Magazine
June 21, 2010
An "open-water" swimmer describes the exhilarating challenge of swimming for very long distances in very cold water.
Feature
Edwin Dobb's cold swims in San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and other Western waters bring him into contact with whales and other aquatic wildlife, as well as hidden currents and storms.
The unsolved murder of rancher Robert Krentz adds to the already-high tension along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Current
A small western Colorado town will be the subject of a study looking at the health impacts of natural gas.
The tragic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could help the environmental movement, if greens act wisely.
Recent dust storms have caused Colorado's snowpack to melt even faster than usual.
Rue Mapp's group Outdoor Afro encourages black people to explore nature and learn about things like bird-watching.
The toll of the asbestos disaster in Libby, Mont., keeps growing.
A proposal to ban gillnets in Oregon has commercial fishermen up in arms.
HCN investigates whether violence against National Park Service employees is increasing.
Editor's Note
Western eccentrics are found underwater as well as in the high country.
Uncommon Westerners
Reagan McGuire uses the lessons he learned as a pool shark to tackle the problem of rampaging bark beetles.
Essays
A woman who grew up with guns goes on to a life without them.
Dear Friends
High Country News skips an issue; visitors; Evelyn Schlatter's book Aryan Cowboys tackles militia movement; correction and clarification.
Jonathan Thompson, High Country News's former editor-in-chief, is moving to Germany with his family.
Book Reviews
Photographer Meredith Ogilby and writer Corinne Platt interview 49 Western "heavy-lifters" in their new book, Voices of the American West.
In Dreaming the Biosphere, Rebecca Reider looks into the story behind the failed Arizona experiment.
Letters
- Larry Bullock on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
- John W Stephens on Latest: California fracking companies inject protected aquifers with wastewater
- Kent Schoberle on Ranch Diaries: A New Mexico cattle company is born
- Rich & Terry Fairbanks on Rural communities in the West need a fair shake
- on Jim Deacon, pioneering desert fish biologist, dies
