The merger of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads creates a monopoly that may leave some of Colorado and Utah’s working towns without rail transport for their coal.
Feds set “terrible precedent’ with Kolob Canyon settlement
The survivors of an outing that left two Explorer Scout leaders dead in Utah’s Kolob Canyon will get more than $2 million from an out-of-court settlement with public agencies. David Fleischer and LeRoy Kim Ellis drowned in July 1993 while descending a narrow slot canyon near Zion National Park. A surviving Scout leader, four of…
Animas-La Plata hits a wall in the House
An attempt last year in the House to halt funding for the Animas-La Plata dam project in southern Colorado failed by a miserable 151-275. This year, a second try slipped by 221-200. What changed the 75 or so Representatives’ minds? Election year, says Jeffrey Stier, spokesman for Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who led the successful…
Marching to stop a Montana mine
If a successful protest is any kind of bellwether, Montana’s long tolerance of mining may be coming to an end. When a group composed mostly of Native Americans marched 600 miles from South Dakota to Montana to protest a gold mine last June, people from local communities supported them every step of the way. March…
Un unfair rap
Dear HCN, The issue on outdoor education (HCN, 6/10/96) was excellent. I was delighted to see our photo and the quality of the entire issue. Then I read the blurb about Deer Hill. Deer Hill does not “yank bored teenagers out of suburban high schools and drop them on the Colorado plateau.” What a message…
We love our parks
Congressional hopefuls take heed: It pays to support national parks. Three-quarters of voting Americans say their representative’s record on parks is important, according to a 1996 survey conducted by Colorado State University for the nonprofit National Parks and Conservation Association. The 46-page survey, American Views on National Park Issues, found that only 4 percent of…
If you’re looking for scarlet mormons
Tropical butterflies have landed in Colorado. The Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center just outside of Denver features scarlet mormons, zebra longwings and more than 100 other varieties that fly through glass-enclosed buildings. While at least 30 butterfly centers have emerged in the past decade – most of them associated with zoos – the 7,800-square-foot pavilion…
Getting wired in the Northwest
Northwest environmentalists eager to bust out of their Luddite stereotype now have a resource. It’s called ONE/Northwest, and it was recently formed to bring activists in the region up to speed on the internet and other electronic media. The nonprofit is working with the Oregon Conservation Network, a loose alliance of 70 environmental groups, to…
Partners for an unspoiled place
The Greater San Juan Partnership sells a combative bumpersticker – -Keep It Country!’ – and a collaborative message: Newcomers and old-timers can work together to preserve the rural character of the southern Rockies. The fledgling partnership takes its inspiration from the San Juan Mountains watershed, which board member Todd Murchison calls the largest unspoiled place…
Will the real West please stand up?
Review by Joe B. Stevens We live by myths, by the stories we tell. If these are flawed, we’re in trouble. Writers such as the late Wallace Stegner have offered convincing arguments that many of our stories are flawed, that what we think is real gets confused with what we want reality to be. An…
In defense of Stegner’s Powell
Dear HCN, Karl Hess tells us, in “Imagine a West Without Heroes,” that the West would best be managed by New Westerners and not by federalists, justifying his conclusion by portraying John Wesley Powell as a worn-out hero (HCN, 5/27/96). It seems that many Western writers prefer to wrestle with the ghost of Powell. Perhaps…
A cellular call of the wild
A trip into the wilds of Yellowstone National Park just got tamer. Hikers can now toss a cellular phone into their backpacks. “What’s next, cable?” asked a grubby Los Angeles resident fresh in from a couple of nights in the forest, where he spotted one of the park’s fabled grizzly bears. Park officials say the…
BIA comes under fire – again
In one of the largest class action suits ever filed against the federal government, 300,000 American Indians have demanded a full statement of their Individual Indian Money accounts that are managed, much like a bank, by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. “They have no idea how much has been collected from the companies that use…
Disappearing railroad blues
SALIDA, Colo. – For about 25 years, people around here have observed that “the train doesn’t stop here any more.” Someday soon, we may be saying that the train doesn’t even come through here any more. “Here” is a town of 5,000 in the middle of Colorado. Like many towns in the West – Cheyenne,…
Drought has Navajos discussing a taboo subject – range reform
DILKON, Ariz. – “Do you know anywhere where livestock sells for more?” asks Navajo rancher Jane Yazzie. As her friend translates my negative response, Yazzie fidgets with a check on the table. It’s clear the amount pains her. For one 450-pound heifer, an Arizona auction house paid $186.10. Two years ago, she probably would have…
A confirmed railroad addict
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story: Disappearing railroad blues You’re approaching the railroad tracks when you hear the horn and see a train coming down the line. Most people get annoyed by the delay. But if you relax and look forward to watching the train roll by, you’re a railroad buff.…
Prayers generate hope and bring showers
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Drought has Navajos discussing a taboo subject – range reform.” HESPERUS, Colo. – While Navajo politicians and bureaucrats back in Window Rock are arguing over how to limit cows or where to find money for drought relief,…
Heard around the West
Congregational minister Glover Wagner of Bozeman, Mont., recently reported on his drive home from Madison, Wis.: “I walked into an interstate cafe somewhere in North Dakota,” he wrote in the pamphlet he regularly distributes to his congregation. “Next to me on the stool sat a toothless man banging on the counter. I couldn’t tell what…
A radical water czar is cashiered by his board
It is not on quite the scale as the 1989 defeat of Denver’s $1 billion Two Forks Dam, but it is worth a mention. On July 16, the Colorado River Water Conservation District board fired its secretary-engineer, Rolly Fischer, after 28 years on the job. Fischer was fired – officially he resigned – in large…
Two tribes, two religions, vie for a place in the desert
TUBA CITY, Ariz. – Few Navajos or Hopis can remember a year like this. Nine months and no rain. No grass. Big winds. Shrunken livestock. Dying wildlife. The toughest, most drought-resistant corn on the continent almost strangled by thirst. A year like this means something to these people, and it’s not good. But it’s something…
‘Takings’: Lobbyists love it, the public doesn’t
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Remember Mr. Smith proclaiming that lost causes were the only ones worth fighting for? Even without Jimmy Stewart’s comforting drawl, that sentiment strikes a chord. Who can resist the charm of the loser who does not quit, the true believer who persists despite the disapproval of the multitudes? In that light, consider…
Logging starts – and stops again – in Southwest
A federal judge may soon lift the injunction that has halted most logging on the 11 national forests in Arizona and New Mexico this year. Then again, maybe he won’t. Last month the Forest Service tried to take the matter into its own hands. Southwest Regional Forester Chip Cartwright issued an ebullient press release July…
Dear friends
Curiosity about consensus Perhaps feeling angry or resentful takes more work than cooperation, or maybe it’s the habit of perceiving people as black hats or white hats that eventually seems old hat. In any case, we’ve had so many requests for our special issue May 13 on consensus (-Howdy, neighbor!: As a last resort, Westerners…
Fear of flying: Local resistance keeps condors behind bars
A big bird gliding over a mostly empty Western landscape shouldn’t be a big deal, but if the bird is an endangered condor and the land is publicly owned, it can be just that. California condors will not be restored to northern Arizona’s rugged and remote Vermilion Cliffs on schedule because of local opposition. Although…