AMERICAN WEST

ITS BEAUTY IS incomparable. Its inhabitants are a hearty blend of diverse cultures and lifestyles. 

Less than 200 years ago, this area was home to wildlife and the nomadic people who depended on it for survival. Home was a tepee or wickiup, personal possessions little more than a cook pot, a few rugs and the buckskins they wore. 

Then came the white man. Armed with pick and shovel, pistol and pony, he claimed the land, mined and farmed it, replaced wildlife with livestock and began building cross-country transportation systems. When the railroads arrived, the American West roared into the future, faster than a speeding locomotive. 

A couple of wars later, mining, ranching and logging kept the high country in greenbacks. Thanks to Hollywood, “Western” meant a cow scull over the fireplace, antlers on the barn, men in tall hats, high-heeled boots and yoked shirts with lots of gratuitous fringe, and leathery-skinned women who looked like they could use a week at a good spa. “High Country” brought to mind howling winds, deep snow, drafty log cabins with buffalo hides on the floor and a pot of venison stew on a hand-hewn table for supper.

But to those who lived here, the western high country meant comfort and home.

Add twenty years, mix in a few hippies, trust-funders and rhinestone cowboys (in pressed designer jeans and thousand-dollar boots that will never touch a cow pie), blend well with an influx of folks seeking a haven from crowded, crime-laden cities—many of them as ruggedly determined to succeed here as their forbearers—and you’ve got the heady stew that is the high country of the American West today.