This California county has some of the nation’s strictest protections for agricultural land, but developers are using a new exemption to house people who work the land.

At 16, he accepted an invitation from legendary choreographer George Balanchine to join the New York City Ballet. Four years ...

Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that made an especially big ...

I learned that the Chinese comprised nearly a quarter of Montana’s population in the late 19th century. They lived and worked in nearly every town across the state, from the most remote mining camps, ...

The rural West’s increasing health care costs haunt the shutdown ...

In the weeks leading up to the shutdown, tribal nations hefted their political and economic capital to protect services for ...

This article appeared in the October 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “A season of grizzlies and get-togethers.” ...

And it’s true, in the West, cities sprawl out across deserts and prairies with only mountains to fence them in. My hometown was ringed with sagebrush and open prairie. There are no city skyscrapers ...

HOOD LEARNED HOW TO MAKE BOWS in his late teens, teaching at a survival school where a co-worker led bow-making clinics. Hood welcomed the chance to learn a new skill, but the work didn’t satisfy him ...

High Country News relies on donations as well as subscription fees to produce independent reporting on the West. Help continue the legacy of reader-supported journalism by making a tax-deductible ...

High Country News and Report for America are seeking local and statewide newsrooms to build an environmental reporting ...

I already knew what good food tastes like. The flavors — they should explode in your mouth. Flavor from any food does not come out by accident. If you want the flavors to come out, you have to put ...