They are polite, eager, inquisitive. I can’t decide if they make me feel 20 years younger or exhausted. Every teacher should be so lucky. I’m driving around the West with 21 students from Whitman College in Washington, where I teach, and we’ve talked to ranchers and environmentalists, looked at forests that have been logged and […]
Communities
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
A poet’s novel of the San Luis Valley
Entering Colorado poet Aaron Abeyta’s first novel, Rise, Do Not Be Afraid, is like visiting a world that no longer exists — if it ever did. Santa Rita, the mythical Western town that forms the subject of this short, dense novel, is a place reminiscent of Eden, both before and after the Fall. One is […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Heard Around the West
MONTANA Blame YouTube, the Internet source for stupid and hilarious videos, for delaying Montana’s Legislature and governor from finishing a state budget. Negotiations stalled for two days while more than 17,000 people went to YouTube to view a red-faced rant by Republican House Majority Leader Michael Lange. Leaving an unproductive budget meeting with Democratic Gov. […]
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Problems in Paradise
A murder near the famed waterfalls of Havasu Canyon reveals the social ills of a tribe that needs help
Posted inMay 28, 2007: Problems In Paradise
Of feral dogs, and feral Westerners
Feral dogs are more common in the rural West than bathtub methamphetamine labs or chainsaw carvers. They roam dumps, harass and attack wildlife and livestock, and, I know from painful experience, they lie in wait on two-lane roads to discipline bicyclists. “Rez” dogs may be famous for scavenging in roadside ditches outside Tuba City, Ariz., […]
Posted inArticles
The magnificent obsession of sheep herding
(Click on any photo below to see a larger version.) Border collies by nature are intelligent and moody -– one woman fondly describes hers as a habitual sulker — and as many an owner will attest, they’re notoriously high-maintenance. A collie’s obsessive-compulsive herding instinct means that it will round up not just sheep or cattle, […]
Posted inArticles
Colorado mountain town raises millions to save meadow
Residents of Telluride, Colo., joined in a chorus of “This Land is Your Land” Wednesday afternoon May 9, just before Mayor John Pryor announced the mountain resort town had raised enough money to save more than 550 acres of natural area near its entrance. “We have fought the good fight. We have prevailed,” declared Pryor […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Mirroring the maquila boom
New Mexico looks to build its border industry by attracting suppliers for Mexican manufacturers across the border in Juárez
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Wilderness Lost
My husband, Jay, and I planned our child’s outdoor life before he was conceived. We knew any child of ours would love to hike. How could he not? Spending time in the wilderness was fundamental to who we were. Jay and I have always connected with one another on the trail. Whenever we had troubles, […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Heard Around the West
OREGON Eugene’s annual used-book sale, organized by Friends of the Library, turned vicious last year, reports the Register-Guard. “Aggressive and boorish” Internet booksellers hired local people to wait in line, and when the doors opened, they swarmed in and threw sheets over tables, claiming every book. “It was over the top — it was savage,” […]
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
The Battle for the Verde
Will a new pipeline dry up one of the West’s last free-flowing streams?
Posted inMay 14, 2007: Two Views of the Verde
Saving the Sierra, tale by tale
NAMES: jesikah maria ross, Catherine Stifter PROJECT: Saving the Sierra: Voices of Conservation in Action RÉSUMÉ EXCERPTS: Stifter: Two Peabody awards for independent radio productions; firefighter, EMT, and water truck driver for North San Juan volunteer fire department; lives off the grid in solar-powered cabin. ross: UNICEF youth radio project in Ethiopia; community media projects […]
Posted inArticles
Oregon internees to get honorary degrees
These days, Portland’s Expo Center hosts everything from roller derby to dog shows. But few of the Oregonians who attend can recall when the Expo was used for a much grimmer purpose. At the onset of World War II, Japanese Americans were corralled on the grounds for months, awaiting the construction of internment camps. Sixty-five […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Educating the economy
Western towns court colleges to boost the economy and culture
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Tripping over T-Rex
Name: Bob Harmon Hometown: Bozeman, Montana Vocation: Chief preparator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and crew chief Known For: Finding the first dinosaur bones with soft tissue Bob Harmon is not an excitable man. His face isn’t animated as he points out the sauropod leg he is building out of fossils and […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
A brief, interpretive look at the Indian Wars
Author Michael Blake is best known for his fictional accounts of the often-violent cultural misunderstandings between Euro-Americans and Native Americans; his novel Dances with Wolves was made into a film and won several Academy Awards. But in his latest book, Indian Yell, Blake shifts his focus from historical fiction to historical fact. Chronicling 12 of […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Safe out there
When Jade shuffles down the abandoned railroad track that leads from her junked-up house to the rambling farmhouse I grew up in, the dogs go crazy, barking and snarling. I run out of the house to admonish them, embarrassed that these peace-loving dogs are tormenting the insane with their own insane behavior — behavior they […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Heard around the West
COLORADO A ski instructor at Powderhorn Ski Resort near Grand Junction, Colo., was riding a lift some 30 feet above the Red Eye trail when he looked down and saw a wide-awake black bear. It was standing at the mouth of a cave no longer blocked by snow. Rick Rodd took a quick photo, but […]
Posted inApril 30, 2007: Rural Education 2.0
Rural Education 2.0
SPRINGFIELD, COLO. — The man in the Sodbuster Bar walks with a slight limp, the result of old injury. “I was operating a seismograph rig when it went off a hillside outside Meteetsee, Wyo.,” he said. “It fell 382 feet with me inside. I wasn’t supposed to make it, but I did. I eventually got […]
Posted inWotr
Flying with Cowgirls all over Wyoming
Decibel levels in the arena were so loud the day the University of Wyoming Cowgirls won the Women’s National Basketball Championship, no other sound could be heard in all of Wyoming. House finches couldn’t hear their would-be mates entice them to nests. Antelope couldn’t hear the crunch of truck tires on gravel roads and were […]