Project Western Living

[Phillip Dampier]

One of the things BetterMost is going to be doing in the future is beginning to broaden our focus out beyond just the film itself and into working towards a better understanding of western living and culture.  I will be looking for people who would be interested in helping BetterMost users get a better feel about how life works out in the mountain states.  If you live in Montana, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, or especially Wyoming, and you'd like to be a part of this project, please let me know.  BetterMost should always have a mountain/western feel to it, and I'd like to put together a team of folks who can help answer the questions of those who don't live anywhere near Riverton.  The more rural, the better, but those who are familiar with the region in general are also welcome.

Just reply to this message and let me know if you'd like to help out.

[LauraGigs]

As a Colorado resident I can give 2 cents whenever you need it, Phillip.

Such as: One thing I've always had to emphasize to posters (IMDB) who mention things like Ennis' "lack of emotion" upon receiving news of Jack's death, or the idea that J + E "weren't gay enough", etc. etc. is that Westerners are generally a bit more stoic than folks in other parts of the US. (There are exceptions of course, but it's true as a general rule.)

So anyway, here's one volunteer for ya. . .

[Front-Ranger]

I am also a longtime Colorado resident, though not rural, and happy to help out.

[nakymaton]

A few online resources related to life in the Mountain West:

High Country News: http://www.hcn.org/. Regional Western issues, from a generally liberal perspective. Kind of a regional alternative newspaper.

Some rural public radio stations, which from what I've heard, have similar mixes of programming -- lots of alternative country and bluegrass, especially on the music programming. They've got a really different feel from most urban public radio stations that I've listened to. All of them stream broadcasts online, so if you want to listen to a bit of the Mountain West while working or whatever, you can check them out:

Four Corners Public Radio www.ksut.org: Southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico, with a little bit of broadcast area into SW Utah and NW Arizona.

Mountain Grown Public Radio http://www.kvnf.org/: The Western Slope of Colorado, heard from Ridgeway to Grand Junction.

Wyoming Public Radio http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/wpr/: The only public radio station in Wyoming. I've caught it around the Green River area in SW Wyoming, but I suspect it has transmitters all over.

A lot of the media that dominates the West isn't home-grown. On the radio, there are the same Clear Channel country stations and right-wing talk radio that you can hear anywhere in the country. For newspapers, there's USA Today, or the nearest city newspapers (Denver, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque), or there are small-town papers that get most of their stories from Reuters or AP. The locally produced stuff, weirdly enough, seems to be dominated by liberal transplants, rather than by people who have lived in the area for generations. But the transplants love their home, and talk about things from a regional perspective, even if they've lived in other parts of the country at other times in their lives.

[Phillip Dampier]

Thanks for these cool ideas.  I have been a bit quiet on this whole vision thing for awhile because family matters have been distracting me quite a lot.  But as fall approaches, these vague visions are becoming a bit more clear to me about what I want this community to be long after the movie itself is no longer the primary topic.  I think what works is a sense that BetterMost is a refuge - a vacation cabin in the rural west with wide open spaces, peaceful nature, in a rugged but friendly setting.  I want people to feel they are there as they arrive here, unpacking their bags and feeling they can escape the day to day grind of life and explore and grow themselves along the way.

I like very much the radio and media choices.  I wonder how often people take a look at the weather bugs at the bottom of each forum page and think, wow it's hot (or cold) in Riverton or Childress today.  And bringing a bit of real western life adds some authenticity and having the choice of listening or reading what people who live there are brings another layer to the experience.

For those who have gotten past the movie, I am sure there are daily reminders in one's life that bring them back to Brokeback, perhaps to the scenery or wondering what life would be like there.  And we can add to that.  Keep the ideas coming.

[Front-Ranger]

Gotten past the movie?? Noooo...will never happen!! 

[Brown Eyes]

Speaking of Childress... will Texas become more of a focus for BetterMost too?  I mean Jack was killed (one way or the other) in Texas.  Sadly, I have little to contribute in terms of "real-life" experience since I'm firmly an east-of-the-Mississippi gal.  But,  I feel like the Texas dynamics are an important part of the story... as much so as Wyoming.  The Texas rodeo culture and even the small town/ suburban culture of Jack's Texas seem really significant.

[Phillip Dampier]

Speaking of Childress... will Texas become more of a focus for BetterMost too?  I mean Jack was killed (one way or the other) in Texas.  Sadly, I have little to contribute in terms of "real-life" experience since I'm firmly an east-of-the-Mississippi gal.  But,  I feel like the Texas dynamics are an important part of the story... as much so as Wyoming.  The Texas rodeo culture and even the small town/ suburban culture of Jack's Texas seem really significant.

I think we can accomodate both to the extent they were rural wide open places.  I want to create a tapestry with the scenery complete to let people get a sense of life in the rural western states.  But Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming would have to be the centerpiece.  I have been daydreaming a lot about the vision thing for the site as time passes, and these ideas you guys are bringing to the table are very important to me because they are like puzzle pieces and they are starting to come together.

I also definitely want a network of "correspondents" from the region to help guide the development of the site with on-the-ground realism about what life and culture is like out there.  There are lots of questions and avenues to explore that go beyond the movie itself, and I want to make sure we capitalize on those as well.

