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Angels Camp
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Frogtown USA
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About Us
Coming Soon...
Sierra Grief Support Groups
Pictures With Santa At West Point Elementary
Camps Restaurant Annual Christmas Gala
"It's A Wonderful Life In Angels Camp" ACBA Christmas Gala Dec. 5
Overeaters Anonymous Arnold
'Kash-In' Concerts Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ~ Columbia
Holiday Open House Calaveras Arts Council Gallery ~ San Andreas
Winemakers Night and Live Music Alchemy Market and Cafe ~ Murphys
Pastels Painting Class Painting with Pastels ~ Copperopolis
'Kash-In' Concerts Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ~ Columbia
Move Ability Yoga Yoga with James Aarons
Live Music Wednesdays at Rob's Place
Life Drawing Art Class With George Allen Durkee ~ Copperopolis
Health & Wellness Luncheon
Twain Talks Tales of Mark Twain's Early Life and the Gold Rush
Twain Talks Tales of Mark Twain's Early Life and the Gold Rush
The CFLC Presents, "A Rockin' Royal Christmas."
'Kash-In' Concerts Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ~ Columbia
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Trivia Night Weekly on Thursdays ~ Murphys
Karaoke at Murphys Hotel
Mark Twain Returns To Mother Lode For Only Four Performances
Zucca After Hours
Friday Jazz At Alchemy
Friday Music at Alchemy
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Living History Day
2nd Annual Odd Fellows Christmas Craft Fair
The 2nd Annual Odd Fellows Christmas Craft Fair
La Grange Odd Fellows Breakfast Sunday December 11
2nd Annual Odd Fellows Christmas Craft Fair Saturday, December 10
Murphys Historic Walking Tour Every Saturday At 10am
Big Trees North Grove Guided Tours Saturdays At 1pm
Mountain Melody Women's Chorus Christmas Concert
Zucca After Hours
13th Annual Wintersports History Night
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Live Music at The Whitewater Grill Live music every other Saturday
Candy Cane Making Watch candy canes being made or participate in making candy canes. Limited space.
Mountain Melody Women's Chorus Christmas Concert
Sierra Grief Support Groups
Overeaters Anonymous Arnold
Calaveras Genealogy Society's Winter Social
'Kash-In' Concerts Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ~ Columbia
Move Ability Yoga Yoga with James Aarons
Live Music Wednesdays at Rob's Place
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Twain Talks Tales of Mark Twain's Early Life and the Gold Rush
'Kash-In' Concerts Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday ~ Columbia
Studio 4 Dance Theater Presents "The Nutcracker 2016"
Zucca After Hours
Friday Jazz At Alchemy
Friday Music at Alchemy
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Murphys Historic Walking Tour Every Saturday At 10am
Candy Cane Making Watch candy canes being made or participate in making candy canes. Limited space.
Big Trees North Grove Guided Tours Saturdays At 1pm
Zucca After Hours
7th Annual Christmas Caroling At Moaning Cavern
7th Annual Christmas Caroling At Moaning Cavern
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
Leg Lamp & BB Gun: The Stars Of Sierra Rep's A Christmas Story
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Fuel Your Winter Fun With $14.99 Propane Exchange Tanks From Calaveras Lumber
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/05/2016 06:23 AM
Angels Camp, CA...Are you fueled up are ready to go? Do you have an extra tank for the garage heater? Time to get ready for all those winter activities! Calaveras Lumber in Angels Camp now has one of the lowest prices anywhere on propane exchange tanks. Simple, fast, safe & efficient. Stop by their home improvement store in Angels Camp and they will have you fueled up and ready to go in minutes. Of course while you are there you might be tempted to pick up a few more things as well.
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Stop Into Ace! The Helpful Holiday Place!
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 05:00 PM
Arnold, CA...Now that the holidays are here Ace has everything you need to join in the spirit of the season! 2017 model grills have just arrived! Buy a grill now for $399.00 or more and have it delivered and assembled for free!
Nine Confirmed Fatalities In Oakland Warehouse Fire. Death Toll May Climb To As High As 40
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 02:38 PM
Oakland, CA...The Oakland Police Department is supporting the Oakland Fire Department as they are conducting their investigation into the large structure fire at 1305 31st Avenue. Per the Oakland Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed:
There are nine (9) known fatalities from this incident. At this time, an assessment is still being made of any additional victims in association with this incident.
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Arrest Made In Sheep Ranch Arson Fire
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 02:26 PM
Sheep Ranch, CA...On 12/01/16 at 1:41 PM, Calaveras County Sheriff's Deputies responded to the 12000 block of Armstrong Road in Sheep Ranch for a structure Fire. Deputies arrived on scene and observed a single family home fully engulfed by fire. Christopher John Trotter (44 years old) of Sheep Ranch was contacted on scene and arrested for allegedly setting the home on fire.
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19 Comments
The President Implores Congress To Pass the 21st Century Cures Act
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 02:07 PM
Washington, DC...Hi, everybody. On the first day of my administration, I promised to restore science to its rightful place. I told you we would unleash American innovation and technology to tackle the health challenges of our time. Over the last eight years, we've delivered on that promise in many ways, both big and small -- including, of course, providing health coverage to 20 million more Americans, and making health care more affordable for all Americans.
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42 Comments
Calaveras High Seeks Scholarship Donations for Butte Fire Victims
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 01:12 PM
San Andreas, CA...If you are making a charitable donation this month, please consider giving to the Butte Fire Senior Scholarship. Given the impact of the fire on many of Calaveras High School's students, we have established a scholarship for graduating seniors who lost their homes in the fire.
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Stolen Trailer Recovered By CHP San Andreas
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 07:51 AM
San Andreas, CA...On November 29, 2016, San Andreas CHP Officers were contacted by the victim of a trailer theft from August of 2016. They related that they located their 2003 HH Utility trailer for sale on a popular Facebook for sale page. They were able to provide identifying information about the trailer that led investigators to believe that the trailer belonged to the victims. Investigators had the victims arrange with the seller to meet at the San Andreas DMV office to facilitate the sale. CHP Investigators contacted the sellers, Kelsea Galloway and David Knaak at the DMV. Both offered multiple different stories about how they came into possession of the trailer however Galloway claimed ownership of the trailer and Knaak claimed that he built portions of the trailer. A inspection of the trailer showed obvious attempts to destroy the original Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) however Investigators were able to identify the trailer through confidential means.
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23 Comments
Come Down To Carrie's Critters Today For Their Annual Gift Card & Biscuit Sale!!
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 07:41 AM
Arnold, CA...Come down to Carrie's Critters this Saturday December 3rd for the Annual Gift Card and Biscuit Sale. All holiday biscuits and biscuit boxes are 25% off. Gift Cards under $75 are 15% off and Gift Cards over $75 are 25% off. Supplies are limited to stock on hand. My Dedicated Customer Service Elf Julie will be here to help you locate the perfect gifts for the pet lovers and Grand-Dogs and Cats in your life.
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More Terrain Open For This Weekend At Bear Valley - Tix Still $59.00
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/03/2016 07:26 AM
Bear Valley, CA...Hey Good People! We will be opening more terrain this weekend as our Snow Making/Slope crew has been doing a great job getting Mokelumne West ready. We will be turning Kuma so Mokelume West will be open but all other runs off the summit will be closed so please heed our closures for you safety. Cub Meadow will also have some expanded terrain as well as the Panda Carpet for lessons and such. We will have some terrain park features also as well as Tubing so come on up and enjoy our "Pure Mountain Fun" ethos!!!!!! Stay tuned........
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Winter Is Here. Come Up & Enjoy It At Bear Valley Cross Country & Adventure Company
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/01/2016 09:43 AM
Bear Valley, CA...Paul Says.."Fourteen trails are open and groomed for cross country skiing and snowshoeing. The store is really nicely stocked up for all of your winter needs. Other details: Lessons and rentals available. Meadow Café, and tubing area not open yet, but please inquire about sledding options. Hope to see you soon!"
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Enjoy Breakfast With Santa At Ironstone Vineyards!
Posted by: News_Desk on 11/30/2016 05:40 PM
Murphys, CA...Kick off your holiday festivities at Ironstone Vineyards on Saturday, December 3rd, with our annual Breakfast with Santa.
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Calaveras Humane Society's Thrift Store's Bear Valley Raffle
Posted by: thepinetree on 11/19/2016 08:04 AM
Arnold, CA...Get your tickets now for Calaveras Humane Society's Thrift Store's Bear Valley Raffle!
Valley Springs 34th Annual Christmas Parade & Craft Faire
Posted by: News_Desk on 11/16/2016 05:28 PM
Valley Springs, CA...Valley Springs Area Business Association annual Christmas Craft Fair! This year's judges will be California Highway Patrol Lt. Dwayne Lewis, Calaveras Co. Sheriff Rick DiBasilio and Calaveras Consolidated Fire Chief Jason Robitaille.
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Independence Hall Needs Your Stuff! Accepting Donations Every Saturday!!
Posted by: thepinetree on 09/29/2016 06:42 AM
White Pines, CA...The Flea Market is our only fundraiser for the year. The proceeds provide for maintenance of the building and grounds. It is always held on the first full weekend in August. Donations to the Flea Market are accepted all year.
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Mokelumne Hill Holiday Open House & Artist Reception At Petroglyphe Gallery
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 04:28 PM
Mokelumne Hill, CA...Magical December brings mystery, imagination and holiday cheer at Mokelumne Hill's Holiday Open House on Sunday, December 11, 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm. This quaint, historic, gold rush town brings to life events and special activities for the entire family. There is nothing like horse drawn hay rides down Main Street, photos with Santa at the Hotel Leger, face painting, fun activities, and tasty treats throughout historic downtown shops.
