Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. The Great Basin can be seen as the geography of hopelessness. Wallace Stegner might roll over in his grave at this turn of phrase. But at the twilight of the 20th century, the Great Basin is still a social, […]
At home in the wasteland
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Surprises of Sovereignty
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. The Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation, 30 miles northeast of Reno, seems a perfect setting for a resort. The turquoise lake shimmers amid desert mountains at the end of the Truckee River. Earlier in this century, tourists and sports […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
No final solutions for farmers
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. “IRRIGATED HOMESTEAD LANDS. Now Open to Entry. THE LAND is FREE. Water Rights furnished by the U.S. Reclamation Service. Water Supply under the Great Lahontan Reservoir is permanent and assured.” Many families and businesses in the town of Fallon […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
A tale of two ranches
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. For Tony and Jerrie Tipton, a couple in their 40s who live in a trailer and run cattle on public land in the Toiyabe Mountains of central Nevada, it is the best of times. For their neighbor Paul Inchauspe, […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
After the gold rush
Miners have many ways of turning rock into metal – brute force, corrosive chemicals, high heat and extreme pressure. Likewise, environmentalists are discovering there is more than one way to transform the West’s most refractory industry. Mining has fiercely resisted change since it was first given free license to pillage the mineral riches of a […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Elko is halfway home
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Learning from Las Vegas, in a special issue about the Great Basin. With the help of its annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which brings up to 10,000 visitors here each January, Elko clings to its image as the last cowtown even as a gold […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Salt Lake City: Is this still the place?
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, Learning from Las Vegas, in a special issue about the Great Basin. “This is the place,” Brigham Young proclaimed when he first saw the Salt Lake Valley. To the Mormon leader it seemed a divinely inspired refuge for his persecuted Latter-day Saints. These […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Learning from Las Vegas
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. Time magazine ran a cover story last year hailing Las Vegas as “The New All-American city.” The benediction signaled transformation for what, after all, had been considered Sin City only a few decades ago. In 1994, Las Vegas also […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Activist seeks a green, just Nevada
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. Bob Fulkerson is a fifth-generation Nevadan and environmental activist who should be on top of the world. He could be coasting on victories he helped bring about, including the end of underground nuclear […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Folk hero has a pure white vision
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. The fight against the MX missile was a turning point in the Great Basin, the first time the region said a resounding “no” to a major federal pork-barrel project. The Great Basin MX […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
County commissioner courts bloodshed
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. Dick Carver barnstorms the West telling crowds of ranchers how he faced down an armed federal agent to open a road in the Toiyabe National Forest. “We’re going to bring the power of […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
A bitter rancher and a failed compromise
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. Great Basin National Park was born compromised. Established in 1986, the park covers 120 square miles of the Snake Range, centered on Wheeler Peak near the border of Nevada and Utah. It is […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
Scientists search for biological treasures
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity. The story of change in the Great Basin is written on the landscape. The tectonic forces that shaped the land can be seen in the twisted layers of rock that rise abruptly from […]
Posted inApril 3, 1995: The Great Basin: America's wasteland seeks a new identity
The Great Basin: America’s wasteland seeks a new identity
Note: this feature article is one of several in this special issue about the Great Basin. The landscape casts a rhythmic spell in the Great Basin. You feel it driving Highway 50 across Nevada. Grinding up a steep grade to the summit. Seeing a broad valley, and more mountains, one range after another, like waves […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
Don’t give up
Dear HCN, During the last 15 years of my 27 years as a fish and wildlife biologist, I came to realize that good range conservationists in the Bureau of Land Management can do more for our public lands than all other disciplines combined. For reader-clarity sake: A “good” range con is one who constantly and […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
Three provocative essays
Dear HCN, The Feb. 20 HCN had three very provocative opinions expressed on its back pages. I was startled, however, by Ray Rasker’s comments which followed “Education … is an important determinate to individual success …” He meant that old-timers need to become educated, which is true. I had assumed that he was going to […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
One-size-fits-all environmentalism can be disastrous
Dear HCN, Last summer I spent several days in Salmon, Idaho, as part of my research on the human dimensions of ecosystem management. I expected to hear the same sort of petulant threat-mongering that Jon Margolis mocked – something I’ve heard increasingly often in my years of listening to the voices of the rural West […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
Counties can’t “take back’ federal land
Dear HCN, County officials throughout the West are talking about “taking back the land” by abolishing the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. Last year we began hearing a legal argument that New Mexico was denied statehood on an “equal footing” with the original 13 states, contrary to the U.S. Constitution. This old theory […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
Taking our time, too
Dear HCN, If the concept of “takings’ is to be a part of our way of life, then the concept should extend to population growth. Increased traffic congestion resulting from population growth could, for example, cause a person to spend an extra half-hour a day commuting to and from work; added up over a working […]
Posted inMarch 20, 1995: The fight for Reclamation
Bigoted drivel
Dear HCN, We read the “Waaaaaahh” essay you published on the back page of HCN Feb. 20, and found it beyond insulting and beneath contempt. It made us sad to see you endorse such sweeping cruel generalizations and obvious vulgar innuendo. Sadder that it appeared just when polarizations and lack of trust over wolf, water […]