The Center of the American West takes as its mission the creation of forums for the respectful exchange of ideas and perspectives in the pursuit of solutions to the region's difficulties. We at the Center believe that an understanding of the historical origins of the West's problems, an emphasis on the common interests of all parties, and a dose of good humor are essential to constructive public discussion.
National Book Award nominee Kent Haruf, Salida, received the Wallace Stegner Award April 25 at a ceremony at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Seven Salida residents were among the approximately 150 people who attended the event at the university’s Center of the American West. Best known for his novel “Plainsong,” Haruf received a standing…
If you pay attention to the history of the Bureau of Land Management, you will soon be wrestling with one of the most consequential questions of the last two centuries. The practices we cluster under the category “conservation” all hold in common a commitment to restrain some uses of natural resources so that those resources…
For the right price, you can own what is billed as America’s smallest town — Buford, Wyo., pop. 1. The minimum bid of $100,000 in Thursday’s national auction wouldn’t buy you a townhouse in many cities. Don Sammons is Buford’s sole resident and will sell the town by auction. Whoever buys the 10 acres…
Some scientists estimate the oil bed under Utah, Colorado and Wyoming amounts to triple the reserves of Saudi Arabia. But environmental groups say that’s speculative. Last night, the Bureau of Land Management hosted a public meeting in Salt Lake City to get public input on a plan to develop over 350,000 acres for oil shale…
For about a century, entrepreneurs have tried to squeeze oil from rock on Colorado’s Western Slope. It’s often said that there’s enough oil shale out there to dwarf Saudi Arabia’s reserves. But no one’s ever been able to make any real money extracting it. That COULD be changing. Shell recently announced that it was able…
Washington, D.C.– The American Historical Association (AHA) is initiating a nationwide, faculty-led project to articulate the core of historical study and to identify what a student should know and be able to do at the completion of a history degree program. Professors Anne Hyde (Colorado College) and Patricia Limerick (University of Colorado Boulder) will lead…
The Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado State Office, in partnership with the Public Lands Foundation and the Center of the American West, will host a juried art contest for Colorado high school students to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the General Land Office. The art contest is framed around an educational presentation covering the history…
Contemporary, Native American artist Bunky Echo-Hawk is planning to complete his next painting on Thursday evening. However, with less than 48 hours to go, he has no plans for the design of his piece. The painting will likely include bright, vibrant colors and an obvious connection to Echo-Hawk’s Native American heritage — both staples of…
Indian artist Bunky Echo-Hawk is an old soul in a cutting-edge suit — his bright paintings, slabbed with blocks of blinding color, mix traditional and pop imagery and ideas, resulting in a body of work that’s funny, sad, stridently satirical and very smart. He’s therefore an excellent choice as a lecturer for the University of…
Usually it’s a literary hodgepodge of writings about the West read by Colorado celebrities — not the glitzy ones, but a round-robin of teachers, historians and politicians. but tonight’s Words to Stir the Soul, an annual tradition curated by the University of Colorado’s Center for the American West, will focus on the words of just…
GOLDEN, CO – Center Researcher Jason Hanson, coauthor of the Center’s What Every Westerner Should Know About Oil Shale website, gave the closing plenary address at the 31st annual Oil Shale Symposium at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden today. Giving a talk entitled “The ABC’s (and X’s) of Scouting the Future for Oil…
Pulitzer prize-winning author John McPhee has another accolade to add to his collection after the Center of the American West presented him with the Wallace Stegner Award Thursday. With 28 books under his belt and 48 years contributing to The New Yorker, this award counts McPhee among “those who have faithfully and evocatively depicted the…
BEND, Ore. — The High Desert Museum has chosen Patty Limerick, faculty director and board chair of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, for the 28th annual Earle A. Chiles Award. The $15,000 award funded by the Chiles Foundation is for Limerick’s scholarship and public history forums that challenge popular…
President Theodore Roosevelt is celebrating his 153rd birthday in an unconventional fashion. The sixth annual Theodore Roosevelt Symposium and the 92nd annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association have collaborated to create a four-day celebration of the life of Roosevelt. The influence North Dakota had on Roosevelt, and the influence Roosevelt had on North Dakota…
The rugged individualism of myth, the challenge of uncharted territory, the bad sanitation and awful racial stereotypes . . . the TV Western is back in the saddle. More than half a dozen projects set in the Old West are in the pipeline or ready for roll-out across several networks in coming months. The “horse opera,” a…
Boulder author Jenny Shank’s new novel is about a clerical error with devastating consequences. “The Ringer” is loosely based on a true story, when Denver police raided the wrong house and killed an innocent man. Her novel jumps back and forth between perspectives: first the white cop who fired the fatal shot, then to the…
America needs a girdle. Maybe that’s the message of the flood of retro-programs that treat the Kennedy era with reverence. Think pointy bras, skinny ties and vintage cars, add a Sinatra soundtrack, and you’re halfway to a prime-time television series, give or take a subplot. The TV networks hope that the invocation of the past…
Small towns across America may soon lose a part of their identity if the U.S. Postal Service has its way. Up to 3,000 post offices are targeted for closure because of the agency’s ongoing budget problems. Eleven facilities are on the list in Colorado, and for residents in the town of New Raymer the move…
Wilderness conservation took a hit as part of this year’s federal budget compromise. A rider slipped into the bill at the last minute has put millions of acres of land back on the table for oil and gas drilling. One of those places is South Shale Ridge in western Colorado. The area is not federally…
MICHELE NORRIS, host: You’re listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Now to a battle over funding and wording. In this year’s budget compromise, conservation funding took a hit. A rider slipped into a bill put millions of acres of land back on the table for oil and gas drilling. One of those places…
In 1971, a book by author John McPhee hit the shelves and cast a balanced view on the rapidly expanding environmental movement of the late 1960s. “Encounters with the Archdruid” tells the true story of firebrand environmentalist David Brower. McPhee created situations in which Brower interacted with a mineral engineer named Charles Park, a resort…
September 13, 2011 Location: Chautauqua Community House Address: 900 Baseline Rd, Boulder, CO 80302 Times: 5:30pm Admission: $15 Venue: Chautauqua Dining Hall Visit Website Add to Trip Planner In 1986, Patty Limerick and Charles Wilkinson founded the Center of the American West. The Center of the American West serves as a forum committed to the…
Sixty-nine members and guests came to an unusually rainy Boulder, Colorado for SWG’s 2011 Triennial meeting. We met at the Millennium Harvest House, located on Boulder Creek, Thursday, May 19 through Sunday, May 22. We had a grand time in spite of rain, and the epic flight delays getting to Denver experienced by some members….
