Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. LEADVILLE, Colo. – Cross-country skier Mike LeVine strides by the rusted ore car and other mining relics that decorate the Mineral Belt Trail. LeVine moved to Leadville from Chicago five years ago, looking to retire in a mountain town that isn’t a glitzy resort. […]
J. T. Thomas
Posted inApril 9, 2001: The water empress of Vegas
Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian
Visionary photographer Edward Sheriff Curtis spent 30 years documenting the waning cultures of North American Indians. But following his death in 1952, his work plummeted into obscurity. Curtis’ photographs were a mix of stoic portraiture, peopled landscapes and illustrations of tribal life. He photographed Nez Perce Chief Joseph, Apache leader Geronimo, and a host of […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Out of the grave
Presumed dead for nearly two decades, the Mountain Gazette, the rough-cut and barbed-tongued journal of 1970s mountain culture, has been exhumed, resuscitated and, according to its editors, “printed on paper so damned biodegradable … that you can pour milk on it and eat it.” Among its glossy newsstand rivals, the resurrected Gazette looms like a […]
Posted inDecember 7, 1998: Vail and the road to a recreational empire
Power poles make deadly perches
To most people, utility poles and power lines are just another part of the Western landscape. Not to Montana falconer Kirk Hohenberger; he sees power lines as death traps for hawks, eagles and falcons. “I’ve seen four of my own falcons electrocuted,” says Hohenberger. “I reported the poles to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
To burn or not to burn
Another 40-foot stick-figure totem will be set ablaze by 12,000 revelers in the desert in Nevada if a federal agency says yes to the San Francisco-based organizers. Last year the Burning Man arts get-together was moved to private land, where county fees, including $308,000 for fire insurance alone, drove the festival into debt. That made […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Water in rivers is OK
Water can remain in New Mexican rivers and still be “beneficial,” says state Attorney General Tom Udall. Up until his decision last month, water rights could be lost unless water was diverted from a stream, and thereby put to beneficial use. Udall’s ruling opens the door to marketing water rights for environmental protection, which also […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
Jet Skis: Thrill or scourge?
With 750,000 Jet Skis currently in operation, and more than 100,000 new “personal watercraft” sold annually, the industry is pushing the Park Service for access to 62 sites on national park waters – nearly double the number of sites currently available in the parks. But the Park Service and the Department of Interior can’t agree […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
El Nino sweeps across the West
El Nino’s wrath hit sporadically around the West this winter, leaving more headlines than it did snow or rain. But where it hit, it hit hard, and punches are still being thrown. Last fall, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted El Nino would force the global jet streams north, causing warmer and drier weather […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Jetboat race withdrawn
Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark’s wood and hide boats lacked speed, but floated the explorers safely along sections of the Yellowstone River. Had Bill Henderson of Big Sky Marine not withdrawn his application to host a Jet Boat Marathon this June, 20 personal watercraft would have raced up and back a 50-mile stretch […]
Posted inApril 27, 1998: The old West is going under
Climbing ban upheld at Devils Tower
The National Park Service can continue to ask rock climbers to stay off Wyoming’s Devils Tower during June, the month when Native Americans hold religious ceremonies at the foot of the volcanic monolith. On April 2, U.S. District Court Judge William Downes dismissed the case brought by climbing guide Andy Petefish and the Bear Lodge […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
A road to ruins?
New Mexico Republican Sen. Pete Domenici is trying to pave the way for a six-lane highway through the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque (HCN, 1/20/97). In March, Domenici attached a rider to an emergency appropriations bill that allows the city to extend the Paseo del Norte road through the 8.5-acre midsection of the national monument […]
Posted inApril 13, 1998: Oil clashes with elk in the Book Cliffs
All is not quiet on the Rocky Mountain Front
Last October, conservationists won a surprise victory for Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front when Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor Gloria Flora banned new oil and gas leases for the next 10 to 15 years (HCN,10/13/97). But the story wasn’t over. On Feb. 5, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., introduced a bill to permanently ban new oil […]
Posted inMarch 30, 1998: A bare-knuckled trio goes after the Forest Service
River heritage plan sent downstream
PAONIA, Colo. – When water engineer Jeff Crane learned about a new program called the American Heritage Rivers Initiative, he thought he’d found something his community could rally behind. Over the past three years, Crane has been working to build consensus among landowners, fruit farmers and gravel miners along western Colorado’s North Fork of the […]
Posted inMarch 2, 1998: Wild horses: Do they belong in the West?
Shooting down high-tech hunting
-Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do,” said Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book A Sand County Almanac. But even the far-seeing Leopold might not have anticipated hunting 1990s style: Hunters locate game with airplanes and two-way radios, track animals before dawn with infrared night-vision goggles, aim with electronically illuminated […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
Water for people and fish
Photographs of Aspen Village mobile homes and Snowmass Creek are not likely to oust images of the Maroon Bells Wilderness from Aspen, Colo., postcards and calendars. But the 150-unit trailer park and a small but valuable water right from Snowmass Creek have jumped into the conservation limelight. Their fame comes from an effort by citizens, […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
When green becomes red
Red ink is red ink, but the U.S. Forest Service and The Wilderness Society color their images of commercial logging on our national forests in grossly different shades. The Forest Service says it made $16 million from commercial timber sales in Oregon and Washington in fiscal year 1996. The Wilderness Society estimates the agency lost […]