Mark Harvey is a rancher, writer, and photographer. He grew up in western Colorado and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in International Studies. After college he spent several years leading month-long mountaineering expeditions for the National Outdoor leadership School in Wyoming, Mexico, and Chile. He is the author of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Wilderness Guide. Mark is board president of Aspen Journalism and EcoFlight. He lives in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley. Email: markharv [at] mac.com
by Mark Harvey All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth–including America, of course–consist of pilferings from other people’s wash. —Mark Twain, Following the Equator There’s a wonderful story from Paul Bunyan Swings His Ax about how a heat wave in Iowa made all the field corn pop until the whole…
by Mark Harvey The biggest hazard on my one trip to Minneapolis was being invited to too many family picnics and possibly dying from an overdose of mayonnaise. You have to go to Minnesota to really experience what’s known in the vernacular as Minnesota Nice. The term springs from the sincere desire those northern people…
by Mark Harvey The dark power at first held so high a place that it could wound all who were on the side of good and of the light. But in the end it perishes of its own darkness… —I Ching, #36, Ming Years ago, someone gave me a copy of the I Ching, Book of…
by Mark Harvey I have a horse named Mexico that tore one of his legs to shreds last week when he got caught in a wire fence. It was a bit of a fluke because we try to keep our fences tight and well-maintained. But one morning, a herd of 50 elk ran straight through…
by Mark Harvey There was a time when the West was truly wild. I don’t mean the gun fights in saloons, the stampede of a thousand cattle, or stagecoach robberies on the high plains. But it wasn’t that long ago when every river from what is now Kansas to the Pacific Ocean ran its course…
by Mark Harvey The late Robert F. Kennedy, who ran for President in 1968, could be considered a great man and even more commendably, a good man. It wasn’t always so. As a young ambitious lawyer he served under Joseph McCarthy during the hearings meant to weed out communists from American politics. Those hearings ruined…
by Mark Harvey Walking across a piece of my land the other day, I noticed that various grasses had become entirely brown from lack of water. Bromes and Poaceae, normally still green this time of year, looked brittle and were the color of tea. Cheat grass, that invasive species from Eurasia, looked even yellower and…
by Mark Harvey Every civilization sees itself as the center of the world and writes its history as the central drama of human history. ―Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Watching Israel and Iran lob bombs at each other these last few weeks makes me tired. Just when…
by Mark Harvey If the ruler is upright, all will go well even though he gives no orders; but if he is not upright, even though he gives orders they will not be obeyed. —Confucious— Analects 13:6 Pluck a squirming chicken feather by feather; it won’t become obvious until it’s too late. —Attributed to Benito…
by Mark Harvey Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder. —John F. Kennedy addressing the Canadian Parliament, 1961 If you had to design the perfect neighbor to the United States,…
by Mark Harvey To tear something down is infinitely easier than building something of benefit or beauty. Constructing an elegant house that will last through the ages, can take years. From a dream, to design, to approvals, to construction means gobs of money, skilled designers, and dedicated builders. When you see that handsome house perched…
by Mark Harvey Most of the “better sort” were not genuine Sons of Liberty at all, but timid sycophants, pliant instruments of despotism… —Carl Lotus Becker It doesn’t take a lot of effort to be a bootlicker. Find a boss or someone with the personality of a petty tyrant, sidle up to them, subjugate yourself,…
by Mark Harvey Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above. —Langston Hughes The years from 1930 to 1945 were some of the most trying times in American history. Our forebears…
by Mark Harvey “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” –HL Mencken I’ve always loved Winston Churchill’s comment about his political rival Clement Attlee: “He’s a modest man, a lot for which to be modest.” Churchill himself was not a modest man, and…
by Mark Harvey Most people don’t want to hear your sob stories, even if they pretend to be caring listeners. Even a good friend listening to your personal version of Orpheus and Eurydice—and making all the right noises—is probably focused on whether to put snow tires on their car Thursday or Friday. Some of us…
by Mark Harvey On September 1, 2004, a middle-aged Russian journalist named Anna Politkovskaya boarded a plane in Moscow on her way to Ossetia to cover a hostage crisis in the town of Beslan. During the flight, she drank a cup of tea that almost killed her. After she drank the tea, she became disoriented,…
by Mark Harvey Scarcity of water brings out the evil propensities in men quicker than anything else. —Greeley Tribune, July 1, 1874 The summer of 1874 was a particularly dry year in Colorado, and the drought led to a water war between the fledgling towns of Fort Collins and Greeley. In the previous years, Greeley…
by Mark Harvey When eating an elephant take one bite at a time. ––Creighton Abrams In the game of chess, some of the greats will concede their most valuable pieces for a superior position on the board. In a 1994 game against the grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik, Gary Kasparov sacrificed his queen early in the game…
by Mark Harvey “…they came out of little holes in the ground, and did eat up the green things, and made such a constant yelling noise as made the woods ring of them, and ready to deafen the hearers…” —William Bradford, Massachusetts, 1633 If you missed the totality last month when the moon fully obscured…
by Mark Harvey Vitamins and self-help are part of the same optimistic American psychology that makes some of us believe we can actually learn the guitar in a month and de-clutter homes that resemble 19th-century general stores. I’m not sure I’ve ever helped my poor old self with any of the books and recordings out…