Nevada Books

Anyone with an interest in the history of Hawaii should have Saga as a centerpiece of their collection. It takes the reader on a voyage through the decades, with a strong emphasis on the period 1850-1940. Based heavily on the post-1900 work of Ray Jerome Baker and author E.B. Scott's personal collection of 19th century photos, the work (marked volume one but in fact the only one ever published) contains hundreds, if not more than a thousand photos, each researched, documented and many times footnoted. The book is actually in two parts, with the second a photographic journey around Oahu. The only reason this book is not five stars is its relative lack of the Asian experience in Hawaii, which played as deep a role in the islands' modern history as any other ethnicity.

I bought this book for a mandatory class at college on Nevada Constitution. Although I wouldn't have chosen to read this book on my own, it is not as boring as one would have thought. It is well written and even intriguing at times.

Colorful narrative by reknowned Nevada story teller about a majestic, Victorian Gothic church, which is the architectural centerpiece in one of America's most famous mining towns. Many of the old buildings in this mining town that financed the North during the Civil War are decaying and fragile. This guidebook invites you into the interior of the mother church to Nevada Roman Catholics, which has been lovingly restored. The author has been the choirmaster to St. Mary's Church for many years.

During the period from the mid 1840s to 1869, emigration across the Great Plains from the Missouri to Oregon and California was undertaken by thousands of emigrants from all walks of life and for all kinds of reasons. The suffering they endured was indescribable.

In the early days, there was no fixed route and the emigrants were in the hands of guides who promised, for a fee of $10 per waggon, to guide them along the way. Many routes were used. Some were well-worn, others perfunctorily surveyed, and yet others were based on mere guesswork.

In 1845, one of the guides, by the name of Lansford Hastings, wrote a guide book entitled "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California". This sold like wildfire back east, and inspired a wave of discontented Americans to sell up and head west, following the route he described in his book.

Calling Hastings a guide is however a misnomer. He'd travelled across the USA in an emigrant train in 1842, but to Oregon, not California. And while the route to California which he was selling was probably the shortest in distance, it took the emigrants across some of the roughest country they could possibly encounter, and then right across the barren Great Salt Desert. The emigrants who followed what became known as the Hastings Cut-off suffered disaster after disaster, and the trek across the desert ended up to be the ruin of many.

In his book, Kelly recounts the stories of some of the parties who crossed the Salt Desert, including that of the legendary Donner party, and the dreadful disasters that befell them. He includes a lengthy account of a drive across the desert that he undertook in 1929 following the still-visible trail of the emigrants. There are fascinating photographs that he took, and absorbing interviews with some of the ancient pioneers who had occupied the fertile parts of the land when the emigrant trail was still fresh and littered with the abandoned belongings of those who had come to grief.

It's clear from the book that he has a fascination with the fate of the Donner Party, and devotes a great deal of his time to their journey. Much of the account of his own journey across the desert is concerned with looking for artefacts connected with their plight as they abandon their belongings in the desperate struggle towards water. His delight is overwhelming when he finally identifies the remains of the Reed family's "Pioneer Palace Car", abandoned in the desert when the oxen escape.

But herein lies the rub. There is a great deal of contemporary evidence for the abandonment of the Reed's family waggon, but when the Reed diary was eventually published in 1947, it clearly states that Reed borrowed a team of oxen from another group of pioneers and went back a few days later to recover the wagon. In any case, there's no contemporary evidence to suggest that the Pioneer Palace Car was anything like as large as more modern sources suggest and as large as the remains that Kelly found.

Now of course it's all very well saying that a 1929 book won't normally contain any evidence that wasn't published until 1947. However, in the 1969 revision, Kelly quotes extensively from Reed's diary, including the passage where Reed returns to rescue his waggon, yet makes absolutely no revision to any of his conclusions.

Kelly is an excellent historian who has written a considerable number of books on pioneer life in the Utah area. He has made a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the conditions of that era and before his death, donated all his notes and photographs to the Utah State Historical Society. His crucial importance should not be overlooked. Yet it's his rather cavalier approach that casts a great deal of suspicion over the thoroughness of his work. It's as if he has already drawn his conclusions and is looking for facts to back them up rather than examining the facts first and then drawing the conclusions.

Factually, it's doubtful if there's much on this subject that is better-written than Kelly's account of life on the Great Salt Desert. On that score alone, there's every reason to buy this book. Just be very wary about jumping to the same conclusions that Kelly does, without having read any other material on the subject.

