Albuquerque’s Mesa del Sol will be the Southwest’s largest ‘green development’
Communities
Posted inFebruary 3, 2003: The death of the Super Hopper
The son of immigrants has a change of heart
It is an urban legend, but I believe it. A traveling salesman wrote to a hotel, complaining that he’d been bitten by bedbugs. He got a lengthy letter of apology back, saying that bedbugs had never been seen on the premises or even within blocks of the hotel. Inside the envelope, he also found a […]
Posted inWotr
Lewis and Clark: Their footprints are gone
Not long ago I was assigned a story for an outdoor magazine. The idea was to find a small portion of the Lewis and Clark trail that remains relatively unchanged since their storied journey, to go there and immerse myself for a couple of days, following their footsteps, and report on the experience. No problem, […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Virus attacks in the Grand Canyon
The outbreak of Norwalk virus on cruise ships grabbed national headlines last fall, but few have heard of the virus’s untimely arrival on rubber rafts in the depths of the Grand Canyon. Last summer, Norwalk infected at least 130 Grand Canyon recreationists, who spent their river trips vomiting and running for the groover (that’s river-speak […]
Posted inWotr
The bedbug letter, as it applies to overpopulation
It is an urban legend, but I believe it. A travelling salesman complained to a hotel that he’d been bitten by bedbugs. He got a lengthy apology back saying that bedbugs had never been seen on the premises or even within blocks of the hotel. Inside the envelope he also found a note: “Send the […]
Posted inWotr
The origin of names
As a child, I was fascinated by surnames. Was someone named King descended from royalty? How did Carl come to have so many sons? Then I moved to a small town, where the issue is not so theoretical. Among my friends, for example, are Dave and Sue The Writers and Tom The Guy Who Does […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Tug-of-war continues over ancient bones
Kennewick Man case undermines federal authority to decide who gets to dig
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
One law, two bodies, two different decisions
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Tug-of-war continues over ancient bones.” Four years after the controversy over “Kennewick Man” first surfaced, the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada decided the fate of another ancient skeleton. In 1940, archaeologists found “Spirit Cave Man,” near […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
A winter drive into oblivion
Sometimes it can’t be helped, that long drive across the West, rolling the odometer like a slot machine that promises to pay off with just one more spin. The gas gauge hovers around half and it looks like you’ll get there without stopping again in the middle of who knows where. Home is all you […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
Heard Around the West
How do you distinguish between those “good” animals — native species — and the bad actors that stomp on the locals and conquer their turf? Animal rightists don’t like to make those distinctions, arguing that all animals deserve our respect. Just off the coast of California, there’s been a dispute about what to do on […]
Posted inJanuary 20, 2003: A breath of fresh air
High tea in the wilderness and a toast to thelight
Solstice means “sun standing still.” Today is the darkest day, but tonight the moon will be full. Temperatures hover below freezing, and a skiff of snow hints at winter, although the colors are end-of-fall browns: brown bunchgrass, brown pine, elderly ponderosas. In western Montana, we are living the driest December on record, drier than the […]
Posted inWotr
Who are we?
I spend a lot of time alone. Most writers, if they are lucky, do. I’ve been fine-tuning a memoir, facing into truths about myself I would rather forget. As I turn to national newspapers and magazines in the deluded effort to unwind after too much time in my own company, I find myself wondering who […]
Posted inWotr
A dispatch from the New West battleground
Early in April 2000, I attended the auction of a ranch near my own, in a rural western South Dakota county that has resisted zoning. This is my report from the front lines where the real battle of the West is being fought — with money. The ranch was advertised as a single unit of […]
Posted inWotr
When whiteouts in winter seem like forever
Sometimes it can’t be helped, that long drive across the West, rolling the odometer like a slot machine that promises to pay off with just one more spin. The gas gauge hovers around “half” and it looks like you’ll get there without stopping again in the middle of who knows where. Home is all you […]
Posted inWotr
Real men head for Alaska
There is the West, and then there is Alaska, a region so wild and isolated as to make Wyoming appear tame as a strip mall. Flying to Kodiak Island (“America’s second largest island”) is risky on a good day. The day I chose to travel to the island on business was not a good day. […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Wild tiles
More than 25 years ago, a group of wildlife-film enthusiasts started the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Mont. This year, organizers for the event have reopened the historic Roxy Theater in downtown Missoula as a media center that will provide year-round screening of the festival’s films. To celebrate the purchase and renovation of the […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
A gilded wrinkle in time
In his first work of historical fiction, planetary scientist William K. Hartmann digs into the history of the American Southwest and finds a unique and compelling mystery. The main character in Cities of Gold is the 16th-century Spanish explorer and friar Marcos de Niza, who was accused of spreading fables about the Southwest’s “seven cities […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Building off the grid
“If you’re reading these words, it’s because you’re a dreamer. You dream of living where you don’t, and doing things you’ve never done.” Rex and LaVonne Ewing, authors of Logs, Wind and Sun … Handcraft Your Own Log Home … Then Power it with Nature, have written the book they searched for when building their […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
Holding open the door to the good life up north
The hour was early, the high desert air was fall-frosty, and the coffee was, well, truly horrible. I’d arrived for my volunteer shift at a Catholic church in the western Colorado town of Delta, and I had a very bad feeling. Five hundred people were already waiting on the sidewalk outside, sipping the acrid coffee, […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2002: In search of the Glory Days
“They want the workers to be invisible”
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Bob Elder, a third-generation Leadville resident, worked at the Climax for 17 years as a mining engineer. He thinks the way people commute to resort jobs now is “exploitative.” Bob Elder: “I just have to wonder how these resort areas are going to sustain […]