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…
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…
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…
During my career as a mass communications/journalism professor, I spent many years also teaching a section of English composition. Students were required to write a weekly 500-word essay using various styles of academic writing. One of those assigned categories was…
Regular Zephyr contributor Bill Davis sent us an extraordinary detailed account of one of Moab’s worst disasters, the Doxol explosion and fire on July 31, 1981. Bill was the chief reporter for the Times-Independent and his story in this issue is the…
Author’s note: One of the major “news values”—factors that generate media attention—is “impact”: How much of your audience is affected, and to what extent? A low-impact story, such as a flood of sewage into the basement of a single home,…
The most inaccessible, least known, and roughest portion of the Navajo Reservation is bounded by the Navajo, Colorado, San Juan, and Piute canyons. […] Buttes, mesas, and small domes predominate and are so tightly packed that the base of one…
Here we are at the end of March, and I am thinking about December. Well, not really December. I am thinking about town and how I sometimes go there to write. Town can be a location and an idea. In…
Note: This article first appeared in the October/November 2011 Zephyr… Many years ago, during one of my first trips to the canyon country, I made the dusty drive to Grandview Point on the Island in the Sky. The road was…
April 22, 1941 Dear Hugh: This report is going to be a bit brief because I am at present confined to bed with a severe cold, and am attempting to think and write clearly while lying almost flat on my…