Visitation at The Grand Canyon approached 5 million in 2014 and the numbers are expected to go even higher this year. But in the 1950s, in the years just after World War II, the pace was a lot slower. Here…
In the last few years, the traffic on US 191, between Moab and Monticello has increased dramatically. Despite efforts to improve the safety of the highway (and with millions of dollars of construction upgrades planned or proposed), the 55 mile…
Zephyr Extra: NOTE: This is a followup to a story that appeared in the Aug/Sept issue of The Zephyr. Read that story here. On August 4, Grand County Councilwoman Mary McGann proposed to change the name of Negro Bill Canyon…
For the last couple of years, a ‘place name’ debate has raged in Moab, mostly via the letters column in the weekly Times-Independent. Some Grand County citizens think the name ‘Negro Bill Canyon,’ is racist and offensive and should be…
THANKS to Tom McCourt & the Tibbetts Family. For years, I have been watching Moab move farther and farther away from its roots, to the point where it seems few people even know the history of the place anymore. Some…
Editor’s Note: Sixteen years after this article was written, life for LGBT Utahns (and elsewhere in the United States) has changed for the better. As Stephen Clark, the ACLU legal director quoted extensively in the article, noted, “Progress goes basically…
In the last years of Herb Ringer’s life, he began to lose his eyesight from macular degeneration. There were many photographs he wanted to caption but blindness had stopped him. But Herb was convinced he would remember the photos, if…
From the Zephyr Archives… In the 21st century, it is ludicrous…indeed, quite tragic, to have to defend the actions taken by Congress on August 25, 1916 when it established the National Park System. The American people purposely, in the creation…
From the Zephyr Archives… Nostalgia, from Greek nostos, a return, and algos, pain or grief. Somewhere in its long journey through languages the word, at least in American English, acquired a shift that turned pain and grief to something like…
For decades, the Meador House was one of the most prominent homes on Main Street. But it sat vacant for years and in the late 90s, the house was torn down. A few years later, after a contracted battle with…