Less oversight of mining and drilling will leave federally managed land vulnerable.
Michael Dax
Posted inArticles
Don’t label me an “outsider”
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 […]
Posted inArticles
North Dakota, our official energy-sacrifice zone
It wasn’t unexpected that Big Oil would run rampant when it first started fracking the Bakken in western North Dakota in 2008. The region had been steadily losing population and suffering from a stagnant economy since the 1930s, so it was in no position to reject the high-paying jobs that accompanied the boom. North Dakota’s […]
Posted inWotr
In the West, it’s all about beer
After sampling 50 different beers and spending a number of hours searching for garages converted to breweries, I was content. A friend and I had planned this getaway for weeks, and the night in Bend, Ore., was as central to the trip as was Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. In fact, the visit […]
Posted inWotr
Frontier anxiety for the 21st century
Frederick Jackson Turner’s classic 1893 essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” argued that the frontier experience — the opportunity for unlimited expansion into “uninhabited” lands — shaped the country’s entrepreneurial spirit. Turner’s essay took on added significance because three years earlier, the Census Bureau had declared the frontier closed. The line that separated […]