Tied to the Post

It Could Happen

It was the night before Christmas and all through our house, Jana, Grange, and I were settling in for a Zoom call with Kira, who was quarantined in Pennsylvania. The pandemic had grounded Kira in State College, so it was up to the rest of us to celebrate the holiday season in Bluff. That’s when...

A beautiful winter day

Last Sunday, Jana suggested we take a walk to the horse petroglyphs, which are located about a mile and a half from our house. So, after breakfast we put on our walking shoes, coxed Pearl from her doggie bed, and hiked up Cemetery Hill, past the Ancient Puebloan Great House, down the backside of...

Asking why, oh why?

“WHY IS IT SO EXPENSIVE?!” the woman almost shouted at me as I stood on the other side of the sales counter. Fortunately, she was wearing a mask that contained whatever steam she was venting. The woman was referring to an exceptional Teec Nos Pos weaving Priscilla and Rick had hung on the wall...

Golden and glorious

The last two weeks in October are the most beautiful time to be in Bluff. The temperatures have dropped and the world suddenly seems to have turned golden. Almost overnight, the cottonwood trees, which grow whenever they can find enough moisture to survive, are transformed into glorious shades of...

Red rock wilderness

Recently Grange asked me to review something he had written for school. Apparently he felt my experience writing about the trading post life, Native artists, and Southwest art might prove useful. Questioning his judgment, I inquired whether he had ever actually read any Tied to the Post stories....

“Shop in Utah” Lifeline

For the first time ever, Twin Rocks Trading Post and twinrocks.com will be offering a 30 percent discount off the listed retail price of all arts and crafts from local artists. These deductions will be good until the end of the year. Our current difficulties and the federal government’s efforts to...

They are people too!

As a young man, I developed a serious aversion to pulling weeds. Maybe it was because no matter how many you extracted, there were always more coming up. Whatever the reason, I hate that job and studiously avoid it when possible. The other day, I noticed I had put off attending to the ever-...

Roots grounded forever

“This is the desert after all,” I thought to myself as Grange and I sped along Highway 191 North towards Salt Lake City. He and I were heading back after his stint at home during the COVID-19 shutdown, and to get there we were traversing Utah south to north. My in-class period has long since...

Listen to what “the man” said

Not long ago, a woman from one of the nearby communities stopped by Twin Rocks Trading Post to peruse our inventory of turquoise jewelry, baskets, folk art, and Navajo rugs. As she browsed, we talked and after a time, I realized I knew her son and daughter-in-law. During our conversation she...

Bandit

It was the summer of 1971, and the Simpson family was living in a mobile home behind the Plateau filling station south of Blanding. Woody, our paternal grandfather, was working in Cisco, CO clearing brush for the Nielson brothers, Connie and Skinny. Craig, Barry, and I ran the service station,...