When Fury finally dies, he picks a back pasture on my parents’ Colorado ranch to rest his old horse body. The neighbor across the fence calls to tell my mother this, that he can see a dead horse from his kitchen window. This neighbor is not well liked. He is new. His house is new. […]
Fury
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
This mayor sees a different shade of green
NAME Greg Nickels VOCATION Mayor of Seattle, D, elected in 2001 AGE 49 NOTED FOR Starting a mayoral “green team” to combat global warming HE SAYS “If we expect (people in) the community to change their habits, we need to lead by example.” Early this year, while the Pacific Northwest endured one of the […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Suburbia blasts through a national monument
With a road headed its way, a new development takes root on Albuquerque’s West side
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Private landowners become lords of the public estate
In Arizona, a strange dispute illustrates a growing problem
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Writing a comment letter? Better make it good
Agencies say mass e-mails and form letters don’t mean much
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK This will be the last issue of HCN that you’ll receive for a month. The staff is taking an issue off to spend time with family and friends and enjoy the sunny Paonia summer. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around July 25th. CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS We’d like to make […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Crossings
It’s that time of year again, when we set aside our traditional cover story and serve up a spread of summer reading. If there’s a theme that runs through the essays in this issue, it’s that of “crossings.” Tim Westby takes a marathon trip around the West by Greyhound bus, crossing deep economic and cultural […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
The Great Divide
It is 7:30 in the morning on July 24, 2004 — the day of Utah’s biggest holiday. Salt Lake City’s usually reserved downtown is bustling. Parade floats are parked haphazardly along side streets. Spectators spill out of the city’s light-rail system, lugging lawn chairs and water jugs as they scope out prime sidewalk real estate […]
Posted inWotr
What’s in a name? Ask an Anacondan
I lucked out when I landed in Anaconda, Mont. I didn’t have to tell my friends I was a Helen or a Malted. I became an Anacondan. Newspaper folks like to find shortcuts when writing news stories, and one of the best ones around is the ability to describe the people in a town with […]
Posted inWotr
Lions and tigers and wolves, oh my, even in the Midwest
Don’t look now, but there may be a couple of keen eyes within a placid suburb or rural Midwestern neighborhood. In fact, they might be up a tree. That’s where Nebraska’s most recent mountain lion was spotted earlier this year. The 100-pound animal was lounging comfortably in a tree in South Sioux City, across the […]
Posted inWotr
Skeletons lurk in the closets of our respected institutions
Last spring, the now-infamous Ward Churchill, University of Colorado professor of ethnic studies, gave a talk at Colorado College about the contents of our institutional closets. He claimed that we had the bones of 139 people — all Native Americans — hidden on campus. Churchill used this number to demonstrate the college’s complicity in the […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
In a run-down neighborhood, there’s lots of love
A Denver activist fights for her community
Posted inWotr
It’s time for the West to speak up
Howard Dean, former Democratic presidential candidate and now the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, traveled to Montana a few days ago to speak to the Western Democratic Caucus. He found Western Democrats heartened by their recent electoral gains, especially in Colorado and Montana, and he asked them to bring that Western energy to bear […]
Posted inWotr
Buying used gets him enthused
Westerners are packrats. Blame it on the availability of flea markets or just the size of our backyards. My house is no exception, except that most of my stuff comes from the midden heap, which doesn’t mean I’ve been pilfering artifacts from sacred sites. The Anasazi used to dump their trash much like many of […]
Posted inWotr
Why this ‘seasonal’ rides the public’s range
It’s day three into my 14th season at Grand Teton National Park, and now I must pass the infamous pack test. By carrying 45 pounds for 1.5 miles in less than 46 minutes, I’ll qualify for “arduous duty” as a wildland firefighter keeping an eye on lightning strikes. I wear a vest packed with weights […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Restoring a Presence: American Indians and Yellowstone National Park
Restoring a Presence: American Indians and Yellowstone National Park Peter Nabokov and Lawrence Loendorf, 400 pages, hardcover: $39.95. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. There’s plenty of talk about keeping bison and wolves in the nation’s flagship national park, but few people realize that American Indians were evicted from the area to make way for tourists, […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Desire
Desire Lindsay Ahl, 231 pages, paperback: $14. Coffeehouse Press, 2004. If you’ve ever crept around the alley south of Albuquerque’s Central Avenue, you’ll be immediately drawn into this new novel by Santa Fe writer Lindsay Ahl. And even if you’ve never been to the Duke City, there’s good writing and fun action to draw you […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
William Henry Jackson’s ‘The Pioneer Photographer’
William Henry Jackson’s ‘The Pioneer Photographer’ Bob Blair, 248 pages, clothbound: $39.95. Museum of New Mexico Press, 2005. William Henry Jackson was the official photographer for Ferdinand V. Hayden’s survey of the Western territory from 1870-1878. Now, Bob Blair has compiled photos, map sketches, paintings and notes into a fun coffee-table book. Chapters range from […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
In the nation’s most dangerous park, the desert’s heat still beats
In Organ Pipe: Life on the Edge, author Carol Ann Bassett heeds the advice of her mentor, Ed Abbey: “Learning about the desert takes time,” she writes. “Abbey once wrote the best way to do so was to ‘Pick out a good spot and just sit there, not moving, for about a year — and […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
River tales: The Rio Grande from the headwaters to the sea
Trying to wrestle the Rio Grande into one book is a foolhardy undertaking, not only because of the river’s complexity, but because so many writers have attempted the feat before. But this new collection from Jan Reid is a tribute to the river rivaled only by Paul Horgan’s 1954 masterpiece, Great River. Rio Grande is […]