Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
People & Places
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
In a dead-end prison town, a fraught journey home
A first-time novelist follows a quiet Montana man in the wake of grief.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
The absurdist Western
It’s worth following the twists and turns of Robert Garner McBrearty’s The Western Lonesome Society.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
The life of a fire lookout is one of the senses
A former lookout finds the woman who used to guard her tower.
Posted inArticles
In Washington, the Nooksack 306 fight to stay in their tribe
An internecine battle rages over tribal membership and identity.
Posted inArticles
Inside a town where young people aren’t allowed
Last summer, my wife and I visited our friends, Randy and Abby, at their desert home outside Tucson. They live in a retirement community with age-restriction covenants. Eighty percent of the homeowners have to be over 55 years old and the remaining 20 percent at least 40. Anyone under 19 is out of luck. I […]
Posted inArticles
National Park Service chief expands sexual harassment probe
Upcoming survey to determine if misconduct at the Grand Canyon represents a widespread problem.
Posted inArticles
Who belongs in the natural world?
The lack of diversity in the outdoors often prompts people of color to ponder their sense of belonging in nature.
Posted inArticles
On becoming reacquainted with sandhill cranes
I’m on my way south to chase the first harbingers of spring in our High Plains desert home.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Can a legal victory make Indian Country whole again?
For over a century, federal law has split Native American land holdings into tiny pieces. A settlement unites some of the splinters, but at a steep cost.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
A photographer turns his lens on small-town bliss
A new exhibit in Denver, Colorado, looks at happiness in the rural West, focusing on Bliss, Idaho.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Take a page from the mountain goats
A parent contemplates risk assessment with kids in the mountains.
Posted inApril 4, 2016: A Land Divided
Where hope lingers like sagebrush on the wind
In his latest collection of Western tales, Percival Everett searches for the good in range life.
Posted inArticles
Rants from the Hill: After many years of essay writing, a wave goodbye
All good Rants must come to an end and this marks the final missive from the Ranting Hill.
Posted inArticles
Podcast: The last Nevada showgirl revue came to a close this year
Preserving showgirl culture, amidst lasting discomfort around the tradition.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Seeds in a sandstorm
A writer contemplates love and disaster in a city of transients.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Crime and grit: A retrospective collection from the don of Chicano noir
An uneven but often rewarding collection from one of the West’s masterful storytellers.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Drought brings unexpected water relief to California communities
State and federal funds are paying for desperately needed infrastructure in the Central Valley.
Posted inArticles
I inherited an oil field. Now what do I do with it?
A writer faces a moral dilemma: fight the bureaucracy to end oil extraction on family land or give in?
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Meet the caribou hunter of Arctic Village, Alaska
Photos of this winter’s hunt and a community’s subsistence way of life.