High Country News - For people who care about the West

I know very well how challenging it can be. In 1973, a few years after I began this enterprise, we ran out of money even after my wife and I had sold our little ranch to keep the paper going. I informed readers that, short of a miracle, we would print just one more issue of the paper before we shut down.

The paper had hardly reached mailboxes before hundreds of letters, stuffed with dollars and checks, flooded the office. In the next issue, I wrote: “Each day the letters come pouring in and, as you read them, you alternate between humbly crying and joyfully cheering. People whom we have never met except through the pages of a little paper write us as they would a long-lost friend. Somehow we have created another bond between people across a far-flung land.”

The outpouring of support that year kept the presses running, and it planted the seed for the Research Fund, the reader-supported fund that, over all these years, has given High Country News the resources to pay the bills and cover the important stories that the mainstream press won’t.

So, dear reader, as this year comes to a close, I ask you to give as generously as you can to the Research Fund. High Country News has faced hard times before, and has always come out stronger -- and better -- for it. The organization will survive this economic downturn, too, and continue to produce the best magazine it possibly can. But, your donation -- of any size -- is needed more than ever. You are the miracle that has always kept this extraordinary institution strong through thick and thin.

Warmly and humbly yours,

Tom Bell
High Country News Founder
Lander, Wyoming