Finding Everett Ruess: The Life and Unsolved Disappearance of a Legendary Wilderness ExplorerDavid Roberts416 pages, hardcover: $25.Broadway, 2011. Everett Ruess: His Short Life, Mysterious Death, and Astonishing AfterlifePhilip L. Fradkin296 pages, hardcover: $24.95.University of California Press, 2011. There’s nothing like an unsolved disappearance to create an enduring cult hero. Maybe that’s why Amelia Earhart and […]
No bones about it: two books on the disappearing Everett Ruess
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Living close to the bone in modern Alaska: A review of Bear Down, Bear North
Bear Down, Bear North Melinda Moustakis144 pages, softcover: $24.95.University of Georgia Press, September. Bear Down, Bear North plunges its reader deep into tangled relations and beautiful places. This small craft of 13 linked stories holds everything necessary to survive the frigid Alaskan waters. Washington writer Melinda Moustakis works words attentively and playfully, slipping like a […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Hope and redemption
Seven years ago, Daniel McCool, a political science professor and director of the American West Center at the University of Utah, wrote an eloquent essay for this magazine, in which he said, “A dam slated for the wrecking ball is a kinetic form of politics — falling concrete that embodies the energy of a whole […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
“Flow trails” for mountain biking
The following comments were posted in response to Kimberly Hirai’s blog, “Illegal trailblazing as a negotiation tool?” “Flow trails” for mountain biking don’t necessarily cost more to build than hiking trails. But sustainable trails for any user group do cost more than trails cut randomly through the woods. One reason is land managers often bring […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Fall books for the sweetly socked-in
The changes seem to happen overnight: Even under the stifling lid of late-summer days, September’s dusk begins to come on cool, its mornings curling at the edges with damp chill like the pages of a book. Along the ditches and river, the cottonwood leaves are first to drop, scattering the ground with gold. Tea becomes […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Mary Clearman Blew reads from her book, This is Not the Ivy League
The author reads part of the prologue to This is Not the Ivy League.
Posted inSeptember 19, 2011: Redemption
Big growth, big problems
In your snapshot, “Down and out in the West,” you observed that Nevada leads the county in unemployment “for the 14th straight month, due to its almost complete reliance on the still-pretty-dilapidated housing, gaming and tourism industries” (HCN, 8/22/2011). Similarly, you wrote, “California is still reeling from the housing implosion,” but Wyoming and North Dakota […]
Posted inGoat
Learning curve
If the wildlife news of the last few months is any indication, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is on the road to enlightenment, or at least, loitering on the sidewalk. In particular, three of their recent actions suggest the agency is learning from its mistakes. Lesson 1: No otter is an island On Monday, the […]
Posted inGoat
Pity the Green Pioneer
Back in the early part of this decade, when I spent the last week of every August at Burning Man camping in a village called the Alternative Energy Zone, I got a valuable lesson in the intricacies of renewable energy development. I had been trying for some time to coax a couple of electric scooters […]
Posted inBlog
Cadmium’s presence in inexpensive jewelry can be dangerous
Those of us here in the West have become sadly accustomed to news about contamination associated with copper and uranium mining, especially in recent years as these industries have experienced resurgence. However, a new variant of this disturbing topic has arisen the last few months that has a strong potential to affect urban dwellers and others who […]
Posted inWotr
Survival of the worthless
I recently flew from my home in southern Oregon to Denver, giving me the opportunity to reflect on the fate of Western landscapes. As we took off from the Medford airport, it was easy to see how the neat pear orchards and vineyards of my compact valley are increasingly hemmed in by subdivisions. But we […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 2011: For the love of hummers
How I survive scorching Phoenix summers
Every summer in Phoenix, I picture people in the rest of the country riding bikes through fields of purple flowers, picnicking in parks and strolling down leafy streets. I picture them summering, while I am simmering, trying not to melt. When I step out of my house, I’m hit with a wall of scorching gas, […]
Posted inRange
Time to get serious about fun!
Now for some serious talk about fun. The world needs more fun. Lighten up. Grab a kid and a sack lunch and get outside. The backyard or the Brooks Range. It’s your duty, if you care about Mother Earth. Yes, write your Congressman. Yes, make that donation. Shop for organic, fairly traded, locally grown soy-burger […]
Posted inRange
Rants from the Hill: On the construction of a hillbilly cyborg
“Rants from the Hill” are Michael Branch’s monthly musings on life in the high country of Nevada’s western Great Basin desert. I’ve never liked cows one bit. I know they come off looking pretty good in Hollywood glamorizations of life on the trail, and they’re supposed to be cute when they appear in the form […]
Posted inWotr
Big Sky swipe
Montana has been lauded this year for its tourism campaign, which consists largely of plastering photos, buffalo-sized and beautiful, on things that are decidedly not beautiful: buses in New York City, trains in Chicago. This spring, the American Marketing Association awarded the Bozeman, Mont., company that developed the campaign an “Effie” – “Effie” being short […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Mules matter
WYOMING Some people say that the most thrilling thing about any Western Independence Day parade comes toward the end, when the old-time stagecoaches and horse-and-buggy outfits take over. But there’s always the possibility that the animals will get spooked, run amok and end up stomping on people. That almost happened in Cody, Wyo., July 3, […]
Posted inGoat
Bugs abound at summer’s end
_____________________________________________________________________________ Colorado’s summer is drawing to a close. But the season’s remaining dog days still hum with the coda of hungry insects rushing to fill up before the coming fall. The other weekend, I happened upon one such bug, the pleasing fungus beetle (Gibbifer californicus), as it searched the hilly forests south of Denver for […]
Posted inSeptember 5, 2011: For the love of hummers
Junk rule pits rural ideals against suburban standards
Last spring, San Juan County in northern New Mexico hired a plane to survey its interior. An aerial tour of the scrubby hills and swales revealed quite a bit about the county: Pump jacks, two generating stations and a refinery are evidence that it runs primarily on coal and oil. And though it has experienced […]
Posted inRange
Billion dollar baby: Why the Flaming Gorge pipeline is bad for the West
By Heather Hansen, Red Lodge Clearing House A series of billboards were unveiled in western Colorado yesterday, opposing a proposed water pipeline. Overlaying the image of a desiccated river bed is the phrase, “This’ll only cost you $9 billion.” The placards were funded by some non-profits that are fighting the “Regional Watershed Supply Project,” which would […]
Posted inGoat
Economy vs. environment?
The state legislative universe is famously sluggish. Moves toward significant change tend to ooze at the pace of cold honey while lawmakers waste time bickering over bills that everyone knows won’t go anywhere. CEQA — which was inspired by the National Environmental Policy Act and itself inspired similar laws in other states — requires state […]