The RingerJenny Shank 304 pages, hardcover: $28.The Permanent Press, 2011. The slaying of a Mexican-American immigrant triggers parallel experiences of personal anguish, family discord and cultural dissonance, seen alternately through the eyes of the dead man’s widow and the cop who shot him. “His thoughts were a confusing jumble of elation, dread, relief and fear,” […]
Communities
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Welcome, Todd; goodbye, Ellen
HCN welcomes Todd Chamberlin, our new outreach director. Todd will be helping us increase our subscriber and donor base by organizing special fund-raising and marketing campaigns. Todd brings with him a wealth of business and marketing experience; for seven years, he was the director of eCommerce and Internet Development at National Geographic, where he developed […]
Posted inWotr
Just call me a RAC star
I got a note from Ken Salazar the other day. I was glad to hear from him. It had been a while since we had visited. Well, OK … we’ve never visited. The secretary of Interior doesn’t know me from Adam’s cat. But still, it was nice to hear from him. I don’t get all […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Defense mechanisms
COLORADO “Plants can’t run and hide” in the world, so over time, some have evolved the ability to alter their structure when they perceive a threat. That’s the mechanism now being exploited by Colorado State University biologist Jane Medford, as she and some 30 undergraduate and graduate students genetically engineer plants to signal the presence […]
Posted inWotr
Don’t blame it all on global climate change
Recently, I was astonished to read a paper published by a prestigious institution that stated — without qualification — that Colorado’s current bark beetle epidemic could be pinned on the donkey of climate change. More amazing yet, this paper said that Vail Resorts now seeds clouds because of the unreliable snow caused by climate change. […]
Posted inRange
The hard drinkers aren’t in the West
The West has the two-fisted image as a land of hard drinking, but it may not deserve that reputation, according to statistics compiled by America’s Health Rankings. The survey looked at “binge drinking,” defined as the percentage of population over 18 years old which has, in the preceding 30 days, had more than five drinks […]
Posted inArticles
Uncommon Westerner: Bevan Frost crafts custom guitars
Wyoming native and luthier Bevan Frost discusses how he started making guitars, shows some works in progress, and tells how living in the rural West shapes his craft.
Posted inGoat
New Mexico Exhibit Redefines Landscape Photography
If gallery goers at the opening of Earth Now: American Photographers and the Environment expected mantel-ready frames of distant peaks and sinuous canyons, they would have been surprised by a collection that stands nearly in defiance of traditional landscape photography. “Landscapes can be boring,” said Kate Ware, the exhibition’s curator at the New Mexico Museum […]
Posted inArticles
How the Civil War shaped the West
Tomorrow is the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War. At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate cannons began firing on Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, near Charleston, S.C., in what most historians regard as the first battle of America’s bloodiest conflict — one that killed more soldiers than all the rest of […]
Posted inGoat
The Visual West – Image 11
Spring storms have kept the mountains in Western Colorado clad in winter white into early April, but they have not deterred the apricot trees in the valley below to burst out in flower. These blossoms adorn an old, gnarled specimen behind the High Country News office.
Posted inWotr
The way the West was can be seen again
Back when I was a boy, we used to roll our eyes at tiresome coots who would begin reminiscences with “Back when I was a boy…” Today, as my 50s draw toward a close, I somehow find myself with a lot more sympathy for old-timers. I admit that recollections can be boring. And yet, as […]
Posted inBlog
Fish and Wildlife Service denies an Indian her feathers
Marine Sisk-Franco has been a Winnemem Wintu Indian for all of her years, and the Northern California tribe’s way of life is all she knows. She’s the daughter of the tribe’s chief and their headman, she’s danced and sung at their ceremonies, and, in 2006, she bravely endured racial taunts and threats from drunken power […]
Posted inWotr
The lesson of earthquake and tsunami: never forget
The most important image from the disaster that rocked Japan last month might be one that was never captured by anyone’s camera. It has to be conjured up from words: The mayor of a town on the Sanriku coast north of Sendai races to the top of the three-story city hall to escape the tsunami […]
Posted inWotr
Elite club blocked from logging giant redwoods
For now, at least, the chain saws are off-limits at the Bohemian Grove, the woody retreat of America’s rich and powerful. The Bohemian Club, an all-male bastion synonymous with wealth and influence, had big plans for its private enclave on the Russian River, 75 miles north of San Francisco. Too big, as it turns out. […]
Posted inWotr
We keep annoying Sheila, our GPS navigator
As a career country gal, I take pride in finding the most efficient — or at least the shortest — route between two points. In our mountain country of Wyoming, that is not always a straight line or even the distance the proverbial crow can fly. And whoever thought that following crows was a good […]
Posted inWotr
Walking the dog in a changed community
“Leash your dog, Wilke.” The phone message was innocuous enough. The only problem being I didn’t know the man’s name or phone number, and five minutes earlier he’d threatened to kill my dog. Our first encounter was last spring. I walked my dog, Ricky, through the block of condo subdivisions west of my home, as […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Oregon sculptor turns beach trash into meaningful art
South of Bandon, Ore., along Highway 101, there perches a 12-foot-tall bird with wings made of flip-flop soles and a belly of plastic lids. Its fishing-float feet are held in place by knotted plastic fishing line. The bird, which resembles the love child of an albatross, an eagle and a seagull, is just one of […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Finding reassurance in change: a review of Wild Comfort
Wild Comfort: The Solace of NatureKathleen Dean Moore256 pages,softcover: $15.95.Trumpeter Books, 2010. Writer, editor and activist Kathleen Dean Moore was settling in to write her next book when a series of personal tragedies changed everything. After several people close to her died within a few months, Moore abandoned her plans to create a book about […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Spring fever, skipped issue
In mid-March, as the snow melts and the crocus pop up here in Paonia, Colo., the HCN crew will be taking one of our four annual publishing breaks. Look for the next issue to hit your mailbox around April 18. In the meantime, be sure to visit hcn.org for news, blog posts, and other Web-only […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Teetering on the Edge of the Cedars
Utah museum fights for its life as the state cuts funding