Providing Attainable Housing In a Scarce Market On a cold and windy spring morning just south of Moab, a construction crew is pouring and shaping concrete curbs and gutters around a looped drive that will soon give access to a new development called Lidia Subdivision. Brand new modular homes, delivered earlier by truck, are staged around the site, ready to be moved onto … [Read more...]
Moab Sculptor Carves a World in Wood
Sculptor finds personality in the woods he carves. He hecho un mundo Forests of characters populate shelves and tabletops in Herman Herrera’s home. Faces and figures carved from both raw wood and dimensional lumber peer out and suggest a range of personalities and stories, wearing blissful smiles, drawn brows, or stoic gazes. One long face, sprouting a huge nose formed … [Read more...]
Proper Brewing Opens in Moab, Utah
Onsite beer store and brewery lands in Moab Proper Brewing held the grand opening of its new Moab location on February 10, but even before that, the brew pub and eatery has been popular. “The soft opening was definitely busier than we anticipated,” said Proper Brewing co-owner Andrew Tendick. “It was a great experience for our staff. Moab gets hit so hard … [Read more...]
Inclusion of LBGTQ Community in Utah’s Public Schools
“Lowering Utah’s staggering student suicide rate through an inclusive educational environment is not, and should not be considered inherently political.” That was part of a statement from Utah high school student Em Jenkins speaking at a Utah State Board of Education (USBE) meeting in January of this year. Jenkins was advocating for the use of students’ preferred pronouns … [Read more...]
Not All Lightshows Are Safe. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act Benefits Utah’s Downwinders
Utah’s downwinders are finally getting the help they deserve. This past June, Congress extended the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a decades-old program that offers payments to people who have suffered health effects as a result of working in the uranium industry, and to “downwinders,” people who have been harmed by the fallout from nuclear weapons … [Read more...]
How Moab, Utah Moved from Mining to Recreation
The rugged terrain around Moab—cut by rivers, sheer rock faces, and steep inclines—wasn’t always as accessible as it is now. The dirt roads and singletrack trails that, today, invite outdoor enthusiasts to explore the area’s cliffs and canyons and admire the red rock towers and buttes, once served the ranching and mining industries that drove the local economy before tourism … [Read more...]
Moab, Utah: Uranium Boom Led to One of the Most Vibrant Towns in Utah
How the uranium boom went bust but still led to one of the most vibrant towns in Utah Charlie Steen’s rags-to-riches story has been told so many times it’s reached legend status: how he prospected unsuccessfully for two years in the Moab area before deciding to call it quits, and in testing his very last core sample, he discovered the high-grade uranium ore that made him … [Read more...]
Helping Ghosts Move On in Moab, Utah
Moab-Based Fiona Raison Helps Ghosts to Move On. Fiona Raison has been a healer for 30 years, helping both the living and the dead. She can help living people find the roots of physical and emotional pain, resolve internal dilemmas or get in touch with lost loved ones. She can help ghosts — “trapped souls” — get unstuck from the “in-between.” Raison explained that ghosts … [Read more...]
The Seventh Day Adventist Faith Based High School in Castle Valley, Utah Hopes to Produce Half-a-Million Pounds of Potatoes this Year
“The main thing that’s happening here right now is potatoes,” said Tom Mayer, farm manager at Castle Valley Farms. Mayer is exuberant about the tubers: the many varieties, their nutritional value, and growing them organically. In past years, Castle Valley Farms has devoted about one fourteenth of an acre to potatoes. This year, they’ve planted 14 acres, which Mayer says will, … [Read more...]
Westwater Canyon: A Utah River Rafting Trip to Put on Your Bucket List
Snapshot memories fill my mind from my one-day trip down Westwater Canyon with Moab-based outfitter Sheri Griffith River Expeditions. One is an image of a family of sleek otters frolicking near the river bank just outside their den. Their little faces would peek above the surface, and then they’d disappear, their curved backs surfacing momentarily as they dove, popping back up … [Read more...]