After five years of stirring up the real estate pot, Californians have stopped moving east, and newcomers are moving to the coast again. That’s the conclusion of private researchers who studied surrendered drivers’ licenses in the Golden State. It marks the first time in six years that more people are moving into the state than […]
Communities
Posted inOctober 28, 1996: Has big money doomed direct democracy?
She works to save the past
Longtime HCN subscriber Ann Phillips finds herself drawn time and again back to a place that many experience as timeless: southeastern Utah. There, with one hand, she tries to record archaeological sites before they vanish; with the other, she works to prevent them from vanishing. The educational consultant turned archaeologist came through Paonia recently with […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Utah ranch to remain whole
The historic Dugout Ranch bordering Canyonlands National Park in southeast Utah will be purchased by The Nature Conservancy to prevent its possible development into recreational properties. The Conservancy has a one-year option on the ranch and will need to raise $4.62 million in the next year to complete the transaction. The ranch, northwest of Monticello, […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Congratulations
When the Western Colorado Congress gave its “Not-So-Smart Growth” awards Sept. 21, it was no surprise when the “winners’ failed to show up. The grassroots coalition held the event to showcase the worst examples of development on the Western Slope – a follow-up of sorts to Gov. Roy Romer’s 1995 “Smart Growth” awards. Had its […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Custom and culture’s worst enemy speaks
The West is certainly changing, but cultural beliefs rather than economic facts tend to dominate our dialogue. Because those beliefs are tied to a vision of a good society rooted in stereotypes of a simpler, less-corrupted-by-evil America, I see them as a type of economic fundamentalism. Consider these characteristics: Worshipping at the rearview mirror. Economic […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
Montana Native: Who Cares?
In bold, black letters the bumperstickers declare: Montana Native. I spot them as I drive and, like the chiggers of my native Virginia, they make me itch. For the naive observer, the message must seem benign, a mere statement of birthplace pride. But for an increasingly wary transplant like me, it conveys something more sinister […]
Posted inOctober 14, 1996: Greens prune their message to win the West's voters
What happens when “True Grit” meets “Easy Rider’
Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture by Lois Palken Rudnick, 1996, University of New Mexico Press, 416 pages, $35. Lois Palken Rudnick’s Utopian Vistas is almost enough to send me back to my native New York. But it’s probably too late. After more than two decades here, I’m unlikely to […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Literary natural history
Scientists are not well known as communicators but a memorable few have mastered both fields – Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson and E.O. Wilson, for example. The University of Nevada at Reno will pay tribute over the next seven months to similar contemporary scientists through a series of free public readings and discussions titled Literary Natural […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Overworked and under-appreciated
Durango, in southern Colorado, has become a mountain biking mecca and popular stop on the Southwest tourist loop. But can you make a living there? For both newcomers and old-timers working in the town’s restaurants, bars and shops, the answer is “barely,” according to a report by two nonprofit groups, Grassroots First and the San […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
How to talk Western
Would you like to add some colorful Westernisms to your vocabulary? Look no further than Thomas L. Clark’s new book, Western Lore and Language: A Dictionary for Enthusiasts of the American West: Biscuit shooter – The camp cook for ranch operations (1890s). Bizzing – Hanging on the rear of a moving vehicle on a snow-slick […]
Posted inSeptember 30, 1996: Can this man break the right's grip on Idaho?
Salt Lake has an Olympian traffic jam
On weekday afternoons, I-15 in Salt Lake City has traffic jams that rival those of Los Angeles. In response, Utah has taken a California approach: Build more lanes. Starting next spring, the city’s main thoroughfare will be reconstructed and doubled in size at a cost of over $1 billion, the largest public works project in […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
Advice for visitors to Rock Springs
(Note: this article was printed in a broken-line poetic format; this online version does not preserve that format.) If you stop at the diner on the outskirts of town, skip the soup full of dust from Indian graves, the rinds of bad winters bobbing in a mean meat broth. Avoid the acid coffee & too […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
A new breed of artists depicts Montana – cyanide leach fields and all
For Marilyn Bruya, the turning point came one February morning a few years ago when she gazed out the window of an airplane over western Montana and made a startling discovery. “There were more clearcuts than forests,” Bruya recalls, still amazed. By the time she returned home to Missoula, inspiration had bubbled into conviction. Ever […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
The artist
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories: A new breed of artists depicts Montana – cyanide leach fields and all When artist Dana Boussard looks out the window of her studio on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, she still sees a few bison — animals that numbered in the […]
Posted inAugust 19, 1996: Western voices
What is a Navajo taco?
The sign at Ambassador Auto’s used-car lot in Moscow, Idaho, is advertising a 1993 Mazda Navaho (sic) in stock for $18,487. Seems like a lot of cash, but then I remember the glossy magazine ads: “Navajo: It knows the land.” Just down the street, Taco Time has launched their new “Navajo Taco,” for only 99 […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Will the real West please stand up?
Review by Joe B. Stevens We live by myths, by the stories we tell. If these are flawed, we’re in trouble. Writers such as the late Wallace Stegner have offered convincing arguments that many of our stories are flawed, that what we think is real gets confused with what we want reality to be. An […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
Disappearing railroad blues
SALIDA, Colo. – For about 25 years, people around here have observed that “the train doesn’t stop here any more.” Someday soon, we may be saying that the train doesn’t even come through here any more. “Here” is a town of 5,000 in the middle of Colorado. Like many towns in the West – Cheyenne, […]
Posted inAugust 5, 1996: Disappearing railroad blues
A confirmed railroad addict
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Disappearing railroad blues You’re approaching the railroad tracks when you hear the horn and see a train coming down the line. Most people get annoyed by the delay. But if you relax and look forward to watching the train roll by, you’re a railroad buff. […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Lessons of Lewis and Clark
Our Natural History: the Lessons of Lewis and Clark describes the wilderness of the American West as the two explorers encountered it during their journey 1804-1806, and compares it to today’s American West as shaped by industrial civilization. Long the subject of historians, the famous journals also offer author Daniel B. Botkin, a leader in […]
Posted inJune 24, 1996: Catron County's politics heat up as its land goes bankrupt
Mountain outposts of empire
Although the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are almost synonymous with New Mexico, the range – the longest in the United States – extends about 110 miles into Colorado. Tom Wolf, a writer and one-time forestry student, explores these northern Sangres in Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Starting with the Anasazi and continuing through the Spanish, […]