The 36th Annual Colorado Water Workshop will be held July 20 to 22 at Western State College of Colorado (WSC). This year’s theme is “Risk, Opportunity & Leadership in Changing Climates,” which explores issues related to political, economic and physical conditions that affect water use in Colorado. The Colorado Water Workshop brings together experts, policymakers,…
At 10am on Monday September 6th, 2010 – Labor Day – a wildfire started in Fourmile Canyon west of Boulder. Over the course of 11 days, the fire consumed over 6,000 acres of land and destroyed 169 homes. It was the most expensive wildfire in Colorado history, costing around $10 million to fight and causing…
Over the years, a number of local intellectuals have lobbied Juli Steinhauer, co-chairwoman of the Conference on World Affairs, for a spot on the participants’ roster. Colorado artists, scientists, musicians — and, just last week, a defense attorney — have asked to be guests of the weeklong CWA at the University of Colorado, Steinhauer said….
Residents of the Fourmile Fire burn area, firefighters and local government officials will gather next week on the University of Colorado campus for a book reading to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the Fourmile Fire, which has gone down in history as the state’s costliest wildfire. CU’s Center of the American West is hosting “Words…
The University of Colorado Boulder’s Center of the American West will host “Words to Stir the Soul and Reckon with Reality: The Six-Month Anniversary of the Fourmile Canyon Fire” on March 14. Readers will include residents of the burn area, firefighters and local government officials representing a multitude of perspectives on the wildfire that burned…
Colorado Public Radio wanted to catch up on the latest news from Shale Country, so Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner sat down with What Every Westerner Should Know About Oil Shale coauthor Jason Hanson to discuss the recent legal settlements and more in an in-depth interview that aired today during Morning Edition and on Colorado…
Patty Limerick is the Faculty Director and Chair of the Board of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado. As well as teaching, Patty is a leading historian on the American West, writing books and consulting on documentaries on the subject. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant award….
BOZEMAN – The award-winning author of “An Entirely Synthetic Fish: How Rainbow Trout Beguiled America and Overran the World” will sign books and give a free public lecture on Monday, Feb. 7, in Bozeman. Anders Halverson, research associate at the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, will sign his book at…
Denver’s dry winter has done nothing if not underscore the tenuous nature of water supplies along the Front Range. The Highlands Ranch Library is inviting the public to participate in a forum, “Insights on Front Range Water Issues,” at 7 p.m. Jan. 20. The forum will be presented by Patty Limerick of the University of…
As a research associate at the Center of the American West at CU, Buzzy Jackson was inspired to begin her search for her family’s history by the recent birth of her son and her scrawny family tree. In the course of researching her family tree, Jackson connected with distant relatives, traced her roots back more…
Just hours before he was to be sworn in as Colorado’s 42nd governor, John Hickenlooper retooled the speech he would deliver the next morning. In earlier drafts, he discovered the word “government” was the fifth-most-used word in the speech. That had to change. “We needed to talk about people’s potential,” he said. Hickenlooper enlisted a…
When John Hickenlooper is sworn into office today as Colorado governor, he joins a small fraternity who have held that title: Only 36 people have served in the position since statehood arrived in 1876. Like those predecessors, Hickenlooper will have to hold on to his hats as his new life begins, since he will sport…
Imagine waking up on a refreshing summer morning in the Rockies, stepping out of your front door to pick up the newspaper, and finding this headline: ENORMOUS OIL FIELD DISCOVERED IN THE AMERICAN WEST. Imagine also that this oil field promised to produce enough energy to substantially offset growing national demand, help prevent shortfalls in…
After being honored by the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West in the morning and speaking over lunch for the Colorado Conservation Voters, media mogul Ted Turner spent Tuesday night mingling with dignitaries at his new Pearl Street restaurant. In Turner’s 55th Ted’s Montana Grill — decorated with replicas of pictures that decorate…
In hard times, college enrollment programs can experience great times — particularly those that teach specific job skills. While Colorado residents suffered wage cuts and job losses during a national recession, the number of them paying to go to college grew, according to census survey data released Tuesday. In Denver, enrollment in college and graduate…
You can see how Ted Turner might be a handful. Patty Limerick, the noted historian of the American West, interviewed him on Tuesday morning, and for awhile it was uncertain whether she would get a question in edgewise. Limerick, who can parse and parry with the best of them, rarely has that problem. In Boulder…
The University of Colorado needs to pass its green crown to Green Mountain College, a school in Vermont that celebrated last Earth Day by installing a biomass plant on its campus. CU — which was dubbed the greenest school in the country by Sierra Magazine last year — dropped to No. 13 in this year’s…
Author Buzzy Jackson has the 20th most common surname in America, but she managed to trace her roots back more than 250 years. It wasn’t easy, as Jackson makes clear in Shaking the Family Tree, an entertaining, enlightening look at how she did it. Her advice for anyone seeking to do the same: It helps…
While many of our predecessors had created monuments in much the same manner, it seemed to me that the time was now at hand to change that practice. The West had now come of age, with a growing constituency for conservation and for preserving our heritage of unimpeded wide open spaces.
