and since the weekend of September 8rnwas forecast to be a fine one I decided tornattend the anniversary celebration.rnHCN has been based for about a decadernor so in Paonia, Colorado, but the meetingrnwas scheduled in Lander to honorrnthe paper’s birthplace. It is 150 milesrnfrom Kemmerer to Lander, with a singlerntown—Farson, population 250 or so—rnbetween them at the midway point.rnEast of Farson the tawny plain swept upwardrnto the foothills of the Wind RiverrnRange, its peaks shadowed by thundercloudsrnand streaked by last year’s snows.rnOn the South Pass the wind as usual wasrnstrong enough to topple Hannibal’s elephants,rnand it was still blowing strongrnout of the mountains as I approachedrnLander and put up at the PronghornrnLodge, where the friends of High CountryrnNews had begun to gather and spillrninto the Lander Bar across the bridge onrn^^SSSSS. OlOwmwhip. UiiW(|iipiiii.aftarn. ^-—„_ 1,1,1,117,1.1 rrnt Ti^–»l«-.s,,.^..j—»—^—i> s-;fc,.^j<>^wfc.arnn=;=rn^ ~rn’-‘-—-‘ !»..-.—..—»,.—,_<rn^^,, -«.««. .rn” ” — I ” ‘ – •• • • i M ‘ r – • • ^ — • 1 1 — « • ^ ^ t — , —rnHtMC «»«>»•» » 4 tetMM« ^ mi 1 ut • , Mte n—.t. IKIrn^â„¢* J- nm 1—. «H fc^m Jmi^^m, n* *, r |» W m . • •rn_.,.,…rn• “— ” ~ – ~rn.«,->,rnMnri. OUmmiM *liai-M*lrniUw«, tUl—U «tM>-Mrn)a^: lUtMM aUO-IMIrn3=r~==;s:sr,=:rj£=rn•”tlillZ, » »^U. -•*-»»— 04«.rn.-^ »-.-.« *-rnT.=x-**-:-.i^_—.-.—^rn-rrr-r^rr^ -,– rrn^ – . HM —rn• r ” ^ ” ” – – rrn.^-,—.,.———-—rn. w ^ — « — . – – -rn.*-. *—.—rn^:r=rirsr^—rn• _ . – . ^rn. v – ^ , – , – , – —rnw*trni i . mrn1Mrnl.4flrn1I,W»rni nrn’-m^^Yiz^ :^i^^rnthe other side of the Popo Agie River.rnOrdinarily, 150 miles is an insufficientrndistance between me and 100 or morernmostly urban environmentalists gatheredrnfor an orgy of self-congratulation.rnBut High Country News is different. It isrnan excellent publication, usually wellwrittenrnand always informative: the intermountainrnWest’s only regional newspaper,rnfull of information regarding thernsocial, political, economic, and demographicrncalamities—as well as the environmentalrnones—taking place throughoutrnthe West. Again and again whilerntraveling, poking around in the back ofrnbeyond, I have stumbled upon some remoterntown, bit of wilderness, or eventrnthat I recognized from something I hadrnread several months before in HCN. Ofrncourse, its point of view is biased, but sornis mine. Before the morning session Irnwas introduced to Betsy Marston, thernpaper’s editor, and shook hands withrnthe publisher, Ed Marston, whom I hadrnnever met though we have correspondedrnfor ten years. “I just wrote you a nastyrnletter,” he said (see page four). Ed, a formerrncollege professor from New YorkrnCity, arrived in the West in the late 70’s,rnaround the same time I did. The morningrnwas devoted to conversation amongrnthe members of a selected panel ofrnspeakers, who during the afternoon sessionrntook questions from the audience.rnThe panel included a retired veterinarianrnturned rancher from Oregon, a womanrncattle rancher from western SouthrnDakota, Ed Quillen (a columnist for thernDenver Post who lives in Salida, Colorado),rnTom Bell, and a former femalernOlympic champion who is now an environmentalrnactivist in eastern California.rnThe discussions were sensible and interestingrnuntil after lunch, when the readershiprnbegan to be heard from: as withrnmany publications or journals of opinion,rnthe fanatics are found among thernsubscribers, not on the editorial board. Irnbailed out after a while and repaired tornthe Lander Bar for a few beers with a jackrnMormon couple from Salt Lake City.rnAfter dinner Patricia Limerick, the revisionistrnprofessor of Western literaturernfrom the University of Colorado at Boulder,rndid a standup impersonation of arnrevisionist professor of Western literaturernfrom the University of Colorado atrnBoulder, while I sat on my hands. EdrnMarston has promised to give up hisrnmyth of the West if I will give up mine.rnBut myths are not the opposite of reality,rnthey are the heart of it. They are also arnwriter’s stock in trade, and the stuff of literaturern—as Professor Limerick, to herrncredit, knows.rnI skipped the dance that followed, attendedrnMass at Our Lady of the Rosaryrnnext morning, and was on the road byrnten around the southern end of thernWind Rivers where snow fell above 8,000rnfeet. Far out on the desert a few ridersrnwere pushing sheep beneath blackrnclouds and forks of occasional lightning.rnIf it is true, as environmentalists implicitlyrnclaim, that pastoralism is no longer anrnenvironmentally supportable way of life,rnthen it seems to me the human racernmight as well cry uncle. Or maybe it isrnjust the environmentalists who should.rn—Chilton WilUamson, ]r.rnALEXANDER COCKBURN, columnistrnfor the Nation and author of Corruptionsrnof Empire and The Golden Age IsrnIn Us, has long been regarded as anrnenforcer of far-left orthodoxy. But inrnrecent months, Cockburn has takenrnan unorthodox stance on such issuesrnas the militia movement, the “countyrnsupremacy” movement, and federalrnpolice power. When Cockburn spoke inrnMadison, Wisconsin, during a tour tornpromote The Golden Age Is In Us, he saidrnin response to a question from the audiencernthat he would not oppose abolishingrnthe BATE or reducing the powers ofrnthe FBI. He has also made a seriousrneffort, in the Nation and other publications,rnto change the prevailing image ofrnmilitia members as tobacco-chewing,rn”nigger-hating” rednecks.rnAfter attending a gun rally in Michiganrnlast June, Cockburn reported in thernNation that far from being the “mini-rnNuremberg” other leftists had predicted,rnthe event was tame and marked byrncivility. The literature sold there conveyedrn”the usual reasonable populistrnconcern with government surveillancernand the threat of worid government.”rnIn a July issue of the Nation, Cockburnrnfinds it “disheartening to find outrnhow many on the left-liberal end of thernspectrum hope earnestly for a ferociousrnpogrom against the militias and all thosern’linked’ to them… and, at the end of thernday, summary fusillades by governmentrnSWT teams to finish off the dissenters,”rnIn another issue last summer, he complainedrnof “a post-Oklahoma City cottagernindustry in left-pwog journalism,rnfeaturing the whole of redneck or working-rnclass America as part of some vastrn6/CHRONICLESrnrnrn