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Show Page A6 'QJfre l(jIimeg-(3lKfrgPgttftg- Thursday, October 28, 2004 ni Book Review; to our once know neighbors to the south Getting by Marjorie Miller contributing writer Before we start, it should be understood that White Canyon is three things to me: a town, a canyon, and a state of mind. White Canyon Town lived back in the early 1950s. ... Today, you can stand on the Hite Overlook on Highway 95 and look down on the flooded river valley that was the White Canyon of my childhood. So writes Tom McCourt in White Canyon: Remembering the Little Town at the Bottom of Lake Powell (2003, available at local bookstores or from Southpaw Publications at In this fascinating book, McCourt puts a human face on the lands beneath Lake Powell as he recalls childhood days spent with his grandparents in the little town of White Canyon, once our neighbor to the south. And as a preface to his dry (and endlessly enjoyable) sense of humor, Tom (who has a degree in anthropology and is well aware of the recent change in terminology) adds, Please know that I use the term Anasazi in this book by choice. Im a Geezer from the Old School, and the Anasazi have been my friends for many years. Im not sure I know the ancestral Puebloans. The book begins with an account of the prehistory and history of the region (including the uranium boom) up to the settlement of White Canyon Town, which was ...born g in 1949, when a mill was assembled at the mouth of White Canyon to process ore from the nearby Happy Jack Mine. By the end of 1953, the mill was closed and the town demolished, its remains covered by Lake Powell 10 years later. (As an aside, historian nd author , Pearl Baker taught school at White Canyon for awhile.) But this book is about far more than White Canyon Town, its about a time of in uranium-pro-cessin- told us that when he was prospecting out on the desert, he once fried eggs and potatoes on the blade of a shovel when he forgot the skillet. In Grandpas old truck, we cross the noisy old bridges above e Hanksville: rickety, affairs with plank superstructures... Grandpa would always yell at us kids, watch out; here come the Indians! And the explorations just starting. We discover old Anasazi granaries, and we pilot a plane with the Flying Bishop of Hanksville (Bill Wells) after part of its propeller falls off: He had only one chance, one pass at a flat spot and a split second to decide his one-lan- nocence in the lives of two young boys, Tom and his brother Reed, now both residents of Wellington, our neighbor to the north. And somehow, through a rare gift of humility of spirit coupled with a deceptively easy simplicity in writing, Tom captures per- fectly the essence of childhood freedom, of life flowing through the veins of a young that flows like the big river through the boy, life multi-colore- d reach Rainbow Bridge. She kept a picture of Rainbow Bridge on her living room wall, shelf next to the knick-knacof little sandstone animals she had found while walking with her grandchildren behind her wilderness home in White Canyon. That place too, was underwater and gone forever. Finally, in 1980, the year Lake Powell crested, McCourt returned once again. He k HmtwUt fawy W fimmtm of to Ottsd flashflood in Iron Wash (which drains a good portion of the MWft San Rafael country): The front grill was pushing water like the prow of a boat, and water came bubbling up through tHe floorboards and around the doors. And we do what boys do best, chase lizards: But we always d ran away from the lizards. We knew that lizards were poisonous. I dont know how we knew d that, but finding a lizards was like encountering a rattlesnake... McCourt never digresses into sentimentality, but always keeps the pure perspective of youth, part of what makes this book such a treasure, a priceless cultural study of life and childhood in the 1950s, in a town and landscape now gone. And after we get to know the town of White Canyon and its people, like Nn&tfra A ntt fcW gflW Wtotum Att, i fcuMww toftfitMT'lrttfwtonaJfwwKim Anna ocMr akktaal tefe to fcpiifta m4 .wwrtu tte tu wiilrwwM quatty I tuft br fcpn Pnamtow IsaJf&ipts fiaj itatptc (mauteJM v at ratt of drewiii beiFi wdi ly to leed-- i cwfrwamf a ee ipiaoti flwMUcrfwtttoBlItiuxalfcmBiriiiiumi'tt Wn to pwltu m preotoffr see long irepoiej f or earthe ww ef tie w wqws Hne mm 0mmm fluuq to fannu of lonrf ManapiBMft pma Hen blue-bellie- to blue-bellie- d m fto & M ten toAfrtM of TffH daW, fffftenett natnctkm to few iswue igaat to FVfrtni oiim In erf rtihs5Mrtr,tir Mufe wtf tiragpub gng miiuM fMMMr Unfed Ate to blue-bellie- wmAri T1 fen qtatiftify a Our2s4ta?fwfaKirMMlrt)BLMtmlsl& m o to mi atttma qp&y to xf Mfo UD0T Bob Lovato Marian Delay Mandy Leech Youth Garden Project