Water Parks Books

The problem with a lot of books written about Hetch Hetchy is that they leave out the original Native Americans of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

The Paiute Indian people were the original owners of Hetch Hetchy, but no one, especially the Yosemite National Park Service, does not want to mention that. Why is that?

Why do stories written about Hetch Hetchy always start AFTER the the Raker's Act. There were Indians in Hetch Hetchy before that. The Native Americans of Hetch Hetchy Valley were Paiutes.

Where is that in the story of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite National Park? The story of Captain Jim of the Hetch Hetchy Paiutes. The story of Joseph Screech the first European to enter Hetch Hetchy Valley meeting Paiutes there.

In fact here is something the Yosemite National Park Service does want people to know. The original Indians of Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy ended up in Paiute areas.

The truth is out there, but the injustice continues. The history of the true Indians of Hetch Hetchy should be included in all stories of Hetch Hetchy...the Paiutes.

After the great earthquake and fire of 1906, San Francisco was in desperate need of a reliable water source - and proposals were made to damn the Tuolumne River and transform the Hetch Hetchy Valley into a giant hydro-electric supply for the city. Others protested the changes to the environment. The two groups sparked one of the biggest controversies in American environmental history, and Damn! Water, Power, Politics And Preservation In Hetch Hetchy And Yosemite National Park charts the conflicts and eventual resolution, from changing attitudes towards growth and water issues to the American public's evolving interest in preservation. A lively account of controversial battles which continue into modern times.

Portions of this book will be of great value to anyone interested in the history of the environmental movement, and the shifting political realities that environmentalists have had to deal with over long periods. Simpson explores the history and issues surrounding the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite National Park, which was built to supply San Francisco with water and power even though the site was already protected within the national park. The unsuccessful fight against the dam, which flooded a beautiful valley that was the near-equal to the tremendous Yosemite Valley nearby, was the first major battle conducted by the American environmental movement. Simpson starts with a history of the national park and the twisted politics that resulted in the construction of the dam and its reservoir. This leads to some real insights into environmentalist history in America and the politics of the early 20th century, when the fight for and against the dam took place over several contentious decades.

After this enlightening start, the majority of the book covers the politics and issues behind water and power utilities in modern San Francisco. There is much to be learned here, though the specifics on San Francisco's unique challenges and practices become rather tedious and may not be that enlightening for anyone outside of the region. However, one of the great insights of this book is how San Francisco behaves like an empire, controlling far-away colonies for the extraction of resources that it can't obtain locally, especially fresh water. All of this was accomplished through strong-arm political tactics and flaunting the wishes of both the Federal government and millions of affected citizens. [~doomsdayer520~]

This was a different kind of guide book in a good way. It gave a nice history of the area and gave information to not only the usual tourist places but "off the beaten track" activities that we actually did in Belize.....and had a great time. Would give this one to any friend going to the area.

Beautiful visuals and a lucid, entertaining account of an amazing ecosystem make this a perfect gift for curious young minds.

Let us all join with Sebastian Dangerfield to rear up in horror at the abominable way in which society treats its antiheroes! Such a rascal is Dangerfield - a drunken womanizer, a leech and a lech, a brilliant schemer, self-righteous prude, a man in decline, yet rising up, each time, from the bowels of hell through a catharsis of his own wit and imagination. J.P. Donleavy is brilliant. This picaresque novel, written in a modified style of stream of consciousness, is constantly moving, giving the reader little time to ponder a moral or ethical dissection of Dangerfield's antics.

Dangerfield is, after all, a manifestation of human desire in its physical state. He desires, and attains, the finer things in life; yet, each attainment is followed by his own predictable calamity of foibles and follies, through gluttony and his own rapacious wolfishness. Mr. Donleavy is masterful in his choice of every word. Short phrases, separated by periods, create a visual world in full bloom, while pulling the observer (you, insatiable reader) through the emotional rollercoaster being felt by Dangerfield's soul. Such a scoundrel deserves hatred and banishment. In our own observance, we become the enablers of Dangerfield's unconscionable acts, finding ourselves, (surprisingly), unwilling to give him his deserved punishment, forgiving him his transgressions as swiftly as his Mary does. He is, after all, a sensitive soul. Who could argue with that?

