USA TODAY International Edition
Homing pigeons still flying high
FORT COLLINS Ryan Barwick has 10 really flighty employees.
They’re not always where they’re supposed to be and sometimes take off for hours.
And don’t get him started on when they refuse to come down from the trees.
Since 1994, Rocky Mountain Adventures — the Fort Collins rafting company Barwick purchased eight years ago — has employed around a dozen pigeons each year.
The unlikely answer to a predigital age problem, homing pigeons allowed the rafting, rental and adventure guide business to get rolls of 35mm film down the Cache la Poudre River during its summer raft trips.
“It was pretty ingenious back in the day,” Barwick said.
After taking mid- trip rafting pictures, the company’s photographers would slip the film into the pigeons’ custom backpacks and send them home — down the winding river bends and back to their coop at Rocky Mountain Adventures.
From there, the film would be developed and displayed for customers to buy before their river- soaked life jackets had even dried.
At the company’s store, nes- tled among a line of multicolored kayaks and rows of wood benches where raft guides give their safety talks, the pigeons live in a forest green coop.
More than 20 years have come and gone since the inception of this pigeon delivery system. Cameras are digital now. Cell service is better. Slim SD cards have replaced bulky film rolls.
But Rocky Mountain Adventures pigeons are still as gainfully employed as ever.
“You know, with technology these days, as advanced as it is, birds aren’t necessary,” Barwick said. “But it’s a cool part of our history ... and, you know, makes us unique a little bit.”
Rocky Mountain Adventures was founded in 1993 and, within one year, its then- owner David Costlow ran into the photo quandary.
“You know, up in the canyon, there’s no Internet, there’s no cell service — back then, especially,” Barwick said. That, coupled with the fact that 35mm film took a while to develop, “there just wasn’t enough time,” he said.
“I don’t know how, but pretty creatively he stumbled upon homing pigeons,” Barwick added.