Tag: American West

By advocating for agriculture in the arid West, Major John Wesley Powell challenged the way America viewed its right to develop the continent.

Being an outdoorsy person doesn’t make you a conservationist, sadly.

Recent books about the American West turn the old frontier myth into a mirage.

“If you’re doing something small, something that’s mostly your labor and vision, then stick to what makes you satisfied.”

A group of determined adventurers spent seven days driving the desert in the first all-female road rally.

In this short story, the children of Chinese miners in the frontier West struggle to survive after their parents’ death.

Kate Schimel narrates her grueling trek into Oregon’s Kalmiopsis Wilderness with the people who voluntarily clear its impenetrable trails and swim its clear creeks, showing why America needs road-free, undeveloped areas just like it

The author and environmental activist Edward Abbey, who passed away in 1989, would have been 88 today. Abbey—who Larry McMurtry dubbed “the Thoreau of the American West”—was known for his searing love of wilderness, particularly the deserts of the Southwest, and his progressive views. An excerpt from Desert Solitaire, his most famous non-fiction work, can be […]