Dear HCN,
Catron County Attorney
James Catron may be correct when he asserts that “he and Catron
County residents personify the frontier ethic portrayed by James
Fenimore Cooper” (HCN, 6/24/96), but is he aware that Cooper
despised frontiersmen and their “ethic’?
In The
Pioneers, the 18th century settlers’ only “ethic” is the myth of
superabundance; consequently they resourcefully waste the American
wilderness.
Cooper never made up his mind whether
he was an early-day Gifford Pinchot (Judge Temple), a
conservationist advocating wise use (in the Progressive Era sense
of that term), or an early-day John Muir (Natty Bumppo), a
preservationist cherishing the wilderness for its aesthetic and
spiritual qualities.
But in none of those roles
would he be happy, or welcome, in Catron County
today.
Nelson Van Valen
Belen,
New Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Not welcome.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