Mokelumne Hill Post Office Photo By Ed Cline
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Climate Actions Of Leading States & Regions Across The World Are Putting A 2˚C World Within Reach
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 02:59 PM
London, England...The Compact of States and Regions today reveals, in its annual report, that the vision set out in the Paris Agreement is within reach. Delivering on all disclosed 2020 targets in time would result in savings that put these governments on track to stay below the critical warming threshold of 2˚C above pre-industrial levels. The report provides valuable insights to support national governments heading into the '2018 facilitative dialogue', aimed at raising ambition in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and shows how many disclosing states and regions are ahead of schedule.
Projected GHG emissions
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65 Comments
CDCR Announces Automated Email Notification Services For Crime Victims
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 02:29 PM
Sacramento, CA...Yesterday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's (CDCR) Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services (OVSRS) announced they will begin using the new Automated Email Notification Services to better serve and communicate with crime victims starting in December 2016. The new Automated Email Notification Services will allow for a 90-day in advance email notification of release to crime victims whose offender is in CDCR custody. The system will also be able to immediately email victims and notify them of an escape or death of an offender. With the addition of this new service, CDCR will discontinue sending notifications through the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) service effective December 31, 2016.
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4 Comments
Faith Lutheran Church In Murphys Welcomes You!
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/02/2016 02:08 PM
Murphys, CA...We welcome all visitors and if you don't have a church home, Welcome Home! Sunday Services are at 11 am. The church is located at 65 Mitchler Avenue in Murphys across from the Sierra Hills Market.
The Angels Camp Christmas Parade & Open House For 2016
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/02/2016 01:29 PM
Angels Camp, CA...The Annual Angels Camp Christmas Parade & Open House filled Angels Camp last Saturday evening. It kicked off at 4:00 pm. with caroling in front of the Calaveras Visitors Center and lighting of the Christmas tree at 4:30 pm. At 5:00 pm the Parade of Lights through historic downtown where locals and visitors alike line this classic Gold Rush street to enjoy the pretty sights. Main Street merchants were open late serving up treats, discounts on merchandise and wine tasting. Santa was available for photos on the porch at the Visitors Center following the parade and food trucks were selling pizza, hot chocolate and other toasty goodies for an evening's entertainment of carols from Mountain Melody Women's Choir. It was the kind of classic, small-town-America-celebration that will warms your heart and jump starts your holiday spirit. We have photos and video of the parade below...
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34 Californians Will Be Honored For Their Heroic Acts & Extraordinary Contributions To EMS
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 01:11 PM
Sacramento, CA...Dr. Howard Backer, Director of the California Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), has announced the recipients of California Emergency Medical Services Awards for 2016. Launched in 2007, the annual awards honor and recognize exceptional acts and service by individuals working or volunteering in California's emergency medical system.
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The Bureau Of Labor Statistics Report A Decline In November Unemployment Rate
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 12:29 PM
Washington, DC...The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent in November, and total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care. In November, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 4.6 percent, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 387,000 to 7.4 million. Both measures had shown little movement, on net, from August 2015 through October 2016...
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Elaine Anne Kelling 1936-2016
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 12:23 PM
San Andreas, CA...Elaine Anne Kelling, born October 9, 1936 in Woodward Oklahoma to Harold and Mildred Newcomb. Entered into rest on November 25, 2016, at the age of 80, at her home in San Andreas. Elaine is survived by her husband of 62 years, William (Bill) Kelling, sons David (Nina) Kelling, Ed (Barbara) Kelling, Roger (Vicki) Kelling, and Jeff (Tara Parker) Kelling; daughter Shelley (Bud) Steffen; and brother Douglas (Frances) Newcomb. She was preceded in death by her son Donnie Kelling. She has 6 grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren, and one on the way.
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Bear Valley Leads The Central Sierra With Early Season Opening
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/02/2016 10:58 AM
Bear Valley, CA...With their Thanksgiving Weekend opening the Bear Valley operations team proved their commitment to being a premier, family friendly resort. Their investments in state of the art snowmaking equipment have proved that in good snow years and in not so good snow years they provide great snow conditions and one of the longest ski seasons in the industry. In fact last year they were the last resort in the nation to hold a NASTAR race.
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Third Annual 'Sourdough Slim's Wild & Wooly Revue' Concert
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 10:41 AM
Murphys, CA...Hold on to your seats and get ready for a rollicking evening of outrageous humor and song. We are happy to present this seasonal extravaganza featuring popular Gold Country old time music makers, Sourdough Slim & The Saddle Pals, Faux Renwah, and Robert Armstrong (Cheap Suit Serenaders). A once-a-year opportunity to catch all these artists in a show together.
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Calaveras County Sheriff's Logs For December 1st
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 10:30 AM
San Andreas, CA...The latest activity logs for the Calaveras County Sheriff's Deputies are attached:
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Caltrans Director To Become Chair Of Transportation Research Board Executive Committee
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 09:32 AM
Sacramento, CA...The Transportation Research Board announced today that Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty will become chair of its Executive Committee, effective January 12, 2017.
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2nd Annual Odd Fellows Christmas Craft Fair Saturday, December 10
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/02/2016 09:14 AM
La Grange, CA...Attention holiday shoppers! Don't miss the 2nd Annual Odd Fellows Christmas Craft Fair on December 10th at the IOOF Hall in La Grange, open from 10 am to 3 pm. Come share an abundance of Christmas cheer in the warm atmosphere of this historic 1881 vintage Odd Fellows Hall! A fine collection of artists, collectors and crafters will be assembled for your shopping pleasure, and we'll also offer seasonal refreshments and treats available for sale.
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Angels Trading Post Has Everything To Keep You Rolling For The Holidays!
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/02/2016 07:22 AM
Angels Camp, CA...Stop and say hi and top off your tanks today! Angels Trading Post has everything you need to keep you Hopping when you visit our area. Great Prices on Gas, Drinks, Sodas, Java City Coffees and more. They also accept E.B.T. cards.and have great prices on tobacco products. They are open everyday from 5am to Midnight!! Stop by and see the Singh's today at the corner of Hwy 49 & Hwy 4.
Jingle & Mingle At The December Chamber Mixer!
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 03:14 PM
Mokelumne Hill, CA...Come jingle and mingle with us! The Calaveras County Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce its Holiday Mixer will be held at Renegade Winery on December 15, 2016 from 5:30pm till 7:00pm located at 8345 Main Street in Mokelumne Hill.
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Murphys Open House On December 2nd
Posted by: News_Desk on 11/20/2016 08:59 AM
Murphys, CA...Every year on the first Friday in December, Murphys celebrates the start of the holiday season with a community Open House from 5 to 8 pm on Historic Main Street. Admission is free, the streets are closed to traffic and we are ready to celebrate the winter holidays.
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Governor Brown & First Lady Honor 2016 California Hall Of Fame Inductees
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 04:12 PM
Sacramento, CA...Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. and First Lady Anne Gust Brown joined the California Museum to award the Spirit of California medal to eight Californians inducted into the California Hall of Fame this evening.
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Governor Brown Names U.S. Congressman Xavier Becerra California's Next Attorney General
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 03:59 PM
Sacramento, CA...Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today named U.S. Congressman Xavier Becerra (D-CA) to replace Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, who was elected to the U.S. Senate last month. The nomination, which is subject to confirmation by the California State Assembly and Senate, will be officially submitted after Attorney General Harris resigns.
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Calaveras County Public Access TV Studio PATV Schedule Through December 8th & Tax Payer Alert With Host Al Segalla
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 03:53 PM
San Andreas, CA...Calaveras Community TV is located in San Andreas, CA. We are a non-profit organization which helps facilitate the local studio and air original community programming to your home. The goals for PEG Access Television are to promote free speech, foster diverse points of view, encourage communications, create opportunities, encourage artistic expression, expand educational access, and promote participatory democracy in order to strengthen the spirit of the communities and enrich the lives of our residents and visitors.
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City Of Angels City Council Meeting & Amending Annual Budget For Purchase Of Police Vehicle
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 03:46 PM
Angels Camp, CA...The City OF Angels City Council is holding a regular meeting on Tuesday, December 6th. On the agenda is a resolution amending the annual budget for the 2016/2017 fiscal year for police vehicle replacement and authorizing surplus of two police vehicles.
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Structure Fire On Armstrong Road
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/01/2016 03:27 PM
Sheep Ranch, CA...Firefighters are still on scene of a structure fire on Armstrong Road in the Sheep Ranch area. There was no spread to vegetation but it sounds like the structure was a complete loss. We checked in with TCU Command and confirmed that it was a residence and the home was a complete loss. Our thoughts and prayers to the residents to have such a loss during the holidays..
12 Comments
Greenhorn Creek Golf Resort Men's Club Results Wednesday, November 30th
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 03:23 PM
Angels Camp, CA...As one of Northern California's best golf courses and communities, Greenhorn Creek offers more of the fastest, truest greens in the state. The 18-hole course was redesigned by Robert Trent Jones II and along with Mother Nature; Greenhorn Creek delivers one of California's finest golf experiences. You'll discover 18 holes of championship golf with 5 sets of tees ranging from 4,887 to 6,800 yards that make Greenhorn Creek Resort both challenging and enjoyable. Greenhorn Creek Men's Club results for Wednesday, November 30th are as follows:
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Starbucks Announces New Leadership Structure To Drive Next Wave Of Global Growth
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 02:12 PM
Seattle, WA...Starbucks Corporation today announced that Kevin Johnson, president and chief operating officer and a 7-year member of the Starbucks Board of Directors, will expand his responsibilities and assume the role and responsibilities of president and chief executive officer, effective April 3, 2017.
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The 2nd Annual Christmas In White Pines Parade Of Lights & More!
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/01/2016 02:11 PM
White Pines, CA....The 2nd Annual Christmas In White Pines Parade Of Lights & Holiday Festival picked up even more steam in its second year to become a fixture on the local Holiday Calendar. Santa, Hot Chocolate, Popcorn, Parade & More were featured along Blagen Road starting at Ace Hardware and ending at White Pines Park.
Lots Of Additional Photos Are Enclosed...
