Feature

Dueling Claims

A tribal attempt to protect New Mexico's Mount Taylor sparks a bitter struggle over uranium mining, religious differences and claims to an ancient landscape.

Current

The wreck

While scientists try to understand the reasons behind recent seabird die-offs, volunteers count the corpses on Northwest beaches.

Editor's Note

When the sacred becomes toxic

As Native Americans use religion to save their sacred places, they need to remember that conflicts framed around faith often have unhappy endings.

Dear Friends

Holiday open house

High Country News invites readers to a holiday open house; readers on road trips; board member John Heyneman joins Sonoran Institute’s Partnership for Wyoming's Future.

A return to the West

HCN reader Mary Jane Skala regards the buyout that ended her journalism career as a blessing in disguise that gave her the freedom to travel across the West.

Book Reviews

Birders without borders

In Jim Lynch's second novel, Border Songs, an eccentric, gawky birdwatcher works for the Border Patrol along the Canadian border.

Essays

My brother, the bear

A Colorado woman copes with marauding bears, dead chickens and her beloved brother's schizophrenia.

Letters

Roadless: The prologue

Forever roadless

Taking the high road(less)

Keep it legal

How about a nostalgic piece on hunters shooting at bagels?

The unkindness of essays

The intolerant West

Focus

The ghost of Tulare

Steve Haze is determined to restore California's long-vanished Tulare Lake, and now it seems that his dream might finally come true.

How it Works

Betting on the rails

Warren Buffett buys Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and Congress considers reforming railroad laws.

Two Weeks in the West

'The West's Biggest Bully' gets his

Controversial right-wing "shock jock" John Stokes loses his Montana radio station in a battle over bankruptcy.

Uncommon Places

Erratic behavior

The Mojave Desert's Giant Rock has long been home to UFO buffs and wild parties, but nowadays it’s fallen victim to graffiti and litterbugs.