Warren Angus Ferris, Yellowstone’s first tourist
Warren Angus Ferris visited Yellowstone in 1834 as the first tourist to experience the thermal features, and the first person known to use the Icelandic word “geyser” to describe them.
Canary in the coal mine: national parks and the future of the earth
As the parks go, so goes the future of the earth. The sad state of national parks predicts an ominous outlook for the earth and the communities that rely on it.
Motion and movement
Leaving brings movement toward something new, toward a fresh sense of being and becoming, as we break free from the stagnant orbits of settled lives.
Old trees
Trees can grow to gargantuan proportions, given the right conditions and enough time. I am grateful for having touched some of the oldest and largest living things on earth.
Kiki at Graceland: Elvis’s most devoted fan
Kiki may be Elvis Presley’s most devoted fan, having moved to Memphis in 1985 from Greece to care for The King’s grave.
A sacred desecration: the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore
John (Fire) Lame Deer’s essay about the 1970 occupation of Mount Rushmore highlights a monumental clash between two visions of sacred land.
Waiting for a ride with the hitchhiker’s blues
I composed a song while hitchhiking to Cooke City, standing alone in the vast quiet amidst a sagebrush land empty of the summer crowds.
Reflections on a first encounter
Reflections on our first encounter in Yellowstone National Park, written on a bitter cold night in Ohio more than 15 years later.
Romance in Yellowstone: remembering the best day of my life
Recalling a magical day in Yellowstone National Park that changed our lives and sent us on a journey that we are still traveling forty years later.
The end of the season in Yellowstone
The end of September was a quiet time in Yellowstone National Park, and beautiful beyond words. Warm days, cold nights, golden aspen mixed among the dark ridges of pine.
Autumn air carries me to remembrances of Ohio
The start of autumn turns my sights northward, recalling those glorious days of colorful melancholy in the falls we spent in Ohio. It almost makes bearable the anticipation of winter.
Elvis religion and the sacred space of Graceland
Is Elvis a religion? Students explore this and other questions, including whether Elvis really left the building, or is he still with us in ways we never imagined?