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Dr. Rhoda Nussbaum Named December 2016 Mentor Of The Month
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 02:03 PM
Angels Camp, CA...The Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program is honoring Murphys resident Dr. Rhoda Nussbaum as its December 2016 Mentor of the Month. Rhoda has been matched with her nine-year-old mentee, Makayla Copeland, for a year; their time together is something Makayla consistently looks forward to each week.
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Become A UCCE Master Food Preserver
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 01:54 PM
Jackson, CA...Are you interested in becoming a certified UCCE Master Food Preserver volunteer and teaching others how to preserve food at home? Apply for the next volunteer training program in Jackson starting in February. While experience with canning and drying food is a bonus, it isn't required.
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"It's A Wonderful Life In Angels Camp" ACBA Christmas Gala Dec. 5
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 01:44 PM
Angels Camp, CA...The Angels Camp Business Association will hold its annual Christmas Gala, themed "It's a Wonderful Life in Angels Camp" at Camps Restaurant in Greenhorn Creek, Angels Camp, from 6 to 9 p.m. this Monday, Dec. 5. Silver bells will grace the hall, as "every time a bell rings, an angel gets their wings."
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Stockton Man Receives Sailor Of The Day Award
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 12:10 PM
Stockton, CA...Seaman Michael Enriquez, from Stockton, California, receives the Sailor of the Day award from Capt. Greg Huffman, USS John C. Stennis' (CVN 74) commanding officer, and Command Master Chief Benjamin Rushing. John C. Stennis is underway to conduct routine training and participate in National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day events in Hawaii.
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Donald Trump, Mike Pence Carrier Plant Announcement 12/1/16
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/01/2016 12:03 PM
Indianapolis, IN....Donald Trump, Mike Pence Carrier Plant Announcement 12/1/16
24 Comments
Tribal Security Helps Sheriff's Department Recover Stolen Vehicle
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 11:51 AM
Tuolumne, CA...On Tuesday evening just before 6 PM, the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office received information from the Sonora Police Department regarding a reported stolen vehicle that occurred on Mono Way in Sonora.
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New Improvements and Upgrades Enhance Patient Experience at Mark Twain Medical Center
Posted by: thepinetree on 12/01/2016 11:44 AM
San Andreas, CA...December 1, 2016- Mark Twain Medical Center (MTMC) adds a special glow to the recent lighting upgrade in its surgery suites with a $300,000-plus cost savings to the completed project. "This project creates a more comfortable environment for our patients and our surgeons," says Certified Surgical Services Management Director Lynn Bartel, RN, BSN. She explains, "An operating room usually seems very cool to patients because it must be no more than 68 degrees to keep things sterile. But once the overhead lights go on, surgeons are working in 80 to 90 degrees at the site of the surgery due to the heat from the bright lights. That can quickly increase to 100-plus degrees depending upon what surgery-specific garments are required."
Ed Gonzales, Director of Facilities/Support Services and Development at MTMC, is pictured with Certified Surgical Services Management Director Lynn Bartel, RN, BSN. They play key roles at the hospital.
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Jackson Fire Department Recognizes Volunteers
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 11:42 AM
Jackson, CA...On Monday, November 28th, four Jackson Fire Department volunteers were recognized for their hard work and dedication to their community during the City of Jackson's council meeting. The Jackson Fire Department has a long standing tradition of volunteerism, with over 162 years of service.
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Winter Specials At Greenhorn Creek
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 11:23 AM
Angels Camp, CA...Getting a Tee time is easy. Just pick the Date and the time you would like to tee off and we will take care of the rest. We look forward to seeing you at Greenhorn Creek soon. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our pro shop at (209) 729-8111
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House Fire In Columbia Mobile Home Park
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 11:14 AM
Columbia, CA...Just before 9 PM, the Sheriff's Office received a report of a fire at 10956 Green St. at the Columbia Sky Mobile home park In Columbia. The home was unoccupied and the resident had arrived to find it engulfed in flames.
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A Letter To The Editor In Regards To Sarah Palin~ By R Douglas Nunes
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 09:21 AM
Arnold, CA...Letter To The Editor- I was disappointed when Trump won the election, I felt we had no "good" choices but Trump seemed the worst. Now he is proving that he is not competent to be President, by his choices for cabinet seats.
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32 Comments
CCOG Regular Meeting & Acknowledgement Of The Dedication & Commitment Of Elected Officials
Posted by: News_Desk on 12/01/2016 09:06 AM
San Andreas, CA...The Calaveras Council of Governments is holding a regular meeting on Wednesday, December 7th at 5:30 p.m. On the agenda is the acknowledgment of the dedication and commitment of Wes Kulm, Cliff Edson, and Steve Kearney for serving as elected officials for the CCOG.
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Welcome to ThePineTree.net
If you see anything newsworthy, give us a call or send it along!
Our goal is to report Current, Up-To-Date, Accurate news 24/7! We are also here to promote one of the best places on the planet...Calaveras and Western Alpine Counties. We cover news and events along the Ebbetts Pass Corridor, Angels Camp, Arnold, Bear Valley, Copperopolis, Mountain Ranch, San Andreas, Valley Springs and more. If you see or know of something newsworthy, just drop us a note to
or give us a call on our news line at (209)768.3929 or #TREE FROM YOUR GOLDEN STATE CELLULAR PHONE. We would also love to post your local video and pictures. If you have clips or photos that you think our viewers would like to see... just let us know!
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Created on 02/22/2006 11:32 PM by thepinetree
Updated on 11/15/2012 04:26 AM by thepinetree
Past 50 Local News
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Calaveras County Sheriff's Logs For November 30th
SFO Welcomes Additional Flights To Panama On Copa Airlines
Robert Edwin Wallace 1937-2016
Happy Holidays From Pinnell's Carpet One
Come See The Queen Of The Sierras! ~ Featured Listing From Century 21 Sierra Properties
Stunning Estate On Over 5 Acres From NextHome Utica Properties
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Logs For November 29th
MIlliaire Presents A "Winter Wineland Holiday Celebration."
With The Holiday Season Approaching, Caltrans Provides Winter Driving Tips For A Safe Journey
Winter Closure Of SR 4 At Ebbetts Pass
Winter Closure Of SR 108 At Sonora Pass
Lead Testing Machines Providing Important Preventive Care for Children
Calaveras County Road Maintenance Schedule Through December 2nd
Kick off December With Timeless Christmas Carols
Edward W. Becker 1951-2016
Traffic Update...Vehicle vs Power Pole On Longeway
Traffic Update....Collision On Hwy 49 Near Airport
Great Gift Ideas at The Clothes Mine!
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Department Participates In Raising Cancer Awareness
La Grange Odd Fellows Breakfast Sunday December 11
A Special Thanks From The Calaveras Humane Society
The 2016 Soroptimist Teddy Bear Tea Brought Fun & Fairytales To Frogtown
Calaveras County Sheriff's Logs Through November 29th
An App Combats Seasonal Uptick In Holiday Road Collisions
President-Elect Donald J. Trump Intends To Nominate Congressman Tom Price & Seema Verma
Get Your Tickets For The Ovations Performance Arts Series 2017
Avery Has Its Community Christmas Tree For 2016
Calaveras County Arts Council Holiday Open House
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Logs For November 28th
Pioneer Jewish Cemeteries and Landmarks In The West ~ A Lecture By Stephen Kinsey
A Thank You From FOCAS To The Community
The Mountain Is Open & I Must Go... Bear Valley To Open Full Time On Dec. 16th
Your Passion To Help Build Homes Can Go Further On GivingTuesday
Support The Calaveras Humane Society On Giving Tuesday!
Help Children In Need Buy Warm Winter clothing
Inmate Attacks Officer At Wasco State Prison
Healthy Holidays To You! Tips To Stay Healthy This Holiday Season!
Sierra Pacific Industries Foundation Donates ,500 To Calaveras Community Foundation
Columbia College Graduates Fire Technology Participants
Take A Drive Arnold Blue Lake Springs With Sandi Pearce
Thanksgiving Statistics For CHP San Andreas
Tuolumne County Sheriff's Logs Through November 27th
Studio 4 Dance Theater Presents "The Nutcracker," December 15-17 In Angels Camp
Rabies In Wildlife Poses Risk To Pets & People
13th Annual Wintersports History Night
What's Happening In Murphys This Week – November 28 Through December 11, 2016
Curtis Thompson "C.T." Jones 1943-2016
Calaveras Recovers Receives ,000 Contribution From AT&T
Greenhorn Creek Golf Resort Men's Club Results Wednesday, November 23rd
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Bear Valley's Mark Phillips narrates a wonderful video that was created for the Ebbetts Pass Historical Association. The Video runs about 50 minutes and gives a fascinating & entertaining view of the history of the Bear Valley Area.
National News
Trump to nominate Carson to lead US housing, urban policy - Washington Post
'People want answers': Criminal probe of Oakland fire launched as death toll hits 36 - Los Angeles Times
The Wisconsin recount may have a surprise in store after all - Washington Post
Japanese prime minister plans landmark visit to Pearl Harbor - Washington Post
Europe|Matteo Renzi's Loss in Italy Is Clear, but Who Are the Winners? - New York Times
Government won't permit oil pipeline under Missouri River - Washington Post
NC man told police he went to DC pizzeria with gun to investigate conspiracy theory - Washington Post
On substance and style, Trump may be a headache for China - Washington Post
Popular Indian Politician Jayaram Jayalalitha in Critical Condition Following Heart Attack - TIME
Samsung, Hyundai Chiefs to Be Questioned as Political Scandal Roils South Korea - Wall Street Journal
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text:
Curtis Renner, a manager at Joe Rents & Contractors Supply located in Fargo, North Dakota said he meant for the sign to be a joke, but realized that it wasn't after receiving "a lot of phone calls," reports the Fargo Forum.
One of those phone calls was from Christopher Johnson, executive director of the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, who called the store to express his concern about the sign.
"It's not a joke," said Johnson. "It's a pretty strong statement."
Renner claimed that he "really didn't think it was offensive," but promptly removed the sign after receiving criticism. He also removed a picture of the sign from the company's Facebook page.
