The Canyon Country Zephyr (2025)

03/02/2025

In this well-researched article, Stiles profiles billionaire "environmentalist" David Bonderman (deceased 12/11/24) who built a 15,000 sq ft "mcmansion" in what was once termed "the sloughs" near the Colorado River. With Moab--and the state of Utah--in the midst of a severe housing crisis, the Moab mcmansion craze is worth a conversation.

Note: Elsewhere in this issue is a review of the recently released documentary, "Planet of the Humans." The documentary was written and directed by Jeff Gibbs, and produced in part by Michael Moore. In part, it exposes the hypocritical connections between wealthy individuals and corporate interests

25/01/2025

This article was posted a year ago, and the sign in its featured image is among the many treasures in the Stiles collection. Jim left behind a literal history of Moab and its surroundings spanning many decades. This is a fun read!

For decades, the iconic routed wooden signs, in national parks across America, were a familiar sight to tourists. They were works of art... But leave it to the government to find one. Someone in the Department of Transportation, his/her identity lost to history, decided to take a look at the park s

02/01/2025

Jim Stiles' nose for fascinating people with interesting stories was legendary. Enjoy this great read from July 2022.

"My brother and I are Basque, you know. We came from the Pyrenees before the second world war," Armando explained. "Really," I said. "What did you do when you came over here?" "Well," he replied, "I went to work for the OSS." “The OSS?” I knew what the OSS was...the Office of Strategic Services,

18/12/2024

Jim Stiles had an uncanny knack for remembering details. With this gift he was able to chronicle stories from his family history going back 80 years. This piece was posted December 2, 2013.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve printed or posted this story two or three times over the past 25 years, but here it is again. I like the way these kinds of memories make me feel. Thanks...JS This time of year, I always think of my grandparents. They died many years ago; in fact, more time has passed since t...

11/12/2024

Bittersweet
"This is really just a personal reminiscence, and probably of little interest to most Zephyr readers. But it occurred to me recently that this is the first Christmas, where I am the only surviving member of my immediate family. My father died in 2009. My brother passed away two years ago, in December 2020, and my mother died in February at the age of 94. I’m the last Stiles standing. And of course my grandparents all left us decades ago."

This is really just a personal reminiscence, and probably of little interest to most Zephyr readers. But it occurred to me recently that this is the first Christmas, where I am the only surviving member of my immediate family. My father died in 2009. My brother passed away two years ago, in Decemb

06/12/2024

Being a prolific photographer, Jim Stiles left behind thousands of images taken throughout the course of his life. Like other great documentarians who traveled the West, Stiles' travelogues now serve as important historical references. He condensed and compiled countless such stories in the Zephyr, seasoned with his own pensive narratives.

A compilation of the Zephyr America series that appears exclusively on the Zephyr page (almost every Wednesday morning). These posts contain additional photographs not seen on Facebook... ...For the last few months, I've added a regular feature for those of you who follow us on the Zephyr

27/11/2024

Thanksgiving is a holiday when most people seek out family and friends to gather in celebrations of one form or another. Family for Jim Stiles was one of the most difficult aspects of his life. He wrote a few wry stories about his childhood in Kentucky and various family activities. But it seems that Jim Stiles sought to fill a lingering familial emptiness with close friends, acquaintances, and his audience, for whom he cared deeply.
His stories were always frank, sometimes funny, often painful. But like Jim, they were unabashedly real. I will always give thanks for the works and artistry of Jim Stiles.

By midafternoon of the next day, we were almost to Tucumcari, New Mexico, about 1200 miles from Louisville. The country was wide open now and we could see for miles. My brother and I were puzzled by large black spots on the rolling high desert and wondered if there had been a fire. Then my brother n

23/11/2024

As we know, Jim Stiles had a few side obsessions outside the realm of environmental issues in southern Utah. For one, he was obsessed with the unanswered questions surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This Zephyr post from November 19, 2023 summarizes his thoughts about this hinge point in American history.

The National Geographic story was called “The Last Full Measure,” and was written by its president and editor, Melvin Bell Grosvenor. He began… "His life was such — the radiance he shed —that if we live to be a hundred, we will remember how he graced this earth, and how he left it. Only th...

18/11/2024

Who's ready for a Zephyr flashback going back 84 years?
We should be forever grateful to Jim Stiles for preserving the true history of southeastern Utah.

Hank Schmidt. Arches National Monument. c/o NPS Dear Hugh: We have made some progress with the project to post the boundary. The entire West boundary of the monument has been posted and almost a quarter of the East boundary is now posted. This work has given me the opportunity to learn, first

11/11/2024

Jim Stiles' range of interests was almost too broad and diverse to imagine. Here's a fascinating read appropriate for Veterans Day.

