Word: mountainous
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...What do we want with this worthless area, this region of savages and wild beasts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs? To what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts and these endless mountain ranges?" - Daniel Webster...
When the esteemed U.S. Secretary of State from Massachusetts uttered those words in 1852, he was only echoing the haughty contempt that many Easterners felt toward what map makers then labeled the Great American Desert. Even today, the eight states strung out along the Rocky Mountains are collectively the nation's most thinly settled (12 inhabitants per square mile, vs. 62 overall in the U.S.) and the most arid (12 in. rainfall, vs. 29 nationwide). Yet in addition to their wild beauty, these Mountain States contain such a magnificent array of national treasures that they are now being developed...
...proud Sioux won their great victory, bulldozers scrape away the topsoil of cliffs to reveal vast seams of coal below. In western New Mexico, where legends tell of the Spanish explorer Coronado searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola, drills sink into the earth in search of uranium. The Mountain States hold vast deposits of the nation's coal, oil and uranium; they are at the heart of any U.S. energy program, and thus of the nation's future. The boom is sweeping far beyond the coalfields and oilfields. Construction cranes pierce the skies over Denver, Salt Lake...
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...
Though the rebellion has been mostly smoldering for the past three years, the election of Ronald Reagan has suddenly given supporters new hope. Reagan, who won 60% of the popular votes cast in the Mountain States, sent a telegram to a meeting of 500 rebellion sup porters held in Salt Lake City last month relaying his "best wishes to all my fellow Sagebrush reb els." Added the President-elect: "I renew my pledge to work toward a Sagebrush solution ... to insure that the states have an equitable share of public lands and their natural resources...