The stories Russ told always ended with a big chunk of uranium ore being dumped on the table, its yellow dust collecting as a thin film on top of my coffee. And they always began with the phrase: “There used to be 10,000 men with boots on in this town.” It was Silverton, Colo., 1996. […]
Departments
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Biofuel won’t do it
BIOFUEL WON’T DO IT Sugar cane’s efficiency in producing ethanol is 800 percent compared with 130 percent for corn, as others have mentioned (HCN, 2/4/08). Currently, our sugar cane lands in Hawaii are fallow or growing eucalyptus trees. But even if we replanted cane to all these lands and also to suitable lands in our […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Run with it, obama
I thought Ray Ring’s article on a potential national energy policy was excellent (HCN, 1/21/08). It was the sort of piece that made me glad I recently renewed my subscription. Now if only a presidential candidate would take it from here. Robert Fisher Corona, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Following the tracks
Walking along the railroad tracks, I never could decide if it was easier to stretch my stride from one tie to the next, or if I should follow my natural rhythm, letting my foot land sometimes in the crushed stone ballast and sometimes on wood. I wanted the walking to be easy, unconscious. It wasn’t. […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Hello, Clinton? Hello, McCain?
Instead of giving us a hypothetical letter, why not call the presidential candidates and ask them where they stand on Western issues, and then tell us (HCN, 1/21/08)? You could have played an important role in informing us about where the candidates stand on the issues. I believe the most important challenge in the West […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Two weeks in the West
“God gave man the ability to manage wildlife.” — Wayne Wright, an Idaho Fish and Game commissioner, in the Idaho Statesman. The political animals – the kind that walk on two legs and thump their chests while exhaling promises – could fill this page. But hip-deep in the campaign season, you might like a break […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Wake up and smell the newsprint
It seemed as though Todd Wilkinson’s column, “Where do you draw the line?” was really asking, “Where should I draw the line?” (HCN, 1/21/08). I was unable to connect the dots between his reflections upon his own “lame and futile” political agitations of the past to beg the title question for the rest of us. […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Degrees of sacrifice
The degree of one’s patriotism can be measured by what is risked by the individual. Todd Wilkinson’s recent essay said, “Yet how is standing up to battle against landscape destruction any less a patriotic calling than what is being asked of our soldiers in Iraq?” (HCN, 1/21/08) Conservationists rarely risk their lives or even their […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Catching a ride in costa rica
It was with extra excitement that I turned to Michelle Nijhuis’ article on hitchhiking, “The Last Ride,” in the Oct. 29, 2007 issue. This means of travel brought me out to explore the American West for the first time 32 years ago, and led to my settling there. I’ve met people, gone places, and done […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Power from the underground
The West is just beginning to tap its potential for clean, renewable geothermal energy
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Death of a mine
In Utah, a major new copper producer goes belly-up in just two years
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
The short life of Lisbon Valley
August 1995 After four years of collecting environmental data, Summo USA Corp. applies to the Bureau of Land Management for a permit to mine copper in Lisbon Valley, roughly 40 miles southeast of Moab. March 1997 The Moab BLM office approves the mine, but enviros appeal. June 1998 The Interior Board of Land Appeals rules […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Dear friends
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK We’d like to know what topics are important to you, and what you think of the job that High Country News is doing. Please visit www.hcn.org/survey and complete our brief reader survey today. We’ll use your input to improve our understanding of what our readers want and need. NEW BABIES, […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Mining the West
A glimpse at mining data — including workforce, mining salaries, metals revenue and production, minerals produced in 2007, the metals and minerals one person uses in a lifetime, miscellaneous statistics, and specs on the world’s biggest dump truck! Download the PDF » Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Reluctant Boomtown […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
Reluctant Boomtown
Mining abandoned Superior a decade ago. Now the industry is ready to return, but this little Arizona town is not sure it wants it back.
Posted inFebruary 18, 2008: Reluctant Boomtown
A Rico renaissance
Post-mining economy threatened by proposed moly mine
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Unnatural Preservation
In the age of global warming, public-land managers face a stark choice: They can let national parks and other wildlands lose their most cherished wildlife. Or they can become gardeners and zookeepers.
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Heard around the West
UTAH Jim Stiles, publisher of the Canyon Country Zephyr in Moab, has been called cynical, chronically ticked off, dour and – more kindly perhaps – curmudgeonly. He is greatly annoyed by the Lycra-clad bicyclists that invade his part of the world, and he’d like the rip-’em-up crowd of ATV and four-wheel-drivers to take a hike. […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Time to call the gas industry’s bluff
There’s been a steep falloff in friendly chit-chat around the local gas pumps, and no wonder. With diesel at $3.40 a gallon and gasoline only somewhat cheaper, it’s common to see someone drop $100 on a tankful. The Pump N Pay is as glum as a morgue. A typical American family will spend more than […]
Posted inFebruary 4, 2008: Unnatural Preservation
Walk the talk, libs
I am a native of Colorado and consider myself an environmentalist, but the anti-oil tone of modern “environmentalists,” coupled with their lifestyle of hypocrisy, has alienated many independent and moderate Republicans (like myself) that would otherwise support pro-nature agendas. This isn’t a taunt so much as it is a reality check from outside of the […]