Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon
by Thomas M. Myers
from Puma Press
Gripping accounts of all known fatal mishaps in the most famous of the World's Seven Natural Wonders.
Two veterans of decades of adventuring in Grand Canyon chronicle the first complete and comprehensive history of Canyon misadventures. These episodes span the entire era of visitation from the time of the first river exploration by John Wesley Powell and his crew of 1869 to that of tourists falling off its rims in Y2K.
These accounts of the 550 people who have met untimely deaths in the Canyon set a new high water mark for offering the most astounding array of adventures, misadventures, and life saving lessons published between any two covers. Over the Edge promises to be the most intense yet informative book on Grand Canyon ever written.
Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache
by Keith H. Basso
from University of New Mexico Press
This remarkable book introduces us to four unforgettable Apache people, each of whom offers a different take on the significance of places in their culture. Apache conceptions of wisdom, manners and morals, and of their own history are inextricably intertwined with place, and by allowing us to overhear his conversations with Apaches on these subjects Basso expands our awareness of what place can mean to people.
Most of us use the term sense of place often and rather carelessly when we think of nature or home or literature. Our senses of place, however, come not only from our individual experiences but also from our cultures. Wisdom Sits in Places, the first sustained study of places and place-names by an anthropologist, explores place, places, and what they mean to a particular group of people, the Western Apache in Arizona. For more than thirty years, Keith Basso has been doing fieldwork among the Western Apache, and now he shares with us what he has learned of Apache place-names—where they come from and what they mean to Apaches.
"This is indeed a brilliant exposition of landscape and language in the world of the Western Apache. But it is more than that. Keith Basso gives us to understand something about the sacred and indivisible nature of words and place. And this is a universal equation, a balance in the universe. Place may be the first of all concepts; it may be the oldest of all words."—N. Scott Momaday
"In Wisdom Sits in Places Keith Basso lifts a veil on the most elemental poetry of human experience, which is the naming of the world. In so doing he invests his scholarship with that rarest of scholarly qualities: a sense of spiritual exploration. Through his clear eyes we glimpse the spirit of a remarkable people and their land, and when we look away, we see our own world afresh."—William deBuys
"A very exciting book—authoritative, fully informed, extremely thoughtful, and also engagingly written and a joy to read. Guiding us vividly among the landscapes and related story-tellings of the Western Apache, Basso explores in a highly readable way the role of language in the complex but compelling theme of a people's attachment to place. An important book by an eminent scholar."—Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
Weird Arizona: Your Travel Guide to Arizona's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets (Weird)
by Wesley Treat
from Sterling
Hiking And Exploring The Paria River: Including, The Story Of John D. Lee And Mountain Meadows Massacre
by Michael R. Kelsey
from Kelsey Publishing (Utah)
This is a hiking guide to the Paria River drainage of southern Utah. The upper part of the system begins near Bryce Canyon National Park, and flows south to the Colorado River and Lee's Ferry. Lee's Ferry is not far below the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. Many people have now heard of the hike down the Paria, but there are many less-known and less-visited parts of this drainage included in this book.
This guide covers the entire river system, including a couple of mountain climbs in the far north, plus the dozen or so slot canyons in the middle and lower end. The more famous slot canyons are Bull Valley Gorge, the scene of a pickup wreck (still lodged in the slot) which left 3 hunters dead. Also,Round Valley Draw, the Buckskin Gulch and of course the Paria itself. This 3rd Edition includes for the first time Coyote Buttes and its best know part, The Wave, an international destination for fotographers. For this edition, 16 pages and several new hiking areas have been added, plus the author re-hiked many canyons and updated all of them. This editon has 178 fotographs.
As in previous edtions, the history of early-day ranchers and cattlemen are included. The history of gold miners at Lee's Ferry and around the old ghost town of Pahreah is also discussed. And the best story of all is that of John D. Lee, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre (about 120 people were killed), and his life on the run from Federal authorities. It was John D. Lee who was sent by the Mormon Church to the lower end of the Paria River to hide out and build & operate a ferry across the Colorado River. His entire life story is told.
