Colorado Books

even though i grew up in colorado in the 80's & 90's i had no idea about the complex issues surrounding the superfund of leadville. this book was not as riveting as a novel, but drew me to read it for better reasons. i learned a great deal from this book about leadville and mining clean up in general. this book is the print edition of an educational IMAX film. it is compact, moves along at a good speed, and doesn't get bogged down in explaining too much but isn't completely superfical either.

i highly reccommend everyone reading this book so that they have a better handle of what it means to mine and then to subsequently clean up mining. these are important issues that impact how our society functions and this book is a good way to get some insight.

I loved "Leadville." I worried that a book about toxic waste and
bureaucracy would be boring, but Klucas's book reads like a novel with fascinating, vividly drawn characters I enjoyed getting to know. But besides being a fun read, the book describes an important environmental issue that few know
about, even though it's happening all over the west. Leadville's battle with the government is a poignant, sometimes humorous, story, and Klucas does a great job of reporting all sides of the issue. The unfolding drama carried me forward effortlessly.

The Colorado Plateau is world famous for its geological formations, but mainly for the deep canyons and dramatic sandstone shapes into which it erodes: the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley spires, Utah arches and slot canyons. All of this results from the Colorado Plateau being the best preserved slice of sedimentary rock on Earth. But sedimentary rock also means that the Colorado Plateau is rich with smaller rock formations, with a drama within the scenic drama, a record of life evolving out of single-celled organisms into half a billion years of trilobites, forests, dinosaurs, and humans. Indeed, we owe much of the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to eons of sea creatures whose shells and quiet toil built its rock. "Life in Stone" refocuses our experience of the Colorado Plateau onto this drama of life, showing how famous landscapes tell different chapters of life's story. Monument Valley, for example, hides amphibian bones from when it was a river floodplain some 300 million years ago. This might just be a more meaningful vision of Monument Valley than the movie-induced vision of the US cavalry riding to the rescue, or a merely aesthetic vision of a pretty sunset. But this book is quite pretty with photos and maps and illustrations and charts to help us envision how the landscape changed through time, what life lived upon it, and what their fossils look like now. It helps us recognize dinosaur footprints, with which the Colorado Plateau is rich. Christa Sadler, as a respected river and hiking guide, has spent more time immersed in these landscapes than most academic geologists, so these landscapes and geological eras are far from classroom abstractions for her, and this book helps bring them to life for the rest of us.

Christa Sadler does a superb job in this well illustraded book published by the Grand Canyon Association. She covers 1.8 billion years of fossil history on the Colorado Plateau; as well as what the geologic record shows the region to have been like during this history.

I recently attended a lecture by Ms. Sadler at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (put on by the Glen Canyon Natural History Association) where she presented this history in a slide presentation and a fossil exhibit. Her enthusiasm and knowledge on the topic is evident with every word she said and motion she made on stage.

After reading this book, I finally had a complete understanding of the vast history of life in this region, as well as how the fossils record was preserved and the geology of the land that preserved them.

I highly recommend this wonderful book. I great companion to this book would be "Carving Grand Canyon" by Wayne Ranney.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

I bought this book because Warren Angus Ferris is my Great (many times over) Grandfather and I was researching the family tree. What a delight to find that he was an accomplished writer and pioneer! His journal of his life in the Rocky Mountains is exceptionally well-written and a beautiful view of the time period. I recommend it to anyone with an interest of the early 1800's or fur-trading.

Day to day survival in the early American West at its best! Pick up any reputable book on the fur trade era during this time frame, and Warren Ferris' "Life in the Rocky Mountains" is always cited as a reference. There is good reason for this. Ferris joined the American Fur Company in 1830 at the age of nineteen and this is his journal of how life was back then from 1830-1835, so far removed from the luxuries of civlization. He spent most of his time in the central and northern Rockies, describing and recording just about everything one can possibly imagine from hostile Indians and the unrelenting forces of nature to grizzlies, days without food and water, etc. He was there at the Battle of Pierre's Hole and the death of William Vanderburgh. He also details the Yellowstone area with its geysers and other oddities, along with many other geographical areas which we now take for granted. Ferris vividly describes the many different Indian tribes of the region of their customs, cultures and habits. This is an excellent book and I can see why many historians use this book as reference material. A must read for fur trade era enthusiasts and arm chair explorers.

I loved this book and was surprised to see that it is out of print. I wanted to order it to send to a friend. I remember that I have an extra copy and will send it to her for Christmas. She loves murder mysteries just as I do, so I am certain she will find it as interesting and entertaining as I did.

