In the West’s mountains, old mining claims are the latest real estate hotspots
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
Posted inAugust 20, 2007: Bonfire of the Superweeds
Two weeks in the West
“I pray that this power plant won’t be built,” Louise Benally told the crowd in the Burnham Chapter House – a sort of Navajo version of a town hall – on July 24. Benally and more than two dozen others, mostly Navajo men in big cowboy hats and older women in velveteen dresses and turquoise, […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Two weeks in the West
White-tailed prairie dogs are short, stout rodents that burrow in the plains of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Their numbers have declined – some estimates say by as much as 90 percent – over the years, thanks to habitat loss, oil and gas development, grazing, bubonic plague and wholesale eradication efforts that include shooting and […]
Posted inAugust 6, 2007: Guns R Us
Pony up
When it comes to fund raising, Mitt Romney is the West’s presidential candidate
Posted inWotr
Oh, those summer nights at the drive-in!
It’s the kind of summer night when a warm breeze rubs up against you like your date in that strapless dress on prom night so long ago. Not only that, but our kids are restless and we need something to do. It’s the perfect night, in other words, to see a movie at the drive-in. […]
Posted inJuly 23, 2007: Hydrogen Highway Revisited
Two weeks in the West
This summer, the West is as crispy as that chicken you left on the grill for too long during the Fourth of July. Mercury topped the 100-degree mark everywhere from Boise to Tucson in late June and early July. During the first week in July, records fell in every Western state except New Mexico. Although […]
Posted inJune 25, 2007: Predator hunters for the environment
Two weeks in the West
Just call it As Interior Turns, the scintillating soap opera set at the U.S. Department of Interior. The newest star in the revolving cast is James Caswell, who’s been named by President Bush to head up the Bureau of Land Management. Kathleen Clarke stepped down from the post in February. Caswell, a veteran forester, currently […]
Posted inJune 11, 2007: Brave New Hay
Two weeks in the West
Maybe it’s the weather; drought or abnormally dry weather is afflicting 70 percent of the West. Maybe the creeks gushing with unseasonably early snowmelt inspired lawmakers. Or maybe it’s just that last month marked the end of the legislative season. Whatever the reason, May was a big month for states — from Utah to California […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Two weeks in the West
Just about every dinky diner in the Northwest’s logging country used to have a supplemental menu. Beside the grease-spattered board offering up fried eggs and bacon was another touting items such as spotted owl stew. It was a joke, of course, a jab at the endangered bird that many loggers blamed for the demise of […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Of feral dogs, and feral Westerners
Feral dogs are more common in the rural West than bathtub methamphetamine labs or chainsaw carvers. They roam dumps, harass and attack wildlife and livestock, and, I know from painful experience, they lie in wait on two-lane roads to discipline bicyclists. “Rez” dogs may be famous for scavenging in roadside ditches outside Tuba City, Ariz., […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Two weeks in the West
James Doohan, the actor who played “Scotty” on Star Trek, always dreamed of traveling into space. Finally, on April 28, his dream came true. Doohan, along with astronaut Gordon Cooper and 200 others, blasted off in a rocket from the southern New Mexico desert, passed briefly into space and then parachuted back to Earth. For […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Two weeks in the West
Doomsayers think suburbia will be slaughtered by rising oil prices, or drought. But for now, gas is relatively cheap, the grass is still green, and the population keeps on growing. Suburbs continue to gobble up the Western landscape. Don’t be fooled, though: Suburbia is suffering. But don’t blame water or oil for the cul de […]
Posted inApril 16, 2007: Phoenix Falling?
Two weeks in the West
“We’re not out to destroy the universe. We’re here to make money. And if we can do that with minimal impact, that’s my job.” —New Mexico State Land Office Archaeologist David Eck on a proposal to drill for natural gas just outside Chaco Culture National Historic Park. Down in the Sonoran Desert, the blue-flowered lupines […]
Posted inApril 2, 2007: Disposable Workers of the Oil and Gas Fields
Two weeks in the West
“An industry of this size is not something you can just turn on its head in six weeks.” —Colorado Oil and Gas Association Executive Director Greg Schnacke on the rash of oil- and gas-related bills moving through the Colorado General Assembly Sacred trumps sewage: Snowbowl ski area near Flagstaff, Ariz., wants to use treated […]
Posted inMarch 19, 2007: The Silence of the Bees
Dear friends
VISITORS Denis Brunke, a longtime subscriber from Logan, Utah, stopped in to say hello. He was taking the scenic route back home after visiting a friend in nearby Snowmass. An HCN reader since the days of Tom Bell, Connie Brown of Lander, Wyo., visited us. She was in the area to study yoga with teacher […]
Posted inMarch 5, 2007: Wish You Weren’t Here
Two weeks in the West
This is the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper
Posted inFebruary 19, 2007: One nation, under fire
Two weeks in the West
Forests battered by budget cuts
Posted inFebruary 5, 2007: The Efficiency Paradox
Two weeks in the West
As more people play in the snow, skirmishes heat up.
Posted inWotr
No surprises, and no solutions, from raids aimed at illegal immigrants
On the morning of Dec. 12, immigration and other federal officials launched a simultaneous raid — the biggest ever of its kind — at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants across six different states. At the plant in Greeley, Colo., about an hour’s drive north of Denver, agents surrounded the windowless, monolithic facility, then entered, carrying […]