2021 Editor’s Picks
This year, stories of uranium fortunes, tragic accidents, and creek freaks stood out to Alta Journal’s editors.
We weighed web traffic, reader engagement, and input from the Alta Journal staff to come up with this list of must-read stories from Alta contributors who explored innovation, travel, history, and art throughout 2021.
“THE ACCIDENT ON THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL,” BY LOUISE FARR
Trevor Laher’s dream was to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. But, despite the best efforts of fellow hikers and rescuers, he never made it home.
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“THE SAFE PLACE THAT BECAME UNSAFE,” BY JULIA FLYNN SILER
A shelter for trafficked Chinese girls became a new place of horror after it was repurposed into a school run by a child abuser for decades.
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“BUTCHERING THE MYTHIC WEST,” BY JOHN FREEMAN
Believing in the magic of the American West requires buying into some twisted versions of the truth. For one writer, those myths were built by his uncle’s ranch and John Williams novels.
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“THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT,” BY JOHN MARKOFF
The Xerces blue butterfly seemed lost forever when it went extinct in the 1940s. Now, a team of scientists in San Francisco are trying to bring it back.
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“FLIGHT OF THE CONDORS,” BY JOY LANZENDORFER
California condors are making a slow but strong recovery from being on the brink of extinction. But they remain rare and a sight to behold in the wild.
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“CALIFORNIA’S WHITE WINE PROBLEM,” BY SYDNEY LOVE
As the nation was confronted with systematic racism and police violence in 2020, one woman wrote an open letter to her colleagues that started a reckoning in her industry: wine.
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“AN OCCURRENCE AT SIERRA MOJADA,” BY GEOFFREY GRAY
One of the greatest California writers, Ambrose Bierce, disappeared in Mexico when he was 71 and was never found. Gray imagined Bierce’s last moments, then took Alta on a trip to the Mexico desert to find his body.
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“BIDDY MASON AND HANNAH EMBERS WERE HERE,” BY SUSAN STRAIGHT
California Historical Marker 617 in San Bernardino commemorates where Fort Benson once stood, but it neglects the lives of many who lived and died there, including two remarkable women, Biddy Mason and Hannah Embers.
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“THE MUSHROOM MAN’S MAGIC,” BY ADAM FISHER
Phil Ross made the transition from artist to entrepreneur through an odd medium: mushrooms.
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“SOAKED THROUGH,” BY DENISE HAMILTON
Even in a city known for its droughts, streams and rivers find ways to thrive in the city, and they are protected by an enthusiastic and eccentric group of “creek freaks.”
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“A RETROSPECTIVE LONG OVERDUE,” BY BRIDGET QUINN
Judy Chicago built her reputation as an artist in California, and her retrospective at the de Young in San Francisco earlier this year was a fitting tribute to her vibrant art career.
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“THE URANIUMAIRE,” BY JULIAN SMITH
In the 1950s, a man named Charlie Steen risked it all—his family, his finances, his reputation—to hunt for uranium in Utah. He found it and struck it rich beyond his dreams.
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Beth Spotswood is Alta's special projects director. In addition to her work for Alta, Spotswood has contributed to 7x7 Magazine, San Francisco Magazine, Discovery Channel, Slow News Day, KGO Radio, SFist and the San Francisco Chronicle, where she had her own weekly column in the Thursday edition of the newspaper. Spotswood's work in Alta has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club, Los Angeles Press Club, and the FOLIO Awards.
Alta Journal’s Top Poetry 2021
Top Illustrations of 2021
Top Literary Pieces from the California Book Club
‘Alta Journal’ Fiction 2021
