High Country News February 02, 2009
Feature
All Aboard
American railroads -- especially passenger trains -- seem to be at last on the brink of a revival.
Non-navigable River Blues
An obscure legal ruling muddied U.S. water-protection standards, leaving Western intermittent streams and rivers unprotected.
Editor's Note
Is America ready for the rails?
More business travelers would choose Amtrak if the trains were faster – or if people could get work done during long journeys.
Dear Friends
The HCN miracle
HCN’s readers pitch in financially; new interns Terray Sylvester, Emily Underwood and Jeff Chen arrive.
Two Weeks in the West
No news is bad news
The media’s economic crisis is hitting the West particularly hard, with major daily newspapers up for sale. Also: Chicago businessman watches nature via computer.
Uncommon Places
Dust to dust
The western Colorado town of Uravan no longer exists, but its history of radium and uranium mining lives on.
Writers on the Range
Putting our house back in order
Jaime O’Neill hadn’t planned on vacuuming during Inauguration Day, but housecleaning is a good metaphor for the job facing our new president.
Book Reviews
Catch him if you can
In The Runner, David Samuels profiles a con man named James Hogue, who duped Princeton University with his invented Western biography.
The darkest element
In Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World, Tom Zoellner tells the story of the radioactive element.
Essays
Carrying your own load
Sharon Levy’s friends, Kerby and Irene, lived off the grid in Northern California and taught her a lot about life.
Letters
... and the rivers clapping their hands
The center did not hold
Ich bin ein stupid-zoner
Blood quantum myth
Pay to play -- with water
Focus
Political guns
Every winter, Yellowstone park rangers risk their lives dynamiting avalanches so snowmobile tourists can get across Sylvan Pass.
