The Canyon Country Zephyr

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The Canyon Country Zephyr

"Hopelessly Clinging to the Past
(and its History)
Since 1989"

08/09/2025

For many years Jim Stiles waged a philosophical war with "industrial tourism." With tourism waning in southeastern Utah over the last few seasons, some wonder if it will "bust" in a cycle similar to the mining and oil & gas industries. I wish Jim were still around to have this conversation in 2025.

"The problem with the conservation movement is that it has clear conscience." -- Wendell Berry. DISCLAIMER: This story makes no attempt to offer 'solutions', nor do I have any illusions, when considering the Future of Moab, Utah. I am simply trying to record its transformation from a quiet, rur

26/08/2025

Southeastern Utah's wildfire season 2025 has been rough, but wildfire is not a new thing in these lands.

Late in the afternoon of June 9, 2021, heavy smoke was reported along upper Pack Creek in San Juan County, just upstream from Pack Creek Ranch. As the fire began to move rapidly down the creek bed, the historic ranch and its decades-old cabins and lodge were at risk, as well as a couple dozen newer

31/07/2025

To date, the Dragon Bravo fire has consumed nearly 100,000 acres of forest and high desert rangeland, countless structures and the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and is at only 9% containment. It has burned nearly one-third of the Kaibab National Forest and is making its way northward to the areas destroyed by the White Sage fire which is now under 83% containment.
Countless Americans and international travelers have marveled at the wonders of the Grand Canyon and its surrounding environments. It is a symbol of the beauty and majesty of the West.
As natural resources, cabins, campgrounds and memories are being consumed by the Dragon Bravo fire, we hearken back to another of the characters Jim Stiles' profiled in the Zephyr.

One of the great characters of the Grand Canyon was Shorty Yarberry. His whole name was George Armstrong Custer ‘Shorty’ Yarberry. He was born on the day of the Battle of the Little Big Horn when Custer was killed. He is buried at the Grand Canyon, right next to the Kolb Brothers, who ran the ph...

27/07/2025

Jim Stiles lived for many years in Monticello, Utah, the heart of Mormon pioneer country. Let's commemorate this year's Pioneer Day with this piece from 2013.

Utah is not like any other state. Some Americans are still not sure Utah is a part of the union, and in its early history, of course, the U.S. Government refused to allow statehood for the land of Deseret. A “wicked place,” some self-righteous Christians complained. Conversely, there are many

14/07/2025

It has been reported that the historic Grand Canyon Lodge burned down today due to a wildfire at the canyon's north rim. Three years ago, Jim Stiles published this piece featuring the remarkable photography of Herb Ringer which recorded the Grand Canyon and its many attractions from 1950-1957. Events such as today's tragic fires make us appreciate the visionary efforts of Herb Ringer and Jim Stiles more than ever.

During the past 34 years, I've mostly limited the range of Herb's photos to the West. But Herb traveled all over America and into Canada. Though this issue starts with a very familiar and beloved location--the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, future editions will expand Herb's work to locations from C

03/07/2025

Jim Stiles' gritty investigative reporting shines in this article recalling the tragic events surrounding Dennise Sullivan's disappearance 64 years ago.

Note: A much shorter version of this article first appeared in the June/July issue. After that piece was published, I was contacted by the granddaughters of Charles Boothroyd and the surviving daughter of Jeannette Sullivan. The information that Carolyn Boothroyd, Linda Boothroyd Lazaroff, and Jean

03/06/2025

Herb Ringer's collections have come to light only due to Jim Stiles' efforts to preserve and chronicle them. Ringer was one of the most prolific documentarians of the 20th Century West, and he left his vast collections of photographs, slides, travelogues, diaries and mementos to his best friend, Jim Stiles. Although several articles about Ringer are available on the Canyon Country Zephyr, they only begin to scratch the surface of his unique and iconic depictions of the last 100 years.

“When I was about four my father had an engagement to play the summer season out in Colorado Springs with a local band, the Colorado Midland Band, owned by the Colorado Midland Railroad. So we journeyed by train across the country to Colorado and my father rented a small cabin there. That cabin, b...

24/05/2025

There are some folks in red rock country who have visceral aversions to "trashy trailers," but the rest of us love and appreciate them for their utility, mobility and artistry. Thank you, Jim Stiles for standing in the breach between snobbery and good sense.

One could make the argument that without the invention and development of the travel trailer, Moab’s Uranium Boom of the 1950s would have been even more chaotic than it was. Until Charlie Steen’s life altering discovery of uranium at Big Indian, 30 miles south of town, Moab was a sleepy little v...

13/05/2025

Harvey Leake was a contributing writer for the Zephyr and produced many lyrical and insightful reflections about his pioneer ancestors who helped settle the Four Corners area. This is one such piece.

The fire was now burning brightly. We sat down around Grandfather as the firelight played over his face and white hair. We could hear the wind blowing outside, but everything was peaceful inside the hogan and we were all contented. Grandfather began the story he had promised to tell us, and we soon

02/05/2025

Jim Stiles had an uncanny sense about social, cultural and economic trends, and how one breed of boom and bust would lead to another. Is the tourism boom starting to wind down? And what, if any, new economic model will take its place?

Today, the rural west veers between two economic extremes: The industrial resource extraction and commodity economy, and the industrial tourism economy. The traditional occupations of the west, ranching, farming, logging, and mining, are locked in a deadly embrace with global commodity markets.

31/03/2025

Part 2 of Mark Steen's series about his "Uranium King" pop.

CHARLIE STEEN’S youngest son ‘sets the record straight’ about the Life & Times of Moab’s Most Famous Prospector At the beginning of my first article in The Zephyr about my father, Charlie Steen, and his discovery of the Mi Vida mine and its consequences, I wrote that people couldn’t seem t...

24/03/2025

As a true environmentalist, Jim Stiles was pained by the needless destruction of things in nature. In this piece, Stiles traces the NPS' tamarisk eradication efforts in Arches and Canyonlands, and in the case of the Secret Spring, the sad and shocking results.

(NOTE: This installment in my "ranger series" starts during my time at Arches, but the story of tamarisk at the park, and the NPS's efforts to eradicate it go far beyond my tenure...JS) * * * In the last issue of The Zephyr, I made reference to a place I called "The Secret Spring," in a very r

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