"When people try to find humor in domestic violence, I think it's our way as a society to try to overlook the violence and the pain and the injustice," said Johnson.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Browse by Artist
|Artist: Berchem, Nicolaes 2 of 2
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Pastoral Scene, 1679
Nicolaes BerchemDutch, 1620-1683
Oil on panel
26-5/8 x 25-1/4 in. (67.6 x 64.1 cm)
The Norton Simon Foundation
© The Norton Simon Foundation
On view
Nicolaes Berchem was a member of the second generation of Dutch Italianate artists. These painters, many of whom had spent time in Rome, produced pastoral subjects set in a warm, sunbathed Italian landscape. Berchem's depiction of this idyllic countryside, where shepherds live in peace and harmony, was meant to evoke the spirit of Classical authors such as Virgil. Berchem's thick, fractured brushstrokes are evident throughout and provide a lively rhythm on the surface.
View Provenance
|Artist: Berchem, Nicolaes 2 of 2
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text:
A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld a conviction in a 1980 murder.
Curtis Forbes of Randolph was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the beating and stabbing of 18-year-old Marilyn McIntyre.
Forbes argued on appeal that the lower court should not have allowed a statement from his wife that she had seen blood on his shirt. The 4th District Court of Appeals wrote Thursday that any error in admitting the statement was harmless because the jury was likely to have reached the same verdict without it.
The appellate court also rejected Forbes' argument that he should have been allowed to present more evidence implicating McIntyre's husband.
Forbes' defense attorney didn't immediately respond to a phone message.


text:
Mona Bea Martin
Class Year:1989
Alumni Recognition Award Winner 1999
Mona Bea Martin earned degrees in political science and French in 1989 and participated in the Illinois Legislative Staff Internship Program for one year after graduation. She served as deputy director of policy, development, planning and research. Prior to that, Martin was the director of research and appropriations for the House Republican Staff, Illinois House of Representatives, until her recent promotion to director of policy development, planning and research for the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. She is currently working as a consultant in order to spend more time with her daughter.


text:
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text:
Mary A. (Higgins) Piergallini
PIERGALLINI, Mary A. (Higgins), age 86, died Tuesday, March 19, 2013, at Canterbury Villa nursing home in Alliance following an extended illness.
She was born Jan. 10, 1927, in Toronto, Ohio, to Charles S. and Grace G. (Duncan) Higgins.
She did waitress work most of her life and retired from The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va.
She is survived by son, Tony (Leslie) Piergallini of Steubenville; daughter, Cheri (Milt) Hallett of Sebring; brothers, Jim (Beverly) Higgins of Massillon, Joe (Mary Lou) Higgins of Alliance and George Higgins of Sebring; sister, Doris Dallas of Alliance; grandchildren, Milton "Buddy" (Tammy) Hallett of Sebring and Cara Burlingame of Canton; great-grandchildren, Zoey Hallett of Sebring and Amiee, Dillion, Darren and Duncan Burlingame, all of Canton; and great-great- grandchildren, Vincent Burlingame, Lilly Allison, Katana Burlingame and Michael Burlingame.
In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by a daughter and son-in-law, Candice and Stanley Henderlong; great- grandson, Asa Hallett; brothers, Frank Higgins and Benson (Bus) Higgins; and sisters, Betty Wells, Lucy Dickey and Ida Mae Blake.
No services are scheduled. Interment at Highland Memorial Park in Beloit.


text: My baby was recently diagnosed with thrush and I have nipple thrush. I am heading back to work in 1 wk and have been pumping to store up a supply for my return to work. It is my understanding that the yeast will be present in the milk I have pumped during the infection and could possible reinfect her later. How long to I need to wait before I begin storing my milk again? Is my milk safe while I am being treated or do I have to wait until after treatment is completed? Any suggestions for how to provide enough milk for her babysitter in the meantime since I cannot use the milk I have stored up to this point?


text:
The Middleton girls softball team didn't get a hit all afternoon against LaFollette pitcher Nicole Newman, but the Cardinals still beat the Lancers 1-0 at Olbrich Park Monday afternoon..
Middleton pitcher Ashley Stormer allowed six hits, but wiggled out of every jam to keep LaFollette off the scoreboard.
LaFollette's Newman was dominant as usual, but the Lancers committed two errors, spoiling Newman's no-hit effort..
It was Middleton's first conference game of the year, thanks to all the rain outs this spring. LaFollette's Big Eight conference record drops to 1-3.


text:
I like the idea, especially as a foreigner who's visiting.
I'll be heading to the BOS game on the 31st March so I'm keeping an eye on tickets for that.
This is the official thread for Knicks tickets.
Discuss games you are going to see, meet up with other KO posters.
do you have tickets you want to sell, are you looking to buy tickets?
do you have questions about MSG or the surrounding area?
would you be interested in going to a Knick game as part of a group of
KO posters?
is this thread a lame idea or a good thought?
I like the idea, especially as a foreigner who's visiting.
I'll be heading to the BOS game on the 31st March so I'm keeping an eye on tickets for that.
This is a great idea, repped. I went last year as i'm from Australia and saw our first preseason game against the Nets and had a bit of trouble ticket wise. On the plus I got to see Shump & Tyson for the first time in a Knicks uniform
if anyone has tickets to the miami heat knick game on nov. 2nd. please let me know.
I wanna go to the Nov 2nd game as well. Btw first time posting, long time reader lol
in an attempt to keep this thread fresh, please see the current
"2012-2013 Season Ticket Relocation & Pricing" thread
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
I suggested to Lord Rady that he incorporate a KO banner for Knicks ticket purchasing,
either through MSG, NBA.com, StubHub.com or related website, so KO posters/purchasers
can support KO as a ticket affiliate at the same time as paying outlandish ticket prices and fees.
Not sure if that's even possible, just a thought.
I'd like to post some other sites where Knicks tix are available, other than above-mentioned
sites, so if anyone has ideas, please post here.
I have the following games available. Gallery seats (extra leg room) in row 2, section 217:
GALLERY 217, row 2 (Aisle) - 3 Tickets
12/9 - Denver Nuggets (Sun) 7:30 p.m. - $85 each
12/19 - Brooklyn Nets (Wed) 7:00 p.m. - $125 each
1/21 - Brooklyn Nets (Mon) 3:30 p.m. - $130 each
1/27 - Atlanta Hawks (Sun) 6:30 p.m. - $85 each
1/30 - Orlando Magic (Wed) 7:30 p.m. - $70 each
2/1 - Milwaukee Bucks (Fri) 7:30 p.m. - $90 each
2/2 - Sacramento Kings (Sat) 7:30 p.m. - $90 each
2/4 - Detroit Pistons (Mon) 7:30 p.m. - $70 each
2/13 - Toronto Raptors (Wed) 7:30 p.m. - $75 each
2/27 - Golden State Warriors (Wed) 7:30 p.m. - $75 each
3/9 - Utah Jazz (Sat) 7:30 p.m. - $90 each
3/20 - Orlando Magic (Wed) 7:30 p.m. - $75 each
3/23 - Toronto Raptors (Sat) 7:30 p.m. - $90 each
3/27 - Memphis Grizzlies (Wed) 7:30 p.m. - $85 each
3/29 - Charlotte Bobcats (Fri) 7:30 p.m. - $85 each
3/31 - Boston Celtics (Sun) 7:30 p.m. - $130 each
4/9 - Washington Wizards (Tue) 7:30 p.m. - $70 each
4/14 - Indiana Pacers (Sun) 3:30 p.m. - $85 each
4/17 - Atlanta Hawks (Wed) 8:00 p.m. - $80 each
PM or email me [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
updated 11/20 9:30 pm
Last edited by GordonGecko; Nov 20, 2012 at 21:33.


text:
"A helluva place to lose a cow," Mormon pioneer Ebenezer Bryce allegedly quipped about the southern Utah scarp of hoodoos that still bears his name. And not just cattle, but even smart people with maps and survival gear have vanished into the folds of the Colorado Plateau's convoluted topography.
Dreamers and adventurers have long been drawn to the region, for various reasons. Spanish explorer Garcia López de Cárdenas first peered into the Grand Canyon while chasing the Seven Cities of Gold; early trappers like Antoine Robidoux sought wealth of the furry kind, and Brigham Young his God's Promised Land. In 1869, John Wesley Powell came through, but three crewmembers left before the expedition's end, only to be killed by Mormons or perhaps Paiutes — nobody knows for sure. To this day, spellbound wanderers seek out these canyons; some never leave, ultimately adding their bones to those already enriching the barren ground.
Among the more famous missing are Glen and Bessie Hyde, Jazz-Age honeymooners who hoped to cash in by becoming the first couple to float through the Grand Canyon. (Brad Dimock deftly speculated about their end in Sunk Without A Sound.) A few mysteries were ultimately solved: Twenty-five years after he flipped his boat in the Grand Canyon's 24.5-Mile Rapid at age 80, Colorado River legend Bert Loper's remains showed up on a beach at Cardenas Creek. According to the meticulous roster Thomas Myers and Michael Ghiglieri compiled in Over the Edge, at least six people rest in obscurity in the Grand Canyon alone.
The latest in this literature of the Colorado Plateau as Bermuda Triangle is The Disappearances by Scott Thybony, former Grand Canyon river guide and archaeologist. "The ratio between wild and tame has shifted," he writes, "but some of us still find ways of getting into trouble."
Interspersed with boots-on-the-ground research that took him from Texas to southern Utah, the book probes the fate of three of those who got into trouble during the 1930s: Lucile Garrett, a woodcutter's daughter from Oklahoma, who fled west with the fugitive who murdered her father and lived with the killer in an isolated canyon along the San Juan River; Dan Thrapp, a 21-year-old paleontologist on leave from the American Museum of Natural History, who disappeared on his search for undiscovered cliff dwellings in Dark Canyon near Blanding, Utah — "Indian Legends Lured Lost Man," one Salt Lake Tribune headline shouted; and the iconic Everett Ruess, a footloose, romantic artist from California who vanished in the Escalante region in 1934. His final tracks led into Davis Gulch, where only his pack burros, a bridle, and graffiti spelling out NEMO were found. Some sleuths think that cattle rustlers or Indians murdered the youth and hid the body (W. L. Rusho, The Mystery of Everett Ruess; David Roberts, Finding Everett Ruess), but others surmise he staged his own disappearance to live incognito on the reservation with a Navajo wife.
