Comments on: Under the Mogollon Rim

By: dutchman1899

dutchman1899 — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:29:00 +0000

I have just discovered your paper and think that it is great! I will read every word in it and there is some good exploring Arizona info there!

By: John Willson

John Willson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:59:42 +0000

Gosh A’mighty, Jeremy, if you ole Hoosier guy ain’t becomin’ western. Lots of places to love, aren’t there? Louis L’Amour loved the Mogollons. So did George Roche, but don’t let either of them scare you.

By: Sunday Sundries (Nov. 8, 2009) | Commentary

Sunday Sundries (Nov. 8, 2009) | Commentary — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:02:06 +0000

[...] beautiful tribute to my summer camping ground! (Aesthetic, locale oriented conservatism I can [...]

By: Katherine Dalton

Katherine Dalton — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:42:24 +0000

Beautiful and evocative piece, Jeremy. Russell and Mr. Sabin are right; essays about places we love are an excellent addition here.

By: D.W. Sabin

D.W. Sabin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:46:09 +0000

You could drop everything you are doing right now and start exploring the largely unknown mountain ranges of the West and not finish seeing them all, nor divining all their treasures. The best sidewalks in creation are them slickrock sidewalks.

As Fox asserts, tales of real places across the country are the best. Fortunately , these real places are usually jam-packed with real people as colorful as their Ektachrome surroundings.

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:43:06 +0000

Indeed, Bill. And that faded-glory hotel you slept in (if it was the Weatherford, not the Monte Vista) was where Zane Grey wrote much of his material. (He tried to start a film company here as well, as did Orson Wells for that matter, who then settled on Hollywood thank the dear Lord!)

By: Bill Kauffman

Bill Kauffman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:30:29 +0000

Terrific piece, Jeremy.
Flagstaff is among the most memorable little cities I’ve ever visited. We stayed in that great faded-glory haunted hotel downtown. And I was thrilled to walk the grounds of the Lowell Observatory, where in 1930 the Kansas farmboy Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto–WHICH IS A PLANET, DAMMIT!

By: E.D. Kain

E.D. Kain — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:27:06 +0000

Jeremy – now you’re talking! I live in Flagstaff, right on the Rim, though the predominant feature here, of course, is the San Francisco Peaks. Have you been to Blue Ridge? Really this land is as lovely as it gets, and while not entirely remote, there are few places quite like it.

By: Thomas G.

Thomas G. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:42:55 +0000

Great story Jeremy. You really capture the sense of place, and make me long for the Southwest. I spent a few years in the early 90′s, working at the coal plants in out of the way corners of Arizona and Utah. Undoubtedly the most beautiful and geologically diverse part of our nation. I used to laugh when I’d tell people that, and they’d look at me like I was kidding. Thankfully, most of the Interstates avoid the true beauty of the country, and most people just drive right on by. It can be wonderfully deserted at times.

I get misty thinking of it every fall. I used to finish up my work at the plant down in Laughlin, NV and take a few days off while I headed back to our office in Denver, just to meander around and explore. After a month in the blast furnace / cultural cesspool of Laughlin, the Mogollon Rim was like paradise.

By: Patrick Ford

Patrick Ford — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:31:31 +0000

Having been raised along Colorado’s Front Range, and having collected many fond memories gallivanting through the Rocky Mountains to the west and the great swaths of prairie grasslands to the east, I was naturally (though for years unknowingly) predisposed to appreciate government conservation efforts. This bias first manifested itself in the form of resentment toward the encroachments of civilization on places near my home that once were open and beautiful. I recognized the tension between that sentiment and the Limbaughian neocon-libertarian government-bad/freedom-good instincts that resided alongside it, and I recall being existentially conflicted for a time.

I’ve long since become a different kind of conservative, one that can fully appreciate the benefits accruing to folks like me, and Jeremy, and “brierrabbit3030,” by virtue of Teddy and his progeny grabbing up some of the most beautiful places in the land by government fiat and declaring them more or less impervious to the crushing, crawling spread of what passes for civilization, and then opening them up for our enjoyment. Despite the fact that these parks are criss-crossed with roads so that our fellow-citizens can enjoy them from the comfort of their motor homes, Jeremy is still free to escape the unimaginative horde and explore where he pleases, so long as it is by foot or hoof. If not for the big actions of big gummint, it’s hard to imagine how most of us, save those able to afford their own cabin in the hills, ever would have been able to enjoy these treasures in a manner like Jeremy describes. After all, I have encountered many beautiful places that I was forced to view only from the road, since the lands were private, trespassers-prosecuted, look-but-don’t-touch zones. Imagine if all our lands were like that—as they almost certainly would be by now if not for gummint.

Still, there is a tension between this appreciation and the knee-jerk anti-big-government sentiments of many Porch denizens. In fact, I may be skewered by more knowledgeable libertarian types who will tell me that the costs outweigh the benefits, that there were other, better solutions, that the unlimited expansion of private wealth is the price we pay for living in a free society, etc. And I’m always willing to be convinced. But whatever TR’s shortcomings, I have to think this was one bright idea.

By: brierrabbit3030

brierrabbit3030 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:55 +0000

t grew up in Arizona too. i remember those wonderful summers fishing the Little Colorado river at Greer. Whats always amazes me, is how many people think Arizona is all desert. Much of the state is forested. It even has it’s own native trout. The Apache trout, native to nowhere else but remote streams in the Mogollon Rim country. Wonderful places with names like Strawberry, Pine, Showlow, {which got it’s name in a card game] Snowflake [named after settlers with the last names of Snow and Flake] Greer, Sedona, Alpine, etc. And yes, most of Arizona is still very remote and hard to get into. thanks for the story. It brought back wonderful memories for me. I didn’t grow up around Phoenix, though, I lived near Sierra Vista in the bottom end of the state.

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:10:10 +0000

Beautiful recollections, Jeremy, and wonderfully written too. Tales of real places across this great country of ours are the very best. Thanks much.