In a Far Corner of Colorado: One Chapter in the Great Dispossession
Monday, June 08 2026
A recent visit to northwest Colorado reminds me of the paradox of Manifest Destiny and our American history.
- Published in Features
Edward Abbey — Now More Than Ever, Even With All His Faults
Tuesday, April 21 2026
A recent visit to Arizona had me thinking about the legacy and prescience of Edward Abbey. With warts and all, he’s a kind of modern-day Henry David Thoreau.
- Published in Features
A Struggle for the Public Commons: Buffalo, the Department of Interior & American Prairie Reserve
Tuesday, January 20 2026
Clay reflects on a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of the Interior to revoke bison grazing leases from American Prairie, an organization that has long been working to establish a buffalo wildlife reservation in Northern Montana.
- Published in Features
My Year in Review
Tuesday, December 30 2025
Last week, I reviewed the year 2025 by way of Time magazine’s Year in Review issue. Today I want to review my year as the traveling editor of Listening to America.
- Published in Features
Reopening the Wounds of Wounded Knee
Monday, October 06 2025
Wounded Knee, really?
- Published in Features
The Stubborn Enigmas of Lewis and Clark
Monday, September 29 2025
After decades of close study and a year following their trail, Clay remains dogged by the many unknowables surrounding the famous American expedition.
- Published in Features
Four Perfect Days
Monday, September 08 2025
Clay and friends are just off four perfect days canoeing remote sections of the Missouri River in central Montana.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Sacagawea and the Blue Whale
Tuesday, August 26 2025
Sacagawea’s insistence that she be allowed to join the reconnaissance team heading to see the great beached whale is one of the rarest instances in the entire Lewis and Clark journey where we hear her voice.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Lewis and Clark’s Traveling Magic Show
Tuesday, May 27 2025
Attending a magic show by my friend Joshua Jay in Pittsburgh got me pondering the “magic” of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- Published in Features
Reflections on America and the Open Road
Tuesday, April 15 2025
In a few weeks, Clay will embark on an 11,000-mile trek following the Lewis and Clark trail across the continent and back. As he loads his pickup and prepares to hit the road, Clay ponders what he has learned so far in his multi-year project to Listen to America.
- Published in Features