"In a country where canyons lie sunk within canyons and tiers of cliffs stack one on top of another, the mysteries come layered," Thybony writes, and the three stories he traces take some unexpected turns. According to his findings, Ruess fell into a rock crevice while exploring near an alcove campsite, and his decomposing body washed down Davis Gulch with the monsoons. Thybony investigates the "murders and even the madness" his protagonists suffered as a way to grasp "the wonder and dread they had experienced in a place so different from any they had known before." Dark tales intrigue this writer, who also has long suspected that Ambrose Bierce, supposedly shot in Pancho Villa's revolution, took his own life somewhere in the Grand Canyon.
Although that theory remains unproven, the riddle of one modern-day disappearance was recently solved. In 2010, a man wounded a Utah state park ranger at a trailhead near Moab and then fled into the sandstone void. Police combed the area to no avail. But in late December 2015, a local college student and his teenage brother — sons of a Moab police detective who'd participated in the 2010 search — found Lance Leeroy Arellano's bones and pistol in a cave near town, and thereby earned a $30,000 reward. Plenty of other canyon country mysteries still remain to rivet our imagination. Our need for the unknown is just one more reason to preserve what Thybony calls "big reaches of distance lying close to the human heart." Weaned on Hollywood fare, we need our Western folk heroes — like Hayduke or the Lone Ranger — to keep riding forever, into the sunset.
The Disappearances: A Story of Exploration, Murder, and Mystery in the American West
Scott Thybony
288 pages, softcover: $24.95.
University of Utah Press, 2016.
I had planned this book tour like a field marshal plans a military campaign. A four-day Book Blitz South would target eight locations in the Anchorage and Mat-Su area; the nature center was our last stop before heading back home to Fairbanks. Fliers had been printed and hung, emails and press kits distributed, and the events listed in newspapers and online. My girlfriend, the book's designer, acted as liaison, trip photographer, finance officer, driver, quartermaster and motivational coach rolled into one.
Long ago, I realized that words alone rarely draw crowds any more, unless you're a politician. Touring authors are encouraged to play Indian flutes, tap-dance, juggle their books blindfolded, or at least behave unexpectedly, even outrageously. Teaming up with falcons and owls from the rehab center was supposed to benefit everybody involved; we could all use the publicity.
When we first rolled into Anchorage, thousands of animal lovers thronged the streets. Alas, they were there to see dogs, not us: I had forgotten that the Book Blitz weekend coincided with the Iditarod, the world's most prestigious sled dog race. Still, I hoped that a trickledown from the human surge would reach some bookstores.
The luncheon at a posh hotel seemed like an auspicious beginning. The audience of gray-haired, well-dressed journalists looked as if they could tell coq au vin from bouillabaisse. My choice of reading — an essay rejected by Gourmet, about a friend who feeds his family on roadkill — elicited gasps, eye-rolls and even chuckles, but probably did not help with selling the book.
Our next stop, the museum, was being renovated, and foot traffic through the bare lobby, behind the owl's back, made the bird nervous and incontinent. At the artsy café, with my voice beginning to sound like a raven's, I struggled to be heard over the hissing espresso machine and coffee grinder.
The Barnes & Noble manager gave me a prime spot at a table facing the entrance, where I could make eye contact with customers as they entered. Light from the low-angle sun made me squint, though, so I resembled a shortsighted bookworm more than a sharp-eyed wilderness guide and auteur. When I tried to remedy that, I looked like a sunglassed Mafioso. With each frigid gust from the sliding doors, the poster of my book's cover swiveled on its stand, causing the printed grizzly to scan the room as if in search of prey. The store did not allow raptors, and I felt lonely without a feathered companion.
At our next-to-last stop, a bookstore-cum-café, the manager expected a signing, not a reading. There were no extra chairs, and I found myself separated from the birds and their handlers by a shelf full of gewgaws. In a last-ditch bid for attention, I rearranged some books on a shelf, placing my brainchild between two local bestsellers, hoping to profit by proximity.
After two hours of signing, or rather non-signing, I had sold five books total — four of them to the bird handlers.
Descending into Fairbanks, red-eyed from driving all night through a blizzard, I reviewed the trip in my mind. Sales had been slim, our earnings almost devoured by the cost of gas. Yet I hoped that our stories would touch someone's life, somewhere.
I later heard from a friend who used my own essay from the book to teach nature writing to students in China, and I wondered what they made of mountain goats stranded at sea level — how did these creatures quicken in their imaginations? Strangely, my words had traveled farther than I did, spiraling ever outward, released from my care like bold salvaged birds.
Michael Engelhard lives in Cordova, Alaska, where it's impossible to drive to anywhere with a bookstore. He is working on a book about polar bears but will not consider bringing a bear along on his next promotion tour.]]>
John Vaillant, the Canadian author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce — two nonfiction books that delved into the darker aspects of our relationship with nature — now delivers an unflinching novel, his first. The Jaguar's Children opens in the back of an empty water truck, where Hector, an undocumented immigrant, languishes with his injured friend César and 13 other crossers just north of the border. They've been smuggled into the U.S., only to be abandoned between Sonoita and Nogales, sealed inside a tanker by shifty "coyotes," young machos that "were talking fast all the time, but not as fast as their eyes." Using Hector's cellphone, César repeatedly but in vain tries to contact a gringo friend. The situation only gets worse as everyone runs out of water. Within days, the migrants' strange prison resembles "the intestine of some animal," digesting its inmates. The reader suffers along with the tanker's human cargo, surrounded by "walls alive with something that likes to grow in the wet and dark, something that needs much less air than a man."
A descendant of Zapotecs who revered the jaguar spirit, Hector grew up in Oaxaca, and flashbacks reveal his childhood there and the reasons why he and his compatriots left. Some fled from the narcos, from violence and corruption; others sought better economic opportunities. Now, all they want is to be found, even by La Migra, before they perish of thirst. Hector recalls the church in Altar, staging ground for their crossing, with its map of red dots that marked where migrants have died. "But when you look north, past the sand and rock and mesquite, toward that wall of mountains with only cactus growing, you still believe you can do it because who wants to turn back now when you came so far?"
Hector's monologue inside the tanker consists of his text messages to his friend. His language is leavened with slang and rustic similes, but the cellphone as story device feels somewhat contrived. -Nevertheless, The Jaguar's Children shows with compassion how a proud people have become prey for coyotes, victims of capitalism run amok. Mexico's pyramid builders sacrificed lives to their stone gods — modern Mexico trades them for dollar infusions.]]>
In Pete Fromm's new novel, If Not For This, the newlywed narrator, Maddy — a river guide in the Rocky Mountains — wonders how to avoid the "wicked-ass snags" that so often upset marriages. What's going to keep the union between her and her husband, fellow-guide Dalt, from running aground on "those long, gray, dry gravel bars"?
Unfortunately, their marital raft capsizes early on, when Maddy is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis soon after conceiving their first child. The unmistakable symptoms, increasing in frequency and severity, are rendered in spare but devastating prose. MS "turns the ground liquid, steals your memory, pulls words off your tongue before you can open your mouth"; it ignominiously "swirls your balance into some kind of joke." Maddy and Dalt's fledgling outfitting business founders, and they are forced to give up their dream and move into town. Crippling disease — the curse of physical helplessness — seems to strike especially hard at those who wrest joy, meaning and livelihoods from their physical prowess, Fromm suggests. But buoyed by Maddy's feistiness, the story never turns mawkish or melodramatic; throughout the decades of her decline she despises self-pity, finding strength in Dalt and their children.
In passing, Fromm — a Montanan and former river ranger — spotlights some of adventure tourism's shadow -aspects: long days, lack of health -insurance, liability suits and homeless river guides "priced out of the valley we worked so hard bringing people into." Yet the work beats "swinging a hammer just to live for the days off," and there are fringe benefits, such as "getting to stare at the Tetons all day, watch the sun gold them every morning, turn them stark and flat through the day, leaving nothing but purpled cutouts against the evening."
Throughout, Fromm broaches what might be the whitewater professional's chief existential dilemma, a thought that assails us all: "How could you ever make a move if you knew what was out there waiting for you?"]]>
Too hefty to be carried in a hip pocket or even a daypack, William Wyckoff's How To Read The American West is a field guide unlike any other, with a focus on patterns, variations and the distribution of landscape features. Inspired by Peterson's glorious bird books, it draws attention to eco-tones, watersheds, settlement patterns and corridors of connection (such as interstates or historic trails), and to questions of use, scale and control. Ultimately, it considers our grip on the land and the land's grip on us.
Cross-referenced and studded with photos and maps, this guide invites us to browse, linking waypoints by topic more often than by region. It capably leads the reader through 100 entries arranged by theme. Much as birders learn to distinguish dozens of sparrows, we learn to read the nuances of the West.
Wyckoff teaches earth sciences at Montana State University and, for a cultural geographer, has a rather poetic voice. "Much of the West's appeal remains connected to its physical musculature, its sheer material, visceral presence," he writes. The Big Country's sky is "wedded to the land beneath it by the interplay of atmosphere and terrain." Chapters on cloudscapes and cacti, on Mormon architecture and vineyards, on military spaces and bungalow burbs form entwined strands in a narrative bolstered by facts and statistics.
