BackstorySeven years ago, U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers told the press that the Park Police budget would come up $12 million short in 2004, possibly endangering public safety (HCN, 8/16/04, “Park police chief canned for candidness”). Within days she was put on administrative leave, and six months later she was fired. Chambers immediately appealed […]
Communities
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Welcome, new interns
Two more interns have joined us for six months of “journalism boot camp.” We’re also delighted to announce that Emilene Ostlind, intern extraordinaire from the Summer/Fall 2010 session, is staying on as an Editorial Fellow. When Sierra Crane-Murdoch was tagging birds in Vermont in 2007 to monitor their migration, she found herself more interested in […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Glimpses of the high desert
Where the Crooked River Rises: A High Desert HomeEllen Waterston144 pages, softcover: $18.95.Oregon State University Press, 2010. In 1973, Ellen Waterston, a New England transplant, and her husband drove into the high desert of eastern Oregon. “In our rundown pickup with Montana plates and a cab-over camper we looked more like evacuees from the Dust […]
Posted inWotr
The woodpile and me
My husband claims not to believe in the “end times” and all that, but I’m not sure I trust his denials. How else, other than a firm belief in a coming apocalypse, to explain his obsession with firewood? Never mind that we live in Cortez, Colo., on the fringe of the desert, in a home […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Is that a gun in your Speedo?
WYOMING When the city council of Cody, Wyo., met recently to update policies for the town’s recreation center, it did more than overhaul some rules for playing games. In response to a gun owner’s complaint, the council also voted unanimously to permit all firearms carried legally — whether concealed or carried openly on someone’s person, […]
Posted inGoat
Young, All-American, Deported
(David) Morales graduated from Granite Peaks High in South Salt Lake last spring with high grades and hopes. He wanted to become a Christian pastor and start Utah’s “biggest church.” … As a high school student, Morales raised money to help homeless teens. He volunteered as a Spanish interpreter at Woodrow Wilson Elementary during parent-teacher […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
California’s Hupa tribe wars over fish
On a mid-October afternoon at the bottom of a sheer canyon on Northern California’s Trinity River, a Hupa Indian named Amos Pole babies a jet boat against the rushing current. For the Hupas, this craggy chasm is a sort of psychic power spot. Dense stands of fir crowd down to the edge of the river, […]
Posted inRange
The peculiar geography of tragedy
Within hours of the Jan. 8 shopping-mall shooting spree in Arizona, there was already a journalistic term for it: Tucson, as in “How can we prevent another Tucson?” Tucson is a city with 544,000 residents where lots of things happen besides 19 people getting wounded, six of them fatally. People live, work, play and worship […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Depth afield
Why is the Western image so appealing?
Posted inRange
HCN reader photo – chariot racing!
This week’s stunning image comes from photographer Daryl Hunter. It’s from a horse-drawn chariot race (the horses pull a cutter) in Jackson, Wyo.
Posted inGoat
Mud Woman Rolls On
Coming January 30, the Denver Art Museum will open the doors to its freshly renovated American Indian galleries, featuring the well-known Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell among other fine artists. “People think there are no artists on our floor,” curator of native arts Nancy Blomberg says, referring to the stereotype of American Indian artists […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2011: Serendipity in the Desert
Utah’s Sagebrush Rebellion capital mellows as animal-lovers and enviros move in
Kanab, UtahOn a crisp June morning in the heart of Sagebrush Rebel country, a steady stream of rental cars, minivans and SUVs flows north from Kanab on Highway 89, heading toward the serene, red-rock walls of Angel Canyon. As the highway curves, the landscape flickers through sun and shadows, the sandstone glowing like embers in […]
Posted inWotr
A poet whom readers won’t let go
Remembering William Stafford, a popular Northwestern poet
Posted inGoat
The Visual West – Image 3
I can’t seem to sleep; I’m fighting a cold which makes breathing a conscious endeavor, but I think the real cause of my insomnia is the full moon. With a reflective boost from the January snow cover, our dark little corner of rural Colorado glows like a mall parking lot in the center of Denver, […]
Posted inArticles
High Country Views, A conversation with Michael Berman
In this episode of High Country Views, writer Pat Toomay sits down with acclaimed landscape photographer Michael Berman to talk about his craft and the draw of the desert. This podcast accompanies the story, “My walkabout with Michael,” and the slideshow, “Wilderness photographer.” Listen here! You can catch High Country Views approximately every […]
