On November 4, 1952, while traveling through southeast Utah, Charles Cushman encountered Jack Holley and his many critters. Cushman paused long enough enough to chat with ‘The Goat Man” and took these remarkable color images. It’s interesting to note the…
I am very grateful to the Utah State Historical Society, for their permission to reprint these incredible photos of Moab’s “Goat Man,” Jack Holley. From the Utah State Historical Society website: Alton Watkins Morton was born 26 July 1905 in…
Thursday morning. June 1, 1950 In early June 1950, Herb and his parents, Joseph and Sadie Ringer, crossed the original river bridge and paused on the south side to take a few photographs. As he returned to his Ford Woodie,…
For decades, centuries, and millennia, the southeast quadrant of what’s now called the State of Utah was one of the most remote parts of North America. Access to its center, Glen Canyon, was extremely limited. Reaching Glen Canyon via the…
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THE EVOLUTION OF TAYO INC. & THE CITY OF MOAB—(And a Final Observation)…by Jim Stiles TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT…Jim Stiles LYNN JACKSON & TRANSPARENCY FOR ALL… SOWING CLOVER…Tonya Stiles I LOVE THIS PLACE BEFORE & AFTER Arches National Park…
Many Moab citizens continue to ask questions about an IT security company called Tayo, Inc, its majority owner Tara Smelt, and that company’s relationship—personal and professional— to the City of Moab and its city manager Rebecca Davidson. Almost ALL this…
A few weeks ago, Grand County’s controversial county councilman, Lynn Jackson, was exonerated yet again by County Attorney Andrew Fitzgerald over allegations made by John Weisheit, the executive director of the Moab-based environmental group ‘Living Rivers. Weisheit’s lengthy ethics complaint…
On the first Saturday of May, Jim and I roused ourselves early and drove two hours to the Kansas Sampler Festival. It’s a curious festival—more a statewide meet-and-greet than your typical artsy-craftsy affair. I don’t know if they have festivals…
In 1923, the increasing presence of Euro-American settlers in territory formerly occupied by Ute and Paiute Indians led to what was probably the last armed conflict between whites and Indians in the United States. And the man for whom the…
I’ve always loved the Bears Ears. When I first discovered the canyon country, back in the 70s, I was driving north from the Grand Canyon on old US 160. As I passed though Monument Valley, near the Utah/Arizona border,…
CHARLIE STEEN’S youngest son ‘sets the record straight’ about the Life & Times of Moab’s Most Famous Prospector At the beginning of my first article in The Zephyr about my father, Charlie Steen, and his discovery of the Mi Vida…
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… These photos are all from a trip I took last month.…
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…
“The government is not in the business of taking care of the people or the land, the government is in the business of taking care of the government.” I read this comment on The Friends of Canyon Country Zephyr page…
HARRY’S WEDDING AND THE BERT LOPER WHISKY The year 1962 was a momentous one. It was the year that Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. orbited the earth three times and exclaimed, “Oh, that view is tremendous.” It was the…
“And if what I fear indeed happens? If the next twenty years sees us pump ever more gas into the sky, and if it sees us take irrevocable steps into the genetically engineered future, what solace then? The only ones…
One summer a new fad took over Jackson Hole’s kid population, Bottle Horse Ranching. I’m not sure, but suspect that the ranch kids started it. We townies began regular roundups to the back lots of Jackson’s three saloons, picking up…
I appreciate the names of certain places. There are certain place names that to speak them aloud is to mimic the effort of a conjurer who would call up lost worlds or the dead. Arcadia comes to mind. Yorkshire is…
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 the photographs are from one of my backpacking trips to the Superstition Wilderness in…
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