Hot summer days in New York City, humid nights. It’s enough to just walk the dog, scramble around, look for a buck, eat pizza and wonder when the city pools will ever reopen. It seems as though the indoor public…
If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it…
I decided to try to hike at least an hour every day for an entire year. With me almost every step of the way during what turned out to be a successful 367-day quest that covered maybe 1,200 miles was my dog Casey, who was five at the beginning and six at the end. Two months after we started, Casey went instantly, inexplicably and totally blind.
The essay you are hopefully about to read is part of my forthcoming 2022 collection and exhibition with the Montana artist Tabby Ivy. Both the collection and the exhibition will be called Between Artists: Life in Paintings and Prose. The…
One of the truisms of life as a reporter, especially in a small town, is one always had to have access to motorized transportation. There was no predicting when or where a news event would take place, and, especially if…
This piece is excerpted from from Cold Case Chronicles: Mysteries, Murders & the Missing by Silvia Pettem (©2021). The book is available on Amazon at this link. For a few months in 2009, twenty-first-century forensics seemed to resolve the mystery…
In the mid-70s, Cisco, Utah was already being called a ghost town. It had boomed briefly during the Uranium Craze, but two decades later, it already had a deserted look and feel to it. One marginal exception was Ethel’s Cafe. Its…
For the past three years, I have taken an active interest in drought in the southwestern US as illustrated by declining water levels in various reservoirs. I have been especially interested in Lake Powell which started filling in 1963 upon…
Disclaimer: The following is a recollection of events that occurred in the early summer of 1988. An avoidable accident resulting in the death of a paying passenger was due to an unfortunate series of errors by ill-prepared staff and owners…
The June 9th Pack Creek Fire was deeply upsetting for those of us who know and love the La Sals. I discuss the fire, and its effects, in two stories this issue: Take it or Leave it: FUTURE “FIRES”… A…
This is the first installment of a new series on “Things that Annoy us.” The inaugural submission, written by our founding publisher, will be followed in future issues by other rants from members of the Zephyr Writing Staff and hopefully…
Our regular readers know that we began a new project at the Zephyr last year–called “Zephyr America.” We’ve been slowly wading through the massive Zephyr archives of historic photos and digitizing them to share with our readers. To keep up…
Herb Ringer liked Ford vehicles. He traveled the country from the 40s through the 80s, initially with his parents Joseph and Sadie, and then alone. And from the beginning, the family preferred Ford–from their ’45 Super Deluxe to the ’49…
September 23, 1941 Travel this month, 296 Travel for the year, 3786 WEATHER September, ushered in by high, hot winds, was unpredictable from one day to the next. The weather has been cool for this time of the year and…
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In This Issue… Take it or Leave it: ‘New West Blues’ Revisited, 30 Years Later… by Jim Stiles Yes, Some People are Still Smoking. Could We Just Leave Them Alone? …by Tonya Audyn Stiles July 4, 1961: Murder & the…
A JUNE 2021 INTRODUCTION: In June 1990, thirty-one years ago this month, I penned a Page Two essay for my fledgling newspaper, The Canyon Country Zephyr, called “New West Blues.” The Zephyr had only existed for a bit more than…
The first time I picked up a cigarette, I was probably six years old. It was late morning, mid-summer, and the babysitter had let us kids out into the park next to her home while she returned inside to begin…
Note: Jim has received so much information since the original publication of this story that he has completely re-written his article and it will be re-published in the December/January 2022 issue of the Zephyr. You can read about this process…
The Indians found it long before the white men came.—John Wetherill, commenting on the discovery of Rainbow Natural Bridge “The discovery of a natural bridge surpassing in size anything heretofore found is the news brought to this city this morning…
“The kids, like all kids, loved the dog and I just want to say this, right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re going to keep the dog.” –Richard M. Nixon Many years ago, a decade after…