Until the day my father died, he and I agreed on practically nothing. Once, almost two decades ago, on a visit home, he and I crossed swords on the issue of welfare. While I’ve never quite been the bleeding-heart liberal…
PREFACE: The events in Ferguson, Missouri remind me of a moment in my own brief career in law enforcement, as a ranger with the National Park Service at Arches NP. I wrote this account in 2005, years after the confrontation…
“For many, this is deja-vu. Grand County has been through this before. And, we know how to deal with it.” —Chris Baird, candidate for Grand County Council (explaining his recall petition to remove Lynn Jackson from office.) Sometimes I…
On a Saturday morning in late July, a skinny teenager who still examined his face closely each morning, praying for any sign of hair growth, left the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim in his VW Squareback.…
Four months ago, the Grand County Council presented a proposal to build an “energy transportation corridor” via Sego Canyon, through the Book Cliffs, to possible oil development sites in the northern tip of Grand County. The plan included the creation…
Recently, the Utah Wildlife Board proposed a hunting season for crows. While they are not particularly tasty and are known for their intelligence, crows have often been blamed by farmers for agricultural losses via crop damage—crows have to eat, after…
I’d been away from Monticello for a couple months, but one evening last week, after a long, hard drive, I pulled into the old elm-shaded driveway and started to unload my bags. Just then, the siren went off. For Monticello-ites,…
Trying to sum up the past 25 years, you’d think the logical opening here would be, ‘I don’t know where to begin.’ The truth is, once you wade through this issue, you might ask yourself, ‘Does he know how to…
In the very first Zephyr, I wrote a long article about a road building proposal that would be debated for years. In late 1989, the lame duck Grand County Commissioners created a self-funded, autonomous special service road district, with the…
I’m not sure what else can be said about Edward Abbey after all these years. God knows I’ve said plenty and have often tried to speculate ‘What Cactus Ed would’ve done,” as we race through the second decade of the…