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Show mb Zug UE TAKE "All the news that causes fits." THE CANYON COUNTRY ZEPHYR LEAVE P.O.BOX327 MOAB, UT 84532 Jim Stiles, publisher _ (435) 259-7773 MMA ACUy ose liliy cca moabzephyr@yahoo.com ol Tela tai Mal a Ken Sleight iryep aslo te egies UCntducatrs Cactus Rat Scott Silver Wendell Berry Martin Murie Dan Rosen Bill Boyle MarkSteen Philip Hyde Chinle Miller Jack Bannion Lance Christie Nemo Glitz & the Heath Monitor Files historic photographs Herb Ringer (1913-1998) Zephyr pilot/aerial reconaissance eM RO ZeCosi webmaster Gary Henderson subscriptions 6 transcriptions ETM Eure ojcelltitonn Moaé. Marianne Apadaca Salt Lake City: Nancy Jacobsen Colorado/Arizona: Ken Hodges & Mark Anderson THEZEPHYR, copyright 2004, EY berate etsar— A The Zephyr is publishedsix timesa ey at Moab, Utah. The opinions Sey ata hereinare not necessarily those of its vendors, advertisers, or even, at times, of its publisher. All photos and cartoons are ait publisher unless otherwise noted. 15 YEARS & COUNTING... ‘ If someone had told me, when I first started this publication that I would still be doing it15 years later, | would have had them committed. Instead, I have been cranking it out for 15 years and I need to be committed. Pretty damn funny. I’m rolling on the floor. But am I convulsing with laughter or having a nervous breakdown? Who can say—the two experiences are so similar. But yes, to be serious and reflective for just a moment, this is indeed the 15" anniversary of The Canyon Country Zephyr, the celebrated and maligned publication that has become an anachronism in its own time. It’s almost been like a marriage, The Zephyr and me—lots of passion but no sex. Or maybe sex but no orgasm? Oh there has been that occasional blissful high moment been defeated the previous fall over the toxic waste incinerator issue, proposed to build a major paved highway over the Book Cliffs, from I-70 to Vernal. The plan was crazy and unrealistic and the district spent half a million bucks before the highway proposal was proclaimed dead by the... First Grand County Council. In 1992, Commissioners David Knutson and Manuel Torres controlled a solid majority on the Grand County Commission and made a number of decisions that increasingly annoyed county residents. When they declared themselves veto-proof and untouchable (there was no recall option for county commissioners), the voters got riled. A few activists (Moab had activists then) discovered a provision in the state constitution that or three that compares to a memorable sexual encounter, but then allowed for the creation of a new “council” form of government, how could any print publication, mere wood pulp and ink, ever measure up to a woman? Don’t get me started... I have tried to “live hopelessly in the past since 1989" with some degree of success. The Zephyr is still a cut-and-paste operation. I print out the galleys on my used laser printer and “paste” the stories and ad copy to tattered and stained blue grid boards with the original hand waxer I bought in late 1988. It has served me well, but was once almost destroyed when an exgirlfriend attempted to use the waxer to trim her bikini line. It was touch-and-go for a while, but the hairs finally melted and ended up cementing some long past issue together, all the way to the if approved by a vote of the people; further, it allowed the removal of the existing governing body if the referendum was printer. Istill take the boards to a printer myself, load the 15,000 copies into the back of my 1986 GMC pickup truck with 207,000 miles on passed by the voters. It wasn’t even close. Record numbers of Grand Count residents cast their votes to throw the rascals out. The following February, a special election resulted produced one of the most extraordinary collection of public servants I have ever known. Self-less and hardworking, courageous and honest, they did more for this county in two years than any County Council has been able to accomplish Peterson, John since. Hartley, They Peter were—Bill Haney, Hedden, Paul Charlie Menard, Ken Ballantine, and John Maynard. And yet, while I voted against him, disagreed vehemently on most issues, Id still insist that one of my top ten highlights was... Getting to Know David Knutson “Stiles, those papers are pretty damn heavy,” notes my friend Greenspan, celebrated Blues guitarist /vocalist/passive observer, as | lift the 63 bundle from the truck bed. “IfI didn’t have such David and I were an odd pair. His family was in the oil and gas maintenance business and also hauled heavy equipment and drove trucks. They regarded environmentalists with disdain and anger most of the time. To be fair, I wasn’t much more sympathetic for the rural westerner’s point of view. And none of us had ever bothered to talk to each other. What I learned from sensitive David the odometer and bring them back to Moab, where I un-load them on my front porch. Often some of my best friends come by and watch the operation... musician fingers, I might help you.” Then as an afterthought Bob adds, “Aren’t you too old to do that kind of lifting?” If he wasn’t so damn