Review by Jeff Lee
The West – October 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
A Western Primer for the Next Administration, in which, the Rocky Mountain Land Library asks some of the West’s most insightful writers: What Western books would you urge on the next inhabitants of the White House? What do they need to know about our region, and where can they find that information, inspiration, and guidance?
Review by Wayne Sheldrake
The West – November 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Western Paradox: A Conservation Reader
by Bernard DeVoto
Edited by Douglas Brinkley & Patricia Nelson Limerick,
Published in 2001 by Yale University Press
ISBN 0300084234
Review by Ed Quillen
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Atlas of the New West – Portrait of a Changing Region
William Riebsame, general editor
Essays by Charles Wilkinson and Patricia Nelson Limerick
Published in 1997 by W.W. Norton
ISBN 0-393-04550-1
Essay by Jim Ludwig
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Steve:
I watched a PBS documentary from the Colorado Historical Society Thursday night in which Duane Smith, the Fort Lewis historian, pointed out, while viewing abandoned homes in ghost towns, “Keep in mind that each shack or shaft represents a dream, often unfulfilled, of some person who helped to make the West what it is today.” The quote may not be exact, but the thought was his, and parallels mine.
Essay by Steve Voynick
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Jim:
I contend that the single biggest problem facing this nation today is overpopulation, a problem which is worsening with every passing year. Do you know what the population of this country was when you came to Climax in the early 1950s? About 153 million. And fifty years before that, the national population was about 76 million. Today, less than 50 years after you came to Climax (and this is hardly ancient history because I was starting school then), our population is pushing 270 million. All those people have developed an eating habit, yet there is always less land on which to grow the food that they need.
Essay by Jim Ludwig
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Steve:
Glad to see you made the big time as a guest columnist at The Post, now you are part of “a place where greed, exploitation and profit are the name of the game,” to quote a friend and author.
I can hear you say, “That is not fair, Jim”. But neither is your accusation that the West was developed by and for those reasons. Am I guilty because I’ve taken a rundown forty acres and developed a nursery that supports several families and sells plants for a profit? Would it be better if the elite were to tell me if I were to grow native plants or not? Would the West be better off if the land I’ve exploited for profit, because I’m greedy, had continued as a hay field?
Essay by Steve Voynick
The West – August 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
ALTHOUGH VAIL AND LEADVILLE are just 28 miles apart as the ravens fly, they seem to stand at opposite ends of the West.
Vail represents the New West, a place of contemporary chic, luxurious living, trophy homes and money, all revolving around a vibrant economy based on tourism, recreation, and land. Leadville is the Old West, where century-old memories and lonely shaft houses watch over mine-scarred hills. Leadville’s economy is sluggish at best, and many residents commute to low-paying service jobs in Vail and resorts in Summit and Eagle counties.