Travis Kelly Prairie Dawg Seventh Day Adventist Acadpmy Mona Horowitz Roadrunner Shuttle Tag Valerie Payne Sue DeVall GC EM2 Marge Cochran MARC Utah Highway Patrol Sorrel River Ranch Staff GCHS Basketball Team Rim Tours Tave Terry A Long Mark Remaux fm Or tUm fm to War 8 I Itkoed WKMKM BMMfOTtt MKtto I 44 209 MkM, fcfeO d vehicle use, one Moreover, the BLMs commitment to effective management of of the most significant threats to the preservation of western wildlands, is ambivalent at off-roa- Mow of titttNOM best. iw.tfvwwuti inpasuf UR V wtv toe Mtistfea taac ftoi nmftw Hcc Jtr flat itxwrto VfdHra to &LM m fnotMg to intoftritkmmmmeimmmt ttnfdy (tor ok amnftny nf dl proto kkmhl m wml M0 toapwt uri of to matmn jot far m mahm irttittt KtilitUN w eepmier6er ee KUNCH ur$t Jain to aetoei to heamat art nr totf m to mi afanid wt to vu Nttncat pm Dcpwnee uA ctor yee A&n tmwnm W fmsx toe vttuei-af- c Im1 tot trrw sm eera ideas frotnmt u ntt Elizabeth Allen Sandy Preethey GCHS Honor Society GCHS Outdoor Ed Celeste McDowell CeCe Bosley Sam Sturman Geoff Preethey field Institute Sue Berkhahn Jennifer Redding Jerry Shaw Woody Cresswell Bonnie Crysdale Jim Smouse Kelly Olson Robert Ryan Canyonlands Kristina Taylor Rick Welch Chris Martinez Phil Morse Leta Vaughn Tali Hice Marilyn Stolfa Augie Brooks Colette Hunter Janet Williams Pat Wucherer first Ward Moab Lodging Association Sheri Griffith Expeditions i v lU. e SSa&faSlF Thanks to out valuable TfcTt Sjjnergg5 Company T heresa King Ryan Anderson Judy Powers Karla Vanderzanden Moab southern Please wnte and urge the BLM to protect deserving wilderness-qualit- y lands from off-rovehicle damage and from oil and gas leasing, drilling and development Price Field Office RMP Comments, Attn Ftovd Johnson, 125 S 600 W, Price, UT 84501, or commentJFprkennp.com For complete text of the letter and list of signers, visit www.suwa.org Bolder Boulder Jennifer Speers Moab Taiko Dan Bnsc4(cf DUCRanch Sorrel River sCLIF Utah College of Massage Therapy Utah wilderness alliance ad Why the West is Losing Moab Office. PAID ADVERTISEMENT Sunday, 12 September, 2004 For cheap, easily accessible oil, Washington and the West have supported Muslim tyrannies (Osama) bin Laden and other Islamists seek to destroy, Scheuer writes. The war has the potential to last beyond our childrens lifetimes and be fought mostly on U.S. soil. A Coup for bin Laden Bin Laden, argues Scheuer, is widely viewed by much of the Muslim world, infuriated by American actions in the Mideast, as neither a terrorist or madman but as a skilled warrior, the sole Muslim leader standing up to predatory western powers. Ironically U.S. and British widely identified in the American media as Michael Scheuer, a senior terrorism analyst for the CIA. It is unprecedented that a serving CIA officer was allowed to publish a book, one that is clearly a dramatic rebuke to the neoconservatives who drove the U.S. into two Scheuers work is sponsors: GCHS Cross Country Team Moab Area Travel Council See what they say in the excerpts below already-preserve- military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq are com- pleting the radicalization of the Islamic world, a prime bin Laden goal. Bushs misbegotten invasion of Iraq was icing on bin Ladens cake. The threat today facing America is the defensive jihad (holy struggle), an Islamic military reaction triggered by an attack by on the Islamic faith, on Muslims, on Muslim territory. Muslims are increasingly fighting back. wars. Ross Olson Mike Duncan C::SCU.T3l3rcc:a isttatsCtsPrediltsL the draft plan for the Price Resource Management Area, the first new resource management plan to be released in Utah since the April 2003 settlement, fails to d Wilderness Study protect 98 of wilderness quality lands, outside of Areas, from oil and gas leasing, seismic exploration, and drilling. Americas politicians and media continue to gravely deceive the public about the war on terrorism. Now the definitive book on terrorism has appeared that should be mandatory reading for every thinking person. Its called Imperial Sheri Simmons Tallman S3K:ncfecR;re fcmuiscimcafcrce SsaRf::l Sailed uMnd to to to Three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, p Ben Taylor Beth Roy Eve TO RROTECmUR WILDTORENiSPACES! sage-covere- d The Rim Rock Roadrunners would like to thank the following for all their hard work and assistance with the Inaugural The Other Half: Colene Terwilleger Dave Trley Continued on page tffacaxni u Tiepmuom & to bfenar p Hh h Hdcnri Land Pthejr Bd Miniywtn Ad nt MtonttttfiD'Wtal In tFt JM A) an jcsuMii aland jwwifr ftmmat to tiUmni tfcarwsawwwt Hubris: Why The West is Losing the War on Terror. The cover simply identifies the author as Anonymous, but hes already been Canyon Voyages City Market