For just a brief period of civilization, humans have tapped the dense energy of fossil fuels. “Sweet perfume,” Carbondale’s Randy Udall, a consulting energy analyst and one of the nation’s leading activists in promoting energy sustainability, called them at a recent panel discussion in Denver. “These fossil fuels are magical.”But what comes next? We can’t…
On May 10, 2010, Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians wrote an article entitled “Get Your Sharp Sticks Ready.” His piece, referencing a comment given by Patty Limerick in a Denver Post article on May 9, 2010, provided the perfect opportunity to open a dialogue for discussion on this heated topic. Below, is…
An exhibition by photographer Peter Goin called “Fire!” will be on display through June 18 at the Haldan Art Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College. Goin is a professor of art in photography and videography at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the author of “Tracing the Line: A Photographic Survey of the Mexican-American Border,”…
NEW YORK — How nice to see that New York Magazine, one of the what’s-trendy weekly magazines here, has chosen my neighborhood, Park Slope in Brooklyn, as the best place to live in New York City. To be sure, Park Slope has become a pretty nice place over the past 25 years, as the neighborhood,…
After a sensational day of fishing for Yellowstone cutthroats back in the 1930s, my grandfather fought heroically outside a bar in Gardiner, Mont., with a man who insisted nothing but a rainbow trout was worth catching. Such is the passion stirring inside serious fishermen. Disparage rainbow trout in any fly shop or watering hole in…
BAR: THE CORNER BAR The Corner Bar at McCormick’s Fish House and Bar sees the action. Picture windows face Wazee and 17th streets — the best way to see whether it’s snowing. For when it is, Irish coffees are $1. The nightly happy-hour menu approaches the ridiculous, with a big, juicy cheeseburger going for…
In our fairy tale “spiritual world,” where fantasy reigns supreme, one program after another claims that by changing your thinking, or by consciously wishing for things, you can have them and be happy. There may actually be some truth to this idea, in very specific contexts, but it ignores the fact that most of us…
Who doesn’t love the rainbow trout? Whether sauced in butter, sketched in pastel or stripping line from a flyrod in a Montana stream, the game little fish with the freckled skin and the rosy side-stripes has always been a poster child for Unspoiled America. Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter have…
Behold the regal rainbow trout, dappled denizen of deep lake and rushing river, fierce hunter of fish and fly—and prize of pork-barrel politics, invigorator of men, eradicator of native species, payload of numerous bombing missions. An angler can catch a lot of rainbow trout and yet have no clue what a remarkable force of…
Every week, publishers and authors send me books in the hope that I’ll review them for New West. I read pretty fast, but I can’t get to all of the deserving books, so some of them end up in my Book Cabinet of Guilt. My daughter keeps her crayons in the same cabinet, so…
University of Colorado at Boulder history Professor Patty Limerick will bring history alive when she interviews nationally recognized actor Clay Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt in Boulder and Denver on Feb. 24 and 25. Jenkinson has played Jefferson in 49 of the 50 states and the White House, in addition to appearances on…
Original article can be found at http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_14348854#axzz0ftv8oGFE Originally published on February 6, 2010 By Sarah Horn More than a century ago, America’s government leaders wanted to encourage men to get back in touch with their primal abilities because they thought industrialization had diminished their masculinity, according to a new book written by a University of…
Somewhere just after 12:30 p.m. on a cold Wednesday this month, the image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as a Western pragmatist and wily political deal-maker evaporated in a cloud of heated rhetoric. After months of doing battle with the oil and gas industry, the typically cautious Salazar lost his cool in a media…
Boulder’s 150-year anniversary continues as representatives of the city’s “kindred cities” meet at the University of Colorado on Wednesday night to discuss mutual challenges they share and how they plan to face them. The event, organized by the Boulder Sesquicentennial Celebration, CU’s Center of the American West and the Boulder History Museum, will feature speakers…
BOULDER — Four prominent leaders from Aspen, Colo., Madison, Wis., Portland, Ore. and Sante Fe, N.M. will share their experiences and thoughts in an evening forum, Wednesday, Sept. 23, titled “Separated at Birth: Insights from Kindred Communities.” The free event, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the University of Colorado campus in the Wittemyer Courtroom,…
White House Press Secretary Bill Burton announced a list of five books that President Obama is bringing on his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. Among them is Kent Haruf‘s Plainsong. Now, during last year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, Jeff Lee of the Rocky Mountain Land Library asked a bunch of notable Western writers and…me to…
Retired Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Bob Barbee will speak at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Auditorium in Rocky Mountain National Park on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. The talk is open and free to the public. It is the third Randy Jones Memorial Lecture, jointly sponsored by the University of Colorado`s Center of the American…
To Joe Wilson, Congressman from South Carolina and Now-Legendary User of Language to Convey Disrepect for the Presidency of the United States and To Van Jones, Gifted Environmental Advocate and Now-Legendary User of An Immature and Impoverished Figure of Speech to Characterize Political Opponents Dear Congressman Wilson and Mr. Jones: While you may seem, at…
“The Center of the American West probes the West’s oil shale resources and the past and future efforts to pull the oil out of its rocky bed”By Patty Limerick and Jason L. Hanson Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat…
It’s so easy to say “Those were the days.” The older you get, the more you hear that comment. Fact is, you can’t turn back time. While “live in the now” may be a better mantra, there’s nothing wrong with looking back. And that’s exactly how it went in May when Boulder’s Sesquicentennial Celebration invited…
Oil shale has a rocky past in the West and an uncertain future, but the sheer amount of resources available, and dwindling supplies of world oil, could make it a crucial resource. That’s the conclusion of a report by the University of Colorado’s Center for the American West, which found “serious and significant” environmental challenges…
For Americans coming of age in the middle of the 20th century, one Hollywood actor above all others embodied the virtues and bravado of the American West — John Wayne. But the movie star, whose real name was Marion Morrison, was mythology. In John Wayne’s America: The Politics of Celebrity Garry Wills described him as…
BOULDER, Colo. — The University of Colorado’s Center of the American West released an online report Friday that examines the extensive history of oil shale and aims to “bring an impartial perspective to the debate” over its future. Oil shale is a rock saturated with deposits of oil, so much so that the rocks are…
When it comes to attempts to squeeze oil out of rock in places like northwestern Colorado, past results aren’t necessarily indicative of future performance, a new report says. “What Every Westerner Should Know About Oil Shale,” released Wednesday by the Center for the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder, says the failures…
Three professors will receive the Robert L. Stearns Award in recognition of extraordinary contributions to the university: Douglas Burger, associate professor and associate chair of the English department whose outstanding efforts in the classroom have had a profound impact on students; Patty Limerick, a history professor, faculty director of the Center of the American West and nationally recognized expert on the American West
At long last, we are positioned to embrace the muddled state of human nature, and therein lies our greatest opportunity for conservation. Pure virtue and unambiguous principle, history shows, have struggled to keep their footing and stay upright when they descend from the heavens and try to touch the earth. When we depart from the…
David Treuer, an Ojibwe Indian and prize-winning author, will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 23 as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity Series. The talk will take place at 7 p.m. in room 150 in the Eaton Humanities Building on the CU-Boulder campus. The event…
“The West is very rich in resources. The West is very rich in landscape beauty. As a result, the West is rich in contention.” “It’s not easy being rich.” — “What Every Westerner Should Know About Energy” That truth, contained in a 2003 publication from the Center of the American West at the University of…
A few months ago, my parents got a letter in the mail from the Center of the American West that said I was invited to a banquet and the organizers wanted to give me some more money for a writing prize I’d won ten years ago. Back then, I was in grad school in Boulder…
Fox News reports on Patty Limerick’s April Fool’s day. View the video news report on Fox 31′s website.
