How they met: Jessie and Shae Earley.
Indiana natives Shea and Jessie Earley first crossed paths in 2002 at the Indianapolis Zoo. “He was cleaning the giraffe enclosure the first time I saw him,” Jessie recalled. The two became friends, but a romance didn’t blossom until two years later.
For both Jessie and Shea, zookeeping was an unexpected journey. Jessie was wrapping up a degree in animal science at Purdue University when a friend mentioned volunteering at the Indianapolis Zoo that summer. “I became a volunteer, and Shea trained me on my first day in the Plains Biome at the zoo,” she said.
After earning a degree in anthropology at Indiana University, Shea began working with African and Australian animals in the Plains Biome and was soon asked to focus on the elephants. “He went on to work with this department solely from then on. It takes a really special person to train elephants, and they recognized this in Shea,” Jessie emphasized.
After volunteering in the Plains Biome, Jessie landed an internship in the Encounters Biome, an area of the zoo that offers visitors special animal encounters, which led her to seasonal and permanent positions. She found the work suited her. “I originally wanted to be a veterinarian but realized that I didn’t want to only deal with sick animals,” said Jessie, who grew up in McCordsville, a suburb of Indianapolis that is 150 miles south of La Porte, Indiana, where Shea spent his childhood.
When they started dating, the courtship was short and sweet. They went on a first date in January 2004 and in March traveled with friends for a spring break trip to Anna Maria Island, Florida. Shea had larger goals for the trip. “He bought a simple claddagh ring on the pier, unbeknownst to me,” recalled Jessie. “Just he and I went to dinner that night, and then he asked me to go for a walk on the beach. At a quiet point, he got down on one knee.” They married later that year in a small, intimate wedding ceremony held in her dad’s backyard in McCordsville.
“It was chilly and raining on that October 16 day — our grandmothers were all bundled up in blankets. When the ceremony began, the sun came out just for that brief period,” she said. Jessie and Shea wrote their own vows and, in true zookeeper fashion, had a “wing bearer,” a Harris hawk named Phoenix from the Indianapolis Zoo, who flew the rings to Jessie. “The hawk had a little trepidation about my big dress,” Jessie recalled. “Then, after the ceremony, Shea and I released homing pigeons and had a big reception reception at a VFW hall.”
The following May, the couple quit their jobs and moved west. “Both our families thought we were crazy,” said Jessie. They first moved to Old Colorado City, a small town east of Colorado Springs, where Shea found work as an environmental engineer. His position also gave him his first taste of Crested Butte in 2006 when he visited for a work trip.
“I remember the first time Shea came here. He said, ‘Wait until you see this place, you won’t believe it,’” Jessie said. When the economy crashed in 2008, Shea’s employer proposed a relocation to Colorado Springs, which the Earleys promptly declined. Jessie quit her job as an emergency preparedness planner for the El Paso County Health Department, and they moved to Crested Butte.
Today, Shea and Jessie both work for the Town of Crested Butte and live south of Almont with their nine-year-old daughter, Mariposa “Mae.”
“I started with the Town of Crested Butte in 2011 as an administrative assistant and worked my way to senior planner. Prior to this, I had switched jobs about every three years, just searching. I was lucky to find this job and have a deep connection to the work and the community,” said Jessie. Shea’s career path similarly zigged and zagged, with jobs that included zookeeper, electrician, environmental engineer, and wastewater operator, to his current role as public works director.
“This is the second time we have worked together, and it works just fine for us,” Jessie said. “When we drive home, we leave our work discussions and troubles at the East River each day; then we can pick them up on the way up the next morning.”
The two haven’t lost touch with their zookeeping origins. Often, when people find out about the Earleys’ background, they want to give the couple animals they can no longer care for. “At one time, we had two snakes, a rabbit, a gecko, and a tortoise,” Jessie said. Many of the adopted critters were older and have since passed away, except for Chui, a leopard tortoise that has been in Jessie’s care since 2003.
“He has gone from a Rubbermaid tub to a seven-foot-long galvanized horse trough to half of a bedroom. The leopard tortoise is the fourth-largest tortoise species in the world and has the potential to get big and live a long time. Chui is Mae’s roomie now. Otherwise, we have two cats, two dogs, and five geriatric chickens.”
The family loves hiking, rafting, and camping together, and Shea and Jessie make a priority of finding time to enjoy live music and try new and different foods. “Now that we are parents, sometimes a date night can just be hanging out together and listening to records at home,” Jessie mused.
Since moving here, the Earleys have developed a deep connection to the valley and its people. “This community has been there for us at both challenging times and times of celebration, and this is something we appreciate more than anything.”