Dear Editor.

I’m deeply dismayed to hear there will be a new business in Ouray called “The Dead Canary.”

Ouray, along with many other towns in Colorado, began as a mining town and still has roots in the mining industry.

A dead canary in a mine is an advanced warning of some danger. The metaphor originates from the times when miners used to carry caged canaries while at work; if there was any methane or carbon monoxide in the mine, the canary would die before the levels of the gas reac...