JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

This photo doesn’t do justice to the size of the great horned owl that joined us on Ditch Creek earlier this week at the Barker-Ewing headquarters in Moose.

The predator stood more than 2 feet tall and resembled an Ewok, dwarfing the cottonwood branch on which it perched. It did not mind the commotion going on all around it, as our crew broke down rafting equipment and stored it for winter.

According to The Owl Pages:

Throughout human history, owls have variously symbolized dread, knowledge, wisdom, death, and religious beliefs in a spirit world. … In many cultures, owls signal an underworld or serve to represent human spirits after death; in other cultures, owls represent supportive spirit helpers and allow humans (often shamans) to connect with or utilize their supernatural powers.

Or as Grace Potter once put it, “They bring us into our magical world, our woodsy world.”

I’m heading into that magical world for a few days, now that the owl’s hooting has signaled a death knell for another great rafting season. With the fall foliage peaking, it’s a perfect time for a walk in the woods and utilizing whatever supernatural powers we can summon.

Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: grand teton national park, river running, wildlife

The Sundance Inn is reduced to rubble this morning.

Props to Town Councilor Greg Miles for trying to preserve at least a portion of the 1950s-era motor inn, the two-story limestone and glass structure facing Broadway, only a block off the Town Square.

Instead, we get a parking lot. Booo to the Wort Hotel for a lack of vision.

While Miles tried in the last few weeks to avert the wrecking ball, what mystifies me is why leaders and concerned citizens didn’t act sooner, perhaps denying the demolition permit. The last-minute Facebook campaign was a lost cause.

Posted under Economy, Environment, Politics, Town Government

Tags: conservation, development, greg miles, history, tourists

One of the changes Willie Neal envisioned finally is going into effect.

Last week, Neal’s family and supporters put up the first few of 300 idle-free signs that will be installed around town in coming months.

The signs discourage motorists from leaving their engines running while parked, as per town resolution 10-19. The notices are part of a larger educational campaign that seeks to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions and improve air quality by reducing unnecessary idling.

The Willie Neal Environmental Awareness Fund, a nonprofit set up in memory of the late Nordic skiing standout and activist, raised $7,500 to pay for the signs and associated materials. The fund has been working with the Yellowstone-Teton Clean Energy Coalition and Town of Jackson.

“The end goal is changing the culture in which we live,” said Neal’s mother, Mary, who has worked tirelessly on the campaign.

The signs will be erected on public property. Business owners who wish to have them installed for free on their property can contact info@ytcleanenergy.org.

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Posted under Economy, Environment, Politics, Town Government

Tags: conservation, mark barron, oil and gas, willie neal

Last week’s JH4VT benefit party raised nearly $4,000 for Vermont residents and businesses affected by Hurricane Irene.

The money will help people along Route 4, an area especially devastated by the storm.

“Jackson is truly an amazing community that pulls together whenever others need it,” said Don Watkins, one of the organizers.

The strong turnout was not surprising, given that roughly 33 percent of all Jackson Hole residents attended Middlebury College.

Friends of the 802 will continue to accept donations online.

Posted under Economy, Environment

Tags: nonprofits

Howard Henderson, co-founder of the Jackson Hole Air Force, died last night of a heart attack, friends said. He was 53 years old.

Henderson collapsed at his home in Rafter J, friends said. EMTs responded and performed CPR, to no avail.

Henderson was one of the leaders of the Air Force, a renegade band of skiers featured in the film “Swift. Silent. Deep.” The group came together during the early 1980s and pushed the boundaries of skiing in the Tetons, so much so that Jackson Hole Mountain Resort eventually opened its gates to unlimited backcountry access.

Better known as “Howie,” Henderson had an outsize personality on and off the slopes. In a promo for the movie, his older brother, RJ, another veteran skier, says, “We’ve always said that we should get Howie a job on a website, just called ‘Howie Goes Off,’ and just give him a new subject every day.”

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Posted under Deaths, Entertainment, Sports

Tags: films, skids, skiing

Locally, a lot of people who ordinarily would take no interest in Modern Family will be watching tonight’s premiere, only not for the reasons the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce is hoping.

Residents will be weighing whether the $70,000 the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board put up to lure the show here is worth the exposure. (One half of the hour-long show was filmed at Lost Creek Ranch last month.) Will Jackson Hole be featured prominently, or serve as just a Hollywood set?

At the time, I was inclined to think the fee was worthwhile, although I had never heard of the show until the News&Guide started making such hullabaloo about the prospect of filming. For the tourism board, it must have been hard to pass up the chance to have Jackson Hole placed before some 12 million viewers.

Yet why would one of the highest-rated sitcoms, on a network, ABC, whose parent Walt Disney Co. reaps more than $4 billion a year in profits, need a handout from a small town in Wyoming?

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Posted under Economy, Entertainment, Politics

Tags: cowboys, Media, tourists