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A LITTLE MORE THAN A YEAR AGO, THE WYOMING GAME AND FISH Department arranged the slaughter of 129 cow elk on a ranch in southeastern Wyoming. The rancher, with backing from influential political interests, had pressured the department to bring in professional shooters because, he said, the elk were eating grass . . . → Read More: The king’s elk? Remarks on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cheyenne chapter of the Audubon Society HISTORY HAS SOME STRANGE TWISTS. THE NAMES THAT ARE SO OFTEN UP IN lights in our textbooks and memories weren’t always as influential as the record would have us believe. I was taught that James Watson . . . → Read More: Up from the grass THE ROUTE THE DOGS AND I TAKE FOR OUR morning constitutional winds in and out of the open space for the approach to the Cheyenne airport’s eastern runway. No matter how much new construction the developers in Cheyenne may be contemplating, the Federal Aviation Administration won’t let them build in this corridor as . . . → Read More: Lipstick on a corpse FOR REASONS I CAN’T BEGIN TO FATHOM, A 2023 WESTLEY RICHARDS CATALOG ARRIVED IN THE MAIL A WHILE BACK. ADDRESSED TO ME. Fascinated, I opened to the first page, which offered a breathless description of the “Lyell gilet” on offer. I had no idea what a “gilet” was— the dictionary . . . → Read More: Stogies and style
IT’S A TINY SCRAP OF THE ORIGINAL, MAROONED ON THE NORTH SIDE OF CHEYENNE BETWEEN THE SKATEBOARD PARK AND THE COMPOSTING FACILITY. I have no idea how it’s escaped the incessant digging, paving, draining and all the other kinds of rape that are included in that oh-so-gentle term, “development,” but there . . . → Read More: Penstemon
AS WE WAIT OUT THE ENDLESS VARIANTS OF THE MOST RECENT PANDEMIC, I FIND MYSELF CONSIDERING THE VARIOUS forces that brought us to this point, . . . → Read More: Beyond hope Plains mule deer in wheat stubble. Copyright 2018, Chris Madson, all rights reserved. WE HADN’T BEEN IN THE BLIND FIVE MINUTES WHEN HE STEPPED OUT OF THE TIMBER. “Good Lord,” I whispered to Buster. “Look at that rack!” The bases of the antlers were as big around as . . . → Read More: UltraDeer “WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT: THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; THAT THEY are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” The philosophical underpinning of the great American experiment. Words to stir the soul. And perhaps . . . → Read More: Truths in the balance One of my favorite fishing spots, but it’s nearly thirty miles of high-country gravel from the nearest pavement. If I tried getting there in my Prius, I’d leave pieces of the undercarriage scattered over the last fifteen miles of very bad road. (Copyright 2016 by Chris Madson, all rights reserved.) TREASURE . . . → Read More: Conscience A lesser prairie chicken male displaying on a communal lek in the sandsage prairie of southern Kansas. (Copyright 1980 by Chris Madson, all rights reserved.) IT’S NOT A BIRD WITH A BIG FAN CLUB. NOT A POP STAR LIKE THE BALD EAGLE OR WHOOPING CRANE OR EVEN THE EASTERN bluebird. . . . → Read More: Gone with the grass |