The past pervades each page, and to a degree, still shapes the present. Folk-style "worm fences" made of dovetailed logs zigzag across Rocky Mountain pastures but are gradually disappearing. Similarly, roulade-like hay bales extruded from automatic balers are replacing traditional "bread loaf" haystacks. Numerous cultures have endowed Western landscapes with their legacies, whether symbolic, such as Navajo lore about four mythical mountains, or material – the Bureau of Reclamation's barrage of dams. "Landscapes tell great stories," Wyckoff states in his introduction. "But we need to know where to look for them and how to make sense of what we find." This guidebook shows us where and how, with a raptor's acuity and broadness of vision.]]>
At these high latitudes, where a long tradition of Native storytelling attempts to explain the world – and alleviate the long nights of much of the year – people remember how mosquitoes first came to be. According to one Eskimo myth, a long time ago a man stabbed a cannibal monster after learning about its Achilles' heel. "Though I'm dying," the ogre warned, "I'll keep on eating you and all other humans forever." Unfazed, the man cut the body into pieces, which he burned in a fire. But when he tossed the ashes into the air, each flake became a mosquito.
The single-strike kill record on this trip stands at 34 mosquitoes. I've compromised my Buddhist leanings enough now to cheer at the sound of one hand slapping. This is nothing but good-old-fashioned eye-for-an-eye revenge, an atavistic vendetta with the divine: "He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them" (Psalm 78:45).
Over a claustrophobic dinner last night – despite clear blue skies, all three of us huddled inside one pup tent – I wondered what the beasties eat when we're not around. "Caribou," my brother said. He's right: Mosquitoes can siphon a quart of blood per week from a hapless ungulate. Supposedly, people find carcasses "exsanguinated," bled out, in the scientists' lingo. I wonder how many backpackers in that condition have been found.
Only females suck, to produce eggs. Currently, their famished hordes are hitting the tent in a steady pitter-patter, like rain. They must be desperate, as the only other wildlife we've encountered on this weeklong trek was a lone bull caribou, chased into a lake by a grizzly – just after the floatplane had landed and taxied to shore and we were unloading our gear.
I feel sorry for my sister-in-law, as this is her honeymoon. I've agreed to guide her and my brother from that nameless lake in Alaska's Brooks Range to the John River, because I know the region from my fieldwork. I try to boost morale, telling them, "At least we are spared botflies and warble flies, whose larvae digest the tissue of nasal passages and emerge from the backs of living caribou."
We've only got 60-some miles to go, but distance north of the Arctic Circle is more accurately measured in ounces of sweat and blood. Boots are forever soaked in this marshy terrain. Mop-headed, knee-high humps of vegetation interspersed with mud pockets – the cursed "tussocks" – make backpacking here a contact sport. Only surface layers of soil thaw under the 24/7 stare of the midsummer sun. Because the really deep permafrost never melts, water pools on the tundra with nowhere to drain, creating perfect breeding grounds for the beasts. Each step pushes voracious clouds up from the tussocks. Atop this gigantic sponge, we barely find enough level, dry ground to pitch our tents.
We wander about like crazed, burdened beekeepers, sealed in protective rain gear, gaiters, gloves, head nets and hats, with temperatures approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Our secret weapon was meant to be an insect repellent that contains DEET, a chemical compound the U.S. Army developed after the Pacific War. Its side effects can include hallucinations, insomnia, mood disturbances and seizures, which could end in death. It's probably a byproduct of DDT or Agent Orange. People with Ph.D.s invented this "Jungle Juice," but even though it dissolves plastic zippers and leather, the bugs seem to like it. Possibly worse, there is no kissing with this bitter stuff on; hoping to have healthy offspring and dreading the chemical's side effects, the newlyweds so far have stayed chaste.
Indian old-timers have told me that they carried cans of smoldering tree fungus in the bottom of their canoes to ward off mosquitoes. But there's no tree fungus to be found here, because there are no trees.
Make no mistake: These are not your garden-variety mosquitoes. They rank among the fiercest of the 176 species of mosquitoes found in the U.S. They drive breeding birds from their nests and then clump onto their naked feet until the birds look like they're wearing fur slippers.
At some point, my sister-in-law drops her pack, sits on a hummock, and breaks into tears. We are out of DEET. Beyond my head net, the enemy is whining.
Scratching my bites till they're raw, I try to remember the good in these pests. Like bears, the largest predators on the tundra, the smallest ones keep us humble. They remind us that we are still part of the food chain, and not necessarily at the top. In a beautiful democracy of predation, mosquitoes feed on grizzlies as well as on us; their pond-born larvae – myriads of wriggling question marks – in turn sustain thousands of shorebirds and their chicks.
And if it weren't for them, the North would be swarming with people.
Then it hits me, like a Zen teacher's cane:
Chop wood.
Carry water.
Hike hard.
Obliterate bugs.
Enlightenment lies in the most mundane things.
This story is part of an April 2014 special issue of the HCN magazine devoted to travel in the West. Michael Engelhard writes from Nome, Alaska; when he isn't guiding in the Arctic, he hikes in the Grand Canyon, where cactus spines and blowing sand are the most common nuisances.]]>
Doug Peacock, author of Grizzly Years and Walking It Off, once walked point as a polar bear guard on an Arctic expedition, armed with only a homemade spear. He still loves large predators and new territory, and in his latest outing asks us to accompany him on "the Greatest Adventure" ever – the peopling of the New World. Roughly 20,000 years ago, scouts on a ridge in Beringia got their first glimpse of the "unending wild country that encompassed two continents uninhabited by humans." Five thousand years later, at the very end of the Pleistocene, the climate changed, oceans rose, and the Bering Land Bridge flooded. The formerly ice-barred interior of the Americas opened, allowing passage south. "I can't think of a richer, wilder, more perilous time to live," Peacock writes.
There are parallels as well as vast differences between that time and ours, Peacock says. He is curious about how Homo sapiens perceives risk and how our species might survive and adapt to climate change, dealing with our own saber-toothed foe in the bush. The "bold migrations" of the past, he concedes, are "impossible in the 21st century" as a solution. But that original migration still offers us "challenging illustrations of courage and caution."
Blending archaeology and paleontology with memories of childhood arrowhead hunting, and evoking a keen sense of place, Peacock explores some of the colonists' likely waypoints: Siberia's tiger-tracked Amba River, the Yukon's Bluefish Caves (one held a mammoth bone spear point), a 13,000-year-old burial site on the Yellowstone (yielding "ten five-gallon buckets of artifacts"), 10,000-year-old human teeth in British Columbia, and Baja California's 8,000-year-old shell middens.
The book suffers from some sloppy editing and repetition, but Peacock's accounts of archaeological finds ring with the excitement of discovery. His descriptions of dire wolves, lions on steroids and leggy, short-faced bears–"monsters of the plains" – can raise the hairs on the back of your neck. "We evolved to deal with the predator," he writes. And therein could lie the rub: "In comparison, present day 'global warming' seems distant, harmlessly incremental or something that happens to remote strangers." Still, Peacock seems confident that a species that overcame flesh-and-blood threats like dire wolves can somehow manage to confront this latter-day, more nebulous foe.]]>
Spoken like mantras, these place names conjure the Utah canyon country's bastard heritage – Spanish, Navajo, Ute, Anglo and Mormon. Today, they entice dreamers with their visionary topographies. But in earlier days it was the absence of names that drew people eager to fill in the blank spaces on the maps. John Wesley Powell and his crew scattered names along the Colorado River as if they had created that landscape: Cataract Canyon, Music Temple, Vermilion Cliffs. Many followed in their wake; soon, the maps became crowded. Posthumously, and ironically, Powell even lent his name to a recent manmade feature, the "lake" also known as Glen Canyon Reservoir.
"Landscape," wrote the art critic Simon Schama, "is a work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock." Place names form a palimpsest of memory on the landscape. They anchor territory in our imagination, claiming and taming it.
In his two-volume Utah's Canyon Country Place Names, historian and guidebook author Steve Allen, a longtime canyoneer, has gathered more than 4,000 names, listed alphabetically. Allen worked on the project for 15 years, sifting through maps and literature and interviewing old-timers, and the book is rich in early descriptions and tales told by explorers, pioneers, cowboys, miners and river runners.
The two volumes document hundreds of historic roads, trails, railroads and highways, as well as major cowboy line camps, now-vanished towns, and the water sources early settlers used. Each entry opens a peephole into the past, occasionally offering a non-sanitized glimpse of the Western mentality. Squaw Flats, Mollies Nipple, Bishop's Prick and other offensive monikers proved durable to varying degrees; a bureaucracy's sense of propriety often edited or left them off topographic maps. Nigger Bill Canyon near Moab became Negro Bill Canyon. (One wag proposed renaming it African-American William Canyon but was overruled.) Calling it Black Canyon, as some suggested, might defy racism, but also would blur the legacy of Bill Granstaff and the other black pioneers whose contributions to the West are too often ignored.
The names of settlers and explorers like John C. Fremont and Powell are peppered all over the landscape, routinely ignoring, erasing or corrupting Native American designations. A local Paiute word for a bug-filled wetland sounded like "Moab" to newly arrived Mormons, who were familiar with this name from the Bible and believed that the Natives were "Lamanites," a lost tribe from Israel.
Honorific names can stray into the outright possessive. Pappys Pasture, Bobbys Hole, Lees Ferry and other place names mark prime Anglo-American real estate. Animal and plant names often honor the naturalists who first collected and described them. Explorers pleased sponsors by naming landmarks after them; mountains sometimes commemorate industrialists or obscure secretaries of state. A variety of cottonwood, a river in Capitol Reef National Park and even a pre-contact Native culture were christened after Fremont, pathfinder and politician. Prospectors, trappers and traders established wilderness outposts that bore their surnames. Given the backgrounds, gender and biases of most mapmaking colonists, it is no surprise that few women or artists grace the land's linguistic register.
Place names are useful mnemonics, wrote the Southwestern curmudgeon Edward Abbey, but he doubted their ability to capture the essence of things. "Is there any reason out there for any name?" he asked with habitual contrariness. "These huge walls and giant towers and vast mazy avenues of stone resist attempts at verbal reduction."
