"that remaining pioneer Western ethic that exists out here"

Following the lead of one of my favorite professors at Berkeley, I've begun collecting newspaper articles that I come across which are connected to my interests. Of course I have to put my Millennial (big M) spin on it, so I collect bookmarked New York Times Online articles, and in particular, their slide shows. Here are two that have particularly enchanted me as of late.


The first is the story of the battle over the future of a town in rural Oregon and it has all of the trappings of a classic western. Water battles, city council meetings over the fate of our little community, the big bad outsider buying up the town, old jailhouses - you know, all the fixin's. The great twist, though, is that the force behind the evil hubris isn't lust, land or liquor, but, ostensibly, the (colonial?) urge for historical preservation. Perhaps the West still breeds big plans and little communities.


The second is about the last rural airmail pilot in the united states and the small mountain community in Idaho that he serves. I can't decide if the postman's plane was the best symbol of "that remaining pioneer Western ethic that exists out here," as one of the people served along the route put it, or if the collection of vehicles they use to reach the pilot are more appropriate: a tractor, a motorcycle and an ATV-inspired hauler, all western transportation icons of certain eras.