An excerpt:

The golden light of October cottonwoods in the canyons was as I remembered. The year was 2002, and I had returned to the Utah canyon country for a rendezvous with a crowd of friends. We had been rangers together during the 1970s and 1980s, employees of the National Park Service or the Bureau of Land Management. Our gathering place was Sand Island, not far west of the town of Bluff.

We told stories under the trees, on the trail, and around the campfire. On one of those days, I was talking to Lynell Shalk, a former ranger with the Bureau of Land Management. I said, “This is the most beautiful place on earth, the center of the world.”

She said, “You know, don’t you, that you just spoke the first line from Desert Solitaire?”

“What?”

“This is the most beautiful place on earth.”

Click the image to read more of Tom’s story:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/06/02/on-patrol-with-edward-abbey-by-tom-wylie/

An excerpt:

They clattered up Farley Creek a half mile, slid to park and went into the store. Windy, very importantly and methodically, sorted the mail into little pigeon holes behind the wired window which represented the Post Office. There were about eight letters and cards, a few newspapers and a tin of boat parts for the six inhabitants of Dandy Crossing.White and Farley canyons entering together on the left bank of the river comprised one settlement; Cass Hite’s ranch and orchard on the right bank, the other. Old Cass had named his crossing ‘A Dandy’ and the river people kept it that way. To the rest of the world it was Hite… if you could find it on a map.

Jason walked to the freezer and got an ice cream bar. He laid a quarter on the counter and leaned there, looking out at the only gas pump within a hundred miles. A hum from the generator and a creaking of roof beams in the midday heat were all that broke the silence.

Click the image to read more of Katie Lee’s story:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/06/02/the-ghosts-of-dandy-crossing-an-excerpt-by-katie-lee/

An excerpt:

By the mid-1990s, Moab and Grand County citizens—especially voters—were worn out. So was I. Beginning in 1987, with Moab’s economy in tatters and its elected officials proposing a toxic waste incinerator at Cisco to boost property taxes, it was one crisis after another.

A forced referendum in 1988 put an end to the incinerator, tossed out the incumbents, and installed a Democrat majority. The lame duck Republicans created an independent special service road district, with its own mineral lease funding, and moved forward on a massive highway project.

Two years later, the Republicans gained the majority on the three-person commission and appeared to be unstoppable for the next four years. But by 1992, Moabites, especially angry tourism-related business owners, were infuriated by an ill-advised Travel Council appointment. They rebelled and gained the momentum and public support, via yet another referendum, to toss out the entire form of government and install a new 7-person council.

Click the image to read more of Jim’s story:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/06/02/the-zephyr-chronicles-part-2-a-big-change-the-signs-of-things-to-come-1996-2001-by-jim-stiles/

An excerpt:

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, we usually know it’s not a fire. It blasts three times a day, but every time I hear it now, I think of Gene Schafer. Once, just after I moved to town, I was at Gene’s shop and, when the siren sounded, I said, “It must be six o’clock.”

Gene snorted, “Hell, Stiles. That ain’t what those sirens are. You think it means 8 AM, Noon and 6 PM, right?”

“Well,” I replied. “What else could it mean?”

He said, “First siren, time to get up, second siren, time for lunch. Third siren? One more hour til the liquor store closes.” That was Gene.

Click the image to read more of Jim’s story:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/06/02/take-it-or-leave-it-i-still-miss-gene-schafer-by-jim-stiles/

An excerpt:

Firstly, I should acknowledge that the phrase “The Personal is Political” has been used in a number of contexts since its origins in the Second Wave Feminism of the 60s and 70s. Originally, I believe it was an argument that the personal, or domestic, struggles of womanhood were symptomatic of the larger power imbalance between the sexes. I can’t argue with that. But, forty years after Second-Wave feminism, I’ve also heard that phrase used in reference to animal rights, labor issues, environmentalism, and Fair Trade issues.

It’s a handy phrase, because, on its face, it is undeniably true. Every act, every purchase, takes place within the larger context of society. Your choice of milk, of clothing, your job, what your trash looks like, is all reflective of, and contributes to, a larger society.

So what’s the problem?

Click the image to read more of Tonya’s story:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2014/06/02/sowing-clover-does-my-soul-look-good-in-these-jeans-by-tonya-stiles/