Photos by Pete McBride pedromcbride with video by ecoflight / The end of an era. At 8:30 a.m. last Friday, explosions rocked the first of three massive smokestacks that have dominated the horizon on the western edge of the Navajo Nation for a half century and impacted the air quality of our most iconic national park, Grand Canyon. (They even graced the cover of natgeo once.) The demolition of the 775-foot-tall smokestacks at Navajo Generating Station is hugely symbolic. It marks the close of a complicated, painful chapter for thousands of Navajo and Hopi whose lives and families have been impacted by coal. Until it closed last November, the 2400 MW power plant generated electricity for Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other cities, bypassing Navajo and Hopi homes and businesses. The plant also pumped massive amounts of water that allowed Phoenix to grow into the fifth largest city in America, as thousands of Navajo and Hopi homes lacked access to running water. While the p...