{"id":17271,"date":"2019-12-31T12:39:56","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T18:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=17271"},"modified":"2020-01-02T10:01:07","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T16:01:07","slug":"zephyr-best-stories-of-2019-the-publishers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/31\/zephyr-best-stories-of-2019-the-publishers\/","title":{"rendered":"Zephyr Best Stories of 2019: The Publishers…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New Year’s Bonus
The Most-Read ZEPHYR STORIES
of 2019!<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 1: The Publishers…<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This has been our best year yet at the Zephyr. In 2019, we released six creative, thoughtful and informative issues of the Z, and thanks to you, the articles in them have reached a wider audience than ever before. So this week and next week, in addition to our regular Zephyr Stories emails, we want to highlight some of the favorite and most-read stories we published in the past year. Next week, we’ll be listing the top 10 articles from our incredible contributors–Damon Falke, Stacy Young, Paul Vlachos, Bill Keshlear and Harvey Leake. This week, we’re spotlighting the top 5 from the Zephyr publishers, Jim and Tonya Stiles…  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edward Abbey Needs No Defense: <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Response to Amy Irvine\u2019s \u201cDesert Cabal\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 by Tonya Audyn Stiles <\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This article has received more comments than any in Zephyr history…<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the article…<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subsequent media promotion for Desert Cabal unleashed Irvine to dig even deeper and more personally into her sentiments for and assessment of Abbey and Desert Solitaire. She had been enlisted to offer a 21st Century assessment of a man who has been dead for more than three decades. In her interviews, she didn\u2019t pull any punches:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Orion Magazine\u2018s Nicholas Triolo, Irvine declared, \u201cAbbey\u2019s take on wilderness was a useful construct at a time when the nation needed to lay the brakes on Manifest Destiny. But his views were just as colonialist. The way he wrote about wilderness normalized what was actually a narrative about white male privilege and dominion.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Adventure Journal\u2018s Katie Klingsporn, she remarked that Abbey\u2019s views \u201chelped to elevate the white, \u2018lone wolf\u2019 male supremacy at the heart of the modern day wilderness movement he helped inspire.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And speaking about Ed\u2019s book to Pacific Standard magazine, she professed, \u201cSomebody asked me the other day if I thought Desert Solitaire would be published today. Certainly not in its existing form\u2014I think there\u2019s enough racism and sexism and just exclusivity, which I referred to as the \u2018ivory cabin\u2019 syndrome.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Desert Cabal received some criticism from other Abbey readers and friends of Ed\u2019s like Doug Peacock, who were uncomfortable with the Irvine\u2019s prominence in the 50th anniversary commemoration, Back of Beyond\u2019s Andy Nettel dismissed them. He told Outside Magazine, \u201cAmy\u2019s run into a couple of old-school white males who have taken her to task. I sense that there was this very protective feeling, of protecting Ed, protecting Ed\u2019s legacy.\u201d And Irvine told her interviewer at The Paris Review, \u201cWhatever reasons Desert Cabal\u2019s critics give for being so opposed to its publication, their opposition looks an awful lot like an attempt to preserve their places at the table inside the ivory cabin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe pushback,\u201d of people like Peacock, she maintained, \u201chas come from a select few who belong to an older generation of wilderness writers and activists\u2014all of whom are very white and privileged, all of whom have been at the center of the wilderness movement for decades.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publishing Desert Cabal was an interesting choice, certainly, for a bookstore that has profited so well over the years by the popularity of Abbey\u2019s books and reputation. Releasing a Desert Solitaire remembrance by a woman who accuses its celebrated author of \u201ccolonialism\u201d and \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d was certainly not what most Abbey readers would have expected.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE…<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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THE ORIGINAL ARCH HUNTERS <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Ranger Stiles #6 1975-1986<\/a>)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2026by Jim Stiles<\/a> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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From the article…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For reasons that I have never been able to fully grasp, some men are destined to search for holes in the rock. I don\u2019t know if this is some kind of affliction\u2014with all the New Disorders facing American Society, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s only a matter of time until arch hunting is diagnosed, given a name and a treatment is developed\u2014but certainly, something happens to some men when they come to Arches National Park (note: I do not mean to exclude women\u2013I simply don\u2019t see this illness affecting the female gender).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was unaware of this phenomenon, or affliction (depending on how you look at it) when I first assumed my duties as a ranger at Arches National Park. For many of us, the arches were more of a distraction than an attraction. After all, it\u2019s the absence of rock that actually creates the arches in the first place. We often wondered, if we could fill up the holes with rock, and convert them into simple Entrada sandstone walls, would the people still come? Or would they find all this un-holey scenery boring? Would the arch-less Arches lack the cachet it needed to be popular? By today\u2019s standards, with social media driving Industrial Tourism and the ignominious demise of our culture, it\u2019s difficult to say.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1976, however, there was an unshakable cadre of \u201cborn-to-be-arch hunters\u201d that had mystically made their way to Southeast Utah…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE…<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The Other Lonely Rangers: <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Forgotten Lives of America\u2019s Basque Sheepherder<\/a>s<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

