Where I live, in the North, autumn comes early. I was out gathering blueberries and mushrooms when it came this year. Autumn is my favorite time of year, as it is for many people. Two years ago we did not…
Come Autumn…by Damon Falke
OUR FRIENDS WERE DEARER THEN, #2: BILL BENGE, OLD FRIEND…by Jim Stiles
Late on a Friday night last October, word came to me that my best friend, Bill Benge, had died suddenly of a massive heart attack. I came to realize that Life for many of us who knew and loved Bill…
“My Old Man, the Uranium King,” Part 4…by Mark Steen
In order to follow the history of the exploration and development of the Big Indian mining district it is necessary to understand a few things about the geology of the uranium ore deposits that were found after Charlie Steen discovered…
Losing Solitude: Froggers…by Martin Murie
The froggers would arrive in the mornings, having driven from their night hunt in California’s Central Valley wetlands, bullfrog country. They’d carry wet burlap bags full of live frogs into the streetside building, talk for a while, take their pay…
ZEPHYR ‘DEJA VU’/FLASHBACKS #1: MOAB: CASH KILLED OUR CACHET…by Jim Stiles
From the OCTOBER 1999 ‘Take It or Leave It’… This seems to have been a bad summer for a lot of Moab merchants. Many Main Street businesses are reporting drops in sales. There is genuine concern out there that tourism…
Herb Ringer’s American West: “HOLE ‘N’ THE ROCK” 1950
HOLE “N” THE ROCK 1950 The Dream of Albert Christensen, Hole N the Rock, is still open 7 days a week FOR MORE ON HOLE N THE ROCK, FOLLOW THESE LINKS… THE UNITY MONUMENT: The ‘Hole n” the Rock’ Creator’s…
Before & After: The Junction of Hwy 160 and State Hwy 128. 1940 & 2016
PLUS…what the site of Jack Holley’s cabin–the Goat Man of Moab—looks like now… In 1940, photographer HARRY REED snapped this image of the old Colorado River bridge and US 160 (now US 191) and the river road (hwy 128.)…
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The August/September Issue of the Zephyr!
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT…JIM STILES THE WAY IT IS THIS MORNING… August 1 1936 DATELINE / MOAB, UTAH SOWING CLOVER…TONYA STILES ‘MY PROBLEM WITH ENVIRONMENTALISTS’ BEFORE & AFTER Utah Highway 95 in North Wash…1959 & 2016 “Before” image by…
‘STILES’ TIME MACHINE’ (Return to Moab, August, 1936 … Jim Stiles
NOTE: Often, living in the year 2016, in these gruesome and depressing times, is more than I can endure. I long to be more than just ‘somewhere else.’ It’s not a matter of where as it is ‘when.’ To be…
Sowing Clover: My Problem with Environmentalists …by Tonya Morton
I must confess, I’m hesitant to label myself an environmentalist. Environmentalism, for the past 20-odd years at least, seems to me to have been an ideology of removal: remove the steel mills; remove the coal mines, remove the textile factories,…
REMEMBERING JACK HOLLEY: “The Goat Man of Moab”…by Jim Stiles
NOTE: I’d like to offer a special ‘thanks’ to Lillie Keener of Salt Lake City for her contributions to this story. Lillie grew up in Moab and lived with her “Moab Mom and Dad,” Troy and Jaunita Anderson. The Andersons…
THE FUTURE? BEARS EARS NATIONAL ‘MONEY-MINT’ and More Facts & Opinions…by Jim Stiles
“My father told of a fearful dream. He said, ‘I dreamt I saw the greatest migration that has yet been through our country. I looked North, and South, and East, and West, and I saw nothing but dust. And I…
The Barrier Canyon Expedition of 1940… by Barry Scholl
Horseshoe Canyon, also known as Barrier Canyon, is a cliff-walled gorge that winds north to the Green River from highlands in the Orange Cliffs. Its head is in Robbers Roost, and the gorge once served as an escape route for…
Vlachos’ Views…Photos and Captions by Paul Vlachos
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… The theme for this month is “Big Signs.” Of course, is a…
“My Old Man, the Uranium King,” Part 3…by Mark Steen
A few days after the Denver Post published its closely worded story about my father’s Big Indian uranium discovery, Moab’s Times-Independent ran an article based on the same announcement that Dad had given to the Denver newspaper. Although the Times-Independent…
‘REMEMBERING a TIME WHEN the TRUTH MATTERED: Ed Abbey & Wendell Berry. Introduction by Doug Meyer
From a 1988 ‘debate’ in the EARTH FIRST! JOURNAL… INTRODUCTION by DOUG MEYER What does this quarter-century old debate from US environmental history tell us? Very simply, honest environmentalism would have played only one role: that of counter-cultural force to…
Those Bad Growth Blues: A Look at the Economic Right… By Scott Thompson
Note: since this is an essay it doesn’t have a geographical setting on this, much less any other, planet. In the absence of such a setting I offer photographs from my journey across the topographical heart of Nevada on U.S.…
An Excerpt From ‘LAST OF THE ROBBERS ROOST OUTLAWS: Moab’s BILL TIBBETTS’, PART 7…By Tom McCourt
THANKS to Tom McCourt & the Tibbetts Family. For years, I have been watching Moab move farther and farther away from its roots, to the point where it seems few people even know the history of the place anymore. Some…
A Date with the Lonesome Lady…by Tom Cartwright
INTRODUCTION: When President Obama visited Hiroshima last May and laid a wreath at the Peace Memorial there, my mind flashed back to an evening more than 25 years ago, during a pack trip into Dark Canyon with Ken Sleight. It…
Photos of the “Goat Man” of Moab, Utah: the Lillie Keener Collection
I’d like to offer a special ‘thanks’ to Lillie Keener of Salt Lake City for her contributions to this issue of the Zephyr. Lillie grew up in Moab and lived with her “Moab Mom and Dad,” Troy and Jaunita Anderson.…