J.P. Donleavy's prose dances on the edge with his poetic verve and descriptive style. Each chapter ends with a slice of verse - a summary of each poignant situation in which our roguish suitor finds himself:

"I set sail
On this crucifixion Friday
With the stormy heavens
Crushing the sea
And my heart
Twisted
With dying."

This was honestly one of the dumbest books I've ever read, and there's not much else I can say about it.

If there isn't a little Ginger Man in you, you're a bore.

I read this book in awe, my jaw hitting the floor with each beautiful sentence that went by. Donleavy was a master wordsmith, who created an amazing character in Sebastian Dangerfied. He's pathetic, he's horrible, he's a waste of space, and yet Donleavy somehow makes him kind of likable, and finds the beauty in this very human story.

This was an almost incredible, maybe even impossible character and story if it wasn't for the fact that I've actually MET people like this -many were my friends... and me!

People going nowhere, people setting up scams to make the next meal, people not having a plot to their lives -even if they do they may as well not have one, and trying not to die with their pants down in the process. And in all this one has got to laugh at the preposterous hot waters they find themselves in; case in point, one Sebastian Dangerfield (the protagonist). Harsh situations that are all the funnier because they are creatures of the protagonist's own creation; not only making his own life but the lives of others miserable. He admits this himself throughout the novel and doesn't care to let one know, for he is the `ginger man'.

Sebastian Dangerfield is not completely callous, however. He is a complex individual; similar to the hero of 'The Catcher in the Rye'; that is if the latter were more... inclined toward whoring and boozing it up (my hero!). There are moments of deep feeling and even shock at the way the world has been let go to the gutter, and of course the culpability is on everyone. There are instances of very human qualities in the heart of this character -at least a longing for these, for despite it all things like love, warmth, friendship, simplicity, true joy, are all things awfully hard to come by... one has to wonder how true these are in our own lives. The author skillfully portrays it all with brilliant sentences that swing effortlessly from powerful poetics to sports-bar speak to choppy machinegun descriptions of inner and outer worlds (my hero!). All this is quickly missed if the reader is unimaginative, `slow', moralistic, and insensitive.

Nevertheless, none of the above should detract from what is the main feature of the novel: it is funny as hell!!! Read it.

This is a must read for every teen or adult that believes history is simply about boring dead white people and inconsequential dates. Can you write a "real" history book that has valid arguments about.....SWIMMING POOLS? Dr. Wiltse has caught the attention of the young people of this nation who believed that history, real history, has to be about a President, King, or a General, and has taught us all that seemingly mundane events in the lives of common people, often overlooked, are history too!

So far I am a quarter of the way through this book and it has repeated the same information several times. As soon as the author progresses into the 1900s he quickly shifts back to the 1890s and then up to the 1900s and then back again. The information could have been a little more carefully strung together and not so repetitive. I look forward to finishing this book to see if this gets any better. Despite the irritating repetition the information presented is interesting.

Here comes summer, and Americans will head for a trusted way of getting rid of stress and heat: they will jump into swimming pools. But pools themselves have been a source of stress to many communities within the nation; indeed, Jeff Wiltse has written a history of the social tensions pools have caused (and sometimes eased) in _Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America_ (University of North Carolina Press). It is surprising that what might seem a trivial subject, a pastime in which millions of Americans have innocently indulged for over a hundred years now, might even have a history. But Wiltse, who teaches history at the University of Montana, has driven from town to town to draw information for this book. His travels were mostly in the north, for he did not want to range too far and write separate regional histories, although he says the pattern of social use of pools is consistent within the towns he surveyed. He amassed a huge amount of data from newspapers and civic documents about who was using the pools, with statistics often kept by race and sex. Wiltse has shown beyond doubt that pools have reflected and generated our feelings on sexual and racial matters, and although his book is a serious academic history, it is by turns amusing and sad as America came to an incomplete understanding of how we ought to treat pools and the swimmers who use them.

We didn't have pools originally, going down to swim in the river or "the old swimming hole". The swimmers often had no running water at home and this was a way for them to wash away some bodily grime; their Victorian betters strongly agreed with bathing for this purpose, but not with the way it was being accomplished. The problem of how to get those underclass clean without letting their pastoral cavorting offend others resulted in a solution, the first municipal bathing pools. Remarkably, there was not racial segregation in these initial pools. Pools changed again when they became not centers for training but locales for play. The huge pools were viewed as resorts, places where a family might come on vacation, and they had sand around them for artificial beaches. Pools had been segregated by gender, but these were not; because of fretting over what might happen if white women saw athletic black bodies, or if blacks started appreciating the displayed bodies of white women, racial segregation of pools began. There was violence in many cities when black people tried to use the pool. The way one city after another attempted to exclude black people in different ways makes for uncomfortable reading.

