Since Montana voters passed an initiative last November blocking certain kinds of mining, the industry has taken its hits. In the wake of a ban on new and expanded open-pit cyanide heap-leach mining, both the Montana Mining Association and the company behind the controversial McDonald gold mine have laid off employees. The mining association is […]
Mining on the run
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Court puts gas in private hands
A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in June has answered a long-standing question over who owns vast deposits of methane gas found in coal beds in several states across the West. In a case brought by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of southwest Colorado, the court sided 7-1 with Amoco Production Co. The ruling […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
‘Over the River’ not yet through the woods
Controversy and art often go hand in hand, and the proposed “Over The River” project in central Colorado is no exception. In this case, it’s the medium rather than the messagethat has people up in arms. The artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who use only single names, are known for large-scale temporary exhibits spanning natural or […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
The Wayward West
Northern spotted owls are still disappearing. The Northwest Forest Plan of 1991 was intended to lower the rate of the bird’s decline to 1 percent a year, by halting old-growth logging in spotted owl habitat (HCN, 11/23/98). But The Wall Street Journal reports owl populations are falling at four times that rate. “The plan is […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Renewable energy fair
The timber town of John Day, Ore., hosts a renewable energy fair, July 24-25, featuring a Volkswagen car that runs on electricity, and workshops on energy conservation. For details, contact Jennifer Barker, SolWest, P.O. Box 485, Canyon City, OR 97820 (541/542-2525); e-mail: solwest@eoni.com or check out www.eoni.com/~solwest. This article appeared in the print edition of […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Community leaders
Community leaders can soon learn nuts-and-bolts skills about how to organize around issues such as civil rights, the environment and labor. The Western States Center’s annual training program attracted over 500 people last year; the deadline for registering for this summer’s conference in Portland, Ore., July 29-Aug. 1, is July 9. For details, contact Alanna […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Trail-crew volunteers
The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative needs trail-crew volunteers willing to work weekends on Mount Harvard and Mount Bierstadt, two of Colorado’s most visited over-14,000-foot peaks. Contact Jennifer Tucker, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, 710 10th St., Suite 220, Golden, CO 80401 (303/278-7525 ext. 115). This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Trail-crew […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Free market solutions to environmental problems
The Political Economy Research Center offers fellowships to graduate and law students interested in free market solutions to environmental problems. Three-month fellowships offer a monthly stipend of $1,200; applications are due July 15. Contact Clay J. Landry, PERC, 502 S. 19th Ave., Ste. 211, Bozeman, MT 59718 (406/587-9591); www.perc.org/students.htm. This article appeared in the print […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Garden of Dreams vs. High Desert Reality
It’s year 24 for the Western Water Workshop at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., July 28-30. This year’s gathering, Garden of Dreams vs. High Desert Reality: Can We Save Everything, Keep Our Lawns Green and Have Enough Water for Everyone? features conference co-founder L. Richard Bratton as keynote speaker. Contact Robin Helken at the […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Heard around the West
How do you describe the odor of 1,800 bison skulls rotting in the sun? Putrid, say a handful of neighbors some nine miles from Red Lodge, Mont. “It makes us gag.” Entrepreneurs Eric Saltzman and Corynne Freeman trucked in the festering heads after land they leased elsewhere was sold; now they’re faced with a nuisance […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Seeking justice for all on the Colorado Plateau
Charles Wilkinson’s “Fire on the Plateau …” is a tribute to the land and people of the Colorado Plateau, especially the tribes
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
A political outsider wages a clever campaign
Brian Schweitzer may be a farmer, but he is no country bumpkin. When the media-savvy 43-year-old Montanan announced his candidacy for the United States Senate, he did so from a podium at the Black Star Brewery. With him were several hundred pounds of premium Montana barley. He touted the popular Whitefish brew as a symbol […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Will an experimental plan be snuffed out?
As a relentless summer sun bakes the ponderosa pine forests surrounding Flagstaff, Ariz., an experimental logging project meant to restore forest health and reduce the risk of wildfire around the city has hit a snag. On June 18, an administrative appeal filed with the Forest Service by a coalition of seven environmental groups halted a […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Wilderness developer Tom Chapman is back
VAIL, Colo. – One of Colorado’s best-known real estate speculators is back, but some say the deals he’s offering ought to be turned down. Tom Chapman has a history of buying private land in wilderness areas, threatening to build mansions, and then goading the U.S. Forest Service into buying him out or trading him valuable […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Dear Friends
Count those cows Writer Perri Knize of Missoula was intrigued by a pair of numbers in HCN’s April 27, 1998, issue. According to the article, “livestock” across the West had declined over the last 100 years from 20 million to 2 million. Perri, working on an article on grazing for the July 1999 Atlantic, wanted […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Low-paid service workers get squeezed in a booming Montana resort town
WHITEFISH, Mont. – After working his $7-an-hour job at the Grouse Mountain Lodge, Jerry Wheeler doesn’t hang out in this picturesque town in western Montana. He drives 20 miles south to a modest home on the outskirts of Kalispell, the mercantile center of the Flathead Valley. Wheeler says he is one of the few Grouse […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Who loses when a city neighborhood goes upscale?
PORTLAND, Ore. – In Northeast Portland, you can get culture shock just by crossing the street. Near the corner of Alberta Street and 28th Avenue, a no-frills tacqueria called La Sirenita sells fish tacos to a long line of customers for little more than a dollar apiece. On the other side of Alberta, Bernie’s Southern […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Inspired by Cesar Chavez
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories. Maria Gonzales Mabbutt nurses her four-month-old daughter Marisa in her Canyon County home while she tells her story. She is 43 and grew up as many Hispanics in her generation did: migrating. From the Rio Grande Valley town of Elsa, Texas, Mabbutt […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
Out of the fields: South Idaho’s Hispanics create acommunity
Note: a sidebar article, “Inspired by Cesar Chavez,” accompanies this feature story. “We did not cross the border, the border crossed us.” –Erasmo Gamboa CALDWELL, Idaho – The front room of Manuel Garcia’s tiny apartment at the Farmway Village labor camp resembles a flea-market booth. Stacked from floor to ceiling are toys, dolls, blankets, model […]
Posted inJuly 5, 1999: The new faces of the West
The new faces of the West
Note: this front-page essay introduces this issue’s feature stories. Now that small towns are disappearing from America, we visit Disney theme parks designed to remind us of them. Or we crowd into the first small town we can find and set about changing it into the suburb we came from. This is the last of […]