After nearly a century of neglect and vandalism, an area called Fourmile Ruin near Taylor, Ariz., is being excavated, not in a search for information about its original inhabitants but for its valuable pottery.
The Magazine
August 15, 1988: Growing up among the ruins in Blanding, Utah
How do you explain what it is like to be able to walk five miles in any direction from town and find a rubble mound or masonry ruin?
August 1, 1988: City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
A plan to invigorate the state’s economy by taking sewage ash from the Twin Cities backfires.
July 18, 1988: Can nuclear waste be salted away?
All is not well with the nation’s first planned nuclear-waste dump, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project.
June 20, 1988: Parks are increasingly vulnerable
Like lines drawn in the sand, the borders of America’s national parks have not prevented the crowding and shoving of neighboring public and private landowners.
June 6, 1988: Will the Crow Tribe dribble away $29 million in coal tax money?
A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court opens up an old account and allows the tribe to set its own coal tax rates.
May 23, 1988: How do you combine birds and bombs?
Along Idaho’s Snake River, military war-games run up against the densest known concentration of nesting raptors in the world.
May 9, 1988: Two Forks Dam: Push comes to shove
The proposed project has become a national issue, with environmental and citizens groups facing off against water planners.
April 25, 1988: Ecotage versus infiltrage: A tale of two environmental strategies
An in-depth issue on The Nature Conservancy and Earth First!
April 11, 1988: God’s country is being developed
Church Universal and Triumphant stirs controversy on the northern edge of Yellowstone National Park.
March 28, 1988: Off-road vehicles and the public’s land
At issue in southern Arizona and elsewhere is a continuing debate over what to do about a form of recreation that is growing so rapidly that officials feel helpless.
March 14, 1988: Montana’s Clark Fork River: An industrial drain
The Clark Fork of the Columbia has been neglected and abused for decades, and is only now gaining the attention of people who are determined to bring it back to life.
February 29, 1988: Oil and gas leasing reform: Somewhat more than half a loaf
Efforts to correct problems with oil and gas leasing on public lands have produced a confusing and often contradictory welter of legislation and court decisions that have left central issues unresolved.
February 15, 1988: South Dakota Sioux demand the Black Hills
Their hope for the future rests on the fact that the U.S. government took their land by imposing a fraudulent treaty on them in 1877 — the same year that Crazy Horse was killed by a bayonet-wielding soldier.
February 1, 1988: Idaho’s potato king proposes 100 power plants
The state’s richest man, industrialist J.R. Simplot, announced in late December that he wants to build 100 coal-fired power plants along the Snake River over the next 50 years.
January 5, 1988: Is the grizzly adapting fast enough?
While there is hope that the grizzly is nearing recovery in the short term, most scientists remain worried about the long haul.
December 21, 1987: Caves need protection
Congress considers a little-known bill — the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act — that would guard the thousands of caves underlying public lands from vandalism and other forms of destruction.
December 7, 1987: Is Montana being (de)railroaded?
Dennis Washington’s Montana Rail Link takes over 900 miles of track from Burlington Northern, prompting picketing (and possibly sabotage) by workers.
November 23, 1987: The wolf in the West: Singing a sad song
A series of articles explores the many sides of wold recovery.
November 9, 1987: Acoma Indians protest a proposed national monument in New Mexico
The Acoma Indian tribe doesn’t want El Malpais, its ancestral ground, to be wilderness.