lovable, I'd kill him. For fourteen years The Zephyr was printed by The Cortez Journal in Colorado, two hours away. Larry Hauser was the chief press man and his #1 assistant was his son Patrick. They were great. It was a family-owned operation until 2002, when some rich guy’s company gobbled it up, along with a few other publications in the intermountain West. Months later, | got Word from Above (above Larry and Pat too) that they would no longer print The Zephyr in the size paper I’d used since: Volume 1 Number 1, that I'd have to re-design and that the rates would go up $4000 a year. It was the best thing that could have happened. I found the Tooele Transcript, a family-owned business since 1894, witha stateof-the-art press, who gave me a better deal, faster service and higher quality. Sometimes...sometimes, the Little Guys still win. Special thanks to Keith and Dagwood, who made the transition so easy for me. So what has changed in Moab and Southeast Utah since 1989? Well...almost everything? In the spring of that year, I shot roll after roll of film, documenting every alfalfa field, horse pasture and open space I could find in the Moab Valley. From the horse pastures just south of the Colorado Bridge, where the longforgotten “Goat Man” used to live, to the Cottonwood lined creek bottom across from Dave’s Corner Market, to the many orchards just blocks away from the heart of “downtown,” to the green alfalfa fields of Spanish Valley. I think I knew I was taking pictures of the dead, even then. Almost all of those pastoral scenes are gone or going fast. Some lament their passing but many Moabites, who have arrived since then, have no idea what's been lost. Many of them, good enviros all, live atop the grave yards and don’t even know it, in faux adobe condos with xeriscaped yards and water efficient toilets. May they forever flush with a free conscience. Casey Stengel IT... By Jim Stiles hp aes cczephyr@frontiernet.net There comes a time in every man’s life and I've had plenty of ‘em. IT OR I've thought about the highs and lows of the last 15 years. But since I spend most of my time telling you that whale crap on the bottom of the ocean looks like clouds floating in the sky, perhaps I'll concentrate on the positive for a rare moment. Here’s my list of Zephyr “Top.10 High Points” since 1989: Stopping the Book Cliffs Highway: First let’s do the serious stuff...The Grand County Special Service Road District and The Zephyr were born almost simultaneously. The autonomous government entity’s board, composed of mostly lame duck county commissioners who had PAGE2 was that I could truly like and value the company of someone | totally disagreed with. Even angrily disagreed with at times. David sometimes hauled a water tanker to the Park Service headquarters of the Maze District at Hans Flat, an eight to ten hour round trip from Moab, and once I rode along. We never stopped arguing and I never enjoyed an eight hour drive in a tanker truck over dirt roads more. I haven’t seen Knutson in a couple of years, but when I do, the bonds of friendship are still there. The Lynn’s Paradise Café/Kentucky Connection I grew up in Kentucky but haven’t lived there in decades. One day in the in the early 90s I got a phone from a woman named Lynn Winter. She said she owned a restaurant in Louisville and wanted to advertise in The Zephyr. | thought it was a joke. Who put you up to this, lasked? “Huh?” she replied. Lynn had no idea I was a Kentucky native. Her boyfriend had passed through Moab earlier in the week on his way home, picked up a Zephyr and thought my publication was as weird as her café. So did she. The rest is history. Life With Marooney What would this town be like if Mike Marooney were still here? I wonder... For those of you who remember Mexican Cantina/Marooney Days (there is an that he remembers none of it), you could not have Man. He was all over the place. Physically and the Dos Amigos excellent chance missed the Mad metaphysically. He contained multitudes. Outrageous and addled. Sympathetic and pigheaded. Savage and tender. Generous and conniving. He made things interesting. Marooney even wrote a Zephyr column for awhile called “From the Dark Side.” He made me look cheerful. Then his wisdom became so incoherent that only my favorite ex-girlfriend, a student of nihilist philosophy and the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, could understand him. Marooney drove me crazy, but he got there first and left town. Then, when I found myself going toe-to-toe with him in the insanity department, he vanished completely. Haven't received an x-rated email from him in almost a year. Are you still alive Marooney?? Letters to the Editor My life would be so...diminished if it weren’t for the feedback I receive from the vast Global Zephyr Readership. I was rummaging through the archives the other day and remembered a real gem from a guy named Jack Bollan in Clifton, Colorado. Here’s an excerpt: “...All of your rock and tree hugging articles are expressions of earth religion. For liberal creeps, earth religion has replaced God religion. Your earth religion is turning the desert into a pristine, a |