Michael W. Childers

I am an Assistant Professor of Environmental History and Sustainability at the University of Northern Iowa, were I teach multidisciplinary courses on 19 and 20th Century American history, the environment, and social issues. My work focuses on US environmental history in a global context, specifically the history of tourism, outdoor recreation and sustainability. Raised outside the Colorado mountain town of Fraser,…

Winner of the International Ski History Association’s Ullr Award  Finalist for the Western Writers of American Spur Award for Best Contemporary Non-Fiction Book  In the frigid early morning hours of October 19, 1998, William Rodgers raced along Vail Ski Resort’s snow-covered ridge line setting fires. In a matter of minutes, flames engulfed six buildings across the mountain,…

If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I should start at daybreak, say at three o’clock in midsummer, with a pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, the head of Illiloute Fall, Nevada, Fall, the top of Liberty Cap and the…

With over a half a decade experience in Public History, I have applied my knowledge of environmental and cultural history, along with my years of managerial experience, conducting and producing administrative histories, a national historic landmark application, and oral history interviews. Notable among my public history experience is my management of the Yosemite National Park Administrative History…

BlogWest.org  is a collaborative effort of historians, intellectuals, journalists, and anyone else who writes on and thinks about the region. Serving as a platform for those who are interested in delving into the vast and complex region’s past, present, and future, BlogWest is in someways an experiment on how we as scholars can engage with a broader audience…