A Montana ski resort originally created by newsman Chet Huntley and intended to be a model of free-market, unconstrained development, is today a morass of lawsuits, environmental degradation and inefficiency.
BLM braces for Mormon pioneers
A million people – more than double Wyoming’s population – are expected to visit the state’s portion of the 150-year-old Mormon Pioneer Trail this spring and summer. The impending stampede has the Bureau of Land Management planning temporary closure of some trail sections. “At this point nobody knows the size of the elephant,” says BLM…
Planes beat out quiet
After hearing the complaints of air tour operators, the Federal Aviation Administration recently delayed setting up new flight-free zones over the Grand Canyon for another year. Critics blasted the postponement, which came 10 months after President Clinton ordered an immediate reduction of noise at the park. The FAA is trying to shrug off the National…
Coyotes could get culled
For the last decade, biologist Alan Clark has watched the number of endangered Columbian white-tailed deer decline at a national wildlife refuge dedicated to protecting them. Now, with only 60 deer surviving on a 2,000-acre section of the southwestern Washington refuge – half the number there should be – Clark says the situation is critical.…
Loggers sued for fatal landslide
When a 10-year-old clearcut let loose a torrent of mud and debris last November, killing four people and obliterating a house in Douglas County, Ore., some said logging caused the tragedy (HCN, 12/23/96). Now the victims’ families are taking that claim to court with an $11.3 million lawsuit against the two companies that owned and…
‘Developer’ wants access to Oregon wilderness
For many, wilderness designation – the promise that no roads and no permanent structures will mar a sensitive area – is an environmental dream come true. But 12 miles within southwestern Oregon’s Kalmiopsis Wilderness, a man with old mining claims wants to improve a road and build a resort. He’s calling it “reasonable access,” a…
National groups object to grassroots power in D.C.
The Quincy Library Group has been toasted from the Sierra Nevada to Pennsylvania Avenue, its grassroots plan to manage 2.5 million acres of national forest land hailed as a win-win for the ecosystem and for the local economy. But when Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., introduced legislation Feb. 27, to make the plan federal law, 19…
Owls and subdivisions clash near Tucson
TUCSON, Ariz. – Some human residents of the desert on the edge of this city grind their teeth when they hear the single-note call of a cactus ferruginous pygmy owl. The tiny owl, which lives in saguaro cacti and ironwood trees surrounding their houses, sounds a monotonous whistle that irritates people so they feel like…
Big Sky, big mess in Montana
Note this story package includes five related stories: – Chet Huntley’s legacy includes suppression of a free press – Big Sky above, private land below – How Huntley sold Big Sky to Montana – Touring the future on Insta-Teller Road – Armies of skiers are coming to Yellowstone — BIG SKY, Mont. – Twenty-seven years…
Big Sky above, private land below
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. J.C. Knaub has lived in Big Sky since the ski mountain opened in 1973. He worked as a ski patrolman, got fired, sued for wrongful discharge, and in 1984 a jury ordered the resort to pay him more than a quarter million dollars. Knaub,…
How Huntley sold Big Sky to Montana
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Chet Huntley did some horseback-riding and occasional cross-country skiing – but ironically not much downhill. He made his reputation as a television newsman on both urban coasts, including 14 years on the Huntley-Brinkley nightly news on NBC. But he had a rugged look and…
Founding father challenges his movement
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – On the surface, everything seemed under control at the Western States Coalition Summit VII held here last November. The wise-use movement’s leaders delivered the sermons, and the crowd of 300 responded with well-timed murmurs, hand-clapping and even outright whoops of delight. Yet, behind the scenes, the cracks of a movement…
Touring the future on Insta-Teller Road
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. This gate shows what the future might be like around the West. The gate is operated by a computerized keypad, something like an insta-teller. And it’s all about money. So call the 10-mile-long gravel road beyond the gate Insta-Teller Road. It’s a shortcut to…
Armies of skiers are coming to Yellowstone
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Among the many pressures on Yellowstone National Park’s ecosystem, downhill skiing is coming on strong. Seven ski resorts, including Big Sky, ring the park in a wide radius – and all the resorts plan major expansions. Here’s a partial list, in round numbers: *…
Chet Huntley’s legacy includes suppression of a free press
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. BIG SKY, Mont. – When John Kircher, the most powerful person in this resort town, loaded a box of iced ocean lobster and some friends into a helicopter and flew into a national-forest wilderness for a picnic, newspapers around Montana reported the spectacular trespass.…
Heard around the West
Vail and most other ski resorts in Colorado have enjoyed deep snow and sunny days lately, and everything should be hunky-dory, right? Wrong. Vail and other destination ski areas are “desperate” because they lack lift operators, maids and other workers, reports the Steamboat Pilot. Part of the problem stems from pre-employment drug testing that screens…
High Country Blues
Interns share zeal, not meals Earnest Youth-Apple says that the idea of becoming an intern at High Country Blues came to him after talking to his hepatica. “She told me to get the word out any way I could; if it meant talking to people who are outright plant eaters, and those who are a…
Dear friends
Postal P.S. In the good old days, HCN only had to worry about habitat and species and clean air. Today, as the Old West curdles into the New West, the paper also worries about small towns. The Dec. 23, 1996, story on the Red Lodge, Mont., post office by John Clayton had a happy ending.…
Mexico launches a green offensive
Sitting on folding chairs borrowed from a local Chamber of Commerce, the gathering March 22 at the U.S.-Mexican border in Lukeville, Ariz., looked like a Jewish Orthodox bar mitzvah: American members sat on the U.S. side of the fence; Mexican members sat on the other. They did this, says Reynaldo Cantu, a member of this…
Hopis tell Navajos: ‘Lease or leave’
Imagine waking up one morning and discovering you’re an illegal alien. That’s essentially what happened 23 years ago to more than 10,000 Navajos and 100 Hopis when Congress passed Public Law 93-531 – the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act. The bill was meant to reverse centuries of Navajo encroachment on Hopi land and to clarify reservation…