A tiny town that survives on live performance

Twenty-seven years ago I lived in a small Colorado town, Silver Cliff. I had friends who made the trek over the mountains to hang out in Creede. People who live in these little towns are a mixed group of locals, artists escaping the big cities, and wealthy folks. If you ever watched "Northern Exposure," you'd get a sense of it. People are both isolated and creative, which lends itself to music festivals and theaters and the like.

On the Rio Grande, the World: "Only a handful of the three block’s worth of businesses in Creede — Mineral County’s seat and only incorporated town — stay open year round, among them the True Value Hardware, the Kentucky Belle Grocery and San Juan Sports, where two workers, Annie Butler and Alan Thomasson, are killing time playing poker on the counter with a tiny set of cards designed to be tucked into a backpack....

"The Creede Repertory Theater, which recently celebrated its 40th season, is the cultural, recreational and economic heart of Creede. Each May, the artistic director, Maurice LaMee, and four other year-round employees welcome 70 professional company members who produce nine plays on two stages. According to a study commissioned by the theater, Mineral County makes 70 percent of its living in four months of tourism, and 20 percent of that income — more than $4 million — is theater-related. In the six years since Mr. LaMee took over, the theater’s budget has more than doubled. 'When the company is here there is an insane energy,' he says. 'When it goes away it is both sad, and an enormous relief.'