There’s a stretch of tricky water dead ahead of us. I have to row like hell to gain access to the faster water inside the river’s bend, the main channel. I’m navigating through Eight-foot Rapid on Utah’s San Juan River…
It was around the first of October that the leaves on the birch trees began to blow away. I looked out of the window one morning and saw that leaves had gathered at the side of the road. I saw…
What’s the biggest mistake you ever made? No, not that kind; I mean work related. If you’ve reached A Certain Age, you might even have trouble picking the one. Not me; mine shines out like a beacon against the…
“We had spent one night at Kayenta. No one could be even that short a time in the Wetherills’ house, hearing them talk, seeing the beautiful things hanging on their walls, without catching some of the riches to be found…
Pahaana, that’s the Hopi word for white Americans of European ancestry, white folks, and that’s me. Being one of the few Pahaanas married to a Hopi woman and practicing the ancient Hopi custom of living at your wife’s place means…
I like loneliness and the solitude of fishing – of getting away from crowds – to escape our world and into that of another. I am a naturally anxious person. A person whose mind swells with “what if’s” at every…
Everyone was expecting another typical Moab Spring. A year earlier it had looked like this… and then… For weeks, Moab looked like this. A post-apocalyptic ghost town. Moab local Kerry Lange took these two shots from a spot on Main…
Note: this article first appeared in the October/November 1999 Zephyr… When the Sierra Club council, years ago, turned its back on Glen Canyon and essentially permitted the building of the Glen Canyon dam, I was stunned and bitter beyond belief.…
Tonya and I have been together for more than a decade now. Being married has brought me more happiness than I deserve but it’s also been revelatory. I was a bachelor for most of my life and apparently, according to my…
January 22, 1942 By Henry G Schmidt, Custodian Moab, Utah Travel this month, 63; Travel year to date, 625 Weather The new year of 1942 brought us zero temperatures and cold winds, lasting for 6 days and an abrupt change…
Our regular readers know that we began a new project at the Zephyr in the past year–called “Zephyr America.” We’ve been slowly wading through the massive Zephyr archives of historic photos and digitizing them to share with our readers. To…
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In this issue… Take it or Leave it: A Few Words About Justin Farrell and ” Billionaire Wilderness” …by Jim Stiles Finding Peace at Yosemite, Part Two: Ansel Adams and WWII’s Wounded Soldiers …by Tonya Audyn Stiles An Excerpt from…
Back in June, a friend sent me a link to a new book that he thought might interest me. It was called Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy & the Remaking of the American West. I was able to access a brief introduction…
Author’s Note: Last issue, we published “Part One” of this two-part essay. Part One provided the backstory for a very particular time and a place–Yosemite Valley at Christmas, 1943. Photographer Ansel Adams lived and worked in the Valley, and he…
Author’s Note: Since the book’s release, there’s one question consistently asked of me, sprouting up in nearly every media appearance or academic discussion. At first, the regularity with which it was asked came as a surprise, seeming to have nothing…
One of the great blessings of life is the gift of friendship. Like so much of Life itself, friends arrive unexpectedly, purely by chance— by good fortune to be sure. Here at the Zephyr, we often think of old friends now…
“I am very cautious of people who are absolutely right, especially when they are vehemently so.” –Michael Palin NOTE: This story is not intended to be prophecy, projection, or prediction; nor is it offered as a warning or a celebration…
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…