When President Obama created “Bears Ears National Monument,” it was an accepted fact that with the designation would come massive development studies, master plans, draft management plans, and ultimately, the approval of multi-million dollar visitor centers, improved roads, and other…
I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. –Jack Kerouac, On the Road And still I look, certain you’ll leave me –Richard Hugo, “Upper Voight’s, To All…
A few months ago, Tonya and I were climbing our favorite mountain in one of the (still) most remote parts of southern Utah. It’s not a technical climb by any means but a steep hike that rises about 2000 feet…
This past Fall, Jim and I took a trip out to Herb Ringer country. We wanted to return to a few of the spots in Nevada and California that held particular importance for Herb, and see how those places had…
John Hendricks is the founder and former CEO of The Discovery Channel. Almost a quarter century ago, he started buying up land near Gateway, Colorado, in order he said, “to save it.” Gateway was a small, bucolic rural wide spot…
“The General Assembly has widely acknowledged that the world’s depletion of natural resources and rapid environmental degradation are the result of unsustainable consumption and production patterns which have led to adverse consequences for both the Earth and the health and…
My buddy Joseph Day, from Second Mesa, Arizona and a longtime Zephyr supporter, likes to torture me from time to time. Last night, Tonya and I were having a quiet evening when an email popped up from Joe. “Have you…
NOTE: This edition of Hank Schmidt’s monthly reports is especially difficult to read. The National park Service operated on a shoestring budget in those days and the park managers were encouraged to conserve whenever possible. Here, Hank must have decided…
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In this issue… Take it or Leave it: “OK BOOMERS?” GOOD LUCK, “DOOMERS:” A Recent History of Generational Fear, Angst and Loathing … by Jim Stiles The Other Lonely Rangers: The Forgotten Lives of America’s Basque Sheepherders… by Tonya Audyn…
Until recently, I was blissfully unaware of the internet’s latest trope/meme/catchphrase. “Okay Boomer” is supposed to be a snarky put-down of my admittedly disgraceful generation by our younger nieces and nephews. For the most part, I couldn’t agree more. But…
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…
We are particular to preserve the buildings, but fear, unless the Gov’t sees proper to make a national park of the Cañons, including Mesa Verde, that the tourists will destroy them. B. K. Wetherill, 1890 Into the silent stone building…
Perhaps light is the first thing that appears when I think of this place, light, the way it textures the world here. True, I see places where I have camped and fished and walked and drank coffee. I see cairns…
Those who know me, along with those who read my pieces in the Zephyr, are familiar with my hatred of what my neighborhood has become. It is not the same place it was when I moved here as a young…
Every year, seasonal and permanent rangers at national parks across the fruited plain gather for their annual law enforcement training refresher course. The NPS takes itself pretty seriously these days. It’s been decades since the Park Service decided to strip…
The vast material displacements the machine has made in our physical environment are perhaps in the long run less important than its spiritual contributions to our culture. — Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization There are now a great many young…
Political clout of newly empowered Navajo Democrats helps defeat a proposal to study change of San Juan County (Utah) government “Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, 1789 Many…
Note: This story is reprinted with permission from Bill Keshlear and “Bears Ears Divide.” It first appeared HERE. (The following has been updated to include comments of Rep. Phil Lyman, R-District 73. Also, in a recorded phone conversation Juan Palma…
I first visited Moab in the brutally cold January of 1973. I returned the following summer, then again and again. And in the fall of 1975 I moved there to stay. It was an early seminal moment…Moab, I proclaimed, would…
(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Oct/Nov 1999 Issue of the Zephyr. Kent Frost lived until May 16, 2013. To read his obituary from the San Juan Record, follow this link: Kent Frost May 16, 2013.) Celebrated river…