On April 9, the General Land Office issued an appointment document designating John Wetherill as custodian of the new monument “at a salary of $1.00 per month.” His duties were general supervision, submission of a monthly report, and notification to…
I’m writing this while drinking coffee. It’s in a big, old fashioned mug – brown glazed with a tiny chip on the handle – from the Hull Company. I found it second-hand in old Greenwich Village at a place that…
[A]s the pace of life keeps quickeningBeneath the bitching and the bickeringWhen I try to drown my thoughts in ginI find my worst ideas know how to swim — David Berman I’ll keep this installment short so we can all…
Government Rapid on the San Juan River isn’t just misnamed, it’s in the wrong place! The name is based on a supposed boat accident that occurred during the 1921 USGS Trimble Survey of the river. We know it is located somewhere downstream of the Goosenecks portion of the river canyons and upstream of Slickhorn Canyon, but where exactly remained a question in 1956 when Otis “Dock” Marston asked Kenny Ross – “where exactly is Government Rapid?”
(NOTE: This installment in my “ranger series” starts during my time at Arches, but the story of tamarisk at the park, and the NPS’s efforts to eradicate it go far beyond my tenure…JS) * * * In the last issue…
My wife Janice, AKA the boss, who is Hopi, owns a small shop called Tsakurshovi on the outskirts of the Hopi village of Songòopavi and that is where we both work. A substantial part of our business is local Hopi…
“Still, he could not help noticing what was in the air, and feeling some of its influence in his bones.” The Wind in the Willows On August 12th this year, I noticed the season turning. That afternoon I went outside…
I was sitting at my desk which faced away from the street, directly behind the massive wall of glass that used to make up the façade of the newspaper office (a position that frequently gave me an itchy spot between…
Dear Hugh: We have made some progress with the project to post the boundary. The entire West boundary of the monument has been posted and almost a quarter of the East boundary is now posted. This work has given me…
If you follow the Zephyr regularly, you probably already know that we’ve begun a new project this year. We’ve been slowly wading through the massive Zephyr archives of historic photos and digitizing them to share with our readers. To keep…
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In This Issue: TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT: RFK’s “The Mindless Menace of Violence” Speech …by Jim Stiles Finding Peace at Yosemite, Part One: Ansel Adams and WWII’s Wounded Soldiers …by Tonya Audyn Stiles Weeds …by Damon Falke George the…
I have been at a loss lately, to provide any words of significance, much less wisdom, on the current state of our country and what sometimes feels to me like a dismantling of our society. Words fail me. But I did…
There’s little doubt that we live today in interesting times. In recent months, Americans have been confronted with deep, seemingly insurmountable problems. Divisions among neighbors and families. The pain of economic loss and the specter of illness and death. We’ve…
My great grandparents, John and Louisa Wetherill, left a legacy that includes thousands of historic photographs they collected down through the years and preserved to pass on to future generations. These images, along with textual records, have been invaluable in…
I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower, you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if…
The following excerpt is from the book: CANYON COUNTRY EXPLORATIONS & RIVER LORE: The Remarkable Resilient Life of Kenny Ross, by Gene M. Stevenson. The book was written about Kenny Ross, one of the forgotten personalities on the Colorado Plateau…
As we limp and struggle into the second half of this “unprecedented, difficult, perilous, challenging, dangerous” Year 2020, I was reminded of a short essay I penned almost 15 years ago. It’s as if we’ve been in training for 2020 all…
My first controversy on the paper was one I didn’t seek and didn’t want, especially so early in my tenure; I had only been reporting for a couple of months. The issue involved the Friendship Cruise between Green River and…
My favorite kind of road trip usually devolves into a series of decisions about what direction I’m going to take that day. I wake up and check the weather to see if there is anything I need to avoid. I…
My dad was a birder. I always thought he looked silly, dressed up in his “bird outfit” and binoculars. And so I resisted the temptation, when I was a boy, to learn more about our feathered friends (Youthful rebellion at…