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  • A Western primer

    A Western primer

    Western writers offer a generous and inspired list of recommended reading for the president-elect, including a diverse collection of fiction and nonfiction.

    by Jeff Lee, Laura Pritchett, Teresa Jordan, Stephen Trimble, William Debuys, Dan Flores, Linda Hasselstrom, Barry Lopez, Rick Bass, Debra Utacia Krol, Aaron Abeyta , Sep 12, 2008

  • The old man and the stream

    A brief encounter with an elderly fisherman moves W.S. Robinson to think about the mysteries of life and death -- and fathers and sons.

    by W.S. Robinson , Sep 01, 2008

  • Under the asphalt a rumor thrives

    In Grand Junction Colo. a team of investigators excavate a downtown parking lot in search of an old safe supposedly buried a century ago.

    by Michelle Nijhuis , Aug 18, 2008

  • Measuring Tahoe’s blues

    Jon Christensen accompanies scientists trying to measure the opacity and “blueness” of Lake Tahoe.

    by Jon Christensen , Jul 29, 2008
  • Power of the picture

    Power of the picture

    High Country News photographer Morgan Heim joins the International League of Conservation Photographers to document the gasfields and the wildlands around Pinedale, Wyo.

    by Jonathan Thompson, Jul 21, 2008

  • Home is where the guilt is

    In Santa Fe, N.M., April Reese wrestles with the question of whether owning a new house is worth being responsible for the bulldozing of pinon and juniper trees.

    by April Reese, Jul 18, 2008

  • Credo: The People’s West

    Photographer Stephen Trimble offers suggestions for how citizens and communities can reinvent their relationship with the Western landscape.

    by Stephen Trimble, Jun 23, 2008

  • Boodog roasting on an open fire

    You may not want to try this at home, but Spokane writer Kevin Taylor offers a traditional Mongolian holiday recipe – roasted marmot.

    by Kevin Taylor, Dec 24, 2007

  • In Montana, a festival of light

    In the depths of a dark Montana winter, Rebecca Stanfel lights the Hanukah candles and rejoices in being Jewish.

    by Rebecca Stanfel, Dec 10, 2007

  • Wake up to the West, wannabe presidents

    Pat Williams says the candidates running for the nation’s highest office need to start paying attention to the people – and the problems – of the Rocky Mountain West.

    by Pat Williams, Dec 10, 2007

  • The aroma of Tacoma

    Karen Mockler likes the West’s grittier towns – the ones that aren’t remotely cool, the ones with a certain funk

    by Karen Mockler, Jul 23, 2007

  • There was no green in this Rainbow gathering

    A rancher whose grazing permit in Colorado’s Routt National Forest was usurped by this year’s Rainbow Family gathering decries the environmental damage left in its wake

    by Sharon Salisbury O'Toole, Aug 07, 2006

  • Empty pods and pleasant graveyards

    In today’s surrealistic world, where language exists only to sell things, barren desert suburbs have names like "Lake Forest" and "WillowDale," while a graveyard is called "Pleasant Valley Cemetery."

    by David Oates, Jun 12, 2006

  • Between the body and the world

    The creepy glamour of the scientific exhibit Body Worlds 2 – which showcases actual preserved sections of human bodies – never answers the question of how – and where– these people lived

    by Michelle Nijhuis, May 29, 2006

  • Science vs. science fiction — get it straight

    The decision of the Association of Petroleum Geologists to give novelist Michael Crichton its "Journalist of the Year" award for his anti-global warming thriller State of Fear can only increase public cynicism about science and scientists

    by Ben Long, May 29, 2006

  • Repo Manic

    The author takes a disconcerting journey with a repo-man friend to repossess a car somewhere in Navajo Country

    by Ben Ikenson, May 15, 2006

  • Isn't it time to bury the hatchet?

    Tired of the rhetorical arguments that pass as conversation these days, the author proposes it’s time to take a blockhead to lunch – and listen to what he has to say

    by Jeff Golden, May 15, 2006

  • Mute, riven, blessed

    All over the West, white roadside crosses and spontaneous, humble shrines mark the holy sites where the souls of human beings have left this world

    by Brian Doyle, Apr 17, 2006

  • Waypoints of the heart

    The new hobby of geocaching gives the author and her husband an excuse to explore Wyoming with a GPS while seeking to decode small human mysteries

    by Julianne Couch, Apr 03, 2006

  • Washing our hands

    The writer tells of an unexpected encounter with Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and the conversation that ensued

    by Terry Tempest Williams, Apr 03, 2006
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