BILL DAVIS & ‘ENOUGH ROPE” A MOAB REPORTER RETURNS AFTER 35 YEARS. In the late 70s. Moab was experiencing a mini-boom of sorts. The Atlas mill was still running full-tilt. The price of oil had skyrocketed, thanks to the Iranian…
Few readers of The Monkey Wrench Gang know that Bonnie Abbzug was based on a real woman–a real dancer from the Bronx. She and Ed were a couple when Ed began writing the book and they remained friends until his…
Environmentalists so often seem self-righteous, privileged, and arrogant because they so readily consent to identifying nature with play and making it by definition a place where leisured humans come only to visit and not to work, stay, or live. Thus…
NOTE: I finished this article several weeks ago, before the current COVID-19 disaster gave new urgency and recognition to the term “essential personnel.” It’s clear to everyone now how great a role is played by grocery workers, truckers, gas station…
Today, the rural west veers between two economic extremes: The industrial resource extraction and commodity economy, and the industrial tourism economy. The traditional occupations of the west, ranching, farming, logging, and mining, are locked in a deadly embrace with global…
“The world has gone mad today And good’s bad today, And black’s white today, And day’s night today, And that gent today You gave a cent today Once had several chateaux.” I sometimes think of happier times. What is “happy,”…
This article first appeared in the Utah Historical Quarterly, and is reprinted with the permission of the author. Click Here to Read Part 1… [Bates] Wilson had originally conceived a Canyonlands in which access would be substantially by jeep and…
The fire was now burning brightly. We sat down around Grandfather as the firelight played over his face and white hair. We could hear the wind blowing outside, but everything was peaceful inside the hogan and we were all contented.…
My grandfather, Hayden, was a soft-spoken Baptist who grew up in south Texas during a period when converts were taken to a muddy creek and, well, dunked “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.”…
I woke up today and made a cup of tea. It’s a little after 4:30 AM when I do this. It’s dark outside, but I look anyway. In another couple of months the sun will be shining through my kitchen…