[moremojo]

Just something to add, sort of like thinking out loud (except typing it out): I would be very interested in learning more about/seeing more of the Native American presence in and contribution to the Western culture that is being invoked here. Historically, so many of the Native American populations were decimated due to the genocidal policies of the settlers of European descent who appropriated the land in their gradual westward move, but many Native American cultures remain living entities, and even where vanished, spiritually impinge upon the numen of the land in having been the first human beings to inhabit it.

How many stories might Brokeback Mountain have enshrined even before Jack and Ennis?

[jessiwrite]

Larry McMurtry pulled me into Texas.  If you want to feel rural Texas, read Horseman, Pass By.  Leaving Cheyenne will transport you there.  I actaully saw the landscape and tasted the buttermilk.

jessi

[nakymaton]

Just something to add, sort of like thinking out loud (except typing it out): I would be very interested in learning more about/seeing more of the Native American presence in and contribution to the Western culture that is being invoked here.

Have you ever noticed, when randomly staring at maps of Wyoming, that Riverton is in the middle of the Wind River Reservation? I don't know anything about the history of the reservation, or even what tribe (or tribes?) live there.

(Tell me I'm not the only one who pulls out the Wyoming Atlas & Gazetteer from time to time. I mean, ok, I already owned it for work stuff, but I haven't been plotting new routes to new field areas lately.)

[moremojo]

(Tell me I'm not the only one who pulls out the Wyoming Atlas & Gazetteer from time to time. I mean, ok, I already owned it for work stuff, but I haven't been plotting new routes to new field areas lately.)

Yep, I do this too (I work in a library with an excellent collection of atlases and maps). Wind River Reservation is such an evocative name, but I too am not aware of the tribal affiliation(s) of the people living there.

[Jeff Wrangler]

(Tell me I'm not the only one who pulls out the Wyoming Atlas & Gazetteer from time to time. I mean, ok, I already owned it for work stuff, but I haven't been plotting new routes to new field areas lately.)

Shoot, I actually bought a new atlas, at Staples, just after last Christmas--because its map of Wyoming showed Lightning Flat!   

[nakymaton]

LOL, Jeff. I'm trying to remember now whether I bought my Wyoming atlas for legitimate professional reasons, or whether I bought it because I was in the local backpacking store right after I read BBM.

I googled the Wind River Reservation, and found info on a couple web pages. The reservation is home to both the Eastern Shoshone and the Arapahoe people... and the fort on the reservation was the original home of the Buffalo Soldiers (of the Bob Marley song).

Some links:

http://www.easternshoshone.net/WindRiverReservation2.htm Information about the reservation. Scroll to the bottom for pictures. If anyone wants a geological explanation of what they're seeing, I can probably figure one out, once I go home and look at my Wyoming geological highway map.

http://www.easternshoshone.net/ The Eastern Shoshone tribe's web page. Lots of history of the treaties... broken treaties, which, given the behavior of the US government towards the tribes, isn't at all surprising. The Arapahoes were put on the reservation after it was established, and the Shoshone still don't sound happy about it.

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~sabthomp/wyoming/windriver/wywr.htm This page has links to both the Shoshone and Arapahoe stories. The Arapahoe originally lived eastern Colorado, as well as other places on the Plains, but they left Colorado for good after a massacre near Fort Collins.

[jessiwrite]

I foumd this interesting. Certainly has become a special place for me.

Riverton is the rendezvous community of Wyoming, past, present and future. For centuries, people have chosen the Wind River Valley as a place to come together. It started with the Native Americans who felt it was a special place. Mountain men, prospectors and homesteaders followed,

[Jeff Wrangler]

LOL, Jeff. I'm trying to remember now whether I bought my Wyoming atlas for legitimate professional reasons, or whether I bought it because I was in the local backpacking store right after I read BBM.

It was funny, actually. I had an old road atlas at my own place--no Lightning Flat. Then, at Christmas, I looked at the Wyoming map in the old World Book Encyclopedia at my dad's place--no Lightning Flat. The day after Christmas, Dad and I were in Staples because he wanted to buy me a shredder (!) for Christmas. I noticed this atlas in a rack near the door. I opened it to Wyoming--voila, Lightning Flat! So I bought the atlas.   

I googled the Wind River Reservation, and found info on a couple web pages. The reservation is home to both the Eastern Shoshone and the Arapahoe people... and the fort on the reservation was the original home of the Buffalo Soldiers (of the Bob Marley song).

OK this is almost spooking me out. Am I unconsciously/subconsciously channeling someone or something? In my latest fanfic, I gave Ennis a stallion named--Arapahoe! I had associated the Arapahoe with a location farther west than the Cheyenne historically, but swear-to-God I did not know that the Wind River Reservation was home to the tribe today.

Buffalo Soldiers = 9th U.S. Cavalry, I think.

[Phillip Dampier]

I think you guys would all love Google Earth, which is free and has amazing satellite imagery all around the world.  It has been fun to explore Wyoming from the sky (and other places).  Definitely consider adding that to your exploration adventures.

Another cool place is http://www.ghosttowns.com/ which has plenty of stories and information about rural towns that are essentially no more all across the west.  I enjoyed exploring the little places across Wyoming with the stories and pictures.