Category: October/November 2018
Sowing Clover: The Land of Dreams…by Tonya Morton
What is the story we can tell about ourselves, to ourselves? Lewis Mumford, the 20th century historian and philosopher, said, “Every culture lives within its dream.” Like dreamers, we can’t know how–or especially why–we came to be here. Like dreamers,…
A “MONUMENTAL” CHANGE: San Juan County Embraces Industrial Tourism…by Jim Stiles
What’s happening here is happening elsewhere. And what’s coming may be bigger than even we doomsayers would dare predict. Barring a miracle, we are about to enter a new phase, the last phase, in the taming of the West. When…
(ZEPHYR FLASHBACKS) THE TRANSIENT ROOM TAX DEBATE: 1993 Analysis… by Ken Davey
Utah’s Transient Room Tax (TRT) has recently made headlines in Southeast Utah. The TRT allows a tax on “transactions involving tourist home, hotel, motel, or trailer court accommodations and services that are regularly rented for less than 30 consecutive days.”…
MEDIA BIAS, UP CLOSE & LOCAL, Part 2: PBS, RACISM & OMITTING THE FACTS IN SAN JUAN COUNTY, UTAH…by Jim Stiles
Last Spring, six students from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism traveled to rural southeast Utah and Monticello, to serve as interns–to be “embedded with”— the local weekly newspaper, The San Juan Record. Under the direction of…
Vlachos’ Views: The Mojave Desert…Photos and Captions by Paul Vlachos
Paul Vlachos is a New Yorker who understands The West. And he is a New Yorker who understands New York. Wherever Paul goes, he finds signs of life… I don’t have many words this month. I have burned them all…
Selling San Juan, Part 2: The Ghost of Christmas Future…by Stacy Young
This is the conclusion of a two-part essay on New West gentrification and the designation of Bears Ears National Monument (part one here). In this part two, I will more closely examine the concrete ways in which New West colonization…
The Grand Staircase Story: morality of mining, no-compromise environmentalists, unreliable sources…by Bill Keshlear
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. William Shakespeare,…
The Wisdom of Wolfkiller: A Nineteenth Century Navajo Shepherd and Sage…By Harvey Leake
“When I was a young boy, about six years old, my grandfather and mother started me on the path of light.” —Wolfkiller Found among the papers of my great-grandmother, Louisa Wade Wetherill, was a remarkable story of early Navajo life…
Worlds and Worlds Away: A Portrait…by Damon Falke
Far away places, with strange soundin’ names Far away over the sea Those far away places, with the strange soundin’ names Are callin’, callin’ to me -lyrics by Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer Back in mid-July I went fishing…