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Traveling west from the plains of North Dakota something interesting happens as you approach Billings. The land begins to break up. The rolling prairie gives way to a fantastic landscape of buttes, plateaus and palisades. Looking around, you find yourself in a different environment. The first city you come to…
Read moreThe story goes like this. Two young enlisted men in their early twenties were tasked with operating a nuclear reactor in the Lost River Desert of Idaho. They were not scientists or engineers. They lacked college degrees. They were graduates of a crash course in how to operate a nuclear…
Read moreSkiing came to Sun Valley—as it came to all of us—by a roundabout manner. Having existed in Norway for centuries as a form of transportation, it was little regarded as a test of courage and agility until the mid-19th century when those nutty Norwegians embraced the death defying thrills of…
Read moreGrinning, I worked the levers and lowered my bucket. Drawing the teeth down and back, I chewed my first hole in the soil of Las Vegas, one of several I would dig over the next 90 minutes. Operating the 315CL Caterpillar Hydraulic Excavator at the Heavy Equipment Playground set me…
Read moreAs a child he witnessed magic. Among the spires of orange and russet rock, in the shadows of parapets ribboned with plum colored bands left by long receded seas, he watched as the Hopi medicine man placed the tip of an eagle feather against his mother’s neck and sang. His…
Read moreMy brother Curt and I were sitting in the dining room of the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff, AZ after our ski trip to Telluride when I said, “Look something up on your phone, will you? See if you can find out the steepest pitch a person can ski without…
Read moreSome warning labels are ridiculous. A warning label on a chainsaw says: Do not attempt to stop chain with hands. A warning label on a wheelbarrow says: Not intended for highway use. A warning label on a mattress says: Do not attempt to swallow. The lengths we go to prevent…
Read moreWhen he found the bodies, George Bascom was furious. Didn’t this prove what he had been saying all along, that the Indian chief and his followers were ruthless killers? They had undoubtedly slain the little boy too, which was why they had been refusing to return him. The four bodies…
Read moreThe black mailbox was white. Or more precisely it was a black mailbox locked inside a white outer box, a mystery locked inside an enigma, a fitting symbol. Among all the graffiti, stenciled in large black letters, was the name Medlin. He still lived here. He still collected his mail…
Read moreIt’s true. Mountain biking is one of the most exciting, gut-checking, adrenaline-pumping sports there is. It requires skill, finesse, courage and physical strength. At Moab it also requires a comfortable familiarity with pain, a friendly association with contusions, a nodding acquaintance with exhaustion, and a willingness to get cozy with…
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