Life in San Juan

Risa Shimoda calling for SJC residents help

Risa Shimoda has been collecting bits and pieces of her father’s history for 20 years and is requesting additional help from San Juan County residents. Her father, Midori Shimoda, was living in California during WWII when the Japanese living on the west coast were suddenly under suspect after...

San Juan County almost became a Southern Ute Reservation more than a century ago

Whenever I hike in Bears Ears National Monument, I think about how it almost became an Indian reservation. Over a century ago Durango businessmen actively campaigned to remove the Southern Utes to San Juan County, UT. Most of that county would have become a new 2.9 million-acre Ute Indian...

Recess conversation turned humanitarian aid fundraiser provides a way to give back

“Operation Save the Koalas/Australia” began early in January of this year after some heartbroken fourth-graders had a conversation on the playground at recess. They had just heard about the devastating wildfires in Australia and the huge loss of Koalas. They decided instead of just feeling sad,...

The Voices of Bears Ears videos win award

San Juan County is the focus of marketing efforts that recently won a prestigious award for the Utah Office of Tourism. The Voices of Bears Ears, a four-part video series, earned an Adrian Award for marketing excellence on January 21 from Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (...

Descendents of Jens Nielson encouraged to visit Bluff Fort

The life of Jens Nielson will be honored at Bluff Fort in 2020 for the 200th anniversary of his birth date. Nielson was a key figure in the Hole in the Rock Expedition and in the subsequent settlement of Bluff in 1880. He was born in Denmark on April 26, 1820 and passed away in Bluff in 1906....

On the Trail of Tiny Tubers: Tracking the Four Corners potato

For years we’ve learned that Ancestral Puebloans depended upon corn, beans, and squash, nicknamed The Three Sisters, for sustenance. Well, move over sisters. Little brother spud is about to take the stage. With a $225,000 National Science Foundation grant, researchers at the University of Utah hope...

Roam if you want to, roam around the world

by Mary Cokenour “I hear a wind, whistling air, whispering in my ear.” (Roam, by the B-52s) Surrounded by majestic Ponderosa Pine, sailing upon a one-track trail and the breeze whispers into ears a blessed silence. Welcome to mountain biking in the Abajo Mountains with Roam Industry. Opening its...

2020 San Juan County New Year’s Baby born at San Juan Hospital

Weston Duke Whipple wasted little time in his rush to be the 2020 New Year’s Baby for San Juan County. The son of Aunika Hunter and Dustin Whipple was delivered by Dr. Michael Nielson at 6:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day. The delivery was at San Juan Hospital in Monticello. Weston weighs in at six pounds...

A black, hairy tarantula with a brown rump and a small waist

When I was six, I was reading Wind in the Willows in my bedroom. Suddenly, something alerted me to danger, and I looked up just as a tiny spider crawled down the wall toward me. Mustering all my courage, I stayed still and watched as it scuttled closer and closer and closer. Finally, I could stand...

Christmas Tree decor goes from Whitehorse to the White House

A total of 24 handmade ornaments made their way from Montezuma Creek to the White House this winter as part of the America Celebrates display, as first reported by Kate Groetzinger of KUER. The display includes the towering National Christmas Tree and 56 smaller trees representing every U.S....