Abstract

This ethnography of the outdoor education program Cottonwood Gulch looks closely at the way participants in the program pursued a particular ideal of freedom through their activities over a summer. Much of the Gulch’s programming closely mirrors the mythology of the Wild West depicted across pop culture in movies, stories, music, etc. which all contain the freedom ideal at their cores. However, Cottonwood Gulch’s version of the Wild West myth approaches freedom differently. Over the course of their time at the Gulch, participants come to understand the precarious nature of their place in that environment, and the ecological entanglement that they are a part of. They approach their relationship to the Southwest as a caring one. Having understood the part they play in the ecology of the area, they must care for it. Their care is expressed through labour, affect, and politics, though in some areas the program was more willing to lean into their responsibilities of care than in others. The freedom ideal is complex and often problematic, and looking at the way Cottonwood Gulch stayed (or did not) with the trouble of that complexity was key to understanding its relationship with the Southwest.