In small towns, bookstores are thriving
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“I love to spend my day in a bookstore,” said Amy Sweet. She lives in Red Lodge, Montana, and was…
beartooth books, Red Lodge, Montana, John Clayton
MoreHow did so much stuff pile up?
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A few years ago, I turned a carport into a bedroom. But first I had to empty out the books,…
Adam Winger, Unsplash, Logan Utah
MoreCollaboration gets you farther than insults
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Is there any habit harder to break than harboring a grudge against an old adversary? Yet burying hatchets is exactly…
Taylor Brandon via Unsplash
MoreSki bum culture hits reality
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Nearly two decades ago, I moved to the mountains to be a ski bum, chasing snow. I was a stereotype—an…
Robson Hatsukami Morgan, via Unsplash
MoreFarewell to two radicals with a common goal – changing the West
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The West lost two larger-than-life conservationists this year, and while I considered both friends, they couldn’t have been more different….
Sid Goodloe and wife Cheryl
MoreReport from Burning Man 2023
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After a quiet year of preparation and premature eulogies, Burning Man roared into the news this August. There were unplanned…
BM Build Day 3/credit Dennis Hinkamp
MoreTips for a new Westerner
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Hurray, you’ve moved to the rural West from a crowded subdivision or city where the traffic has become an out-of-patience…
Reno Nevada Mutton bustin’ photo by Cornelius Photography
MoreOld bones can be a small town’s movie stars
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The prehistoric past can perk up the present. When woolly mammoth bones were found in my hometown in Wisconsin years…
Allosaurus jimmadseni, courtesy NPS
MoreSome people just like to get things done
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Although I’ve lived in a small Western town for 30 years now, I have never known much about one of…
MoreThe West is an exploiter’s paradise
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High on a mesa where everyone can see it, a trophy house is going up in the northern Colorado valley…
Outside Capitol Reef, photo courtesy of Michael Shoemaker
MorePublic land — a true blessing
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At every Thanksgiving dinner, my family asks everyone around the table to say what they’re grateful for. It puts new…
Green River from White-Rim in Canyonlands National Park near Moab UT Oct.-2022 credit Dave-Marston
MoreNever hike without this perfect accompaniment
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I have long been known to have pet peeves about the debris hikers drop along trails, but one piece of…
Buster babes with a bandana collar
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