that, generally specific, and she has since realized her dream and created an eclectic vision that has brought people in from all over the United States and beyond to see her treasure trove of décor and oddities.

While traveling the state on Monday, Polis stopped in Pueblo and Alamosa to sign bills, one of which had to do with water conservation here in the San Luis Valley.

As one of the most important topics to the agricultural and recreational community here in the Valley, Sentoar Cleave Simpson (R-District 35) has been the driving force of SB22-028 since the beginning.

According to the synopsis of the “Water Resources Review Committee. The bill creates the groundwater compact compliance and sustainability fund to help finance groundwater use reduction efforts in the Rio Grande basin and the Republican basin, such as efforts to buy and retire irrigation wells and irrigated acreage in the river basins. The Colorado water conservation board administers the fund and can make expenditures from the fund based on recommendations from the board of directors of the Rio Grande water conservation district or the Republican water conservation district. A conservation district's recommendations must first be approved by the state engineer.”

In addition to stopping for the bill signing ceremony in Alamosa, Polis visited with constituents on his round-about journey and also stopped to see the heritage Off Ranch just outside of Del Norte. The ranch has a long-standing history interwoven into Rio Grande County and recently made headlines for having introduced an abandoned buffalo calf to a mother cow which is an anomaly. Polis was touched by the story and wanted to visit the ranch firsthand.

“My brother Kevin raises Bison and I have a herd of cattle so when the Bison mother abandoned the calf, we decided it was worth a try to introduce him to one of my mother cows who had recently lost her baby. It happens sometimes in the ranching community, so we figure it was worth a shot and it worked. It has been a month now and the bison calf has adapted nicely, and the mother cow is doing very well,” said Off Ranch owner David Off. “It was really great to have the Governor visit."

Polis was at the store long enough to toast the Del Norte community and community leaders who were present for the brief meet and greet and to peruse the General Specific Store with Hubbard.