Mollie Miller was 12-years-old when she and her family moved to Cañon City from Buena Vista. Her father, Frank, worked at one of the 13 prisons in town — a common denominator for many Fremont County families, and Miller herself discovered a love for Cañon that has lasted a lifetime.
According to Miller, Cañon City is not only warmer and more comfortable but also just big enough to offer exciting outlets with that still-small-town feel.
“Cañon feels like home for me,” she said. “The people are down to earth. Also, I realized how lucky we are to have good Mexican food. When I’ve traveled around the country I’ve been like, ‘Wait, where’s the green chile?’ I didn’t realize how much I really grew up with spice and green chile in the world and I couldn’t find that anywhere but Colorado.”
A lifelong love of animals was personified in Miller’s involvement with 4-H as a youngster and then in her employment at a local vet through high school and college. She graduated from Cañon City High School in 1994 and then attended CSU-Fort Collins, where she majored in microbiology. She attained an M.S. of anatomy several years later and then, after taking some time off, decided to attend medical school in California.
Miller was ecstatic to attend ER and pediatric rounds at St. Thomas More in Cañon City as she completed her degree.
During the course of 16 years between high school and graduating from medical school, Miller’s mind and body continued to return to Fremont County. Her mother, Fran, brother, Luke, and extended family still live in the area and her roots run deep. Fran was a teacher at Florence High School for many years and her father worked in the prison system.
In 2010, Miller was offered a position with St. Thomas More Physicians Group as an OB/GYN, and she absolutely leaped at the opportunity.
“I really got tired of being a nomad as a student — moving to a place each year — so I really wanted to plant roots,” she said. “I’d rather be stable than lead a nomadic life.”
Miller has since become a staple of health care in the community, delivering hundreds of children and providing support for an innumerable amount of expecting mothers and families through the years.
Miller said the fact that Cañon City has a single hospital and coordinates closely with other community providers was an attractive appeal to her to set up her practice.
However, her dedication to the community extends beyond her many years of healthcare experience.
In addition to actively working as a sexual assault nurse examiner, volunteering for the 9Healthfair, and serving on the ethics committee and community hospital board, Miller is also an avid outdoorswoman. She loves to participate in events organized by the Fremont Adventure Recreation and other local committees and charities and regularly runs in runBlossom, the Royal Gorge Rim to Rim 5k, and many others.
“Everything I do I love so I figured there’s time to sleep when I’m older,” she said.
She also hikes regularly and has added many of Colorado’s most formidable 14 and 13ers (mountains that rise above 14,000 or 13,000 feet) to her list of conquered peaks.
However, it’s not just the Colorado wild that she admires. In the past, she traveled to Honduras, where she checked off a longtime desire: to interact with and commune with Capuchin monkeys. She currently looks forward to an African expedition — a lifelong dream — where she plans to go on a photo safari tour.
A farm girl at heart and in real life, Miller owns and operates a charming 3-acre hobby farm and owns two donkeys, Simon and Serenity, along with a dog, cats, chickens, and a turkey. Needless to say, the Miller farm has endless varieties of brays, gobbles, and critter-chatter to entertain any visitor.
In the future, and with COVID still lingering, Miller hopes to travel to distant countries to volunteer her medical expertise to the population in need of her help.
The wide-open space of the larger world beckons to Miller because of her adventurous spirit but she knows and loves, that Cañon City will always be her home.
