People, culture, late-night food.

But there's something missing.

It's there, but you can't see it.

The night sky.

This is the story about a small town in Colorado.

Actually, two small towns in Colorado.

That are devoted to space.

Westcliffe has a population of 564 residents,

and Silver Cliff has a population of 575.

This used to be a mining community

and then it evolved into a railroad community,

and then into a ranching community.

We're always looking to do something

that will bring people into our community,

and lately that seems to be we need to invest in our sky.

So they made light pollution their enemy.

They darkened their towns so that the night sky

could become their star attraction.

Have you ever seen the Milky Way?

That goes from horizon to horizon?

88% of the world's population

has never seen the Milky Way.

It's the most magnificent thing in the world.

That's what we see here.

But for the towns to go dark

they needed to cover all of their lights,

not just streetlamps,

but the lights outside every house and ranch near town.

That wasn't easy.

This is a frontier town, and I can tell you,

frontier people don't like being told what to do.

We had to win their hearts and minds.

It took 10 years.

They passed ordinances,

raised money to cover the streetlights,

and even build an observatory.

And the darker the town became,

the more people saw the light.

This year, the valley's dark sky was designated

as one of the darkest in the world,

drawing visitors from all over.

Okay.

Might need a six-pack though (chuckles).

Well I was really hopin' we'd be able to see Saturn by now.

Yeah, me too.

That a community would decide to dim its lights

and help everyone to appreciate the beauty

of the night sky is an amazing thing.

You come to a place like this

and the stars just, burst,

and it's remarkable.

Not a lot of people are lucky enough to see the dark sky as our ancestors saw it,

and I feel that we're a very special place

to be able to look at the stars

as people did thousands of years ago.

It's a humbling thing.

Suddenly you realize you can almost touch it

and you're now a part of the bigger universe.

And so it's just a wonderful experience

to see the dark skies.

That's what we're tryin' to preserve.