Desegregation eventually happened, but the victory turned out to be Pyrrhic. As blacks were admitted, white swimmers stopped going to the public pools, and so it became easier for cities to reduce maintenance on the pools, which fell into disrepair and were closed. Cities had financial crises in the 1970s, further reducing pool budgets, and have never started up another building surge. White swimmers went to private pools or home pools, and Americans aren't putting a high value on public recreation as much as they used to. Suburban communities are building water theme parks, which are busy places for kids, but do not foster the socialization that families used to find around a public pool. It may not have worked out to be the best outcome for either blacks or whites, but that's the way history works out sometimes. Wiltse's readable history gives a surprising outlook on important aspects of American culture, and shows that swimming pools are far more consequential than you'd expect.

My tattered and stained copy has been an integral part in planning each of my six trips into the Okefenokee. I personally could do without all of the details on the various plant species but I love the in-depth descriptions on what is around virtually every turn. Traveling from Virginia, I could have also used more information on area camping and lodging. In addition, I love fishing on my trips into the Okefenokee but the book essentially ignores the topic. While the book could be improved upon, it is a fascinating and invaluable resource for anyone interested in experiencing the magic of an Okefenokee wilderness canoe trip.

If you really want to learn about the plants and animals from an author who has been raised in Georgia, please take a look at the Highroad Guide to the Georgia Coast & Okefenokee by Richard J. Lenz.

The maps in the back of the book are from satellite images. I found the canoe trail information on these maps far superior to the information offered by the Fish and Wildlife "free" maps. The book is small enough to put in a plastic bag, and strap to your gear in the canoe so that you can know right where you are, even without a GPS.

The content is certainly worth studying before selecting the kind of trip you want to make to the swamp. The information about the creatures and the plants you are likely to encounter made the entire experience more enjoyable. I would have rated the book higher if it would have communicated more of the sheer beauty of the Okefenokee... but then a reader might consider the book a "puff" piece.

For Disney park aficionados, this is a great read to hear about ride, land, park, and resort ideas that never came to be. One caution: the book contains little in the way of verification or validation: it reads like a high-school book report without supporting references. Not a scholarly work, but certainly fun for those with a Disney Jones!

This book is required reading for Disney Addicts. The information in this book is extremely interesting to even the most seasoned Disney lover. The book is an easy read with tons of interesting info. You can't go wrong with this book...a definite buy!!!!

If you have read the previous reviews, then you are aware of the problems. However this book is clearly a work of love. Shaun has a lot of material here. It's a great read for an introduction to Disney history. All of the attractions discussed have concept drawings that are available in other Disney books. However, the little authors such as Shaun don't have the funds to pay the copyright fees. Those fees are huge, so unfortunately, Shaun had to go with no pictures. That said, I have to like this book. Shaun clearly loves Disney and it shows throughout.

This book give us lot of very interesting information but without pictures. It's a bit frustating. Else, my first impression was a few spoofing with the use of a very big font for all pages.

For true fans of the Disney theme parks, this book is a good list of the many ideas considered by Imagineers for projects that, for various reasons, were never completed.

If you can ignore the many typos -- and the self-published vibe -- of the book, you'll enjoy the research that reveals the dozens-and-dozens of concepts for attractions, hotels, shops (and entire theme parks) that were never built due to politics, finances and/or public resistance.

My one MAJOR complaint is the complete lack of any photographs or artists renderings of all the "lost" Disney ideas. The writing is decent, but in no way is able to fully convey some of the GREAT ideas that have been tossed-around in the hallways of Disney's Imagineering division. Not having pictures for this sort of premise is silly (though I understand that Disney was probably uncooperative on this venture), and in a way, self-defeating. I'd love to see a revision -- under the Disney publishing arm -- loaded with the artwork from Imagineering's "morgue" of discarded ideas. Maybe the author can approach Disney with that proposal in a year or two?!? One can hope...

