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Show THE ZEPHYR/JUNEJULY 2006 TOE ZEPHYR PO BOX 327. MOAB, UTAH.84532 Jim Stiles, publisher 435.259.7773 www.canyoncountryzephyr.com cczephyr@frontiernet.net moabzephyr@yahoo.com contributing writers ~ Ken Sleight Martin Murie Ned Mudd Barry Scholl Rich ingebretsen Scott Silve Phil Hyde Lance Christie Robyn Slayton-Martin Karen Hastings Wendell Berry Erica Walz Valley Drive to US Highway 191. County Councilman Rex Tanner has his own 35 acre eds OR LEAVE Lo ON OCT ia a subdivision to promote and, god knows, there's no ethical conflict there! ; There are, in fact, subdivisions: popping up like toad stools from one end of the valley to the other. Both the city and county councils appear to be as gentle as lambs when it comes to “mitigating” the problems that might arise from these building projects. (And there are a few historic photographs Herb Ringer (1913-1998) Zephyr pilot & aerial reconaissance Paul Swanstrom Zephyr Transportation Fleet Specialists Gene Schafer Tom Wesson BY JIM STILES | --REMEMBERING PHIL HYDE My first image of Glen Canyon was through the eyes and camera lens ofPhilip Hyde. He was already a legend when I became familiar with his work. I also came to appreciate Phil Hyde as a decent and self-effacing gentleman. I met him quite by accident in the late 70s at Arches. Two men contacted me at the Devils Garden one cold spring morning to report an abandoned campsite. Known only to me at first as “Phil and Art,” they had come across the site while leading a photo workshop in the backcountry beyond Landscape Arch. described it. Itappeared as if the occupant had walked away for a moment and never came back. A copy of Desert Solitaireeven lay open on the sand. It was a mystery and we speculated on the fate of the man to return (We learned a few days ad been unable to find his deliberately abandoned it...when or woman who had failed later that the missing hiker own campsite and had we caught up with him, he was back in Illinois.) He was already a legend when | became familiar with his work. | also came to appreciate Phil Hyde as a decent and self-effacing gentleman. It was a couple days later that I learned the other half of Phil’s name. I told him how I’d once spent my last $25 ona hard copy of Slickrock, the book he shared with Abbey and Subseriptions & transcriptions Linda Vaughan circulation JA Bryan Lance Lawrence he almost seemed embarrassed. Phil gave me his business Jose Churampi Kathy Aldous THE ZEPHYR, copyright 2006 The Zephyr is published six times a year at Moab, Utah. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of its vendors, advertisers, or even at times, of its publisher. All photos and cartoons are by the publisher unless otherwise noted card and | put it away in a safe place. Eleven years later, whenI started The Zephyr, I still had that card, so I signed up Phil Hyde as a complimentary Lifetime subscriber. Over the years, he’d drop mea line, words of encouragement or supeod and always. a note of appreciation for his subscription. Then, about six or seven years ago, a short letter from Phil arrived. He wrote, “I’ve ae elt a bit guilty that I’ve never paid for my subscription to The Zephyr over all these ears. I was wondering if I might re-pay you in some way. ould you consider one of my photographs as a trade?” I was speechless. A week or so later, a large black portfolio arrived by mail. In it was a spectacular image of the Needles country in Canyonlands. It’s one of my most cherished possessions. Phil Hyde passed away on March 30 at the age of 84. He leaves behind a stunning collection of images, of a land he loved for a lifetime and beyond. I will remember him equally for his gentle manner and his quiet integrity. “SUBDIVISION FRENZY...WHY WORRY NOW?” (He uttered in a tone reeking with sarcasm) When I lett Utah almost 20 years earlier, in 2002, much of "Where you headed, cowboy?" "Oh...nowhere special." (long pause) ‘Nowhere special... RETO TUM Em ORO Ll oa the open space in Spanish Valley had already given way to subdivisions, but I was not prepared to see virtually all of that open space now under condo developments and high dollar subdivisions. From “Return to Moab: 2020 AD By.....me, in 1995 Yes, it’s beginning to look as if 2020 is arriving early. Each month brings another big subdivision proposal to Moab and Grand County. It’s all the politicians seem to deal with these days. Let’s see...what’s the latest? The Lion’s Back plan would add 170 new homes and a lodge, I think, and some commercial opportunities. The developers simply need Moab City to annex the State Institutional Trust Land (SITLA) property so they can move forward. But they Black Bart & the Waco Kid (trom Blazing Saddles) 1974 Council.) Even the most they can do. [| spankme2times@excite.com- Mark Anderson County to get in 2006. And maybe at this late date, that’s about all webmaster Gary Henderson the density” option. That's as wild