Welcome With this post, we are pleased to announce a new blog by Colorado State University’s Public Lands History Center (PLHC). In doing so we take our cue from the five-tribe Bears Ears Inter-tribal Council. Referring to the southern Utah National Monument surrounding a pair of buttes dubbed Bears Ears, the council said that there […]
Trump ‘Salute to America’ Funded with National Park Gate Fees Recently, the Washington Post reported that funding the Trump Administration’s Salute to America on the National Mall on July 4, 2019, involved the diversion of $2.5 million in funds derived from the National Park Service’s (NPS) park fees to fund a more elaborate celebration, including […]
The Endangered Species Act On Friday September 25, 2019 Colorado and 16 other states sued Republican president Trump’s administration. They were attempting to block pushbacks to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Today the ESA is politically controversial. However, in 1973, Republican president, Richard Nixon, signed the law with bipartisan support.[1] Throughout the 1970s, bipartisan support […]
This blog post is a re-post of Dr. Jared Orsi’s article about the Organ Pipe National Monument in The Conversation from December 4, 2019. To view the original article, click here. Organ Pipe National Monument A few hundred yards from the Mexican border in southern Arizona lies a quiet pond, about the size of two football […]
From Antarctica to the Moon In episode 114 of the NASA podcast “Houston, We Have a Podcast” airing on October 18, 2019, Samuel Lawrence, a scientist in charge of lunar exploration, says that NASA is considering the idea of establishing an outpost on the moon. What was once the realm of science fiction may soon […]
Relocating the BLM Republican Senator from Colorado, Cory Gardner, announced on July 15, 2019 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will reorganize and move its headquarters from Washington DC to Grand Junction, CO.[1] The BLM’s headquarters have been based in Washington DC since the agency’s earliest years. This has allowed BLM staff to be […]
An Introduction to Alcatraz What would it look like if we tried to teach the history of the Civil Rights Movement without Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? This was the question Dr. Kent Blansett raised at his recent presentation, “Think Indigenous,” on the Red Power Movement at the Public Lands History Center’s American West Program […]
Welcome to Outside History This four-part series is the PLHC’s collaborative initiative with Rocky Mountain High School. Under the guidance of their teachers at RMHS, each of these blogs was written by a current high school student and edited by PLHC staff. From the complex history and present-day implications of Native land tenure in Hawaii […]
Is Yellowstone National Park a magnet for murder? Whether through the power of the internet or DNA testing, law enforcement officials use sophisticated technologies that make it harder for criminals to escape justice. However, even the most sophisticated technological tools are useless when it is not clear who is able to try a criminal, creating […]
Beautiful white sand beaches, flowing palm trees, glittering waves, towering volcanoes, hula dancers in leis. These are the postcard images used to represent Hawaii, images that mask the truth behind what Hawaii has become. Urban settings, sprawling resorts, hospitality-based jobs, and Western companies have begun dominating Hawaii, forcing Natives off their land and homogenizing Hawaii’s […]
