I woke up early this morning. Early is 3:30 am, this after an 11:30 bedtime. I sometimes hear people talk about how they can’t sleep. I wonder if they mean what I mean when I say that I can’t sleep.…
Almost 40 years ago, I bought some land in San Juan County. The property was part of what had once been an 800 acre ranch. Not long after, I went on a reconnoitering hike and discovered a small wooded side…
First of all, there’s no such thing as objectivity. How you see the world depends on where you stand and who you are. There’s nothing anybody can do about that. So my solution is to tell readers where I stand.…
On August 22, 2019, a town hall-style meeting was held in Mexican Water, Utah. The gathering was open to all citizens of San Juan County and it was attended by the county’s three commissioners, Kenneth Maryboy, Willie Grayeyes and Bruce Adams.…
THIRTY YEARS AGO… These were our fourth and fifth issues of the then-monthly Zephyr and our first election issue. I interviewed both mayoral candidates for the November issue, Bill Meador and the incumbent, Tom Stocks. Even then, the issue of…
I’ve pulled away from following almost all of the non-profit environmental groups and organizations because they have become consumed more about politics and power, rather than actually caring about what happens to Nature. Nature is used these days as a…
This is Hank Schmidt’s Monthly Report from October of 1940. He’d been the park custodian at Arches National Monument for roughly a year. Click Here to Read HANK SCHMIDT’S MONTHLY REPORT: Arches National Monument, June 1940 Click Here to Read…
HERB RINGER and his parents, Sadie and Joseph, traveled across the American West and into the Canadian Rockies on numerous trips, from 1941 to 1973. We are in the process of scanning hundreds of Herb’s Kodachrome transparencies that have never…
This is the second batch of documents from The Zephyr’s 2018 FOIA request to the Bureau of Land Management. The request for documents related to the May 10, 2014 “Recapture Canyon “Protest” that led eventually to the indictment and conviction…
This is the second batch of documents from The Zephyr’s 2018 FOIA request to the Bureau of Land Management. The request for documents related to the May 10, 2014 “Recapture Canyon “Protest” that led eventually to the indictment and conviction…
The Zephyr Backbone is what keeps us alive! Click Here to Join! *Note: The Cartoonist screwed up in Feb/March. In a subconscious attempt to escape the world’s news, he changed one of our Backbone Member’s names from “Michael” to “Richard”…
Take it or Leave it: IN SEARCH OF DOCUMENTS—MY BLM/FOIA “RECAPTURE CANYON” REQUEST …by Jim Stiles Edward Abbey Needs No Defense: A Response to Amy Irvine’s “Desert Cabal”… by Tonya Audyn Stiles The Slovenly Wilderness… by Stacy Young The Open…
Over a year ago, on May 14, 2018, I filed a “Freedom of Information Act” request (FOIA) with the Bureau of Land Management. I was interested in obtaining public documents related to the controversial “Recapture Canyon Protest Ride” on May…
“If a label is required say that I am one who loves unfenced country. The open range. Call me a ranger. Though I’ve hardly earned the title I claim it anyway. The only higher honor I’ve ever heard of is…
Regular readers of the Zephyr may have noticed that I have been a frequent contributing writer for the past year or two. For the past few months, Jim and I have thrown around the idea of turning my musings into…
(where NOTHING is as black & white as we want it to be) On May 7, 2019, the San Juan County commissioners gathered at their regular bi-monthly meeting to discuss an array of controversial matters (If its San Juan County,…
There is much I will never write. This is a promise I have made to myself and to others. It is easy to imagine myself in one place or another, with a fly rod in my hand and another river…
Paul Vlachos is a New Yorker who understands The West. And he is a New Yorker who understands New York. Wherever Paul goes, he finds signs of life… I’m not some kind of neat freak, although people inclined to believe…
How would you feel if you learned that a former president was coming to stay at your home? In 1913, fifteen-year-old Sister Wetherill was both excited and worried when she heard that Theodore Roosevelt would be spending some time at…
Arches National Park is often called a frontcountry park, because many of its most celebrated natural features are within sight of the paved park road. The Arches highway winds its way from Moab Canyon and US 191 to its terminus…
NOTE: This article first appeared in the July 7 edition of the San Juan Record. Bill Boyle is its publisher and editor. — The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in the past week regarding political gerrymandering. In brief,…
HERB RINGER and his parents, Sadie and Joseph, traveled across the American West and into the Canadian Rockies on numerous trips, from 1941 to 1973. We are in the process of scanning hundreds of Herb’s Kodachrome transparencies that have never…
NOTE: This is the story I wrote for the August/September 2009 issue of The Zephyr, following the raid on Blanding homes by BLM law enforcement the previous June…JS It’s an early morning in June 2009….Blanding, Utah. Suddenly, more than a…
When the BLM sent me the compact disk containing some of the documents I requested, I opened up the files and learned that the agency had divided the documents into four folders. They were labeled: 1. Employee1_DH 2. LE (law…
