Essays
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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
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 -
The trouble with the Endangered Species Act is us
The Endangered Species Act isn’t broken; we just don’t like to enforce it
by Ted Williams, Mar 20, 2006 -
Fishering
In a part of Oregon where everybody says there have been no fishers for years, the writer stumbles across one of these rare and beautiful animals
by Brian Doyle, Mar 06, 2006
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