Edna Fridley was a good friend of the canyon country of southeast Utah for more than 30 years. Every year she returned to the slickrock from her home, back east, to wander and explore what was then one of the…
Do you remember reading in your histories of World War II about the concentration camps set up by Hitler and Stalin? They incarcerated many of their citizens without benefit of due process because of these peoples’ political beliefs and racial…
BRIAN O’REILLY lived in Moab for years and sometimes without a roof over his head. He was a handy man and did odd jobs around town. he gave an hour’s work for an hour’s pay and wouldn’t do it otherwise.…
Friends and Freedom Once I had a friend–“friend” being a loose term, as people seem to bend with the wind and you look up one day and they’re gone. Don’t know why that is, not my fault ’cause I liked…
Herb Recalls Shorty Yarberry & the Grand Canyon… One of the great characters of the Grand Canyon was Shorty Yarberry. His whole name was George Armstrong Custer ‘Shorty’ Yarberry. He was born on the day of the Battle of the…
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… Volume #1 West Texas. I’m a sucker for signs, especially if…
One of my favorite poet/songwriters, Utah Phillips, once wrote: “I’ll sing about an emptiness the East has never known, Where coyotes don’t pay taxes and a man can live alone. And you’ve got to walk forever just to find a…
It was deathly hot, 104 degrees, the day the four of us (Norah, Rose, Olivia and I) arrived at Delicate Arch trailhead to join other parties clustered at their vehicles, gathering cameras and stowing bottles of water, food, who knows,…
Part One 1926. The sheep are looking good and a few lambs are big enough to ship. Bob is going around them and once again showing them to the baby. She too is growing and feeling good. Mary and Jack…
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.…By Jim Stiles * Was Cactus Ed’s Last Joke On US? SOWING CLOVER…Tonya Stiles ‘WHY I HATE WESTERNS’ THE DOG OF THE MONTH!!! FUZZY (1992-2012) So long to my old cat…Stiles GAINING PERSPECTIVE: Two Years in…
We’ve had a longstanding—let’s call it a “discussion”—in our house over the fact that I won’t watch Westerns. My dear husband, who I am sure holds the same position as most of our readers, loves Westerns. He loves John Wayne.…
Fuzzy 1992-2012 We don’t choose our cats. They choose us. One afternoon in the late autumn of 1993, a small grey cat appeared on my back porch and would not leave. I tried to chase her away—I was not a…
“After several centuries of experiments and false starts, the foundations of modern Puebloan society emerged from the crucible of post-Chaco chaos: egalitarian, ritually based, anti-hierarchical.” – Archaeologist Stephen Lekson, 2008 It was one of those old motels, shaped like an…
“The wilderness once offered men a plausible way of life. Soon there will be no wilderness. Soon there will be no place to go. Then the madness becomes universal… and the universe goes mad.” Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang…
Glen Canyon Dam (Under Construction) HERB RINGER made so many trips to the desert Southwest, he could barely count them all. From 1956 to 1963, Glen canyon Dam was under construction on the Utah/Arizona border. Herb checked in from time…
John DePuy: Let me read you something. It says it all. It’s all I have to say. “Madman and seer–– Painter of the Apocalyptic Volcano. Campañero, I am with you forever in the glorious fraternity of the damned.” Jim Stiles:…
I went West to find Edward Abbey in the 1970s, determined to give him a drawing I’d done in his honor. It was a doodle of Glen Canyon Dam in serious disarray. A few weeks later, The Monkey Wrench Gang…
BILL KOCI came to Moab in the late 70s and was a familiar and colorful presence in town for decades. He ran the Parkside Trailer Court until his death in January of this year. I miss Bill… MARIE LARKIN, brilliant…
A substantial portion of young women in the U.K. would choose breasts over brains, according to a recent online survey…. In addition, 44 percent of the respondents would rather have a “slim figure” than high intelligence, with 29 percent of…
One morning, many years ago, when I still had the energy to hustle for new advertising, I stopped by a new store on Center Street. It was called Walkabout Travel Gear and I hoped the owners might want to promote…
Rumors were flying last November that the ‘24 Hours of Moab’ bike race was at an end after its organizers reported “a precipitous drop in attendence (sic) in 2011 (has) put the continuation of the event in question.” But apparently…