Canyon anymore like I did when I was a kid. It belongs to everyone now and Im just a tourist like everyone else. My tribe of indigenous natives, like the Anasazi, was compelled to leave the desert many years ago. This book is highly recommended. And also in the vein of getting to know our neighbors (although this time, those to the north), I also highly recom- - to Dwili Iteuton ld lilt Bruce McCabe dont own White I Utote (.SOM fir By Eric Margolis The Toronto Sun (MliP writes, tangcm tf tit llnrt fruits fate. We barely survive a canyons. That we should all be so lucky to spend our youth thus. White Canyon, the town and the place, were remote and difficult to get to, but beautiful, and my family loved to be there. There is something spiritual about the red desert that is endearing... Once you have experienced the beauty and the character of the red rocks and canyons, the desert always calls you back... I fell in love with the red desert when I was six years old, and its been a lifelong romance... My spirit was free there. McCourt, we also feel the poiMcCourt takes us along gnancy of its demise by Lake Powell, the sadness that goes the road to White Canyon: with a place, a people, a time, The shadowy hills were like great black gone forever. At age 13, McCourt (whose waves in an endless sea of wilimmediate family lived in derness. And across the waves, one seldom saw the lights of .Wellington) made one last another ship. On the way, we trip: I had a feeling about that his with trip; a premonition, I suppose. camp grandfather: Somehow I knew that this He seemed to take pride in would be my last visit to that a in a whole meal cooking He special place of my childhood. single skillet all at once... on television was telling of how the water was going to was going to White Canyon to say goodbye. As luck would have it, he had one roll of film in his camera, the pictures that grace this book. And during that trip, McCourt discovers the real site of Dandy Crossing (not where it was purported to be). After the towns drowning, McCourt avoided Lake Powell for years. He writes, In 1978, shortly before she died, I saw my grandmother with tears in her eyes while the newsman I a goldmine of information and brilliant analysis. It breaks taboos and sweeps away the clouds of lies about Iraq and Afghanistan. He non-Musli- says U.S. leaders refuse to we are accept the obvious Islamic worldwide a fighting insurgency not criminality or terrorism. The U.S. has made only a modest dent in enemy The Muslim world believes is it under total attack led by a massive effort to Bush all who oppose U.S. domicrush nation, destroy Islams inherent political role, eliminate Muslim charities, impose western values on the Islamic world and forces. None of bin Ladens reasons for waging war on the U.S., writes Scheuer, have anything to do with our free- dom, liberty, and democracy maintain puppet rulers spreading democracy in Bushs lexicon. Terrorism is (as President George Bush claims), but everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world, notably unlimited support for Israels repression of the Palestinians and the destruction of Iraq. merely the tactics of the poor fighting the rich. The Ultimate Taboo U.S. military operations in the Muslim world, he adds, validate bin Ladens contention the U.S. is attacking Islam and t I supports any country willing to kill or persecute Muslims. Scheuer, breaking the ul- timate taboo, observes of alliy Washingtons ance with Israel that Israelis have succeeded in lacing tight the ropes binding the American Gulliver to the ... Jewish state and its policies. The wars in Afghanistan one-wa- and Iraq are lost causes, Scheuer concludes. The U.S. is totally unable to create legitimate governments in either chaotic nation, only puppet regimes, supported by American bayonets. If the U.S. stays, it will bleed endlessly; if it retreats, it faces political disaster. Washington, he charges, has no strategy and is merely winging it. In one of his most acute ins;ghts, Scheuer explains the U.S. cannot, for all of its riches, buy its way to victory in Afghanistan or Iraq. Honour is still the currency of value in the Middle East, more so than goods and services. Blood-link- s trump all other affiliations or loyalties. Honour is why the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden to the U.S., a man they regarded as their guest and a war hero, and why he has still not been betrayed in US respite of a ward in a nation where the annual income is $147. At least there is one person in Washington who understands the violence surand has the rounding us courage and patriotism to tell Americans the truth: Their own arrogance and ignorance are driving them into a n war against 1.3 $25-millio- n no-wi- billion Muslims. 7 |