SURPRISE! The West, as we like to say around here, is more than just a pretty picture. It is a growing, changing, contentious and often uncomfortable place where society’s decisions, for better or worse, are writ large on the landscape. We pride ourselves on finding the stories behind the scenery and telling them well through […]
Colorado
Posted inAugust 8, 2005: The Gangs of Zion
Heard around the West
WESTERN COLORADO The Gladstone Kibosh, a lively newspaper published 114 years ago in the then-booming mining town of Silverton, Colo., was surely edited by a Western wag. Here’s an excerpt from 1891, reprinted in the modern weekly, the Silverton Standard, which itself celebrated its 130th year of publication this summer: “Advertise in the Kibosh. It […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Tales of Colorado’s high-elevation tailings
In 1983, an anonymous caller warned Doc Smith that “his river would turn red.” Sure enough, the next day, the rancher and veterinarian watched toxic mining metals surge through the Arkansas River as it crossed his property. This wasn’t the first time: His grandfather had fought the effects of mining on his ranchlands and livestock […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Dear friends
VISITORS We’ve had a steady stream of summer visitors. Christopher Peterson, executive director of the Glen Canyon Institute, stopped in while stumping for the effort to drain Lake Powell. Dan Stonington, nephew of HCN board member Emily Stonington, came by on a trip to check out the sights that have recently emerged from the drought-stricken […]
Posted inJuly 25, 2005: The Many Faces of Richard Pombo
Heard around the West
IDAHO “It’s the ultimate in recycling,” says Victor Bruha. He and a friend, Daniel Hidalgo, have begun turning large mounds of bison poop into high-quality art paper. The idea isn’t really new: An Australian company sells kangaroo-dung paper, and in Thailand, elephants supply the needed material in super-sized quantities. But it took months for Hidalgo […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Dear friends
SUMMER BREAK This will be the last issue of HCN that you’ll receive for a month. The staff is taking an issue off to spend time with family and friends and enjoy the sunny Paonia summer. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around July 25th. CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS We’d like to make […]
Posted inJune 27, 2005: Reflections on a Divided Land
Fury
When Fury finally dies, he picks a back pasture on my parents’ Colorado ranch to rest his old horse body. The neighbor across the fence calls to tell my mother this, that he can see a dead horse from his kitchen window. This neighbor is not well liked. He is new. His house is new. […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Pueblo happily hangs on to mustard gas
While most states are eager to see hazardous materials head for the nearest border, Colorado has decided to cling to the aging chemical weapons stored at the Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot. Federal legislation passed May 12 will keep Pueblo’s 780,000 Cold War-era mustard gas shells on site for destruction, after a tense period when the […]
Posted inJune 13, 2005: Owning a Piece of Paradise
Dear friends
HEADING WEST The High Country News board of directors joined the staff in Paonia in May for the spring business meeting. Some of the more lively — and frank — discussion came when small groups of board and staff members took turns riffing on what they think of the paper, and how it needs to […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
A view of the West from on high
What does a newpaperman-turned-professor who spends the better part of 168 pages reminiscing about life in the spliff-puffing ski town of Crested Butte have to say that’s relevant to anywhere else in the West? Well, it turns out, a lot. If you ever wonder whether the West will create that mythic society to match its […]
Posted inMay 30, 2005: Write-off on the Range
Colorado tax credits make easements work for working people
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Write-off on the Range.” Colorado farmers Dorothy and Norman Kehmeier have raised more than $500,000 in cash, simply by donating conservation easements on about 200 acres of their land. And they’d like other landowners to hear about it. “It’s wonderful,” Dorothy Kehmeier says. She’s […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Dear friends
WELCOME, JASON HCN has a new development associate to help with raising money, planning events and board meetings, and producing a newsletter for former interns. Jason Nicholoff, the eldest son of Circulation Manager Gretchen Nicholoff, grew up in Paonia. After graduating from Ohio’s Oberlin College with an English degree, he did environmental work and grant-writing […]
Posted inMay 16, 2005: Unsalvageable
Heard around the West
COLORADO Headline writers are having a field day in western Colorado with the upbeat story of a “plucky chicken” saved from drowning in a tub, thanks to a man employing “mouth to beak” resuscitation, reports The Associated Press. Chicken-owner Uegene Safken says he first yelled at the lifeless-looking bird: “You’re too young to die!” and […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
Dear friends
ANIMAL PLANET Here in Paonia, we’ve been having various critter adventures. JoAnn Kalenak, our production assistant, recently adopted a beagle named Darcy. In mid-March, though, the dog disappeared while chasing rabbits. Three weeks later, a neighbor called to say that Darcy had been vacationing at her farm a few miles away the entire time. Meanwhile, […]
Posted inMay 2, 2005: The Great Energy Divide
As threats loom, conservation dollars disappear
Feds back away from buying sensitive land
Posted inApril 18, 2005: What Happened to Winter?
Dear friends
KIDS THESE DAYS … Nature, with a capital N, is going to hell — or so we’re told. The venerable wilderness warhorse Dave Foreman recently e-mailed around an essay detailing exactly how it’s doing so, and why. Among other culprits, he blames High Country News (too preoccupied with “happy little resource-extraction communities”), The Nature Conservancy […]
Posted inApril 4, 2005: Calling It Quits
Dear friends
TRAGEDY IN PAONIA HCN’s home town, Paonia, Colo., population 1,500, is grieving for three children killed in an explosion at a mountain lodge outside of town. At least 16 others were injured in the March 19 blast, which was probably caused by a propane leak. Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee identified the children as 2-year-old […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
The life of an unsung Western water diplomat
Mark Twain once remarked that in the West, “whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting.” But Delphus E. Carpenter, who spearheaded the 1922 Colorado River Compact among seven states, would have disagreed twice over. Carpenter not only abstained from spirits, but believed water problems could be resolved through diplomacy instead of fisticuffs. His life […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2005: An Empire Built on Sand
Heard around the West
COLORADO Whatever else you think about Aspen — wondering exactly when it ceased to be the rough mining town it once was, or marveling at the sight of men wearing fur coats so long they look like bears walking — there was always the presence of writer Hunter S. Thompson in nearby Woody Creek to […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Drilling Could Wake a Sleeping Giant
In Colorado, a gas company edges in on a radioactive blast site