Month: August 2022

“POKING THROUGH THE RUINS” — w/ Jim Stiles: THE PROSPECTOR LODGE in MOAB (ZX#23 )

by stiles • August 28, 2022 • 11 Comments

I could scarcely believe my ears when I heard, almost twenty years ago, that there were plans to tear down the historic Prospector Lodge and replace it with a hideous chain motel.

By all accounts, the Prospector was built in the mid-1950s fast on the heels of Charlie Steen’s uranium discovery and the unprecedented boom that followed. The little hamlet of Moab swelled to ten times its size, from just a few years earlier, and the construction of the Prospector was in response to that demand.

My knowledge of the Prospector’s history was pretty thin, so I turned to a facebook page dedicated to Moab’s history and asked for help. As always the response was immediate and full of details that I would never have known without their help.

REMEMBERING GEORGIE (WHITE) CLARK— “Woman of the River” by Anne Snowden Crosman (ZX#22)

by stiles • August 21, 2022 • 13 Comments

Then she met Harry Aleson, a fellow Sierra Club member and explorer. Aleson showed her slides of his hikes in the canyon country of Arizona and Utah. Georgie was hooked. A new world opened up and she suggested they hike it together. She and Harry became friends, and over the years, they covered many miles. Twice they floated down the Colorado River of the Grand Canyon.

“I was out here on the river 25 years when there was absolutely nobody here,” she recalls. “All the people on my trips depended on me, period. There wasn’t nobody else. There was no helicopters, there was NOTHING down here. The park rangers were not here. That was before the dams were built. These were long trips, one- and two-week trips.” At 80, she is strong in body and mind. She takes pride in not being emotional. “My mother taught us not to cry. We don’t have that emotion. I don’t have it about marriage or nothing. I was never one who had stars in my eyes. I was not one who grew up wantin’ or being man-crazy. In fact, the men had to prove theirself to me!”

THE HITE FERRY in GLEN CANYON w/ Edna Fridley & Charles Kreischer (1959-1962) ZX#21

by stiles • August 14, 2022 • 12 Comments

CHARLES KREISCHER & EDNA FRIDLEY loved the West, and especially the Colorado Plateau. Both explored the canyons of southeast Utah in the days when very few people even knew they existed. At the time, most Americans’ knowledge of the Colorado Plateau came from John Ford movies, and they rarely mentioned film locations in the credits. But Charlie and Edna knew, and they took hundreds of amazing Kodachrome transparencies to remember their experience

In a previous issue The Zephyr published images by Kreischer and Fridley of the road to Hite Ferry— old Utah Highway 95 — which remained a dirt and gravel road from Blanding to Hanksville, until the rising waters of Lake Powell flooded the ferry. Subsequently, three bridges were built, at a cost of millions of dollars, to connect the east side of the reservoir to the west.

In this issue we focus entirely on the Hite Ferry itself and the surrounding area. And at the end of this post, look for some new information and of new images yet to come…JS

GRIEF MEETS ORWELL & the “CUCKOO’S NEST” by Jim Stiles (My Recent Encounter with the Mental Health Industry) ZX#20

by stiles • August 7, 2022 • 67 Comments

I’ve never written anything like this before — not in the 33 plus years I’ve been publishing The Zephyr. Not ever. It’s personal and it’s painful; it’s about mistakes I have made, and regrets I will carry to my grave. It’s about loss and and unexpected events in our lives, and how we deal with them. We all seek our own paths — some find comfort with family and friends. Others turn to their church. Some try to ride it out on their own….still others seek “professional help.”

In the context of this story, it’s also a cautionary tale –– a warning to all of you about the mental health system in this country and how badly it can be abused, intentionally or unintentionally, by the people who oversee and manage that system. I believe that mental health services, when professionally administered by people with true consciences and a genuine concern for their patients, can be of great comfort to those dealing with grief and despair–the pain that can create serious emotional problems. But it can also be abused. It can cause even more damage to the very individuals the mental health “professionals” claim they are trying to help.

Everything you are about to read is true…