Feature

While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes

The state of Wyoming remains stuck in the Old West and trapped by its myths and boom-and-bust cycles, while outside its boundaries the New West comes to life.

Sensory deprivation on the High Plains

An Appalachian transplant seeks community in Wyoming coal towns Gillette and Wright.

Taxing the wrong side of the tracks

Wyoming's peculiar tax system means that the poorest families help carry the wealthier mineral industries.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends

Summer skipped issue; in memory of Marge Higley; Paul Larmer to direct Writers on the Range; share reading lists or books with a Denver community center; connecting to the West.

News

Wolf pups proliferate

Yellowstone's reintroduced wolves are thriving - and reproducing - in the park.

Republican riders toppled

Republicans in Congress give up on extra riders - including some anti-environmental riders - that were bogging down the flood-relief bill.

In Oregon, tension over coho and trees

In Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest, environmentalists protest the China Left timber sale, saying logging will harm endangered coho salmon.

A lot is at stake in Supreme Court case

Bernardine Suitum, 80, sues Tahoe Regional Planning Agency over her desire to develop a lot she owns in Incline Village, Nev.

Petroglyphs and pavement collide

N.M. Sen. Pete Domenici and Indian leaders are in a stand-off over road building in Petroglyph National Monument.

Agency wants to shoot down gun club

The Forest Service's attempt to shut down a gun range on the edge of Sabino Canyon Recreation Area leads to embarrassment when the agency's expert witness, Glen Shumsky, is found to be a fraud.

The West weathers unusually wet times

Although the Southwest remains too dry, most of the West rejoices in an unusually wet year - and is grateful to have avoided much flooding.

Coalition says: Stop logging watersheds

The Oregon Natural Resources Council leads a coalition in asking the Forest Service to end all logging of municipal watersheds in the Northwest.

San Luis heats up again

As the logging of the Taylor Ranch resumes, protests flare up in the local community of San Luis, Colo.

Weighing in on mining rules

Mining supporters outnumber environmentalists at a series of meetings held in the West by the BLM to consider possible changes in BLM mining regulations.

Cove-Mallard warms up for another summer

As the Forest Service gets a court OK to resume logging in Idaho's Cove-Mallard, activists resume protesting and getting arrested.

Hanford workers point the finger

Four workers at the Hanford, Wash., plutonium reclamation facility say they are still suffering health problems after a May 14 accident at the facility.

Get your ash off our mountain

The Forest Service prohibits scattering human ashes on its land - and Native Americans object, too - but the remains keep appearing.

Lakes vanish - and then return

A 10-mile stretch of lakes, creeks and a waterfall in Lincoln County, Wash. - dry for a decade - come back to life this spring as the drought ends.

The Wayward West

Looter gets break on sentence; Tate and Hodel replace Reed in Christian Coalition; Wyo.'s Gov. Jim Geringer on endangered ranching; Helen Chenoweth on "warm-climate community"; Hari Heath's Benewah County group secedes; Dan Quayle gets Western address.

Book Reviews

Water Partnerships

"Water Partnerships: Can Competing Users Cooperate to Manage a Vital Resource ... and Live Happily Ever After?" takes place July 30-Aug. 1 in Gunnison, Colo.

The Bear Essential

The free magazine, "The Bear Essential," is holding its first annual Edward Abbey short fiction contest, deadline Sept. 2.

Ecological Consultants for the Public Interest

The nonprofit Ecological Consultants for the Public Interest, founded five months ago by Boulder, Colo., lawyer Randall Weiner, has already made headlines.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

The government's planning team for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is seeking ideas.

Bolting blues

The Access Fund, a Boulder, Colo.-based rock climbers' group, seeks to keep climbing unrestricted on public lands.

Not for aggies only

Oregon's new magazine, "Capital Press," covers agricultural issues in the Northwest.

No parking in the parks

"Consumer Reports" rates its subscribers' experiences in American national parks and finds many complaints about parking, bad roads and overcrowding.

Riches and Regrets

Patricia Stokowski's book, "Riches and Regrets: Betting on Gambling in Two Colorado Mountain Towns," explores how casino gambling brought money but destroyed community in Central City, Colo., and Black Hawk, Colo.

Heard Around the West

Heard around the West

Las Vegas chutzpah; a cemetery scholar's grave observations; crazy snowboarding and dangerous driving; football as blood sport in Albuquerque; angler rumps and porta-potties in Idaho; heartening news in Idaho and Washington.

Letters

Hopis aren't the villains

Goats don't belong in Olympic National Park

Pigs can't fly

Are we so shallow of spirit?

Coffee drinkers can choose

Our role as stewards

Related Stories

Wyoming is "open for business'

A timeline demonstrates the ebb and flow of Wyoming's promotional schemes and dreams for development.

A Wyoming coal town comes of age

The coal mining town of Wright, Wyo., braces for another boom.