Two Story House
Was W.H. Jackson Right About the Water Cistern?
By Justice Greg Hobbs

My wife, Bobbie, and I joined Ken and Ruth Wright on the weekend of May 6-7, 2006 to further examine how the ancient Puebloans of Mesa Verde obtained drinking water.
Ken and Ruth had included us in the 2003 survey team that verified the existence of the Boxelder Reservoir, the fourth reservoir they documented as having been operated within Mesa Verde National Park between 750 and 1100 A.D.
When Ken and Ruth were preparing their essay on Far View, Morefield, Sagebrush and Boxelder reservoirs for the Citizen's Guide to Colorado's Water Heritage published by the Colorado Foundation for Water Education, I sent them W.H. Jackson's essay "Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado" appearing in Volume I of the Hayden Survey bulletins published in 1875.
Led by John Moss, a gold prospector who had seen Mancos Canyon ruins in 1873, Jackson sighted and climbed up to Two Story House in 1874. Jackson described an elegant two-story ancient Pubeloan structure he called a "little human eyrie" perched up "in its little crevice like a swallow's nest" 800 vertical feet above the Mancos River. Attached to it was a "large reservoir or cistern, the upper walls of which came nearly to the top of the window."
Jackson's report and photography of an ancient cliff dwelling in southwestern Colorado led to many more "discoveries." William Henry Holmes, another member of the Hayden survey, explored McElmo Canyon in 1875, reporting a number of large ruins including "a triple-walled tower." Thirteen years later, rancher Richard Wetherill and his brother-in-law Charles Mason "found" within the recesses of what is now the park the "Cliff Palace" Jackson and Holmes had missed.

Ken hadn't seen Jackson's essay before, but knew of a reported cistern at Mug House within Mesa Verde National Park that could serve as a comparison. At the request of the Park Service, in connection with the park's 100th Anniversary, he and Ruth had agreed to present lectures at the site of the Morefield Reservoir on the mornings of May 5 and 6. They scheduled a hike to Mug House for the afternoon of the 6th and to Two Story House, on Ute Mountain Ute tribal lands, for the 7th to examine water features.

Saturday, May 6, 2006

Seen from Cortez, the land encompassing the park appears to be a continuous mountain range rising up from the Montezuma Valley and lying east-west to Sleeping Ute Mountain. Navigating the park by car from the entrance station, one rides the ridgeline of five watershed mesas stretching south towards the Mancos River like fingers of a gigantic hand laid upon the land.

Within the park, Moccasin Mesa, Park Mesa, Chapin Mesa, Long Mesa, and Wetherill Mesa are prominent islands in the sky cut by canyons: among them, Morefield Canyon, Prater Canyon, Moccasin Canyon, School Section Canyon, Soda Canyon, Spruce Canyon, Navajo Canyon, Wickiup Canyon, Long Canyon, and Rock Canyon.

Receiving runoff waters of these canyons, the Mancos River flowing from the La Plata Mountains turns in a great southwesterly bend around the eastern and southern boundaries of the park into the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park.

Morefield Reservoir and Spring
After breakfast with Ken and Ruth Saturday morning at the Holiday Inn Express in Cortez, we meet a group of scholars at the Morefield Campground within the park. Ken and Ruth arrived earlier this week to participate in an archeology conference devoted to historic and new interpretations about how the ancient Puebloans lived at Mesa Verde and why they had all departed by 1300 A.D.
Congress established Mesa Verde National Park on June 29, 1906. Alone among the national parks, Mesa Verde National Park was created to preserve archeological values. The late 19th and 20th Century scientific explorations of Mesa Verde included collection of artifacts and the unearthing, documentation, and reconstruction of ancient living sites.

Earlier this week, Hopi tribal members helped to rebury human remains and funerary objects of the Puebloans. Mesa Verde is sacred ground to the Ute Mountain Ute people whose reservation includes many ancient Puebloan sites and to the Hopi whose ancestral migrations involved passing through here.
In describing a feature of Two Story House that resembled a water vessel, keen-eyed Jackson was interested in how they had lived. For how could they have survived in this remote and semi-arid land without great ingenuity in the collection of water?
The answer is they carefully conserved springs, seeps, sandstone pot holes, check dams, cisterns, and reservoirs to marshal the water treasure. Ken and Ruth have systematically documented this in their late 20th and early 21st century work. Particularly remarkable are the reservoirs.

