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March 1, 2023

Western communities are complex, layered places, and that’s especially true of cities like Butte, Montana, whose hardscrabble mining history spawned social and political activism and a uniquely creative working-class culture, epitomized by “Our Lady of the Rockies,” a 90-foot-tall statue built by local men. In Long Beach, California, manicured golf courses and polluted neighborhoods co-exist in the shadow of the petroculture. Camera traps remind us that we share the world with wildlife. Railroad lines once connected most of the West’s far-flung communities — though rural Alaska prefers ice roads when its rivers freeze in wintertime. Black Americans are moving to South Phoenix in record numbers. We need renewable energy, but not at the price of green colonialism. The whitebark pine is struggling to survive. Power outages are a life-and-death matter for people with disabilities. A Wyoming family leans on luck to get by, and the personal and political overlap amid the beauty of Yosemite.