One morning, my wife told me she’d seen a rattlesnake on a knoll behind our house in southern Utah. Nestled under a bush just 25 yards up the hill, it didn’t look aggressive. It lay circled in the shade as if taking a nap, its diamond pattern strangely enhancing the scene. We decided to leave […]
Communities
Posted inGoat
An official state microbe
Colorado may not hold the record for “Official State Whatevers,” but it’s got to come close with both a state rock and a state gemstone, two official state songs, a state insect and a state reptile, as well as the usual flower, bird, fish, tree, mammal and the like. But Wisconsin may […]
Posted inGoat
Feels like teen spirit
Yesterday, the High Country News interns (Ariana Brocious, Cally Carswell and I) trekked to nearby Delta to speak to a journalism class at the local high school. After getting lost in the “big city” (Delta has about 6,500 residents to Paonia’s 1,500) we were greeted by five bright and eager young journalists. Well, sort of. […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Erratic behavior
Giant Rock has inspired extremes of human reverence and abuse
Posted inRange
Indian Trust, settled at last
By Courtney Lowery, Newwest.net guest blogger, 12-08-09 The Obama Administration today announced that it will settle in the landmark class-action lawsuit against the Interior Department that alleged gross mismanagement of American Indian trust accounts. In a press conference, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Attorney General Eric Holder said the settlement will mean $1.4 billion will […]
Posted inArticles
A local business, and old friend, dies
The news came as a shock, but not a surprise. The Gambles store, a mainstay of downtown Salida, Colo., for more than 60 years, was going out of business. At heart it was a hardware store, but it sold nearly everything you could imagine. Every time our local newspaper ran one of those “best of” […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Ski strangeness and caged chickens
FROM THE SKIOCRACY For people in ski country, the months between late September and early December are a sad and desperate time. Gray days, cold nights and nary a flake of snow drive recreationists indoors, wreaking havoc with their circadian rhythms. Everyone with any sort of sense — and a trust fund — flees to […]
Posted inWotr
The old ways sink into the earth
The farm equipment graveyard — a row of horse-drawn plows and mowers overgrown with prairie grass — is a common sight at the edge of rural fields in the West. Collapsing hay wagons, disemboweled tractor hulls and other antique machinery sinking into the earth tell a story of farming, past and future. Each item was […]
Posted inWotr
Missing pollution in the crisp, clean air
This cold-weather week, I’ve seen two pickup trucks parked in town, each stacked high with firewood. This may be a sure sign of the coming of winter in rural towns across the nation, but it’s become an uncommon sight in downtown Telluride these days. When I moved to Telluride in the 1980s, almost every house […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
A return to the West
Name Mary Jane SkalaHometown Cleveland, OhioVocation former journalistHCN subscriber since 2005 Mary Jane Skala took some time to visit HCN a few weeks ago while cruising cross-country on a two-month-long road trip. After 40 years in journalism, she “saw the writing on the wall” and accepted a buy-out, leaving her post as senior editor at […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Birders without borders
Border SongsJim Lynch291 pages, hardcover: $25.95.Knopf, 2009. “In war, truth is the first casualty.” It’s a quote attributed to the Greek playwright Aeschylus from the fifth century B.C., back when wars were wars, fought on actual battlefields by men in helmets who wielded swords and spears. Novelist Jim Lynch understands this adage, and he also […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Holiday open house
The staff of High Country News cordially invites all readers and friends to our holiday open house. It will be at our Paonia, Colo., office (119 Grand Ave.) on Wednesday, Dec. 9, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. We’ll provide refreshments. Hope to see you there! READERS ON ROAD TRIPSThe warm Indian summer days brought traveling […]
Posted inWotr
A “shock jock” in Montana has a great fall
Environmentalists are “green Nazis … pure, unadulterated satanic evil … vile vomit.” Does that hateful tone sound familiar? Radio and TV commentary tycoons — Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and their ilk — often use that kind of language against their targets, including not only environmentalists, but also liberals and gay people. Their broadcasts encourage destructive […]
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Betting on the rails
Buffett buys BNSF as Congress considers reform legislation
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
Dueling Claims
A tribal attempt to protect Mount Taylor sparks a battle over ancient claims to the land
Posted inDecember 7, 2009: Dueling Claims
‘The West’s Biggest Bully’ gets his
“Shock jock” John Stokes loses his radio station in a battle over bankruptcy
Posted inWotr
A federal agency tries to hold on to what it’s built
Western Colorado’s Uncompahgre Valley is a garden artificially created. Corn and alfalfa grow plentifully around Montrose and other towns in this valley, about five hours southwest of Denver, as do apples, pears and cherries. A complicated web of dams, canals and river-depleting diversion projects created this produce bin of the agrarian West. A key piece […]
Posted inWotr
A Thanksgiving toast to a mom who passed the torch
It’s no secret that the traditions of hunting and fishing are dying. Academics have identified it, anti-hunters have rejoiced in it and families are living it. People who cherish hunting are trying hard to stem the decline. These days, lots of kids are growing up in a single-parent home, often headed by a mom who […]