Center of the American West Event Podcast

Last month, the Center of the American West was proud to present a special Stegner Award & Humor Initiative event honoring Sheriff Dave Ward. Sheriff Ward did everything imaginable to hold his community together during the 2016 Bundy-led armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. He is also one of the West’s great storytellers (registering, in our opinion, pretty darned close to the achievements of Mark Twain), so this event was also a part of the Center’s Humor Initiative. The Center of the American West presents the Wallace Stegner Award to an individual who has faithfully and evocatively depicted the spirit of the American West. The Center’s Humor Initiative honors those individuals whose skills and temperaments support the Center’s central conviction: A dose of good humor is essential to constructive public discussion, and not coincidentally, to public health. "Over the last thirty-five years, living in Boulder and traveling around the West, I have gotten to know hu