Ancient bison, roamed New Mexico for thousands of years, even up into the forests and far down into the Mexican frontier. The animals looked like the bison of today, but they were frighteningly large, about 20% larger than today’s bison
Category: history
John Wesley Powell Wanted to Denude the Rocky Mountains
In line with his singular focus on water for farms and towns, Powell opposed the creation of the forest reserves, the precursors to the national forests. He worried that a Forest Service would compete for money with his US Geologic Survey and didn’t want the Forest Reserve designation to prevent dams from being built to feed farms water.
Failed National Park Proposal Could Have Displaced the Manhattan Project
How many people know that there was a big movement to create a new national park in the Los Alamos area before the Manhattan Project
Is Wildland Firefighting a Waste of Tax Dollars?
In 2023 when megafires erupt across North America, and our national forests seem trapped in an escalating yet faltering war on wildfire, it might be good to look back …
Attacking American Freedom
The Supreme Court has given America a real wakeup-call recently. Their rulings on abortion, pollution and Native rights have shown that the conservative movement in the United States is far …
How One Man’s Disease Changed the History of New Mexico
Had J Robert Oppenheimer not gotten sick in 1922, the Manhattan project would have been sited elsewhere in the US and Los Alamos National Laboratory would never have existed in …
The Forest Advocate, or Forest Fantasy
Most Santa Fe residents recently got a mailing from a group called “The Forest Advocate” which discusses forest management around Santa Fe. While I appreciate the spirit of the publication, …
There are no Indigenous People in the Americas
There is an unmistakable trend in progressive and environmental thinking today. All compasses point toward a focus on Indigenous people and their long experience on this continent and the discrimination …
Ranching is Driving the West’s Water Crisis
At some point, Americans need to come to grips with the fact that the cattle ranching industry is using far too much water in the American West. Ranching damages almost …
Chaco Canyon and the Trampling of Hooves
At the turn of the century (1900), a man named Richard Weatherill ran a horse ranch right next to Pueblo Bonito inside what is now Chaco Canyon National Historic Park. …