Sure, Ed. But all language is verbal reduction. Just as haiku is whittled-down poetry, so place names are narratives in a nutshell. All landscapes teem with verbalized regional meanings. Allen's compilation celebrates a sense of shared history, drawing from societies sustained by the land. Solid as bedrock in its research, Utah's Canyon Country Place Names is as many-hued as the Chinle formation and as finely textured as Navajo sandstone. Readers won't devour it but instead sample and savor as they would Grand Gulch on a day hike.]]>
The map sheets are battered, taped at the folds, as I consulted them often, and often in a drizzle, seeking guidance from two-dimensional oracles. The occasional bloodstain or smushed mosquito speaks of ground-level torments. All formerly blank spaces now crawl with my handwriting, life transposed into text -- the work of a nature accountant or a mobile graphomaniac. The map panels, too, are heavily annotated, with my symbols for caches, campsites, airstrips -- a lifeline to civilization -- and my route worming into the wilderness. What from a pilot's perspective looked like a forbidding labyrinth over time had become a second home to me.
Uncluttered space, which I first perceived through maps and explorers' accounts, was part of the attraction that had brought me north. Long sightlines, the lack of forests or human populations in the Arctic electrified me. Air like a glass lens deceived about distances, made details and truths stand out like grayling in fishing-holes. Never before had I seen nighttime constellations that felt within reach. The landscape could afford patience, did not need to overwhelm with lush exuberance. Absences largely defined it. Noise seldom intruded. Even daylight went missing for part of the year. The land lay bared to all senses.
I had first set foot in this country more than two decades ago, as an anthropology student doing research. The National Park Service wanted to know which areas of Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic national parks Eskimo and Athabaskan Indian hunters and gatherers had used in the past. If those tribes could establish prior claims, they would be entitled to hunt and trap in the parks. I had learned much about the region's topography from an Inupiaq elder in Alatna, a village north of the Arctic Circle. When I visited for the first time, I found his mudroom cluttered with the implements of a bush life. There were slumping hip waders, foul-weather gear, snowmachine parts, dip nets, a shotgun, beaver-skin mittens, and a chainsaw with a chain that needed tightening. Two wolf pelts hung from the rafters -- complete with tails, legs, ears and muzzles. Before I knocked on the inner door, I stroked the silver-tipped fur. The eyeholes and the hides' steamrolled appearance left me slightly unsettled, as did the landscape, soggy muskeg and black spruce that hid grizzlies and mischievous spirits.
A dead beaver sprawled on the kitchen floor, half-skinned on a piece of cardboard, to keep blood off the linoleum. The elder asked me to sit. Before I unrolled my maps on the table, we snacked on jerked caribou dipped in seal oil -- a liquid-amber delicacy sent by relatives on the coast.
He pointed out the routes of his hunting and trapping expeditions. During the Depression, his forays had taken him farther north into the snowy crags of the Brooks Range, and as far south as the willow-choked banks of the Yukon River. In the mountains and uplands, his semi-nomadic ancestors had hunted Dall sheep and caribous for thousands of years, in friendly competition with packs of wolves. The meanders he drew on my maps, with felt pens of various colors, resembled the maze of animal wanderings and territories wildlife biologists chart on their maps. The elder's eyes took on a distant expression, as if he were re-living each mile on the trail. His crinkled, leathery face relaxed in reminiscence.
Other ethnographers who worked with Arctic hunters noted that, even though these had never seen a map, they easily found their way around one, recognizing the terrain in its abstraction. Before printed maps of the region existed, explorers elicited mental ones from the locals, who drew them by heart. Sketches that the polar explorer Knud Rasmussen gathered in this way impress with their great detail -- the landscape, both a larder and a refuge for the spirit, had been fully internalized. The distortions also are telling. The Inuit depicted familiar settings, their bays, lakes, lagoons, and inlets, in a scrimshaw of travel and toil. The periphery -- coasts and plains they had never traveled -- appeared vague and diminished in size compared to the homeland. Women knew areas near the camps more intimately, orbits for rabbit snaring, berry picking, digging roots. Conversely, men knew distant trade sites, passes and portages, the itineraries of furbearing animals and the trails caribou inscribed in the tundra.
I also had read about tactile Inuit maps of the Greenland coastline; fashioned from driftwood, they could be "read" in one's pocket, upside-down, in wet and whiteout conditions or in polar darkness. Denoting the island's navigable fringe, the artifacts' prows and indents -- capes and inlets of the sculpted coast -- rise up one side and descend the other, as if north didn't matter. A man named Kuniit carved them before his roaming band saw the first European, in the 1880s, and the notched lumps manifest Native ingenuity.
From early adulthood on, I've shared the elders' peripatetic streak. Looking at my own set of maps, my eyes flick to my journey's beginning 20 miles from the Canadian border. I'd hiked east for a day just to toe the line that divides what cannot be divided. I found none of the stone markers that cairn the cleared corridor. Streams cross it without passports, as do snow geese and caribou, flowing forever between winter and summer ranges. Kin by blood and by custom, but divided by politics, indigenous peoples dwell on each side. On my easternmost map sheet, Canada -- "not us" -- had been amputated, flush with the grid. Invisible, the boundary -- the longest straight shot in the country -- runs from Demarcation Point south to Mount Saint Elias, where it jigs into the littoral of Alaska's panhandle; for nearly 700 miles it follows the 141st meridian west, another filament of cartographic imagination.
Following map contours step by laborious step, I quickly wised up to the cartographers' code. Bunched, chocolate-brown lines meant steep climbs or descents; hedgehog marks promised squelchy swamps; robin's-egg blue stood for lakes, ponds and rivers, or finely striated snowfields and glaciers -- the same hue spelled the same substance, also wet crossings, coffee breaks by a creek, slippery footing. Black airplane icons, lettering, or squares announced human influx. Still, when, from a notch in the Philip Smith Mountains, the westernmost range of the refuge, I saw the glint of the tube that siphons a nation's lifeblood from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, a lump tightened my throat. I knew then that, short of an accident, I could finish this trek. Roughly two-thirds of the hiking now lay behind me, and, strangely, the silver line in the distance conjured up the comforts of civilization and my one-time home Fairbanks, located on that very same pipeline.
What even my USGS quadrangles fail to show: tussocks, the knee-high humps of vegetation that taxed my knees, ankles, and spirit; the section of Ekokpuk Creek -- the worst bushwhacking of the trip -- not even hinted at by the usual mint-green patches on the map; the depth of streams I had forded, with hiking poles humming in the current; the veils of mosquitoes that shadowed me, eager for a meal; the grizzlies that circled downwind for a rank whiff of me (which normally sent them bolting). Though I did not mark wolf encounters on these sheets, I could still pinpoint each one to within a mile, even without my dense notes. The maps do not hold the metal taste of spring water so cold it induced ice-cream headaches. They do not carry the perfume of crushed heather or Labrador tea, the soughing of breezes or the tang of August blueberries. They omit the fog that blotted out Peregrine Pass, the wind gusting in the Noatak valley, the rain that soaked me for 30 consecutive days. Nor do they include the small corner of the one quadrangle map I chose not to buy, out of thrift, which, out there, sent me into a cursing and scouting frenzy. You cannot find in them either the image of me afterward, reduced by 25 pounds yet refined, somehow, distilled to an essence. Together with those pounds, mental dross and routines had been stripped away. Six hundred miles walking and 400 rowing the Noatak River, all by myself, had reopened my eyes to nature's small, quiet wonders.
The blue swath on my westernmost map -- the Bering Strait, endpoint of my traverse -- stretches south to encompass my hometown Nome, a base-camp of sorts. Roughly one hundred miles from the Arctic Circle, on the continent's edge, on the western prow of Alaska and the brink of tomorrow (with only a short plane ride to the dateline), I still feel close to the Brooks Range, locus of my desire. Snowmelt from its south faces courses down rivers to lap at my doorstep. The Beaufort Sea to the north blends seamlessly with the Bering Sea, which I see from my living room window. In this world, I realize once again, there are no topographic margins. Unlike a sphere rendered in two dimensions -- a Mercator projection -- Earth has no here or there, no beginning or end. The center is everywhere. More so than the maps arrayed in my living room, the world they encrypt is connected.]]>
Tired of school, broke and eager for a change, Christine Byl took to the woods with a National Park Service trail crew. Through 16 summers of manual labor in Alaska and Montana -- maintaining, repairing, designing and building bridges, ditches and trails -- she came to realize that "a deep education is one of both head and hands."
Through sheer physicality, Byl breaks open encrusted dichotomies: Nature-culture; work-pleasure; male-female; mind-body. "An authentic life," she finds, "will be built, at least in part, on ordinary verbs: wake, plant, dig, mend, walk, lift." She comes to revere tools and the artifacts that define us as they did our flint-wielding African ancestor, Homo habilis. Fans of Thoreau might cringe at the trail crews' sometimes industrial arsenal, the scope of the landscape alteration involved. Yet much of the work is conservation. "Just as we mark the world when we live in it, so the world marks us," Byl writes. Her co-workers' hands -- with their "knobby joints, chapped knuckles … a purple thumbnail, taut tendons in the wrists" -- are badges of belonging that she cherishes all the more as her own hands start resembling theirs. The skills she acquires, which have served down-to-earth folks forever, apprentice her "not just to mastery but to history." Wearing her blue-collar, feminist sensibilities on plaid flannel shirtsleeves, Byl refuses to romanticize grunt work. Nor does she see nature as automatically redeeming self or society.
As a rookie in an agency dominated by men, she learns from both "lifers" and "newbies," from mule packers and shop mechanics, from "tough-ass women kind enough not to laugh in my face." Dirt Work brims with this subculture's rich humor and jargon. A "hitch" is a work shift (eight days). Green Park Service pants and fleece are a "pickle suit." A "traildog" is a crewmember, whose duties include "logging out," clearing deadfall from trails. Older crewmembers pop "vitamin I" (ibuprofen) like candy.
