As horrified Americans recover from Sept. 11, 2001, many continue to compare the attack on New York and the Pentagon to the 1941 strike against our military base at Pearl Harbor. But let’s also remember another historically relevant place from the World War II era: A lonely scrap of high desert called Minidoka, Idaho. There, […]
Communities
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Terrorist attacks echo in the West
Tourism sags, energy policy debate simmers
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
The once and future West
It turns out that this new economy of ours may be as subject to boom and bust as the economy based on cattle, oil and lumber. September 11 emptied Las Vegas, caused hunters to cancel trips to Idaho and Montana, and silenced ski areas’ reservation phone lines in Colorado. The West’s environmental movement was also […]
Posted inOctober 8, 2001: Whoa! Canada!
Heard around the West
Quick, cover your eyes, that statue is naked! To avoid offending the sensibilities of some 2,500 parents and their home- schooled children last year, the Convention Center of Sacramento, Calif., agreed to dress its 7-foot-tall statue of Poseidon, Greek god of the sea. Usually, the replica of an ancient work attracts no attention; it has […]
Posted inSeptember 24, 2001: River of dreams
Heard around the West
Firefighters in the West battle extreme heat, unpredictable winds that can send wildfire racing up draws and endless hours on a fire line, but fish falling from the sky? It happened in Libby, Mont., reports Kevin Cardwell, who says the event will enter Forest Service firefighting lore. The incident occurred Aug. 17 as Todd Murray […]
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
Dictionary of the American West
If you’re looking to string a greener, try offering one a glass of beef tea. Better yet, get ’em roostered on leopard sweat. Chances are, enough of either will send them running outside to air the paunch. Confused? A quick perusal of Win Blevins’ revised edition of the Dictionary of the American West will set […]
Posted inSeptember 10, 2001: The rise and fall of a desert stream
Heard around the West
How do we resemble our fellow Westerners – the black bears? Let me count some of the ways. We like to share dessert. Near Ketchum, Idaho, a 225-pounder broke into a home, opened the freezer and pulled out half a gallon of rocky road ice cream, reports the Idaho Express. When the home’s residents saw […]
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Utah town goes ‘U.N. free’
Controversial law highlights growing culture clash in Utah’s land of Dixie
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Neighbors get nasty in New Mexico
Is Deirdre Wolf a martyr or a menace?
Posted inAugust 27, 2001: Restoring the range of light
Heard around the West
One hundred and ninety million years ago, give or take a few millennia, a meat-eating dinosaur walked to an oasis in a place now close to Vernal, Utah, and bent down for a drink. The 12-foot-tall beast was heavy, and its clawed, three-toed feet sank deeply into what is now wonderfully preserved sandstone rock. Scores […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
Disappearing cowboys get exposure
Each spring, photographer Adam Jahiel leaves his home in northeast Wyoming and treks to the remotest corners of the Great Basin to photograph cowboys on their annual roundups. The seasonal journey has become a 10-year personal quest. Jahiel, whose photos have appeared in The New York Times and National Geographic among others, says he is […]
Posted inAugust 13, 2001: No refuge in the Klamath Basin
Heard around the West
Oh, Smokey Bear, what have they done to you now? Smokey has a new day job. If you visit the lobby of the Forest Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., you can see the agency’s famous spokesbear, looking, perhaps, like one of the bureaucrats upstairs. The plump bear lounges at a rolltop desk, his feet crossed […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Heard around the West
Washington, D.C., satirist Mark Russell came to Cody, Wyo., for a fund raiser recently and found so much to poke fun at, he had 700 people in tears from laughing so hard, says Buzzy Hassrick in the Cody Enterprise. All of his material, Russell swore, came from reading the weekly Enterprise, an effort that took […]
Posted inJuly 30, 2001: Not in our back yard
Out of the woods, blithe spirit
Oh my! Oh dear! Imagine … 20,000 hippies. Not doing a lick of work. Messing up meadows like animals. Befouling streams like animals. Eating, sleeping, defecating like animals. Fornicating like bunny animals, thumping bongos, tooting flutes, gang-singing old Donovan songs, dancing around without a care in their heads like Jenna Bush in a cowboy bar, […]
Posted inJuly 2, 2001: Can Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?
Luxury homes torched in Tucson
The fires follow a string of similar arsons in Phoenix
Posted inJuly 2, 2001: Can Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?
A maverick mayor takes on sprawl
Salt Lake’s Rocky Anderson fights the ‘highways first’ establishment
Posted inJuly 2, 2001: Can Nevada bury Yucca Mountain?
Heard around the West
With fast-growing lawns in the West sucking down immense amounts of water, Andrew McKean of Helena, Mont., passes on two apropos comments. The first is from University of Utah political scientist Daniel McCool: “Utah doesn’t have a water problem; Utah has a Kentucky bluegrass problem.” The second comes from the side of a bus spotted […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
University wolf study raises hackles
UTAH The Utah Farm Bureau Federation has a bone to pick with Robert Schmidt’s wildlife management class at Utah State University. The class recently studied the biological and economic effects of a hypothetical wolf population in Utah. But when the class took its findings public, the Bureau accused the students of being “pro-wolf” and said […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Indian rock art under the drill?
MONTANA Crow Indian historian Howard Boggess believes the rock art that graces the sandstone cliffs of Weatherman Draw marks the historic “Valley of the Shields” as a “place of peace” where chiefs and warriors retreated for vision quests. The art likely represents a multitude of ethnic groups who traveled through this historic migratory corridor in […]
Posted inJune 18, 2001: Transforming powers
Surprise! Boise votes for open space
Support for tax levy breaks an Idaho tradition