Items by Stephen Lyons

Pioneer league baseball is a slice of heaven
Pioneer league baseball is a slice of heaven
One of the best things about Helena, MT summers is watching these games.
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion Aug. 8, 2013
Why do you live in a flood zone?
Why do you live in a flood zone?
How to empathize with people who experience devastating loss after fires and floods
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion July 15, 2013
Westerners love erotic landscapes
Westerners love erotic landscapes
The Western landscape is full of arousing features.
Stephen Lyons Essay March 18, 2013 From the print edition
In search of giant trees and unseen realms
In The Wild Trees, Richard Preston explores the amazing ecosystems hidden at the top of the world’s tallest trees.
Stephen J. Lyons Sept. 17, 2007 From the print edition
A family of criminals and killers
In All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families, Rene Denfeld tells the disturbing story of Portland’s teen runaways, charting the path that took one of them, Danielle Marie Cox, from honor student to convicted murderer.
Stephen J. Lyons Jan. 22, 2007 From the print edition
Old but Faithful
Former Park Service supervisors Bill Wade and Rob Arnberger formed the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees to defend the national parks from what they see as the Bush administration’s ill-conceived changes
Stephen J Lyons Dec. 11, 2006 From the print edition
A season of love — and secrets
In his new novel, The Whistling Season, Ivan Doig explores the emotional life of settlers in Marias Coulee, Mont., in 1909
Stephen J Lyons June 26, 2006 From the print edition
The life of an enigmatic seabird
In Rare Bird, author Maria Mudd Ruth pursues the mystery of the Pacific Northwest’s elusive marbled murrelet
Stephen J. Lyons May 29, 2006 From the print edition
Finding hope in a new land
Farmworker’s Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America is the story of Rose Castillo Guilbault’s childhood journey from Mexico’s Sonoran Desert to a new life in California’s Salinas Valley
Stephen J. Lyons May 15, 2006 From the print edition
A natural and cultural history of the Rocky Mountains
Gary Ferguson explores the history and culture of the backbone of the West in The Great Divide: The Rocky Mountains in the American Mind
Stephen J. Lyons Dec. 26, 2005 From the print edition
Meloy's last message — from bighorn country
In Eating Stone, her last book, Ellen Meloy tells the eloquent, passionate story of the time she spent studying the Blue Door Band of desert bighorn sheep
Stephen J. Lyons Oct. 4, 2005 From the print edition
Western military bases still reporting for duty
Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota narrowly escape being shut down by the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission
Stephen J. Lyons Sept. 19, 2005 From the print edition
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
The Air Force wants to close Cannon Air Force Base, but the nearby town of Clovis, N.M., is not ready to let go of its main economic engine
Stephen J. Lyons Aug. 22, 2005 From the print edition
More than numbers: The dead of Idaho's Sunshine Mine
In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen tells the tragic story of the 1972 fire in the Sunshine Mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley, which took the lives of 91 men
Stephen J. Lyons Essay May 16, 2005 From the print edition
Gators, dirt and hot tubs in the Cowboy State
Annie Proulx’s new collection of short stories, Bad Dirt, celebrates and skewers the colorful characters of rural Wyoming
Stephen J. Lyons March 21, 2005 From the print edition
Crimes against workers
The Cyanide Canary by Joseph Hilldorfer and Robert Dugoni tells a chilling tale of an environmental crime in Idaho that ruined a worker’s life
Stephen J. Lyons Dec. 20, 2004 From the print edition
A beautiful ode to a melting earth
Gretel Ehrlich’s recent book, The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold, is an intimate "ode and lament" on global warming and the end of winter
Stephen J. Lyons Nov. 22, 2004 From the print edition
An unfinished life in Wyoming
Wyoming writer Mark Spragg’s new novel, An Unfinished Life, explores the universal territory of a fractured family’s life
Stephen J. Lyons Nov. 8, 2004 From the print edition
The ghost of Richard Butler surfaces in Arizona
The writer examines an Arizona ballot initiative on immigration and finds racism at work
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion Essay Oct. 18, 2004
Living in harm’s way
Marc Reisner’s posthumously published book, A Dangerous Place: California’s Unsettling Fate, looks at California and its earthquakes, and imagines what will happen when "the Big One" finally hits
Stephen J. Lyons Feb. 17, 2003 From the print edition
Living in harm’s way
Marc Reisner’s posthumously published book, A Dangerous Place: California’s Unsettling Fate, looks at California and its earthquakes, and imagines what will happen when "the Big One" finally hits
Stephen J. Lyons Feb. 17, 2003 From the print edition
Come in, Krispy Kreme
A plan to pay for new police cars in Blackfoot, Idaho, by selling ad space on them is an amazingly bad idea
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion Essay Feb. 3, 2003
Real men head for Alaska
A visit to Alaska’s Kodiak Island leads the author to feel meek and mild in comparison to the manly men he meets, who battle wolverines in the wildest place in the country.
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion Essay Dec. 24, 2002
Freedom of the press is eroding before our eyes
Independent, family-owned newspapers are disappearing down the gullets of huge corporations, and American democracy is directly threatened by the loss of a diversity of voices.
Stephen Lyons Opinion Essay Nov. 11, 2002 From the print edition
Freedom of the press is eroding before our eyes
Stephen J. Lyons Opinion Essay Nov. 1, 2002
The fission of a New Mexican nuclear family
Bradford Morrow's novel, Ariel's Crossing, tells a poignant story of family and reconciliation in New Mexico, where the nuclear weapons testing of 40 years ago still haunts the land and the people.
Stephen J. Lyons Sept. 2, 2002 From the print edition
When good tax-evaders go bad
In "Lone Patriot: The Short Career of an American Militiaman," Jane Kramer profiles wannabe-Patriot John Pitner, who was commander in chief of the Washington State Militia until his group began to unravel and the FBI arrested him.
Stephen J. Lyons Aug. 5, 2002 From the print edition
The makings of a meth lab
Mike LaScoula, the Spokane County Health District's chemical and physical hazards advisor, describes the toxic hazards created when a house is turned into an illegal methamphetamine lab.
Stephen Lyons Aug. 14, 2000 From the print edition
'There's not much to do out there'
In his own words, Erec Hopkins describes how he started injecting - and selling - methamphetamines.
Stephen Lyons Aug. 14, 2000 From the print edition
Meth invasion
As methamphetamine moves into the small, isolated towns of the rural West, the waste left by its manufacture pollutes the environment while the drug's abuse and the traffic in it strain the resources of local law enforcement and social services.
Stephen Lyons Aug. 14, 2000 From the print edition
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