Writers on the Range

Not so long ago, a visit from the Environmental Protection Agency to a ski area meant bad news. In 2000, Aspen was the first resort inspected in what became a raid on the ski industry that seemed to have started alphabetically — we were first, Breckenridge was second, and so on. Humorless agents in suits […]

Granville Stuart first came West with his father and brother in 1852, hoping to strike it rich in the gold fields of California. Granville was born in Virginia, but had called Illinois and Iowa home before traveling farther west. The senior Stuart returned to Iowa after a year, but Granville and his brother had yet […]

Fifteen years ago, I moved my young family from the San Francisco Bay Area to Eugene, Oregon, into a small house with a woodstove. I was excited about heating with wood, and resolved to do it safely. I built a woodshed in the backyard, close to a Doug-fir chopping block. I learned to send split […]

“Walk left,” the sign says, at the entrance to the roped-off site. It’s a place that hammers me in the chest. The world spills away, down into the Bighorn Basin, across Wyoming and north into Montana, a huge gallop of space. Brown miles stretch out veined with river courses, serrated with ridges and mountain ranges. […]

Plenty of ink has been spilled lately over Utah’s Transfer of Public Lands Act, the controversial law requiring the federal government to turn over 31.2 million acres of public land to the state of Utah – without even a token payment to the U.S. Treasury. But should the American public take this proposal seriously? The […]

January glowed brightly around us as we hiked the ridgeline of Carbonate, the mountain flanking the Big Wood River on the edge of Hailey, Idaho. It’s a popular hiking spot, generally in late spring and fall. The entire trail is open to the sky, and switchbacks quickly unfurl views of the Smoky Mountains, Camas Prairie […]

Did any Western history buffs besides me see The Homesman?  A hot box office ticket earlier this winter, it’s hard to find in theaters now, though the cast was impressive — Tommy Lee Jones, Hilary Swank, Meryl Streep — and most reviews were positive.  Three pioneer wives have gone crazy in a small Nebraska community, […]

The first entries I made in my journal during a 23-day rafting trip on the Grand Canyon this winter were limited: “Day 1: Cold.” On the second day on the river, I mustered more creativity: “It’s freaking cold,” only I didn’t use the word freaking. The morning of Dec. 31, our 16-member crew woke in […]

For years now, the oil and gas industry has been stirring up trouble for sage grouse. The possibility that the prairie-dwelling birds might receive Endangered Species Act protection gives oil executives high-grade anxiety. It would threaten jobs, they say. It would ruin the economy. It would reduce profits. All the noise the industry has made […]

I am my father’s pride and joy, a graduate of the University of Florida, a Fulbright scholar, a master’s degree candidate at the University of Montana in Missoula, and a food stamp recipient. Without that assistance, I wouldn’t be at college; I’d probably be working at a restaurant, coffee bar or supermarket. This year marks […]