NOTE: In the early years of The Zephyr, Moab was transforming itself, though not everyone was sure just who the ‘transformers’ were. We set out to ask the citizens of Moab and Grand County what they saw coming. Here is…
Click Here to Read the Previous Installments of Brave New West (The Comic Strip)… Jim Stiles is Founder and Co-Publisher of the Canyon Country Zephyr. To comment, scroll to the bottom of the page. Don’t forget the Zephyr ads! All…
A two-part essay on the process of New West gentrification and the future of San Juan County, Utah after the designation of Bears Ears National Monument. Part one will provide historical context and define certain conceptual terms in order to…
PART I: A latter-day David and Goliath saga The home of the Pyramid Lake (Nev.) Paiutes is pristine and spectacular. The lake is quiet, commercially primitive, other-worldly. It constantly changes color from shades of blue or gray depending upon the…
I have been publishing The Zephyr for 29 years; this isn’t one of those landmark anniversaries, like the fast-approaching Big 30, but everything seems so volatile lately, so uncertain, and more than anything—so nasty–that I thought maybe I’d do a…
In the late 1990s, as Moab was starting to feel the first pangs of unrestrained growth, I penned a Zephyr article called, “Return to Moab: 2020 AD.” I wrote it mostly for laughs but now, as we approach that once…
“There are two different types of change: one that occurs within a given system which itself remains unchanged, and one whose occurrence changes the system itself.” – Watzlawick, Weakland, and Fisch, from their book Change. For years now Jim Stiles…
What do oil companies & environmentalists have in common? Sometimes their money comes from the same ‘donor.’ A few years ago, High Country News and Writers on the Range published an essay by Gary Wockner called, “Can Billionaire Philanthropy Save…