When I was a seasonal ranger, I lived at the Devils Garden Campground at Arches National Park for a full decade. Some people thought I’d never leave; even I wondered if I’d ever get out of there alive. I worried…
‘Old Moab’ vs. ‘New Moab’ Ed Abbey, Chilled Red Wine & When to Clap at the Symphony. In 1952, when Charlie Steen discovered uranium and turned Moab from a sleepy little village to the most famous Boom Town in America,…
‘THE BIGGEST PUBLIC LAND GRAB’ The ‘Green Energy Boom’ & Mainstream Environmentalism Sometimes the endless open spaces of the West impress me most when I can’t see them at all. One night when I was a ranger at the…
Election Blues… I have little or no enthusiasm for this election campaign. Nor do I think the outcome, either way, will dramatically change anything. The election of 2008 was supposed to change EVERYTHING. It didn’t. Whether you want to blame…
Pete Parry was superintendent of Canyonlands National Park from 1975 to 1987 and elsewhere in this issue is a story about Pete’s decade of service during one of Southeast Utah’s most turbulent and politically charged times—the Sagebrush Rebellion. Pete dealt…
GLEN CANYON, A HALF CENTURY AFTER THE DAM… In all the years and centuries and eons before it was flooded, only a relative handful of people saw the untamed, free and flowing Colorado River in Glen Canyon. When the gates…
Recently a quotation from George Clooney made the rounds on facebook. Every Democrat worth his liberal-leaning salt was running this admonition from the popular actor. In part he said: “I’m disillusioned with the people who are disillusioned with Obama, quite…
Since the Occupy Movement began last September, I’ve watched with bated breath. I love a good revolution and have spent most of my adult life hoping to see one, but in this day and age, especially here in the…
The world’s human population passed seven billion souls last October with little fanfare. There were a few ripples of concern but, incredibly, others thought it was a moment for celebration. You’d think we’d won a prize for procreation or something.…
In 1940, the Roosevelt administration hired out-of-work writers and photographers from coast to coast to create “travel guides” for each of the 48 states. The Federal Writers’ Project sent documentarians to the far corners of America. One of the most…