WOMEN: Light from a Little Candle

Huddled under twin mountain peaks that the Indians called Wah-Hah-Toyas (Breasts of the World), the Colorado town of Walsenburg is a battered relic of the Old West, scarred by deserted downtown stores, unpainted houses, potholed streets. Once a thriving coal town, Walsenburg sank into slow decline when its customers started switching to oil and gas in the 1920s. The population gradually shrank by one-third, to 5,500, and the town's prime source of income became federal and state welfare handouts. Then, last year, the exasperated women of Walsenburg rebelled.

New Brooms. A dozen...