Word: colorados
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Central to the contradictions of the region's future is the fact that the Mountain States, unlike most of the U.S., have a huge absentee landlord: the Federal Government. Of the eight states, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, which occupy 863,524 sq. mi., an area considerably bigger than all of Western Europe, Washington owns about 80% of the resources and nearly one-half of the land. These landholdings range from 30% of Montana to 87% of Nevada. The Government is not only the largest landowner but the largest employer and the overall regulator...
Washington has a great say over who gets how much of the waters of the Colorado River, and what will be charged for the right to graze cattle. Washington decides how much timber will be cut from the forests and who will mine gold on the land...
Washington even sets the price of lift tickets in some ski areas in Colorado. And it is Washington that now plans to install in Utah and Nevada the $33.8 billion MX missile system, the biggest public works project in history...
Struggling with federal regulations sharpens the resentment of Westerners who remember how the region was once exploited by Eastern railroads and financiers. "Billions of dollars came out of here, and none of the money remained," says Colorado's Lamm. "Can you blame us for feeling like a colony?" Says Montana Governor Thomas Judge: "They want to take our coal and take our water, and what do we have left? A couple of national parks...
...west, there are still only 10 million people, hardly more than live in New York City and its immediate environs. Venture ten minutes out side smoggy, clogged Phoenix and you suddenly enter an eerie desert that sweeps on for hundreds of miles. Drive north along Highway 13 in Colorado, away from the bustle and lights of a coal town like Craig, and you quickly find yourself in a land of buttes and canyons and endless sky, with gophers and prairie dogs scampering across the two-lane road and magpies fluttering overhead. Go down into southeastern Utah and head toward Moab...