High Country News

The painful beauty of love

Melanie Rae Thon's short stories, gathered in her collection In This Light, paint a desolate and tender picture of the West.

by Kathleen Yale, May 15, 2011
Mapping the Hi-Line: A review of Honyocker Dreams

Writer David Mogen sets out to understand his childhood and his rural ancestors, who lived along Montana’s Hi-Line, just below the Canadian border.

by Andrea Clark Mason, Oct 30, 2011
Reasons to persevere

In his novel, Blind Your Ponies, Stanley Gordon West looks into the heart of a fictional small town in Montana.

by Karen Rigby, Feb 06, 2011
What it took to win one small victory

The small community of Conway, Wash., successfully fought off a cell-phone tower, but paid a high price for victory.

by Ken Winkes, May 06, 2010
Boom! Boom!

An energy boom of unprecedented proportions is transforming western Colorado towns like Rifle, which just recently recovered from the last big energy boom – and a catastrophic bust.

by Francisco Tharp, May 12, 2008
Small-town struggle in a big land

In his first book, The Enders Hotel, Brandon R. Schrand describes a childhood spent growing up in a funky hotel in the small town of Soda Springs, Idaho.

by Andrea Clark Mason, May 12, 2008
Poetry in motion

That odd-looking woman on the sidewalk ahead of you is not just talking to herself; she's trying -- loudly -- to memorize a poem.

by Diane Sylvain, Dec 05, 2010
Bootstrapping in Roundup

When the Musselshell River flooded Roundup, Mont., it did damage to everything but the townsfolk's indomitable spirit.

by Wendy Beye, Aug 04, 2011
The sign maker

The wooden signs Phil Garfoot made still offer directions to his friends, even after his death.

by Ana Maria Spagna, Apr 21, 2011
Libby is not what you think

Libby, Mont., has known more tragedy than most small towns could ever imagine, and yet it remains a wonderful place to live.

by Moira Blazi, Oct 01, 2009