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Show es I gb CAN Lee the Civil War. Many ranches in the late 19" century started as dude ranches catering to those who longed for the "Old West." The Interior West has always been a source Landscape of economic extraction whether that industry is mining, logging, or tourism. Did the California gold rush differ fundamentally from the uranium boom? Do today’s corporate ranches differ from the cattle barons of the past? The "New West” is as much a fanciful idealization of the complexity of real people and their relationship to the land as the idea of the "Old West.” If the Old/New West is useless as a temporal distinction, does it have any value as a cultural one? Where do you place the third generation rancher who produces organic beef, drives a Suburu and keeps track of her stock on a laptop? Where do you GREG place the retired logger who appeals timber sales? Where do you place the Native American lawyer who lives in a condo in Salt Lake City? The implication that there is something "New" about the West severs of Desire Identity and Nature in Utah’s Canyon Country GORDON Landscape of Desire powerfully documents and celebrates a place and the evolutions that our responsibility by isolating ourselves from historical context. What is happening in the West is an extension of Manifest Destiny, which itself is an expression of European occur when human beings are intimately connected to their colonialism. Conditions are constantly changing, perhaps now more than ever. But changes don’t occur without antecedents. Consigning antecedents to the Old West, not only trivializes them but implies that things have fundamentally changed. When the indigenous hunter/gathers were overrun by genocidal technocrats, things fundamentally changed. However, the difference between 19" century land speculation and ranchettes is not a fundamental shift. The difference between corporate domination by Anaconda copper is not fundamentally different than corporate domination by ConAgra. I fail to see any difference between exploiting Chinese : : interweaves land use history, natural laborers to build railroads and exploiting Mexican workers to make hotel beds in Vail. education, and personal reflection. He tracks the geomorphology We construct and inhabit our mythologies out of a need for psychic comfort. We surroundings. Greg Gordon accomplishes this with a tapestry of writing that of southern fist nea history, experientia Utah as well as the creatures and plants his student become uncomfortable when we slice through our delusions; it’s far easier to hold on to false views. Brian and I avoid controversial subjects, instead focusing our discussion group encounters, the history lessons (planned and unplanned), on the place. Ultimately, it is the land itself that binds us together. I wonder, if we the trials and joys of gathering so many individuals into a could step out of our respective uniforms, how close our views might actually be. cohesive will, and his own After talking with Brian I had to reconsider the virulence of the letter to the BLM about grazing that I’d been composing in my head as I dodged cowpies. I thought about Brian, his way of life; he wasn’t out here to abuse the land. I thought about how Authenticity carries a dignity and value unto itself. Two different avenues found us both in the same place for the same reasons. "Peace." The way he said it4 echoed aa in my head. Later, | walked eG up canyon for an[ es : insights, and disillusionments. evening stroll and encountered two wild cliff. They shook their heads and dangling defiantly over their faces. horses standing in the shade of a red staine stomped at me, their long untamed forelocks POINTBLANK SUBMISSIONS igsi Submissions to The Zephyr may be on any topic; even remotely relevant to its readers. They must be between 500 and 1000 words. Authors of essays printed in this publication receive a five year subscription and our gratitude. MIDDLE | U TA =) personal epiphanies, STAT 7800 OLD MAIN on E HILL U N | V restraints, E R S | Ey LOGAN, UT 84322 = -39-9974 eS THE AUGUST/SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF THE ZEPHYR WILL BE ON MOAB NEWSSTANDS J U L Y > 5 EASTERN had ei ey WS WN (gyn My FRESH IS THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE TRULY DELICIOUS MIDDLE EASTERN FLAVOR Y, COMPANY 4718. Main St 259.7735 / The new PETE is 1515 SOUTH 1500 EAST SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH PENNI! OPEN MONDAY-SATURDAY 1AM TO 9PM 801.484.9259 PRINTS WHAT DO WE DO? We have We write custom horns. software for the big people and the little...OK...We take that real bi file cabinet full # paper and put it all into your computer. . 121 E. 100 S. #108 Moab, UT 84532 435.259.4384 800.635.5280 So... jer 7 supposed to Another of Stiles’ e eme Cai iss ae look like cows? oe just feel the : excitement? . |