Patty Limerick, the renowned University of Colorado at Boulder history professor who also serves as the official “University Fool,” will put on white face paint and hold court on campus on April 1. Limerick will appear on a “throne” in the University Memorial Center’s fountain area from 11 a.m. until about 1 p.m. The University…
Extra! Extra! Americans’ changing relationship with energy is big news at last! Energy has finally found a place at the forefront of Americans’ thoughts about our future. Growing concerns about where our energy comes from, how we use it, and the ramifications it carries for our environment, our economy, and our national security have propelled…
LISTEN NOW There’s a saying in the Rocky Mountain West: Oil shale has a promising future — and it always will. The Obama Administration has reversed a Bush administration policy of allowing large leases on public lands for oil shale research and development. That made environmentalists happy, but oil companies are not giving up on…
Last Friday the Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition. With the close of the paper, another great books section vanished forever. I sincerely hope that Patti Thorn, the Rocky’s gracious, smart Books Editor finds a new home for her talents soon. I wrote book reviews for the Rocky for over eight years, and read…
The death of a newspaper hits me as hard as the death of a friend. Every now and then, a platitude captures reality, and the old saying – that newspapers are the first draft of history – is one of those high-performance cliches. And this first draft involves a lot more than record-keeping. We all…
LISTEN NOW Denver – The question of balancing energy policy so that it is humane, economically sound and environmentally responsible is the gist of a report released today by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Researcher Jason Hanson says they looked at a number of “green” energy solutions and found…
The Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder is releasing its latest report, “High Energy Prices & Low-Income Americans, Reducing the Risk of Unintended Injury” at a Tuesday evening reception in Denver. Energy Outreach Colorado funded and provided information for the report, which outlines the challenge of transitioning to a…
LISTEN NOW Wednesday on RadioWest we’re celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Wallace Stegner. Stegner was one of the most important writers of the American West – probably not overstating it to say his book “Angle of Repose” is a masterpiece. Stegner reworked the myth of the West and brought the lives and…
LISTEN NOW BOULDER, CO (2009-02-20) University of Delaware Professor and wind energy expert Willet Kempton is visiting the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West this week. Professor Kempton is out to rebuke popular assertions that the United States is a long way off from transitioning to a renewable-energy based system. He also sat…
The word “Frontier” lives a double-life. In the public world of bookstores and Star Trek episodes, it carries itself with bearing, symbolizing something wild and lawless, a place of promise, adventure, and renewal. Within the Academy, however, “frontier” carries the whiff of the disreputable, a word that has fallen into disuse. Once praised and powerful,…
McGuane honored with 2009 Wallace Stegner Award Western author Tom McGuane is the recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stegner Award, the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado announced Monday. McGuane is best known for his novels “The Sporting Club,” “The Bushwhacked Piano” and “Ninety-Two in the Shade.” The Stegner award, named…
The Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder announced today it will present its 2009 Wallace Stegner Award to author Tom McGuane, best known for his novels “The Sporting Club,” “The Bushwhacked Piano” and “Ninety-Two in the Shade.” “Tom McGuane has been a spectacular ‘participant-observer’ in the changing world of…
Lane Center hosts conference on Lincoln and the West Stanford’s Bill Lane Center for the American West played host on Friday to a discussion of Abraham Lincoln and his legacy in an all-day conference at the Schwab Residential Center, featuring five of the nation’s preeminent Civil War-era scholars. Friday’s lectures and panel followed Pulitzer Prize-winner…
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West will host a talk by a national leader in the cause of renewable energy, University of Delaware Associate Professor Willett Kempton, on Feb. 19. The talk titled “What Most Analysts Tell You About Renewable Energy is Wrong: Rethinking Energy, Power and Policy in the…
On Inauguration Day, Ken Salazar became the 50th U.S. secretary of the Department of the Interior and the sixth Coloradan to serve in the post. Until now, Colorado has been tied with Ohio and Illinois, each of which contributed five Interior secretaries to the United States. With Salazar — who is the first Interior secretary…
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West and School of Law will host a panel discussion on “Public Lands, Private Ceremonies: Native American Religious Practices and Public Lands in the West” on Jan. 21. The panel discussion will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Wolf Law Building’s Wittemeyer…
January 12, 2009 Southwestern Archaeology Making The News – A Service of the Center for Desert Archaeology Center of the American West Public Lands – Private Ceremonies: Conflicts which arise over the use of public lands by the dominant culture, for either extractive or non-extractive purposes, and which are inconsistent with traditional religious or cultural…
From The Denver Post The Denver Post asked a diverse stable of Westerners to add their voices to the chorus of Americans who have advice for President-elect Barack Obama. Top row, left to right: John Hickenlooper, Cleo Parker Robinson, Norma Anderson, Jeff S. Fard. Middle row: Dottie Lamm, Gary Hart, Federico Pena, Brian Schweitzer, Tucker…
Wallace Stegner as a White guy, circa 1945 At the end of World War II, Look Magazine commissioned Wally to write a series of articles on racism. He spent a year and a half traveling the nation with Look photographers, visiting minority communities from Boston to Los Angeles, covering Filipinos, Jews, Blacks, American Indians, and…
Dr. John Hajduk Dillon was out catching a film and saw Appaloosa. In his analysis, he uses a quote from Patty’s book, Legacy of Conquest. If you’re interested in the way the American Western is headed in current cinema, check out his blog.