Grand Canyon: A Different View
by Tom Vail
from Master Books
Explore the majesty and beauty of one of God's greatest creations
Includes 20 Essays from Leading Grand Canyon Authorities:
Steve Austin
John Baumgardner
Ken Cumming
Duane Gish
Werner Gitt
Ken Ham
Bill Hoesch
Russ Humphreys
Alex Lalomov
Henry Morris
John Morris
Gary Parker
Andrew Snelling
Keith Swenson
Larry Vardiman
Tas Walker
John Whitcomb
Carl Wieland
Kurt Wise
Arizona: A History
by Thomas E. Sheridan
from University of Arizona Press
Thomas E. Sheridan has spent a lifetime in Arizona, "living off it and seeking refuge from it." He knows firsthand its canyons, forests, and deserts; he has seen its cities exploding with new growth; and, like many other people, he sometimes fears for its future.
In this book, Sheridan sets forth new ideas about what a history should be. Arizona: A History explores the ways in which Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos have inhabited and exploited Arizona from the pursuit of the Naco mammoth 11,000 years ago to the financial adventurism of Charles Keating and others today. It also examines how perceptions of Arizona have changed, creating new constituencies of tourists, environmentalists, and outside business interests to challenge the dominance of ranchers, mining companies, and farmers who used to control the state. Sheridan emphasizes the crucial role of the federal government in Arizona's development throughout the book.
As Sheridan writes about the past, his eyes are on the inevitable change and compromise of the present and future. He balances the gains and losses as global forces interact more and more with local cultural and environmental factors.
Hummingbirds of Texas: With Their New Mexico And Arizona Ranges (Tam Nature Guides)
by Clifford E. Shackelford
from Texas A&M University Press
Written for a general audience, with spectacular images for birders and nature enthusiasts at every level, Hummingbirds of Texas: With Their New Mexico and Arizona Ranges reveals the enormous appeal of this tiniest and shiniest of birds.
The book opens with a look at the many manifestations of the human attraction to these flying jewels, including the Hummingbird Roundup, a citizen-science project run by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as well as the Rockport-Fulton Hummer/Bird Celebration, one of several festivals dedicated to hummingbirds. The book also includes easy tips for attracting hummingbirds to your own lawn or garden, such as what to plant in the ground or in pots and how to choose and take care of feeders.
The authors then showcase the nineteen different hummingbird species that have appeared in the region covered by the book. Magnificent color photographs and original artwork aid in identification and accompany descriptions, range maps, and abundance graphs for each species.
The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona
by Benjamin G. Bistline
from Agreka Books
What some of the people have been forced to endure in Colorado City is little different from living in a third world country. TEN-YEAR-OLD Benjamin Bistline moved with his parents to Short Creek (Colorado City), Arizona, in 1945 to join with a group of excommunicated Mormons who believed in honoring the law of polygamy as revealed by the Prophet Joseph Smith and instituted by Brigham Young. Mr. Bistline has compiled A DETAILED HISTORY of the significant events that shaped and sustained this community from the beginning. He tells of the shifts in power, changes in leadership philosophies, persecution from outside forces - and from within. Mr. Bistline's goal in writing this history is to reveal that the original leadership structure of a Council of men holding common and balancing power has slowly descended into a ONE-MAN TYRANNICAL RULE over the people. Bistline has observed: 1) Older men being taught to take CHILD BRIDES before the girls are attracted to boys their own age. 2) BOYS DRIVEN OUT of the community for competing with older men for wives. 3) Plural wives expected to apply for WELFARE as single mothers. 4) Men out of favor are "EVICTED" from their homes with their wives and children reassigned to a more compliant man. 5) Community members AFRAID TO DISOBEY the "Prophet" out of fear for their eternal salvation. RESIDENT HISTORIAN Ben Bistline is recognized as the most credible and knowledgeable source of information about Colorado City. He knows more about the people, their motives, their family connections, their religion, their strengths and their weaknesses than any other pundit. Mr. Bistline is contacted by media and the press from all across the country, and has appeared on CNN and Dateline NBC.
Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (ILR Press Books)
by Barbara Kingsolver
from Cornell University Press
Novelist Barbara Kingsolver began her writing career with Holding the Line. It is the story of how women's lives were transformed by an eighteen-month strike against the Phelps-Dodge Copper Corporation. Set in the small mining towns of Arizona, the story is partly oral history and partly social criticism, exploring the process of empowerment which occurs when people work together as a community.
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