From This Land, which will be published this month by Viking. Ketcham is a journalist who reports on the American West. His most recent article for Harper’s Magazine, “The Rogue Agency,” appeared in the March 2016 issue.

The house I end up renting in the village has a view of the thousand-foot monocline through which the Escalante River cuts a deep cleft, beyond which is wilderness. Nearer at hand, by my porch, is a pasture for cattle and horses. The pasture has been beaten to hell by the animals, requiring in spring, summer, and fall…