Opponents of Oregon’s timber industry are hoping a small court victory will energize their cause. On Aug. 5, five activists fended off federal trespassing charges stemming from protests at the Warner Creek fire sale in the Willamette National Forest (HCN, 9/2/96). For almost a year, hundreds of protesters blockaded a Forest Service road into the […]
A small victory for logging protesters
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Accident shakes Flaming Gorge Dam
A broken pipe in Utah’s Flaming Gorge Dam gave Bureau of Reclamation officials a scare June 21. Downstream, a blue-ribbon trout fishery got a shock, too. The control room at the dam was empty the evening one of its two bypass tubes burst, gushing water into the dam’s power plant, generator room and offices. An […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
A cover-up over fallout?
A cover-up over fallout? The federally funded National Cancer Institute has been sitting on some disturbing news: 10,000 to 72,000 people may develop thyroid cancer from exposure to clouds of radioactive fallout that traveled across the United States between 1951 and 1958. An institute study shows that children living thousands of miles from nuclear bomb […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Heard around the West
The Aspen Daily News isn’t shy about its willingness to dish the dirt. Its motto? “If you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen.” Bren Simon, the wife of shopping-mall developer and Indiana Pacers owner Melvin Simon, may have recollected those words once the free paper began printing juicy stories about the couple’s illegal […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
At war with a bunch of mice: Confessions of an ex-pacifist
Six years ago I bought a cabin in the mountains of eastern California. Though my fortunes rise and fall, almost every night I’ve thanked the millions of stars that I could look to the high crests and hear birdsong in the Jeffrey pines. A year ago my illusion of haven fell apart. One of my […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Jell-O and suicides
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to an essay, “If a town is more dead than alive, it’s the Old West.” Various statistics describe different aspects of the West today. For instance, Salt Lake City leads the nation in per capita Jell-O consumption, while Nevada leads in […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
If a town is more dead than alive, it’s the Old West
ANACONDA, Mont. – The gravestones stand in ranks on the hills above this old smelter town, providing hard statistics. By the 1890s, when Anaconda was only a few years old, people of European descent were already dying here. McGinty, Deslauriers, Nitschke, Dadasovich and other names of the dead indicate epic journeys. One stone, for the […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
On being wrong
Years ago, I wrote a little essay that appeared in The Sun. The title of the essay was “Being Wrong.” I wrote about all the mistakes I had made in my life. I said I was tired of looking back and feeling embarrassed and angry with myself for having been so wrong in the past. […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
How the writer learned that he is not very spiritual
My wife and I had just finished hiking Brims Mesa outside of Sedona, Ariz., when we spotted a woman at the trailhead wearing a purple velvet, or velour, dress that hung loosely to her bare ankles. In her right hand she held a hawk feather, and around her neck dangled a leather “medicine bag.” She […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
The West may not be literary, but it’s littered with reading matter
Along with watching birds on my long bicycle trips between several Western states and California, I developed a fascination with roadside signs. Among the most common were the hand-painted advertisements posted in many a rural driveway. People were selling rabbits, nightcrawlers, boxer pups, Fuller brushes, RV repairs, stud service, plants, dolls, mattresses – you name […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Babbitt brings in new brass
In one fell swoop, the president and the Interior secretary have ushered in a new Interior Department. New directors of the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Surface Mining and National Park Service were sworn into office Aug. 4, after easily surviving Senate confirmation hearings. All four face major challenges […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
A timber town yells for help
Town officials in Forks, Wash., have been pressing state and federal governments to make good on promises to bail out timber towns. They say money promised under President Clinton’s 1993 Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative, which helped timber-dependent towns with federal funds, hasn’t reached the communities that need it most. Now, Forks has convinced the state, […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
At Tahoe forum, a tribe wins a deal
LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Washoe tribal chairman Brian Wallace says he feels “bittersweet” when he looks at what has happened to Lake Tahoe. The tribe’s name for itself – “Wa Shi Shiw” – means “the people from here.” But the Washoe haven’t felt at home at Lake Tahoe for a long time. During the California […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Navajo tribe embarks on a long-term cleanup
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. – Since taking office in 1995, Navajo Nation President Albert Hale says, he got upset every time he flew in or out of the airport here. Beside the airstrip was an illegal trash dump that has been growing for at least 50 years. Hale vowed to clean up the dump, and did. […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
Dear friends
The contrary West We won’t regale you with old saws about weather, such as the one that goes, “If you don’t like the weather here, just wait a minute – it’ll change.” But we’d like to, because here and in some places like eastern Idaho, where it’s been so damp there are fears of a […]
Posted inAugust 18, 1997: The West that was, and the West that can be
The West that was, and the West that can be
On Jan. 24, 1855, Henry David Thoreau sat down to his journal to reflect on all the ways his homeland had changed since the first English colonists had arrived on the shores of Massachusetts two centuries earlier. For several days, Thoreau had been reading the accounts of some of the earliest settlers. Compared to the […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
A great analysis
Dear HCN, Thanks for the extraordinary stories on Wyoming (HCN, 7/7/97). The response from those I have talked with has been elation for a great analysis and critique of Wyoming; hopefully, those responsible for making public policy will learn from the picture Paul Krza put together. Tom Throop Lander, Wyoming The writer is executive director […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
Trucks: Take a brake
Dear HCN, If letter-writer George Burns (HCN, 6/9/97) wants to have the whole west rim of Hells Canyon open to him and his buddies in their trucks, he ought to just say so. Even though we still wouldn’t agree, those of us who desperately cling to the last 12 miles of nonmotorized rim could respect […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
‘Change is hard, change is scary’
Dear HCN, Katherine and Michael McCoy lament the lack of entrepreneurial spirit of the folks of rural Utah and chastise Westerners in general for a lack of excitement about the changes sweeping through the economies and landscapes of the West (HCN, 6/23/97). The McCoys seem to suggest that we in the rural West should put […]
Posted inAugust 4, 1997: Vanishing habitat
Don’t give up on Boulder, Utah
Editor’s Note: In a letter to the editor on June 23, Katherine and Michael McCoy of Buena Vista, Colo., expressed dismay about the lack of entrepreneurial zeal in the town of Boulder, near Utah’s new monument. This was one response to their complaint: Dear Mr. and Mrs. McCoy: We are sorry you were unable to […]