Byl now runs her own trail-design and construction business near her favorite place -- Denali National Park. "Our work speaks for us," Byl writes, speaking on behalf of all traildogs, who seldom brag about what they do. And it speaks volumes for this woodswoman and wordsmith.]]>
Traditionally, springs and wells are centers of life around which people gather and sometimes form communities. In Utah author Jana Richman's second novel, The Ordinary Truth, metropolitan claims to desert waters unsettle a small town and pit one family's members against each other. Shifting between the perspectives of several Nevada women, Richman unravels secrets and half-truths -- a multigenerational quilt of residents near life's "sad, hard edges."
The youngest protagonist, Cassie, a webmaster and "reassuring decoy" for shy customers at a Carson City whorehouse, was raised by her ranching grandmother, Nell, who's been tasked with taming Cassie's feral nature. But the two women grew close, bonded by their strained relationship with Kate, Cassie's mother and Nell's daughter. Kate, emotionally crippled by the childhood loss of her beloved father in a hunting accident, now works for the Southern Nevada Water Authority in Las Vegas. Her uneasy coexistence with her mother -- like two strangers "living in a perpetual elevator" -- sours when Kate announces her agency's plans for a pipeline that will drain Great Basin valleys, depleting the aquifer that waters the family spread ruled by the septuagenarian, no-nonsense Nell.
Grandmother and granddaughter form an unlikely yet true-to-life alliance: that of rancher and budding environmentalist. Besides Cassie's summer job at the brothel -- a half-baked ploy to unite the family in an intervention on her behalf -- she attends the program of environmental studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a field suggested by her grandma. "I don't know what happens when three stubborn women each take up ground waiting for the others to move," Cassie admits, "but I aim to find out."
Without taking sides, Richman -- a sixth-generation Utahn from the west desert -- paints a canvas of long-pending and much-dreaded water wars. Laced with cowboy humor and the cadences of rural speech but also referencing big-city skyscrapers, therapy sessions, and The White Stripes, this tale of estrangement encapsulates the discordant New West. The writing, refreshingly, subverts some clichés; Kate scoffs at herself for envisioning her late father as a weathered cowboy riding off into the sunset. Though the setting is modern, the subject is timeless: loyalty to family and to the land -- according to Nell, the only two things that really matter in the world. And in Nell's assessment of this ordinary truth: "A person ought never to have to choose between those two things."]]>
In 2001, on the U.S. Senate floor, one of Alaska's pro-development politicians held up a blank white piece of posterboard. "This is a picture of ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) as it exists for about nine months of the year," he said, trying to persuade fellow senators to open that protected area to drilling. The sublime winter scenes that appeared in engineer-turned-photographer Subhankar Banerjee's Seasons of Life and Land (2003) -- which a Democrat in turn displayed in a later Senate session -- showed that there was a lot more to the Arctic landscape than just empty white space. The threat to the refuge's wealth of wildlife and habitat was averted, but only temporarily; conservationists knew that the battle wasn't over.
Now, Alaska Congressman Don Young is making his 11th attempt to open the refuge to oil and gas development. Leases have already been sold farther west, in the Chukchi Sea and the National Petroleum Reserve, and in the Beaufort Sea to the north. Meanwhile, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell is pushing road construction in undeveloped areas, while the nations of the Northern Hemisphere squabble over shipping routes suddenly opened up by the changing climate.
Just in time, then, comes Banerjee's latest volume, Arctic Voices, a wakeup call from 39 artists, writers, biologists, Alaska Natives and activists. As in Arctic Refuge: A Circle of Testimony (a 2001 book edited by Hank Lentfer and Carolyn Servid), the eyewitness accounts and reports in Arctic Voices question the wisdom of relying on fossil fuel fixes, urging restraint in our approach to the nation's last great wilderness area.
The Arctic is the planet's ecological tipping point: The polar regions not only suffer greater warming than lower latitudes, but the rapid loss of sea ice and permafrost there is accelerating the process to where it could spiral out of control, beyond even the direst predictions. Arctic Voices also touches upon Iceland, Greenland and Siberia, driving home the point of global connectedness. "Climate scientists have made it clear," writes Ricki Ott, a toxicologist and fisherwoman who witnessed the Exxon Valdez spill, "that if people wish to have a livable planet for their children, the Oil Age must end soon, regardless of how much oil is left to extract."]]>
With her Bellwether Prize-winning novel Correcting the Landscape -- a tale of journalism and urban development -- Marjorie Kowalski Cole put Fairbanks, Alaska, on the literary map. Her posthumously published story collection The City Beneath the Snow again brings to life the people of that outpost in the boreal forest, besieged by winter for six months of the year.
Recognizing the complicated reality behind the myth of The Last Frontier, many of Cole's stories focus on those for whom, in the Lower 48, "land ran out too soon" -- the restless, displaced and bereaved, those who keep seeking second chances: "It's looking at this house no different than a dozen others on this street, and wanting to start over again with a girl and a cabin."
In this subarctic melting pot, fish processors mingle with geography teachers, bush pilots with social workers. Engineers take art classes, and women "doing a man's work" still look good in loose sweaters and snow pants. Love blossoms at 40 below but remains brittle where "oil money eroded all the usual connections" between people. Skeptical readers could accuse Cole of stereotyping, but even her secessionist junkyard owner, who attacks the mayor at a Golden Days Parade -- with a Viking mace, no less -- rings eerily true. While this is not the glossy Alaska of tourist brochures, Nature, like an omniscient narrator, pervades every page. At times, it takes center stage, a character itself, as in "Aurora Borealis," in which a hollowed-out newcomer turns to the lights for "a life-giving routine." That story's epigram -- "The sky ever-present, even in darkness beneath the skin" -- beautifully sums up the entire collection.
A Fairbanks resident for more than 40 years, Cole gets the details just right, from the urethane-sprayed Quonset home complete with chicken yard to the aerobatics of dumpster-diving ravens. She perfectly captures the vibe of laid-back, sometimes throwback, Interior Alaska. "This is a different place," one protagonist says. "Not as tense as California. It's hard to live here but people seem to have a good time with less." Less can be more, and Cole's sketches succeed at depicting this "landlocked land" and its breed where many a more ambitious novel has failed.]]>
University of Utah Research librarian and co-founder of the Western Soundscape Archive, a library of 3,000 animal recordings
Favorite Place to Record:
The Southwest, because the region's low humidity and air turbulence only minimally alter and mute sound waves.
One of His Favorite Sounds:
The high-pitched squeak of the northern grasshopper mouse.
Equipment Used:
GPS, parabolic dish, Sennheiser microphones, Sound Devices 50-gig recorder, portable recorder, lapel mikes, Sony recorder, bat detector, hydrophone (for fish), and lots of rechargeable AA batteries.
A relative newcomer to nature field recording, Rice worked in audio production for about 15 years. As a radio producer, he was always interested in ambient sound, "because it brought a lot of richness and sense of place to the stories." After receiving an MFA in electronic music and recording media from the Bay Area's Mills College, Rice began experimenting in the studio, and then went out into the field more and more often.
Rice soon began to specialize in animal sounds, an interest he attributes to his childhood in western Washington. "At night, at certain times of year, my neighborhood turned into a seething jungle of frog choruses. I remember hearing all this pulsing sound coming from the woods up the street."
As his skills and collection grew, Rice, now living in Seattle, realized that the West lacked a comprehensive online archive of wildlife sounds. After approaching the University of Utah and receiving a $350,000 federal grant that the university matched, Rice helped found the J. Willard Marriott Library's Western Soundscape Archive in November 2007 (http://westernsoundscape.org).
The archive now represents close to 800 species -- amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals -- even some invertebrates. Scientists, educators, students and nature enthusiasts can download podcasts or stream audio files free of charge. Rice sees the loss of species and habitats as a driving force behind his work. "We are experiencing a new 'silent spring' across the globe and in our own backyards," he says. "Not only is it a marker of what we're losing on an important ecological level, but it's also a loss of our heritage."
Rice keeps a checklist of the Western species still missing from his archives and tries to fill the gaps methodically, soliciting the help of fellow sound aficionados and federal agencies. If he can't track down a particular recording, he packs up his equipment and heads into the backcountry.
On a typical recording day, Rice gets up well before sunrise, when many animals are most active. He may have scouted the location -- a desert waterhole, a forest grove, a wetland -- the day before. At his camp, he gets his equipment from his SUV and, with a look of intense concentration on his face, he walks out to the site. There, he unfolds his tripod and tucks a microphone inside a furry-looking windsock to muffle wind noise. He jots down the time, date, location, temperature, weather and elevation. He then plugs in the mike, puts on headphones and awaits the day's surprises. "Basically, every time you turn on a tape recorder you get something new," the soft-spoken Rice says. "That's literally true, and not just from a personal, metaphorical standpoint."
Some species require extra patience to track down. Rice particularly remembers stalking short-eared owls: "I got a couple of hours of wind noise and maybe five seconds of owl shrieks." At other times, Rice sets up his recorder opportunistically and gets lucky when "nature just wanders by." Once, while checking his tapes in the studio, he heard a strange call, "kind of like a kazoo" -- a mountain goat had walked past the microphone. Rice got his Great Basin rattler recording from a snake that the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources had captured: "They poured it out of a bucket and I recorded it." Generally, however, good planning makes for good sound. Time of day, season, proximity to water sources and human noise -- almost ubiquitous now -- all must be considered.
Rice's work has changed his perception of the West. "It sounds trite, but much of what goes on in our environment isn't readily seen. Hearing offers a 360-degree survey of an area. I'll hear a lot of birds, especially, before I will see them," he says. "It's also taught me to pay more attention to the seasons. Animal sounds vary greatly as the seasons change, and getting a good recording depends a lot on timing. A Columbia spotted frog, for example, will only call for a short time when the conditions are right. If you hear an animal sound, you should feel lucky because it is very ephemeral."
The print version of this article incorrectly stated that Jeff Rice lived in Salt Lake City. He lives in Seattle.]]>