From the CU Independent Center of the American West examines literary diversity The Center for the American West is promoting a new way of getting the experience of American immigrants across to a large audience. Members of the CU and Boulder community gathered in Old Main Chapel on Wednesday night and listened to speakers present…
Last week’s election may have boosted gun sales for some Coloradans, but it’s flags that others are rushing to stockpile. Hardware stores are reporting increased sales of American flags since Barack Obama’s win on Tuesday. In some areas not exactly known for flag-waving, Old Glory is flying off the shelves. Take, for example, the East…
Each year, Words to Stir the Soul brings together an amazing and diverse group of people to read pieces of Western literature to audiences in CU’s Old Main auditorium. This year, with the theme of Western Immigration in mind, readers delighted us with a myriad of pieces from authors such as Thomas Andrews, Luis Alberto…
From Colorado Higher Ed News BOULDER – Immigration is the subject of the 12th annual Words to Stir the Soul event to be presented by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Nov. 12. Among the readers will be Manuel Ramos (left), author of Chicano literature and director of…
Immigration is the subject of the 12th annual Words to Stir the Soul event to be presented by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Old Main Chapel. The event presents readers from all walks of life reading aloud from great works…
CU is about more than just science and tech Four Nobel Laureates, seven MacArthur Fellows, No. 1 in NASA research funding — clearly, the University of Colorado at Boulder is a national leader in the natural sciences and engineering research. As a comprehensive national university, however, our responsibilities extend well beyond science and technology. The…
DENVER – For Native people, tribal homelands beckon. We are the places of our origins. For acclaimed Chickasaw writer Linda Hogan, returning to her Oklahoma roots was a discovery of connectedness that defies years lived in other places. She is the author of “People of the Whale,” a recently released novel chronicling conflicted lives and…
Gift will help fund vaccine lab A Boulder couple has pledged $2 million to a new University of Colorado biotechnology building, with the money going toward a laboratory where researchers will study and develop vaccines. Jeannie and Jack Thompson — who met at The Sink on University Hill when they were University of Colorado students…
Patty Limerick, a well-known author and professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder, is the recipient of the 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western Literature Association. Limerick, who also is chair of CU’s Center of the American West and a professor of environmental studies, received the award Oct. 2 along with…
Is Colorado ready for a future with a different climate – hotter days and altered precipitation patterns? DENVER – Some January day in the future, you might be sitting in your living room, drinking coffee made from bottled water and looking across the sand dunes in the front yard. You’ll glance at the headlines and…
ROSEBUD, South Dakota: The wind blows incessantly here in the high plains; screen doors do not last. Wind is to South Dakota what forests are to Maine or beaches are to Florida: a natural bounty and a valuable inheritance. Native American tribes like the Rosebud Sioux now seek to claim that inheritance. If they succeed…
The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Energy Initiative, created in 2006 to help meet the world’s sustainable and renewable energy needs, has announced a group of corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, advisers, scientists, policymakers and academics as members of its newly formed EI Leadership Council. The council currently is made up of 16 private sector seats…
By Jenny Shank October 1, 2008 New West.net Article Western Literature Week, a collaboration between the Center of the American West and the Western Literature Association, kicks off today in Boulder. Public readings by Western authors will be held from October 1 through 4, including the October 2 presentations of Aaron Abeyta and Linda Hogan…
Mount Rushmore superintendent discusses both in National Park Service management BOULDER, Colo. – America’s national parks, venerated family recreation areas since the time of Teddy Roosevelt, may become important reflections of the country’s Native history, aided by a National Park Service superintendent who believes “controversy is always fun and education is always needed.” Gerard Baker,…
With Colorado in the unfamiliar role of swing state this presidential election, a look back might offer lessons for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama as they battle over the state’s nine electoral votes. So the Rocky Mountain News asked a panel of historians for help. Their answers: Tread carefully because history is a…
Udall cousins make their bids for the U.S. Senate If the polls of September prevail, the U.S. Senate will have two first-cousins in January, Tom Udall, of New Mexico, and Mark Udall, of Colorado. The cousins grew up together in Tucson, both participated in Outward Bound, and both arrived as freshmen congressmen in 1998. As…
Cousins Mark and Tom Udall, both congressmen, shoot for higher office They have been called the “Kennedys of the West,” and today two members of the Udall family — cousins Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado — are hoping to make the next jump together to the U.S. Senate. The two…
William Kittredge and Patty Limerick are among 10 well-known Western authors scheduled to give public readings in Boulder Oct. 1-4 as part of Western Literature Week. The University of Colorado’s Center of the American West and the Western Literature Association are co-sponsoring the series of events celebrating contemporary Western writing, all of which are free…
The superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the highest-ranking American Indian in the National Park Service will speak at the University of Colorado today as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity Series. Gerard Baker, a full-blood member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota, will speak on “Why I…
CU doesn’t have its Professor of Conservative Thought and Policy yet, but it isn’t for lack of trying. Last spring, CU Chancellor G.P. “Bud” Peterson launched a drive to raise money to create the position, largely in response to the perceived need for more conservative voices on the campus. At the time, the figure to…
Superintendent Baker speaks about modern Indian identity at memorial lecture Superintendent Gerard Baker of Mount Rushmore National Memorial will speak at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center Auditorium in Rocky Mountain National Park on Thursday, Sept. 18 beginning at 7 p.m. The talk is open and free to the public. It is the second Randy Jones Memorial…
CSU to hold free public lectures on climate change FORT COLLINS — Colorado State University will ask professors to answer lingering questions about climate change including how, why and what it means to people worldwide. The series of seven lectures begins Thursday. All sessions are free and begin at 7 p.m. at the Lory Student…
The superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Sept. 17 as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity Series. Gerard Baker, a full-blood member of the Mandan-Hidatsa tribe of North Dakota and the highest-ranking American Indian in the National…
In the next few days, we are all going to be professors of communications, as we grade Barack Obama and John McCain on their speeches. Democrats and Republicans, Obama supporters and McCain supporters, at least we all share one standard of judgment in 2008: If they gave a PowerPoint presentation, they’d get an F.nylon fetisch…
Wherever you look, paramedics on bicycles are available and ready to come to your aid. But no one had the foresight to arrange for a fleet of cultural anthropologists on bicycles to circle the town, wielding their professional expertise to help us figure out the spectacles unfolding in front of us. The anthropologist who came…
‘As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow.” Who said this? A Democrat at the Pepsi Center speaking in opposition to offshore drilling? Actually, Republican President Dwight…
There are police everywhere in Denver – on foot, in cars, on bikes, on motorcycles, on horses. Looking at them has made me a rattled time traveler. In one moment, I am solidly in 2008, and I am looking right past the guns, clubs, helmets, face masks and uniforms, and seeing a bunch of people…
Cañon City— Standing in the shadow of their brand-new solar electric panels, Pete and Paul Austin launch a brotherly argument whose political implications soar on a late-summer breeze toward the Colorado border and out to the boundaries of the Mountain West. Paul would drill more oil wells on Colorado’s wild lands. Pete would rather step…
Denver’s identity has always been defined by displays of rugged individualism. Voters rejected statehood in the first go-around in 1864, and long after joining the union, maintained a love-hate relationship with the national political establishment. They demanded subsidies for agriculture, mining and other economic activities but chafed at efforts to regulate them. Even today, the…
Denver’s Identity Is An Uncertain Mix Of Its Rugged History And A Niche In The High-Tech World Decisions, decisions. For the Denver political, business, and cultural elite, there is no more prized invitation than the one to tonight’s cocktail party at the Denver Art Museum — sponsored by the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck….
DENVER (AFP) — Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are hoping to strike electoral gold by mining for votes in a series of western US states long regarded as Republican strongholds, analysts say. A Quinnipiac University poll Sunday, taken before Obama chose Senator Joseph Biden as his running mate, found Republican John McCain was leading…
Imagine a scenario that would hold great hope for the nation: As the Democratic delegates arrive at DIA, they are each handed a book, produced by a bipartisan team of Coloradans. The book is called A Field Guide for the Identification of Rocky Mountain Political Figures. On its cover there is a brightly colored label…
The West evokes thoughts of classic heroes riding into troubled towns, bringing justice and order. The candidate who captures that myth — and the region’s swing voters — will have the advantage. In the winter of 1874, Alfred Packer and five fellow prospectors headed into the snow-packed mountains of southern Colorado. A few weeks later,…
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Western history professor and writer Patty Limerick probably understands more than most the draw of the region’s myth and romance. When it comes to politics, though, Limerick believes Westerners have more to teach the country and its candidates than legends about cowboy-hat-wearing heroes. She believes the region’s history of building communities…
CODY – With countless interpretations and speculations on the life of Buffalo Bill Cody already in the mix, actor Bill Mooney presents his own take on the legendary Western icon this week in a solo theatrical performance. “Tonight! Buffalo Bill!” is an hourlong dramatic biography of Cody originally written by Mooney for the Center of…
If you ever wanted to know what was going through the heads of scientists during the Atomic Age, then get ready for an evening to remember. On July 16, history will come alive through engaging social commentary, as “J. Robert Oppenheimer,” father of the atomic bomb, visits the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. More…
RMNP’s future in flux because of climate change Northern Colorado’s crown jewel is a few years from its first century, but a new era is already beginning for Rocky Mountain National Park. Although no one can say what the park’s next 100 years will look like, there’s little question that changes are already under way…
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK – Climate changes predicted for the Rocky Mountain National Park area could provide scientists with both new challenges and new opportunities in this living laboratory. Rocky Mountain National Park and the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado have released a new report that studies the anticipated effects…
Predictions of starving polar bears and melting ice caps have become a symbol for the dangers of global warming. But what about ice and wildlife in Northern Colorado? Permafrost at Rocky Mountain National Park is thawing and, if it continues, could cause Trail Ridge Road to slump, said Judy Visty, park research administrator. “We don’t…
A changing climate Rocky Mountain National Park and the Center of the American West recently released a report on climate change. The report highlights the results of a workshop held in November where experts from around the state came to discuss the anticipated effects that climate change would have on the Park’s ecosystems. Join Park…
ESTES PARK — Rocky Mountain National Park and the Center of the American West will hold a program to discuss results of a recently released a report on climate change at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at in the auditorium at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center at Rocky Mountain National Park. The report highlights the results…
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – May 8, 2008 – Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins will address the Colorado College graduating class of 2008 at its commencement at 8:30 a.m. Monday, May 19 on Armstrong Quad, 14 E. Cache La Poudre St. The quad is located directly north of the intersection of Tejon and Cache La…
The rigid standards of hiring and tenure are all that stand in the way of humanities professors as thriving public scholars I am sitting at a desk behind a nameplate that identifies me as “Dr. Patricia Limerick, Marriage Counselor.” I am looking earnestly into a camera lens, and from time to time, an attentive person…
Stocking Trends: A Quantitative Review of Governmental Fish Stocking in the United States, 1931 to 2004 AbSTRACT: This article provides a quantitative review of the type, number, and estimated weight of the fish stocked by the 50 state agencies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the United States in 2004. I examined trends…