…by Tonya Audyn Stiles <\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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This article has been read more than 10,000 times in the three weeks since it was published. Our thanks to all who shared it via Facebook or word of mouth! Sharing Z stories is the best way to help us reach more readers…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Article…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the trial of the year in Moab, Utah. The courtroom was packed full by Ten in the morning, November 18th of 1921. Tensions had been brewing a long time between the cattlemen of Southeast Utah and the encroaching sheep herders from the south. The previous February, one sheepherder had crossed the line. Or so the defense attorney argued before the assembled crowd.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young Felix Jesui had brought his sheep onto land he knew belonged to the Lazy Y Ranch, near Cisco. The ranch was owned by the powerful Oscar L. Turner. When foreman Charlie Glass warned Jesui to withdraw his herd and cease his illegal grazing, Felix drew his gun. Glass, in defense of his own life, returned fire. He quickly turned himself in to the local sheriff, and was now under trial for the murder of Jesui.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Glass was no ordinary defendant. The foreman was widely respected in the small communities of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah for his skill with horses, his bronc-riding courage and his intimidating build, which he used to great effect in subduing the sheepherders who threatened Turner\u2019s large cattle operations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Glass was an oddity. He was a black cattleman with a gun. And while highly regarded by his bosses and fellow ranch hands\u2014Mr Turner had paid his bail and now financed his defense\u2014it was difficult to predict how the local jury would treat him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Jesui had been another kind of victim\u2014a fellow cattleman, for instance, or a white man\u2014then Glass\u2019 fate would have been sealed. But Felix Jesui was neither. And Charlie Glass was soon acquitted of the charges against him. Glass returned to his work on the Lazy Y Ranch. He returned to his bronc-riding and his regular poker games. And probably, for him, the matter seemed safely in the past.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For sixteen years, both the trial and the sheepherder were forgotten. Until the night Glass found himself in a poker game with two cousins of Felix Jesui. These two men knew precisely who sat across from them at the table. After the game had finished, that late night in Cisco, Utah, the two sheepherders offered Glass a ride home. Charlie happily accepted.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, Charlie Glass was found dead, with a broken neck, after an apparent rollover accident in the pickup truck, which somehow left those two Basque men unscathed. And though no one could prove it for certain, the citizens of Moab wondered whether Felix had found his posthumous revenge.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE…<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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MOAB GREENS CONFESS: <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cINDUSTRIAL TOURISM\u201d EXISTS. <\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(And now\u2026their \u2018solutions\u2019)<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u2026by Jim Stiles<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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From the Article…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The problem with the conservation movement is that it has clear conscience.”  –Wendell Berry <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 20 years, Utah environmentalists have managed to deny or ignore the impacts of “Industrial Strength Tourism,” and have even been some of its biggest supporters and promoters. They are Big Green Money’s enablers. The environmental mainstream has partnered with recreation industry giants like Patagonia and North Face and have advocated for tourism as a clean and sustaining alternative to other types of economies. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence of environmental destruction from recreation, the mainstream environmental community has mostly stayed shamefully silent.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…But finally, in the Spring of 2019, , as Industrial Tourism wreaks havoc on the Moab community and the lands beyond the city limits, and as other communities across the American West buckle under similar stresses and impacts, it’s interesting to note that some of these same devoted “green” Utah spokespersons finally…FINALLY… are starting to hedge their bets, if even in the most tepid and milquetoast of ways. They have finally “come out” and agreed that maybe their beloved “clean and sustaining” the tourism\/amenity economy has some drawbacks. And they come with some “solutions.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me offer some recent examples… <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE…<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

And For More From 2019 on Moab’s Transformation, Click Here…<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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ED ABBEY: THIRTY YEARS LATER<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u2026by Jim Stiles<\/a> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Our Most Read Article of the Year! <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the article…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbey\u2019s unflinching willingness to contradict himself confused and bewildered many of his admirers. Consequently, his readers have increasingly preferred to to edit and even sanitize their favorite author, instead of honestly weighing and scrutinizing his conflicting perspectives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as we approach the end of the second decade of the 21st Century, the Spirit of Abbey Lives (sort of). But can Abbey still be Abbey?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider this recent post by The Grand Canyon Trust. On what would have been Abbey\u2019s 89th birthday, GCT Communications Associate Ellen Heyn wrote:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn honor of Edward Abbey\u2019s birthday, we\u2019re celebrating his cult classic book The Monkey Wrench Gang\u2014not as a guide to sabotage, but as a guide to some of the Colorado Plateau\u2019s most spectacular places. Here we retrace the steps of George Hayduke, Seldom Seen Smith, Doc Sarvis, and Bonnie Abbzug in their crazy chase around the plateau.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fearful the Trust might look too radical, but still wanting to \u201chonor\u201d Abbey, they chose to take one of his most controversial but highly respected works and turn it into\u2014god help us all\u2014a travel guide. What could be more dis-honoring than that?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE…<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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And, as always, feel free to VISIT OUR HOMEPAGE<\/a> and see all the articles currently posted! <\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Year’s Bonus The Most-Read ZEPHYR STORIES of 2019! Part 1: The Publishers… This has been our best year yet at the Zephyr. In 2019, we released six creative, thoughtful and informative issues of the Z, and thanks to you, the articles in them have reached a wider audience than ever before. So this week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17271"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17311,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17271\/revisions\/17311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}