In our first issue of 2021, we dive into the concept of home, leading off with an in-depth feature about second-home owners in Gunnison County, Colorado, who fought back after county officials asked them to leave when COVID-19 arrived. Throughout the West, we learn how small towns with already-overheated housing markets are seeing a staggering increase in prices during the pandemic as the Zoom boom sends workers flocking to more desirable locations. Our cities are changing, too, as is shown by a unique research project in Seattle that details the many ways in which COVID-19 is transforming urban landscapes. In many places, evictions are on the rise, but in Pima County, Arizona, some of the constables charged with enforcing evictions are finding ways to help tenants stay in their homes. In Juneau, Alaska, an 80-year-old tugboat reveals a very different problem: the abandoned vessels that are littering the West coast. We talk to interesting people like Danielle Geller, a trained archivist who researches her mother and ponders the meaning of family, and former EPA program leader Mustafa Santiago Ali, who wants to help communities go from merely surviving to thriving. We also meet Nick Tilsen (Oglala Lakota), whose arrest for protesting President Trump at Mount Rushmore links him to a long history of Indigenous resistance. Finally, in her Bell Prize-winning essay, Kimberly Myra Mitchell describes how she found solace from grief in the midst of fighting wildfires.

Lissette Lopez rides her bike in the strong wind that blows in her neighborhood in Salton City, near California’s Salton Sea. Credit: Mette Lampcov/High Country News

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Analysis of rural economies

Everything about “Divided Prospects” is fantastic. From its analysis of rural economies to the photography — worth every penny of a subscription. Incredible work from writer Sarah Tory and photographer Russel Daniels!! Chris Parri Boise, Idaho This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Analysis of rural economies.

by Chris Parri

Boom-bust Evanston

Good work on “Divided Prospects,” December 2020. Uinta County, Wyoming, keeps trying to figure out a way out of the boom-bust business. I always said that if I ever moved back to Wyoming, I’d pick Evanston. Close enough to Salt Lake City, to skiing and the Wasatch. Thanks for your writing, Sarah Tory! Great photos…

by Ken C. Erickson

Complicit archaeologists

While I know this case is complicated (“A whistleblower speaks out over excavation of Native sites,” December 2020), I think that archaeologists would be lying if we didn’t admit that we recognize the patterns and structures reported on here. I know we wouldn’t have to try hard to find many stories like this one. Because…

by Valerie Bondura

Don’t drink the water

This is a serious infrastructure situation across much of the country, not just here in the rural West (“When you can’t drink the water,” December 2020). Obviously, Flint, Michigan, is the poster child for this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if 50 million Americans have compromised drinking water. Of the many things that this country…

by Ken Parsons

The only fit for far-flung, small communities

Good article on rural water problems. The agencies involved, and anyone who does R&D in water, are myopically focused on central grid/pipeline systems — the bread and butter of the engineering firms/banks that finance municipal bonds, and the municipalities that charge for your water bill. Obviously, a point of use or distributed solution is the…

by Marc Andelman

Makes the grade

Carl Segerstrom’s piece (“Food Forward,” November 2020) about alternative distribution systems for small farm operations is A+. Tate TischnerWebster, New York This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Makes the grade.

by Tate Tischner

Country coverage needed

We in the hinterlands are being increasingly poorly served by High Country News. Soil, food and water will become more critical to our nation’s health and security as we face the future. Consequently, we need fewer essays on effective protesting, or page after page devoted to metropolitan matters. HCN’s November issue was encouraging: Stories about…

by Jim Cotton

Nailed it

Alex Carr Johnson nailed it in his well-written essay, “Now that you’ve gone West, young man,” in the September issue. We certainly have accumulated a terrible debt through our conquests, biased historical accounts and attending mythologies. I share the shame. Bob SnowTucson, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the…

by Bob Snow

Outlaw rodeos

With all due respect to Black cowboys and their rightful place in Western history (“Black cowboys reclaim their history in the West,” December 2020), be aware that every animal welfare organization in North America condemns rodeo due to its inherent cruelty. For most of the animals involved, the rodeo arena is merely a detour en route…

by Eric Mills