This book is about my cousins, and is a true story that shattered our family. The spritual journey that my Aunt and Uncle went through as a result of this tragedy, has changed my life, and I'm sure will change the lives of all who read it.
God can bring good out of all things, even something as horrible as this. I Highly recommend that you read this book.

Written by Herman Malone (CEO of RMES Communications) & Robert Schwab (editor of Colorado Biz), Lynched by Corporate America: The Gripping True Story of How One African American Survived Doing Business with a Fortune 500 Giant is the true-life tale of one man's bitter fight against a corporate conglomerate. When communications titan US West (now Quest Communications International Inc.) started to systematically cancel contracts with African-American-owned businesses, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, chaired by author Herman Malone, dared to fight back. US West settled its race-discrimination lawsuit with six of the seven plaintiffs, but Malone would not soften his demand for justice. Lynched by Corporate America gives an intimate view of the legal proceedings, trial, and fallout, in a thoroughly readable prose style. Highly recommended.

Think the "playing field is leveled for minorities in business?" Think again ... this is a book you MUST read to believe, a true story of a Black man who encountered amazing racism in corporate America.

It make syou wonder how far we have really come.

I was given this book as a gift about ten years ago. I have camped and backpacked in the Colorado Rockies many times and loved reading about its early pioneer days. Each story is carefully researched and presented. Many of the women encountered harsh resistance as they tried to homestead or pursue their varied outdoor interests, but, the overall theme for the stories is how courageous and strong the women were. I loved this book and although, I give away most of the books I buy, this one I keep close at hand.

Read it before you go the the Rocky Mountains. Then have fun exploring the places that are described. These women are awesome and I would love to meet the author, Janet Robertson.

When you live in an area where the geology is so varied, it's fun to find out WHY. This is a very good book with pictures, graphs and explanations.

Even folks who have lived here a long time enjoy looking at this book.

We bought it primarily for our B & B guests so they could understand the geology of the beautiful redstone cliffs.

Betty, Casa Montaña Bed & Breakfast, Redstone, Colorado

Whether you're a geology buff, an amateur geologist, or simply someone interested in learning more about the world around you, "Messages In Stone: Colorado's Colorful Geology" is the perfect book for you! Since its first printing, "Messages In Stone" garnered the 2004 Association of Earth Science Editors Outstanding Book Award, and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Now used in numerous colleges and high schools as an excellent teaching tool, "Messages In Stone" makes not only the perfect buy for yourself, but a wonderful gift for others. The original photography is exquisite, the information enlightening, and the time spent reading it is well worth it.

If you can't tell, I highly recommend this title! [...]

This is a splendid book detailing life in Mexico before the conquest by the Spaniards. Beginning with the inside covers the book is rich in pictoral description. The endpapers are beautiful color reproductions of Diego Rivera's "The Great City of Tenochtitlan", a lavish tribute mural of Aztec life that adorns the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City. The color is magnificent throughout the book and includes many artifacts left from the ancient Aztecs. The book also includes a great little glossary that includes a pronunciation guide to Nahuatl terms. The glossary serves as a fine introduction to the Nahuatl Language and it's phonetics. Although the authors and contributors are scholars, the book is easy to read for the average person interested in archaeology and Pre-Columbian life in Mexico. The color plates are some of the finest and include rare glimpses into Codex's that are housed in museums. A magnificent book to use as reference. The book is also a great source of information for further research as it includes a selected bibliography. An excellent view of Aztec life, it compliments any personal library. If you love the Art of Pre-Columbian Mexico this book is also a source of inspiration.

Developed by four distinguished Mesoamerican scholars for an exhibit at the Denver Museum of Natural History (1992 - 1993). Great photographs of artifacts (jade masks, human skulls, sculptures), buildings and manuscripts. Well-written (not dry or too scholarly). It's been on my coffee table for years but I never tire of looking at it.

I've just finished this book for the 3rd time. Each time I smile and dream about Colorado. I can smell the summer showers on the horizon. Now I know how to survive if I get caught again in one of those instant season changes from summer to winter. You know the type, that happen at about 10,000 feet, with a 50 degree temperature plummet in about 45 minutes, that leave you praying for a fleece and a quick decent.
Want to know about historical archaeological digs? Grizzly Bear Myths? Best place to find a burrito as big as your head? Pumas? Surely toxic ceramic-like mud? No???? You just want to know about trail riding? Well this is the book for that as well. Single and double tracks, wash boards, roads, the whole enchilada......mmmmm green chili. Who woulda thunk a trail guide would be so entertaining and yet so thorough? Buy this book now for any of the above reasons, or just buy it for the pure enjoyable read that it is.

This book has a personality lacking in most guidebooks. It is like having a local along on the ride with you. It is nice to see a mountain bike book by a Coloradan dedicated to Colorado mountain biking.

