American Studies Faculty and Staff Publications

Vera Norwood

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

On the first weekend of May 2000, the opening act of the nation's most impressive environmental drama of the summer was staged in Los Alamos, New Mexico. News releases covered a massive forest fire, named the Cerro Grande, exploding through forest stands, consuming over 40,000 acres of homes, recreation areas, and wildlands, burning perilously close to nuclear facilities, and threatening religious sites of Santa Clara pueblo. The fire, generated from a Park Service prescribed burn set in Bandolier National Monument and feeding on heavy fuel loads in the Santa Fe National Forest, raged out of control for days. Los Alamos and its neighboring bedroom community, White Rock, were evacuated. Local television news stations provided daily updates of the hundreds of homes lost.

Publisher

University of California Press

ISSN

0030-8684

Volume

70

Issue

1

First Page

77

Last Page

89

Language (ISO)

English

Keywords

Environmental History, Landscape Processes, Forest fire

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