In 1680, the Pueblos of New Mexico organized a revolt against the Spaniards who had colonized the region. The uprising, which involved Pueblos from Taos to Zuni, successfully chased the Spaniards back to El Paso, where they would stay and sulk for the next 12 years. The Puebloans had plenty of grievances: The invaders had […]
Jonathan Thompson
Jonathan Thompson is a contributing editor at High Country News. He is the author of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became the Battlefront of American Public Lands. Follow him @LandDesk
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 inNovember 23, 2009: After the Floods
Give language a chance
In mid-November, about 50 experts on the world’s endangered languages gathered at the University of Utah. They were tasked with beginning an ambitious effort to catalog these languages and produce an online, updatable database where they can be stored. The goal is to keep the languages alive. If that doesn’t work, they hope to at […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
Interior scandal: Rated G(reen)
During the waning years of the Bush administration, officials with the U.S. Department of Interior got a little too cozy with — hold on to your Sierra Club card — environmentalists. So says a recent report by the department’s Office of Inspector General. The investigation looked at the National Landscape Conservation System, which was created […]
Posted inGoat
Coming soon to MTV: The Oilfield Blowouts
Don’t ask me how I found this. Okay, go ahead and ask: I was actually hard at work researching a story and, during one of those long, winding, fruitless trips down Google lane, I stumbled upon this. It was at roughneckcity.com, which is such a cool site that I’m hesitant to share it with all […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
How the West made cheeseburgers cheap
Way back when I was in high school, kids used to snatch copies of the student newspaper right off the racks. They were literally starving for what was inside it. That doesn’t mean they were interested in the content. No, what they wanted was the coupon for McDonalds that appeared in each issue. And that’s […]
Posted inWotr
Whose sovereignty is it?
In late September, Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation sent out a provocative press release charging that “environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty.” Shirley made his attack while joining northern Arizona’s Hopi tribal council in “unwelcoming” conservation groups from those tribes’ lands, which sprawl across portions of […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
The newest Westerners
See end of story for a complete package of refugee stories in this issue. It was right about the time that my teeth sank into the Basque BLT (marinated pork loin, bacon, the works) that I had my epiphany. OK, maybe the timing wasn’t quite that serendipitous, and maybe it was less an epiphany than […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Indians vs. Greens?
“Environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty.” So said Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. in late September, shortly after he joined northern Arizona’s Hopi tribal council in “unwelcoming” environmental groups from those tribes’ lands, which sprawl across portions of three Southwestern states. The national press regurgitated the story with […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Suck this, Vegas!
It’s time to change the way we think about water in the West
Posted inWotr
Con: The cult of canning exposed
I hate this time of year. The leaves crackle underfoot like the bones of tiny children. And the light takes on a certain harshness that reminds me that, even as I grow closer to death, I have gotten no closer to realizing my dreams. Most of that is made tolerable with a dose of self-medication, […]
Posted inRange
HCN reader photo: Dead television
This week, we’re featuring a photo by Flickr user VexingArt. It’s not only a nice shot, with plenty of depth and character and that cool old photo look, but it also captures one of those common features of so many Western landscapes: The shot out appliance. To see more High Country News Reader photos, or […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
UnBEARable
An adventurous bear in Snowmass, Colo., didn’t need surgery, just a ladder. Apparently hoping to do some rad riding, he dropped into the town skate park’s bowl. Unable to skate vert, he was then busted down there, with no way out. One can imagine young onlookers confusing him with some shaggy old-school skater, before realizing […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Serpentine Siamese Split
The cow that belonged to the aforementioned tongue didn’t fare very well except, perhaps, as carne asada. But a rather unusual pair of rattlesnakes is doing just fine after a 45-minute surgery at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson. The two snakes were found as one – conjoined just below the head – […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Animal Farm Gone Crazy
At first glance, it seemed like just another mundane story about horse massacres and the role they will play in starting the next American Revolution. Then we dug deeper and learned the details about the ex-CIA agent and his hog-tied co-worker, not to mention the duck-killing dog. Ultimately, we confronted the dark truth of the […]
Posted inGoat
Today’s best fire pics
This morning, the fires continue to burn in California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere. And the haunting yet beautiful fire photos continue to make their way into the Intertubes so that those of us who are lucky enough to be far away from the fires can experience them vicariously, and safely. The L.A. Times probably […]
Posted inGoat
Summer’s almost over (and fire season is here)
Yowch. It’s hot out and it’s dry and it’s smoky. Often, in this part of Colorado, the end of August marks the tail end of the wet monsoon season. This year, the monsoons were rather feeble, if they arrived at all, and during the last two weeks we’ve experienced some of our hottest days of […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
A wedding, a story
Here in Paonia, Colo., the peaches and tomatoes are finally ripening and High Country News is still welcoming lots of summer visitors. Dale Benjamin and his son, Jordan, of Vancouver, Wash., dropped by the office with Dale’s cousin, Hal Brill, a Paonia local. A USDA consumer safety inspector back home, Dale said he was glad […]
Posted inAugust 17, 2009: From Corn to Cabernet
How yuppies killed, and saved, the family farm
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time on what we called “The Farm,” my grandparents’ place in the Animas Valley in southwestern Colorado. We ate corn right off the stalk and green peas out of the shell. We gobbled the feral asparagus that sprang up each spring alongside the fences. We […]
Posted inGoat
Natural gas, the miracle fuel!
Geez, it seems like it was just a few months ago that the natural gas boom was busting and the drill rigs were sent a-packin’. Natural gas prices cratered, thanks to the general economic malaise, and big shale gas plays in other parts of the country really dug into the West’s drilling boom. Meanwhile, all […]