On analogy with another field of human pleasure, we can say that the brain is the most important piece of angling equipment we own. Some fishermen are of very little brain, others of massive. NOTES FROM AN OLD FLY BOOK issues from the latter species.
Let us first admire the sheer balls of the man. To commit yet another book of reflections on fishing! I mean, really Hedda, people don't do such things. They don't unless they can leap over that toppling pile next to your chair and bring something new to the party.

While it's easy to poke fun at earnest people (such as write about angling, there's no denying that Wickstrom is in large company with this book. I'm happy to report that he fits right in, while occupying his own unique niche.
That niche might be labeled "Sentimental Intelligence." Of course, sentiment is much maligned these days. Like any human faculty, it can, exercised in excess, produce a pretty loathsome babble, on and off the page. The current sentimental tsunami, Political Correctness, having swept clean our few remaining beaches of reasonable discrimination into a very mere pudding, only now recedes. Wickstrom bravely stands up in the undertow and dares to write with serious sentiment about his beloved avocation. Good on him, sez I!

Wickstrom's sentimentality directs itself primrily to the past, often the very distant past. He properly reveres the past and much of what he writes could be called history, in the best sense. That is, he mines the past for significance, for the odd shy fact no one else has noticed, the contribution of someone hitherto unknown or neglected.
More important, to my mind, he mines his own wide and thoughtful experience for those feelings we've all had but have mostly set aside in the press of daily affairs. Wickstrom boldly tells us about his past in order to bring life to our own. He evokes his personal history, not to parade its value or to wallow in regret for snows past, but to revel in celebration: again and again he creates history that illuminates the now, that offers his readers a chance to understand and celebrate their own feelings through their sympathy with his.

One last word: about the technical accomplishment of this fine book. Wickstrom manages with grace and vigor to create that most elusive quality of ggod writing: a sense in the reader that nothing but this writer's concerns matters very much. He does this in the time-honored way of the grat wriiters: he lays bare his own intense concern and bids us follow him. So indeed we do.
But this laying bare doesn't just happaen. There's laying bare and then there's laying bare. Wickstrom does the second kind, and skillfully. He makes sentences and paragraphs that display their content in shapes, frames, of clear, simple beauty. The best example I can give is this: I had thought to conclude this review with a quotation, a sentence or two lifted from the book that would both demonstrate the quality of his prose and neatly conclude this encomium. But I can't find a sentence or two that will consent to be so lifted. Everything's of a piece, each thought sliding effortlessly into the next. Effortlessly for us, of course, not for him. We know that effortlessness, how truly hard it is, how valuable when someone masters it, and how necessary that we love and celebrate it as Wickstrom loves and celebrates his new and ancient art of fishing with an angle.

Gordon Wickstrom is a WWII Navy veteran, a graduate of Standord with a Ph.D., a college professor, and a serious student of Shakespeare. For the past sixty years, when asked about his occupation, he said he was a fisherman and a teacher, in that order. With the publication of this book he can truthfully include author, a good author, to the list.
This is a elegant book about fly-fishing and so much more. Wickstrom has spent sixty years fishing in his native Colorado streams and rivers as well as legendary rivers in Ireland and the fabled chalk streams in southern England. During that time he has not only studied the intricacies of the sport but thought about it's connection to literature, music, Shakespeare, friends, family and other things that matter. Drawing upon his storehouse of knowledge and experiences he has written this small, remarkable account of anglers and their calling that is destined to become a classic. The book contains stories, essays, poems, biblical passages, and a song to explain who fihermen (and women) are and why they do what they do. Indeed, it is an attempt to understand WHY anglers do what they do rather than simply what they do.
In numerous short essays he suggests that given the "...vast, detailed, and powerful..." expanse of literature and its impact on anglers, that perhaps fishing is really the material expression of the literature. Thus, it could be that literature came first and then the angler. In his elegant, understated, sometimes humorous manner he summarizes such literature and how it has affected the sport in general and himself in particular. This is an interesting thesis that will give the reader pause. The story of his affliction common to the most serious anglers, the never-ending accumulation of rods, reels, lures, and other "essential" tackle, and how he came to realize that really the most important item was his 1937 Chevy Coupe, is a delight. The essay on the catch-and-release program now in vogue is a thoughtful treatment of the subject, both pro and con, and will give the novice and serious angler alike pause for reflection. Interspersed throughout the book are short stories about the history and characteristics of legendary flies that a surely found in many an anglers Fly Book.
This book will speak to the heart and soul of any reader remotely interested in the fly fishing phenomenon, literature, music, family, friends and a host of other things that matter in life. I am usually skeptical about the need for another book on fishing but this is a worthy exception.