"My brother and I are Basque, you know. We came from the Pyrenees before the second world war," Armando explained. "Really," I said. "What did you do when you came over here?" "Well," he replied, "I went to work for the OSS." “The OSS?” I knew what the OSS was...the Office of Strategic Services,

05/11/2024

Jim Stiles was not a particularly political person, though many perceived him as political because his common sense opinions rubbed them the wrong way. In his memory, we will post this non-political article from August 2023 which also gives us a nice distraction from the overwhelming political arguments of today.

A compilation of the Zephyr America series that appears exclusively on the Zephyr page (almost every Wednesday morning). These posts contain additional photographs not seen on Facebook... ...For the last few months, I've added a regular feature for those of you who follow us on the Zephyr

25/10/2024

Through most of its history, Moab was blessed to have an excellent newspaper overseen for many years by publisher, Sam Taylor. The Times Independent chronicled events, both great and mundane, with accuracy and heart. During those decades, the Times or "T.I." was a unifying force in the community because its staff, under the supervision of Sam Taylor, reported about controversial subjects with balance and candor. In this post from 2020, Jim Stiles remembers T.I. reporter, Bill Davis; his years at the newspaper, and return following a 35 year sabbatical.

BILL DAVIS & 'ENOUGH ROPE" A MOAB REPORTER RETURNS AFTER 35 YEARS. In the late 70s. Moab was experiencing a mini-boom of sorts. The Atlas mill was still running full-tilt. The price of oil had skyrocketed, thanks to the Iranian crisis, and the town was hopping with activity. New faces wer

18/10/2024

Those who live in southeastern Utah know that autumn has her own timetable. She comes and goes as she wishes, and the color of her mood changes from year to year. Jim Stiles was an observer of such changes. This is a post from 2013.

In the blink of an eye, summer has left us. The maples are turning red below South Peak, the aspens are on the cusp. The mornings are cold and crisp. The most poignant and melancholy and lovely time of the year has arrived in all its mystical Autumnal glory It seems like only yesterday that I was

12/10/2024

Jim Stiles was a voracious collector of tangible items depicting the past. When Jim departed for greener pastures, he left behind an impressive array of photographs, slides, travelogues, maps, postcards, film reels, signs, artworks and books--heaps of books. In this post from 2 years ago, Jim laments the usurpation of memories from postcards, which we once anticipated coming in the mail, held in our hands and preserved for generations, by ephemeral digital images that are scrolled through, and soon forgotten.

When was the last time someone sent you a post card? A 'picture post card?' I honestly can't recall seeing one of those once iconic symbols of American travelers in years. Maybe even decades. According to some company called Global Edge, we Americans at one time bought and mailed more than 20 mill

04/10/2024

Jim Stiles always stood on his principles, and at times it cost him friends and earned him some enemies. But an honest man or woman would ask the same questions.

The much anticipated Millennium came and went; Y2K didn’t happen; the world would not start to fall apart in earnest for another 20 months, and I saw The Zephyr, as an economically viable business, peak... and then start a slow decline.As Moab’s transformation into a New West town accelerated, a...

23/09/2024

Throughout the years, the Zephyr has featured the works of several great historian/authors, including those of Harvey Leake. Posted in February of this year, "The Legacy of Nasja Begay: Paiute Guide" is an well-written and fascinating read.

From early times, a tiny community of Paiute Indians made their homes at the bottom of a remote canyon that transects the Arizona/Utah border. Early in 1909, two of them—a father and son—rode eastward on a rocky, fifty-mile-long trail toward Monument Valley in order to patronize a trading post a...

16/09/2024

Jim Stiles was broadly known for his personal observations and commentary on the evolving demographic, economic and environmental conditions of southern Utah, but he was also a relentless investigative reporter. His series of articles about the tragic circumstances of Dennise Sullivan's disappearance in 1961 revealed stunning new details about the case, never before disclosed in media. This article reads like a film noir, and is both entertaining and heart-wrenching.

There is no 'good' ending to this story...The last moment that anyone knows with absolute certainty where Dennise Sullivan was on the night of July 4, 1961 came barely a minute or two after Abel Aragon fatally shot her mother, Jeannette, and critically wounded Charles Boothroyd. Dennise had tried to

02/09/2024

Included in Jim Stiles' various collections are thousands of slides documenting the "evolution" of southern Utah. Among those are photos taken by Edna Fridley, an amateur historian and photographer whose spent decades recording the lands in and around Glen Canyon, before, during and after the construction of the dam. Jim organized and compiled many of these photos in Zephyr articles that are fascinating and highly relevant. Without the work of Jim and Edna, this history would be lost forever.

Arth Chaffin and Ruben Nielsen thought there might be non-archaeological treasures to be salvaged as well. The river had seen its share of mining operations over the last century, and even old cabins and sheds. Most of them, like Bert Loper's old cabin, were drowned by the rising waters. But there w

The Canyon Country Zephyr