as these politicians are going We hiked out to their discovery and it was just.as they’d the artist John Depuy ‘mothers’-on progressive of them thinks they're getting radical when they go out on a limb and try to deny a developer his “bonus assure the city fathers (there are no ‘mothers’ on the city council) that it’s a good thing for everyone. I've learned to recognize the keywords that developers use to assuage the governing bodies. They love to promise “open space” and the term “trail systems” has become popular lately. They all promise to help create “affordable housing” for the wretched but necessary working class. And of course, a development like the Lion’s Back will certainly “increase the tax base.” In the county, SITLA is offering another big chunk of land, hundreds of acres, for sale as .a_ residential development. It will be built just up the road from Rim Village which now spreads itself all the way from Spanish But I do know this. Years from now, as I’m driving along 191 and see yet another subdivision, if there’s even room left for one, I’m not going to sigh and say, “If ONLY they’d built just 38 houses, instead of 45, I could have really felt GOOD about thatsubdivision!” Nope. It’s too late to whine. Realistically, at least. On the other hand... Moab and Grand County governments, working with the Chamber of Commerce could wage a state and national public relations campaign to actually discourage more residential and commercial development. They could “just _ say NO.” Or how about “Enough is enough!” They could spend all that transient room tax revenue to inform the world that the invasion of Grand County by urban migrants > in numbers unimaginable just a decade ago is now destroying the very qualities that these migrants are seeking. That the Moab they remember is the Moab of their past. A Dream of a time long gone. That Moab is just one more formerly funky town, now a victim of the New West, killed y its own former goofy charm. But Realistically... But then Recently, I’ve almost detected a pulse among the citizens—an almost audible sound of protest about all these new subdivisions—but I realized that the objections only came when their own backyards were threatened, not the back yards of “neighbors” across town. One of these days I'm going to print Jesse Jackson’s incredible “Patchwork Quilt” speech from the 1988 Democratic Convention. “You're right!” he said. “But your patch isn’t big enough.” But Realistically... ut maybe... Environmental organizations might finally realize that the amenities economy is backfiring in their pristine faces and that they have a legitimate position to at least oppose these SITLA projects. Whether it’s the latest SITLA plan in Spanish Valley or whatever version of Cloudrock we're looking at, a development within sight of proposed wilderness areas and Arches National Park, or any of the other proposed SITLA schemes, surely they can see the connection between these projects and a degraded wildlands future. A few enviros have acknowledged the threat but we need a chorus of dissent, not a few lonely voices. But Realistically... : But perhaps... "If ONLY they'd built just 38 houses, instead of 45, | could have really felt GOOD about that subdivision!" Moab City could just say NO to annexation. They might consider whether annexation is good for all its current citizens at the risk of turning away future citizens. And there...there is the rub. In the New West, acommunity’s ‘leaders’ no longer exist to serve the town that is...they work feverishly to shape the town it will become. Whether the Lion's Back development is ultimately a good thing for Moab in 2006 is irrelevant. Will it be good for the town of 2010? Or 2015? In their minds, you bet. It’s an ironic tragedy that the futures of communities are left in the hands and minds of planners...the problem is, they’re always PLANNING something. Show me a planner (ora politician) who can leave something alone and I’ll show you a man or woman held in low regard by the rest of his eers. E And yet..surely there must be politicians and planners and professional environmentalists and a united citizenry who will someday take the time to resist the mind-spinning changes that we struggle with each day, changes that lead us inexorably to a world we won't even recognize. Realistically, | said. EGO CLIMBING AT DELICATE ARCH Recently the print and electronic media in Salt Lake City, Utah. reported the first ascent of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Delicate Arch is one of the most revered and recognized features in Utah. If any natural feature deserves to be called an icon, it’s Delicate Arch. On a recent Sunday morning, A rock climber hiked the 1 % mile trail from Wolfe Ranch and began the first of several ascents. He brought a High Definition video camera to capture this historic moment and even carried the camera with him up the arch, established photo points and staged his climb again and |