Just on the other side of the Arizona and California border, Searchlight is about an hour south of Las Vegas. While Vegas currently has over one and a half million people, Searchlight only has around eight hundred. It wasn't always that way. There was a time when Searchlight's population and modernity eclipsed that of Sin City. "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail" is a history of this town. Written by the current U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid is a son of Searchlight. Reid examines the hypotheses surrounding the origin of the town's unusual name. This history begins with the site's prospecting days. The story continues with the mining boom and bust and finishes with Searchlight's reincarnation as a retirement community and stop off for Lake Mojave recreationalists. Being one of the most productive mines in US history, the Quartette gold mine is largely responsible for Searchlight's former greatness. Reid spends a good deal of time on founding fathers Benjamin Macready and Colonel Hopkins. Other people associated with the town include Scott Joplin, James Cashman, Rex Bell, Clara Bow, John Macready and Queho, the outlaw Paiute. Topics include banking, the mining strike, newspapers, education, prostitution and the railroad. While the author recounts some of his personal experiences, much of the research for "Searchlight" is based on surviving newspaper articles. The handsome book includes photographs, appendices, end notes, maps and a foreword by former governor O'Callaghan. In terms of drawbacks, the book could have included a tri-state regional map. Harry Reid discusses places that are either not marked or are located off the included Nevada map. Anyone familiar with the region will know the whereabouts of places like Bullhead City, but some readers will wonder about the locality of places like Lanfair Valley, Nelson and Barnwell. Beyond this, there is nothing extraordinary about Searchlight. Sure, there were some interesting characters but unlike places such as Tombstone (Arizona), readers shouldn't expect a theatrical adaptation any time soon. Even Reid appreciates the town's modest place in the big scheme of things. This isn't necessarily a drawback because in this context, Searchlight is a satisfying case study of a typical boom to bust mining town. Thus "Searchlight: The Camp That Didn't Fail" is also recommended for readers who have an interest in Western History, mining and the Mojave Desert. While Harry Reid's hometown may be the camp that didn't fail, his book didn't fail to capture the story of Searchlight.

"Shrubs of the Great Basin" is a wonderful, extensively informative textbook for individuals interested in identifying shrubs throughout the southwestern United States. Organized by family, this is a wonderful textbook for botanists and flora enthusiasts. Fleischmann incorporates historical and detailed information not typically unearthed in field guides. In addition to illustrations of each species, the author includes 24 pages of wonderful photographs of numerous shrubs detailed throughout the text. Overall, an excellent and informational book.

Sinning in the City is a Las Vegas travel guide that opens up Pandora's Box and shows the sinful pleasures of Sin City. It is wittingly split up into eight sections covering all the seven deadly sins with the final chapter dealing with repentance. The guides are up to date with all the latest and greatest "sin's" Las Vegas has to offer; lust can be found in the hottest dance clubs in the nation, and gluttony is appeased in the assortment of restaurants and buffets on and off the strip. It is a perfect gift for those visiting Las Vegas and for those who call Sin City home.

This book has 59 tours in the "central" Sierra Nevada of California. That is, the beautiful but less-visited area between Lake Tahoe/Donner Pass to the north and Yosemite to the south. Each tour is rated with difficulty, length, elevatnion, navigation, time, and season. The USGS topos for the tour are listed, along with excellent tour maps. Each tour has a description of what you see, where to start, and leads you thorough the tour.

The only thing I think is missing would be an index, but that wouldn't stop me from buying the book.

This book has 59 tours in the Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Park areas and around Huntington Lake. Describes some beautiful country. Each tour is rated with difficulty, length, elevatnion, navigation, time, and season. The USGS topos for the tour are listed, along with excellent tour maps. Each tour has a description of what you see, where to start, and leads you thorough the tour.

I like the book, but I would also like to see an index and more tours for the Yosemite high country.

The Eastern Sierra is an excellent, but underappreciated area to ski. The cold east side has fresher snow than the western side of the Sierra. However, since there's only one main road (395) and few passes open in winter, it's not visited a lot.

The book covers 78 tours in 184 pages in the Eastern Sierra/Owens Valley area from Bridgeport (N. of Mono Lake) south to Bishop Creek. This includes the Mammoth area and Rock Creek area, both with developed and backcountry XC ski areas.

It's a great book, but I wish it had an index. The Tioga Pass area could use more coverage. But what it does cover still makes it a terrific guidebook!