Articles and Essays
John Clayton has published articles and essays in such magazines as Montana Quarterly, Big Sky Journal, Horizon Air, Montana Magazine, and High Country News. His occasional columns on the American West have appeared in dozens of Western newspapers through the High Country News "Writers on the Range" series.
"I’m thinking of naming my dog Obamacare"
A humorous essay from Writers on the Range
(June 2016)
Articles and Essays
John Clayton has published articles and essays in Montana Quarterly, Big Sky Journal, Newsweek, Salon, National Parks Traveler, Mountain Journal, Horizon Air, High Desert Journal, Montana Magazine, and High Country News, among others. His occasional columns on the American West appeared in dozens of Western newspapers through the High Country News "Writers on the Range" series.
The Lincoln Highway in Wyoming
WyoHistory.org
(coming soon)
All roads lead to Yellowstone
Dashiell Hammett's Montana
Big Sky Journal
(coming soon)
Montana Quarterly
(coming soon)
Father of the Elk, Stephen Leek
WyoHistory.org
(November 2020)
Seeing double in Yellowstone
The unbelievable journey of Charles Le Raye
Big Sky Journal
(Flyfishing, 2021)
Montana Quarterly
(spring 2021)
When White People Stopped Indigenous Elk Hunts In Jackson
Mountain Journal
(October 2020)
Racism and Race Horse
Was John Muir racist?
WyoHistory.org
(October 2020)
WyoHistory.org
(August 2020)
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Essay: "A place no longer special"
Why does Yellowstone lap over into Montana?
The ultimate Yellowstone
bear story
THINK Journal
(Winter/Spring 2020)
Big Sky Journal
(late winter 2020)
Big Sky Journal
(summer 2020)
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John Muir's first mountain stream
Discomfuddled
hero
Wyoming's "parkitecture"
storySouth
(Autumn 2019)
Big Sky Journal
(winter 2020)
WyoHistory.org
(March 2019)
​
Lake McDonald's hidden history
It's my
Prerogative
Jackson Pollock's Wyoming
Big Sky Journal
(Autumn 2019)
Montana Quarterly
(summer 2019)
Western Art & Architecture
(Feb 2020)
​
Lessons from a previous environmental catastrophe
Mission 66 in Wyoming
When rivals collaborate
National Parks Traveler
(July 2019)
WyoHistory.org
(fall 2019)
John Clayton's blog
(June 2019)
​
John Muir in Yellowstone
The meaning of Yellowstone's bears
Thomas Moran's quest
​
WyoHistory.org
(August 2018)
Big Sky Journal
(Summer 2018)
Big Sky Journal
(early 2019)
​
How I conquered my addiction to memoirs about drinking
Slack thread under a photo of Betsy Ross' new flag design
Bio-pics of forbidden love
a humorous essay for
Points in Case
(June 2019)
a humorous essay for
Points in Case
(July 2019)
a humorous essay for
Points in Case
(August 2019)
Camp Monaco: Buffalo Bill Cody's last hunt
WyoHistory.org
(October 2017)
Last floats
of the Bighorn
"Dear restaurant, Please tell me about my grass"
Montana Quarterly
(Winter 2018)
An essay for Writers on the Range (October 2017)
What it means to work the wilderness
an essay for
High Desert Journal
(April 2017)
​
​
More previous work
Previous work
Understanding the 1988 Yellowstone fires
Points West, the journal of the Buffalo Bill Center for the West (spring and summer, 2016)
John Steinbeck's Montana
"How to survive a Montana snowstorm"
Montana Quarterly
(Winter 2015)
An essay for LastBestNews (December 2014)
Photos from public domain or copyright John Clayton.
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Additional work
Ansel Adams in Yellowstone
Big Sky Journal
(Summer 2016))
Steve Mather and the founding of the National Park Service
Magic City Magazine
(July 2016)
"I’m thinking of naming my dog Obamacare"
A humorous essay for Writers on the Range
(June 2016)