Back in the halcyon days of the Northwest militia movement in the mid-’90s, a curious breed of man emerged from the moist backwoods and unemployment lines of the disenfranchised West: the wannabe Patriot. In Whatcom County, Wash., the commander in chief of the Washington State Militia, John Pitner, was experiencing New World Order visions. The […]
Communities
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
She left the ranch to save her soul
Picturesque and nostalgic as the pioneer era might seem in hindsight, to be a prairie woman must have been, on most days, pure hell. But that story is sometimes absent from the pioneer literary history, a genre written largely by white men, about white men. Until now. If you continue west from the stage for […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Heard around the West
Yes, at first mention it seems bizarre, but it really makes perfect sense: CPR for wild salmon. Fish resuscitation is now a federal- and state-required skill for anglers who cast “tangle nets” on the Columbia River in spring. Chinook salmon can exhaust themselves to the point of death fighting the nets, and if tossed overboard […]
Posted inAugust 5, 2002: Land or money?
Don’t proclaim the West is dead until you’ve met a Mexican motorcyclist with a wooden leg
My dirty little secret? The one boyfriends can’t tolerate, the one my mother doesn’t know about, the one true friends accept but don’t approve of? When I’m upset, I drive and drink. Well, sort of. Though it’s not what it sounds like, it’s probably not the recommended way for a young woman to cope with […]
Posted inJuly 8, 2002: The anatomy of fire
No ranchettes for the rest of us in Jackson
Citizens of ritzy Wyoming town reject government-backed development
Posted inJuly 8, 2002: The anatomy of fire
Heard around the West
Aren’t bees busy enough without being harnessed by the military? Apparently not. The Pentagon is training honeybees to ignore flowers and zero in on the faint molecular trails left by explosives. A downside is the high probability that bomb-sniffing bees would not go over well in crowded airports. Bees also don’t care to buzz about […]
Posted inJuly 8, 2002: The anatomy of fire
Human wildness on the range
Frank Clifford has no trouble holding two clashing ideas in mind. The first is his love of wild country, the second is his love of the wild people most of us see as the enemy of wild country. A gold miner’s son who is now an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Clifford comes […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Growth boundary grows
COLORADO All along the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, development continues to roll out like freshly laid sod. Five years ago, in an effort to limit sprawl, a voluntary association of business leaders, developers and elected officials from 48 local governments drew up a plan that included an urban growth boundary. But the growth […]
Posted inJune 24, 2002: The buzz business
Heard around the West
It is rare that reading a press release leaves us feeling a sense of amazement, if not downright wonder. The one that follows, from Yellowstone National Park, was sent to the news media by staffer Olivia McCombs under the ho-hum headline: “Bear Incident in Yellowstone National Park.” But here’s the story that followed: “Abigail Thomas, […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
Heard around the West
The heck with drought! In some suburbs outside of Denver, it’s grass that counts, and heaven help you if you let it yellow and wither. Some residents of the covenant-controlled developments at Highlands Ranch and in the town of Westminster found that out recently when they tried to be good citizens and save water. Notices […]
Posted inJune 10, 2002: Hatching reform
In the throat of a black hole
I am standing over this crevice of Antelope Canyon, a thin fissure in the bedrock of far northern Arizona, a tourist attraction on the Navajo Reservation. It is dark down there, as if I am looking through the cracked roof of a mosque into an unlit interior. A metal ladder leads down and I follow […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Singing cowboys strike a bad chord
UTAH Cultural tourism may be a hot ticket in some parts of the West, but a troupe of singing cowboys is looking for a new home after their failed theater proposal divided a small northern Utah town. The Bar-K Wranglers, a six-man ensemble that performs a dinner theater show, wanted to build a permanent venue […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
New museum takes visitors beyond Yellowstone
Dr. Charles Preston wishes he had better understood the Yellowstone region during his first visit there as a teen-ager. Now, as curator of the new Draper Museum in Cody, Wyo., his job is to bolster the knowledge of a new generation of Yellowstone visitors. The Draper, part of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, links geological, […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Heard around the West
Starbucks employees in Monroe, Wash., were greeted just before dawn recently by a man and woman who forced them to open a safe and hand over its contents. But instead of getting some java to go and making their get-away, the couple pitched in at a crowded takeout window. The man donned an apron, reports […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Riding the Line
Ruben Rivera leans his elbow on the side of a pickup truck. His wife and brother-in-law stand in the truck bed to get a better view of the race. Rivera’s horse, Misterio – “Mystery” he explains, rather unnecessarily – is running in the third race. “But on the other side.” We are officially in Mexico […]
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Small towns court upscale tourists
Visitors who like art, theater and fine cuisine bring big bucks to the rural West
Posted inMay 27, 2002: Wolf at the door
Ranching the changing times
My earliest memories revolve around my dad waking me up with the sun to work cattle. My feet took the shape of the pointed boots and my head grew within my Stetson, leaving an indented white forehead. I never even thought about not ranching. In 1978, I partnered with my dad to buy a ranch […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Property rights reined in
Urban planning and environmental protection got a shot in the arm on April 23, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that property owners at Lake Tahoe are not entitled to government compensation for a moratorium that prevented them from building on their land (HCN, 2/18/02). Following a series of Supreme Court decisions that bolstered […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
BITTERROOT VALLEY, Mont. – Remember that scene from Dances with Wolves, when Kevin Costner’s character spins through billowing, thigh-deep yellow grassland, his fingers lightly grazing the seedheads? I’ve spent a good stretch of this radiant summer morning working across a prairie in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley doing the same thing, but without that inspiring light touch. […]
Posted inMay 13, 2002: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape
The Old West went that-a-way
The East Coast editor wants me to tell her something new. Something nobody knows about the West. Something special. Something secret. I rack my brain. And my ethics. What we have left out here that’s special needs to stay special. Our secrets need to be kept. Here’s the piece I sent her. She turned it […]