As we celebrate Earth Day today, many know of the University of Colorado’s long history of being environmentally conscious and of our leadership in the creation of the 14-month-old Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a partnership between CU-Boulder and three other institutions including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). But far fewer are aware of the…
At CU-Boulder to receive the 2008 Wallace Stegner Award from the Center of the American West, Arizona native and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was asked to give her opinion on state supreme court judicial selection methods. Notably pleased to be asked the question, she responded that she was involved in drafting the…
BOULDER — Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court, spoke about her childhood in Arizona and praised Colorado’s judicial selection process in a packed auditorium Thursday night at the University of Colorado at Boulder. At the end of her speech, the Center of the American West presented…
Sandra Day O’Connor talks about family, childhood Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor did not spend much time on court decisions or judicial politics in her address at the University of Colorado on Thursday night. Instead, she wistfully described her family history and childhood experiences growing up on the Lazy B cattle ranch in…
Last weekend I walked to a grocery store about three blocks from my apartment. It was a mild, sunny day. Even the dandelions looked beautiful. My brain was hurting after a morning of reading scholarly articles. A sample sentence: “Fitting into the larger domain of critical theory, this line of inquiry probes the assumptions that…
Editor’s note: In honor of CWA’s 60th anniversary, Camera history columnist Silvia Pettem is taking a daily look this week at six decades of dialogue. Immigration was the topic that pitted ex-Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm against University of Colorado history professor Patricia Limerick at the Conference on World Affairs in 1996. Lamm argued for greater…
Just for the record, I’d like you to know that I danced plenty in high school, thank you very much. With that off my chest, I do hope that you’ll take a moment to tune in to Patty’s reading of her essay “Dancing with Professors,” where she muses about the reasons behind the obtuse prose…
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the better-known justices of modern times, will give a public talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder on April 17 at 7 p.m. in Macky Auditorium. O’Connor served on the court from 1981 to 2006 and played a pivotal…
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will speak on the University of Colorado campus at an April 17 ceremony honoring her for being a good Westerner. CU’s Center of the American West is awarding O’Connor with an annual award that is given to “an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the…
Robert Mirabal, a Grammy Award-winning musician and composer best known for presenting a contemporary view of American Indian life through his work, will give a talk at the University of Colorado at Boulder on March 19. Part of the CU-Boulder Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity Series, the talk will be held at…
The University of Colorado’s Center of the American West will hold a screening of the documentary film “National Sacrifice Zone: Colorado and the Cost of Energy Independence” on Thursday. The program will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the ATLAS Building, Room 100, with the screening of the film, which delves into the current and future…
Supporters say straight-shooting style could help appointee quell controversy As a 20-something roughneck, Bruce Benson told his boss he couldn’t work on the oil rigs anymore because the semester was starting, and it was time for him to go back to college. That declaration was met with a look of disbelief. Benson “followed the rigs”…
From the Boulder County Business Report BOULDER – The calendar of events for the Center of the American West keeps you guessing. Some events are political, some are artistic, and some you expect would be political are not. On Thursday, Feb. 28, the center is screening a film on the ills of the energy industry,…
The documentary film “National Sacrifice Zone: Colorado and the Cost of Energy Independence,” will be shown and discussed at a Feb. 28 event at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sponsored by CU-Boulder’s Center of the American West, the program will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the ATLAS Building with the screening of the film,…
BFA Chair says president must have experience in academics Bruce Benson is facing tough opposition on the road to CU presidency after the Boulder Faculty Assembly voted him an unqualified candidate, Thursday evening, in a 40-4 decision. The decision comes as opposition to the sole candidate builds, with the University of Colorado Student Union voting…
Bruce Benson’s status as finalist for the position of CU president has unleashed a storm of strong emotions. Nearly all of the publicly quoted voices heard from Boulder oppose Benson’s candidacy. I have been a faculty member at CU since 1984 and am a member of the Presidential Search Committee. I support Benson’s appointment, and…
Presidential finalist vows not to drop out Bruce Benson, the sole finalist for the position of University of Colorado president, met with a hostile crowd on the Boulder campus Tuesday but said a vocal faction of professors and students opposing his candidacy would not persuade him to bow out. At Benson’s second stop on the…
Sole finalist for CU presidency under fire from critics BOULDER (KWGN) — Multi-millionaire Bruce Benson was back on the CU Boulder campus for another visit Tuesday night, trying to make his case for why he would be a good university president. But he’s meeting with opposition. The oilman and former Republican politician spent tonight talking…
Western State College Professor Discusses George Catlin and the Influence of American Indians American Indians have been stereotyped for what seems an eternity. “Into the 21st century, many well-meaning Americans hold on to an image of Indian people as residents of a lost past, not fully present in modern times,” said history Professor Patty Limerick,…
Contenders could energize their campaigns by addressing issues critical to the West Let’s begin with a moment that will not strain your imagination. Let’s say that we are sitting in front of our TVs, yawning a bit as we listen to a predictable debate among presidential candidates. Now imagine the moderator suddenly catching all candidates,…
The work of George Catlin, best known for his paintings of American Indians in the mid-1800s, will be examined in a Feb. 7 lecture presented by the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Living Beyond Lament: Rethinking George Catlin’s Vanishing America” will be presented by Professor John Hausdoerffer, an…
That’s right, it’s that time of year again for the release of the Center’s Newsletter! You can access the newsletter from our Newsletter page to read it online, or contact us for a physical copy to call your very own. Don’t miss the exciting news from this past fall!
