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 ten years.

They passed ordinances, raised money to cover the streetlights, and even built 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.

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 trying to preserve.