“If there is such a thing as being conditioned by climate and geography, and I think there is, it is the West that has conditioned me. It has the forms and lights and colors that I respond to in nature and in art. If there is a western speech, I speak it; if there is a western character or personality, I am some variant of it; if there is a western culture in the small-c , anthropological sense, I have not escaped it. It has to have shaped…

Seems like a really good spot for a coal mine, doesn’t it? Arch Coal just resubmitted their permit application to mine the Otter Creek Valley in southeastern Montana. Their first one was rejected by the MT DEQ over a year ago. If you’ve never been to the Otter Creek valley, here are a couple photos to help you visualize where a financially troubled coal company is proposing to build one of the largest coal mines in the nation. All photos taken July 2014. Click on the photo for…