Letter to the editor

I am writing to thank you for Eric Siegel’s piece about the Tenacious Unicorn transgender alpaca farm. As an East Coast city-dweller, I am surely not the target audience, but it definitely struck close to home. I grew up in a small town in the country but left because I couldn’t see a future there as […]

I started a two-year subscription in response to the sterling reporting you provide. I’ve sporadically read articles from HCN for many years, but the tipping point to convert me to a subscriber came after reading Nick Bowlin’s piece on the political efforts of second-home owners in Crested Butte against COVID restrictions. While I have my own point […]

My sincere and respectful congratulations for the fine article on the Gunnison election. As an aged near-native of the area who still carefully reads the Gunnison Country Times, I can verify your descriptions and revelations, and appreciate your deft manner of educating us all on the local background issues. I found your descriptions to be fair and […]

Thank you for the deeply reported article by Nick Bowlin. The Gunnison Valley may be the sharpest illustration of the changes in the mountain West that were worsened by COVID-19. Clearly, it was a mistake, in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus, to try to ban “outsiders” from using their second homes in Gunnison […]

Such a rich January edition deserves praise. Kudos to the “Rebel Constables,” each one of them, and to Gabriel Schivone for excellent coverage. It did me such good to read this story. And I was on the edge of my chair waiting for election results, fuming over the attempted big-money takeover of the Gunnison County […]

I watched the Salton Sea go from a fun place to boat and fish to a wasteland of dead fish and dreams. The article (“Sea change,” January 2021) is a rerun of a rerun of a rerun about broken promises from a dysfunctional state government. California is never going to spend mega-millions on the Salton […]

Thank you for the excellent January 2021 issue. Every article was pertinent to one or another of the pressing problems here in the West. I especially liked the article and photos by Nick Bowlin and Luna Anna Archey in your feature story, “Second Citizens.” It’s very evident that we need to find a way to […]

Nick Bowlin’s piece “Second Citizens” was an absolute gem. The reporting and emotion invoked were beautiful, and I want to thank Bowlin from my heart for stirring it up. As someone who lived in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for five years (and moved around a lot) I understand the dynamic intricacies of a seasonal town and […]

We in the hinterlands are being increasingly poorly served by High Country News. Soil, food and water will become more critical to our nation’s health and security as we face the future. Consequently, we need fewer essays on effective protesting, or page after page devoted to metropolitan matters. HCN’s November issue was encouraging: Stories about […]

Everything about “Divided Prospects” is fantastic. From its analysis of rural economies to the photography — worth every penny of a subscription. Incredible work from writer Sarah Tory and photographer Russel Daniels!! Chris Parri Boise, Idaho This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Analysis of rural economies.

Good work on “Divided Prospects,” December 2020. Uinta County, Wyoming, keeps trying to figure out a way out of the boom-bust business. I always said that if I ever moved back to Wyoming, I’d pick Evanston. Close enough to Salt Lake City, to skiing and the Wasatch. Thanks for your writing, Sarah Tory! Great photos […]

While I know this case is complicated (“A whistleblower speaks out over excavation of Native sites,” December 2020), I think that archaeologists would be lying if we didn’t admit that we recognize the patterns and structures reported on here. I know we wouldn’t have to try hard to find many stories like this one. Because […]

This is a serious infrastructure situation across much of the country, not just here in the rural West (“When you can’t drink the water,” December 2020). Obviously, Flint, Michigan, is the poster child for this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if 50 million Americans have compromised drinking water. Of the many things that this country […]

Good article on rural water problems. The agencies involved, and anyone who does R&D in water, are myopically focused on central grid/pipeline systems — the bread and butter of the engineering firms/banks that finance municipal bonds, and the municipalities that charge for your water bill. Obviously, a point of use or distributed solution is the […]

Carl Segerstrom’s piece (“Food Forward,” November 2020) about alternative distribution systems for small farm operations is A+. Tate TischnerWebster, New York This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Makes the grade.

Alex Carr Johnson nailed it in his well-written essay, “Now that you’ve gone West, young man,” in the September issue. We certainly have accumulated a terrible debt through our conquests, biased historical accounts and attending mythologies. I share the shame. Bob SnowTucson, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the […]

With all due respect to Black cowboys and their rightful place in Western history (“Black cowboys reclaim their history in the West,” December 2020), be aware that every animal welfare organization in North America condemns rodeo due to its inherent cruelty. For most of the animals involved, the rodeo arena is merely a detour en route […]

Sarah Keller’s description of her journey to use hunting as a way to center herself does not surprise me or many other hunters (“Hunting for myself,” November 2020), though I faced no reality even remotely comparable to hers. I first hunted and shot a rabbit, which my brother and I cooked and ate, about the […]

Thank you for publishing Adam Sowards’ excellent perspective (“30 years later, the lessons of Redwood Summer,” November 2020). It’s a good time to remember Judi Bari’s role in helping to organize and publicize the events of that summer and beyond. Her background of living and working as a carpenter in the logging towns of Northern […]