Interview by Kirk Siegler BOULDER, CO (2007-11-29) Patty Limerick has been called everything from an iconoclastic western historian to a polarizing liberal academic. She’s not sure she fits in either category. Limerick founded the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she’s also a professor of history. KUNC’s Kirk…
On November 11, the New York Times Magazine ran an interview with Patty Limerick on the recent resurgence of Westerns in Hollywood. As part of that interview, Patty mentioned offhand that “No one is going to make a film about the 500,000 abandoned mines in the West – and that may be too small a…
As a professor of American history at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the chairwoman of the school’s Center of the American West, what do you make of the flurry of new films that revisit Jesse James and the town of Yuma and the empty space of the desert landscape? Just as we had…
By Jenny Shank, 11-07-07 New West – books and writers www.newwest.net Elections wrapped up yesterday, but things are still looking political on the regional books front. For starters, the Center of the American West’s “Words To Stir The Soul” reading is tonight on the CU Boulder campus (7 p.m., Old Main Auditorium, free). The annual…
Leaders are readers – at least they will be this week at an event in Boulder. This year, the Center of the American West’s annual read-aloud event is a shout-out to and by public officials, including Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien and first lady Jeannie Ritter. The literary landscape covers vast terrain: an epic history featuring…
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and First Lady Jeannie Ritter will be among the well-known participants gathering at the University of Colorado at Boulder Nov. 7 to celebrate the region’s rich literary heritage. “Words to Stir the Soul: Celebrating Our Public Servants,” presented by the Center of the American West, also will feature Lt. Gov. Barbara…
…CU Professor Patty Limerick, faculty director of the Center of the American West, will also be heading up a Halloween costume competition between the center’s staff and the staff of the CU-Boulder Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society today.Limerick said she and the center’s staff will leave the Center of the American West office in…
The Patty Limerick Pedestrian Diet and Exercise Plan has been getting some attention in the blog world. The blogsite boinboing gave it some kudos in its October 22 post. What do you think of this simple yet amazing plan?
Eva Garroutte, author of “Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America,” will speak at the University of Colorado at Boulder Oct. 25 as part of the Center of the American West’s Modern Indian Identity series. Her talk, “My Father’s Stories: Remembering Oklahoma,” is free and open to the public. The lecture begins at…
Our collective love affair with fossil fuels may be winding down, but there’s another worthy suitor to consider. We may not know your name, but we already know one pretty private thing about you. You have been involved in a tempestuous relationship, pursuing a mad romance with fossil fuel. But now, thanks to a spectrum…
Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West By Robert T. Self University Press of Kansas, 208 pages, $29.95 In his new book, Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller: Reframing the American West, Robert T. Self beautifully describes the opening of Altman’s famous Western: “The camera pans slowly across a moody gray landscape…
If there’s one thing often missing from talks about energy efficiency, it’s, well, energy. But when renowned Western historian Patricia Limerick took to the podium at the University of Montana’s University Center Theater Monday night it didn’t take long to realize she wasn’t there to spout off depressing statistics and flash pie chart after pie…
Nostalgia is high on Patricia Limerick’s list of things that people need to put away if the Rocky Mountain West is ever going to unlock its potential for sustainable energy. It is right up there with thinking you know what’s on a person’s mind just because he drives a tractor. Or that an engineer can…
The 31st annual Public Land Law Conference, Rocky Mountain Energy Leadership: Strategies for a New Energy Future, begins today at the University of Montana in Missoula. This evening Patricia Limerick will deliver the keynote address, titled “The Power of the Rockies: Living with Energy in the Old West, the New West, and the Next West.”…
As a young boy growing up in Montana, Ivan Doig never imagined his childhood experiences would turn into award-winning books. Many years and 11 books later, the acclaimed author is being honored by the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West as this year’s recipient of the Wallace Stegner Award.The Center of the American…
Ivan Doig, the acclaimed author of “This House of Sky” and 10 other books often set in Montana, will receive the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West on Thursday, Sept. 27. The center’s highest award will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Wolf Law Building…
Conspicuous conservers could use their energy-efficient behavior to drive social change In our new report (see the first Western Perspective piece for more information), we make the case for people to adopt better energy efficiency and conservation practices by appealing to the three main dimensions of human motivation: Reason, Pride, and Pleasure. The following excerpt…
The role the American West plays in providing energy will be the focus of the 31st Annual Public Land Law Conference Sept. 24-26 at The University of Montana School of Law. “Rocky Mountain Energy Leadership: Strategies for a New Energy Future” will emphasize how laws and policies can position Rocky Mountain states to play a…
They contribute to ecological and human health concerns SUMMIT COUNTY – Prospectors began hacking at Colorado’s mountainsides 150 years ago in search of gold, silver and any other kind of profitable metal that might have been nestled deep inside the rock. Soon mines peppered the landscape. And while most of them were abandoned nearly a…
If you define history as a written record of the past, then it’s easy to be precise about when history began in central Colorado: exactly 228 years ago, when Juan Bautista de Anza, governor and military commander of the Spanish province of New Mexico, led an army north from Santa Fe.In August 1779, Anza took…
The effects of global energy use on the climate and the impact climate change will have on future generations are among the topics to be discussed during an Aug. 30 symposium at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “The Global Energy Crisis: Climate Change, Mitigation and Adaptation,” will be presented in the University Memorial Center,…
DRIVEN OUT Thinking realistically about the history of the American West easily lands on the list of this nation’s top 10 least favorite pastimes. Hundreds of historians have invested their life force in pointing out the inaccuracies in the image of the 19th-century West as a place of colorful romance and innocent adventure. “No thanks,”…
How The West Can Save A new report examines how Westerners’ relationship with energy is destined to change By Patty Limerick and Jason Hanson Center of the American West for Headwaters News June 14, 2007 Imagine waking up on a refreshing summer morning in the Rockies, stepping out of your front door to pick up…
