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As protests against police brutality enter their second week in Colorado and across the nation, the military’s role is under intense scrutiny.

The 4 Bar 4 Ranch near Fraser in Grand County was a welcoming site for travelers who had endured the bumpy stagecoach ride over Berthoud Pass in the late 1800s. As they made their journey west, many would stay at the cozy Stagecoach Hotel. It was known for its good food and rooms with a view.

It’s a familiar scene inside Bird & Jim, a restaurant a few miles from the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. Families are ordering dinner. Couples drink wine on the patio. But things are clearly different, says co-owner Melissa Strong.

The servers all wear masks. Dining room tables are spaced at least seven feet apart from each other. Even the hard-cover menus have been replaced with disposable paper ones so customers aren’t touching the same surfaces.

Nancy Miller misses going on walks with her older sister Diane Henderson. Henderson is 82 and has Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

"I went a lot to visit her on days when the weather was warm enough this winter for us to go outside and go for walks," Miller said. "My sister loves to walk."

Henderson lives in the memory care unit at The Lodge at Grand Junction. Miller had not seen her in over two months because of the state's coronavirus restrictions.

Could a simple lack of personal protective equipment, including proper masks, gowns and gloves, have increased the COVID-19 death toll at nursing homes across Colorado?

Nursing home workers, patients and families interviewed by KUNC think so.

Twenty-two miles outside of the nearest town (Wells, pop. 1,246), graffiti on a crumbling hotel wall reads: "Home on the Strange." Down a dirt road, there's an abandoned car. An arch stands at the entrance of a dilapidated school. It's what is left of a town that lost most of its water rights.

Around the turn of the last century, New York investors established Metropolis, Nevada as a farming community. By 1912, they had constructed a dam. They built a hotel, a school and an events center. The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed an office and built a line to the town.

Then the water ran dry.