just a few friends When a writer starts thanking some people, he is bound to forget others. The appearance of ingratitude, certainly actual ingratitude, is not a condition into which a person should strive. For a long time, I told…
Small rural towns in the American West have a talent for incubating distinct personalities whom city folk call “local characters” or “colorful individuals” while town members express their appreciation with grins and tales of exploits and recognition. Blanding, a town…
The recent controversies swirling around Bears Ears National Monument are only the latest in a series of struggles resulting from attempts to increase federal government involvement with exceptional places in the Utah/Arizona borderlands region of the Colorado Plateau. Elmo R.…
In early October 1939, Henry G. Schmidt, “Hank” to his friends, reported for duty at a little known, seldom visited national monument in southeast Utah, just a few miles north of Moab. He was assuming the duties as “park custodian”…
It seems I grew up around taverns. My father was landlord to a few working man beer joints. As a child my favorite days were spent accompanying him as he went around to count the coins in the pinball machines…
*Note: This episode of Brave New West originally appeared in the December 1999 Zephyr, 19 years ago… CLICK HERE to READ PREVIOUS EPISODES of BRAVE NEW WEST (The Comic Strip)! Jim Stiles is Founder and Co-Publisher of the Canyon Country…
“I always liked to hear about the oldtimers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can’t help but compare yourself against the oldtimers. Can’t help but wonder how they would have operated these times…. I don’t know what to…
HERB RINGER came West from his home in New Jersey in 1939. Camera in hand, Herb captured the American West, from the Canadian Border to the Rio Grande and from the Big Sur coast to the High Plains. We believe…
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