In 1893, the archaeologist G. Nordenskiold found what he called "conclusive evidence that the cliff-dwellers had to contend with the same dry climate and the same scarcity of water as now obtain in these regions." He described an ancient reservoir--enclosed by a circular wall, with a ditch running into it--that he found on Chapin Mesa. Nearby were the ruins of a considerable village. Referring to the ruins of ancient irrigation works found in Northern Arizona, Nordenskiold conjectured, "It is not at all improbable that irrigation by artificial means was in use even among the prehistoric inhabitants of the Mesa Verde."

Working with archeologists Jack Smith, David Breternitz, and Jim Kleidon, and other experts who have included soil scientists and hydrologists, Ken and Ruth have produced estimates of the operational life of these drinking water reservoirs (water being too scarce and precious for irrigation in Mesa Verde, as it turns out):

* Morefield Reservoir in Morefield Canyon (AD 750-1100), 4 feet deep, 50-foot diameter, 120,000 gallons
* Far View Reservoir (also known as Mummy Lake) on Chapin Mesa (AD 950-1100), 4.6 feet deep, 90-foot diameter, 80,000 gallons
* Sagebrush Reservoir on an unnamed mesa west of Chapin Mesa (AD 950-1100), 5.2 feet deep, 70-foot diameter, 90,000 gallons
* Box Elder Reservoir in Prater Canyon (AD 800-950), 20 feet deep, 220-foot diameter, 100,000 gallons.

Our morning itinerary takes us into Morefield Canyon. Scholars accompanying us include Dr. Jonathan Upchurch, transportation expert for Mesa Verde National Park, his wife, Betty Upchurch, the park's librarian, and Eric Janes, recently retired Bureau of Land Management hydrologist and ecologist.

Ken and Ruth explain how a trench across this Morefield sediment mound, cut with permission of the Park Service in 1997, revealed sediment layers that incontrovertibly proved the existence of a reservoir, not a dance platform, as park service employees had previously speculated it to be.
Though obscuring vegetation is growing back after the year 2000 Bircher Fire, amidst the grasses we discover stones that track the past of the 1400-foot diversion canal leading into the reservoir, as well as armor stones the ancient Puebloans placed to retard erosion along the canal's banks.

It's amazing that the people who operated this reservoir for 350 years had nothing more than sticks, stones, baskets, and deer antlers to scoop sediment out of it and maintain the canal.

Not far down Morefield Canyon are two great kivas that served as the community centers of a population which may have reached 500 persons. The largest of the kivas had been partially excavated in the past, documented, then reburied.

While the rest of our group inspects the perimeter of the kivas, I walk directly to the east canyon wall where a spring steadily drips water into fresh imprints of wild horse hooves. Throughout the Mesa Verde country, seeps and springs most often served as the people's water supply.

Mug House and Water Cistern
Our afternoon hike takes us off the canyon rim of Wetherill Mesa along the rimrock to Mug House. This magnificent cliff dwelling is normally closed to the public, but will open this summer for ranger-led tours on a limited basis. We are fortunate to have the Assistant Superintendent of the park, Betty Janes, lead us to Mug House and its water cistern. Pete and Nancy Foster join us for this part of the day's exploration.
The trail leads us past Adobe Cave to Mug House. Adobe Cave had consisted of three rooms and two kivas which the Puebloans apparently used as building materials for the later construction of Mug House. Three red parallel zig-zag lines adorn the rear wall, perhaps telling of migrations?
Mug House sits in an alcove 200 feet long and up to 40 feet deep. 90 feet of vertical sandstone rises above it. Excavation and stabilization of Mug House in the 1960s identified 94 rooms; 40 of these are dwelling rooms; 8 are kivas.

The kivas are larger and have more head space than the dwelling rooms. Despite thoughts that kivas were restricted to men for religious purposes, Betty Janes suggests that families may have gathered in them for warmth in the winter. With a ventilator for drawing in fresh air and a hatchway through the roof to expel smoke and stale air, kivas could have served many community functions.

We walk across open courtyards that dot Mug House, step carefully into dwelling units, peer into the kivas, and spot the round small center holes--sipapus--that represent human emergence from the spirit world. We see Richard Wetherill's name inscribed on a large sandstone slab followed by the date he also carved--1890.

We walk to the Mug House water cistern 200 yards further on. High up the cliff face, we spot a pour off notch from which water cascades into this storage vault when rain falls. The Puebloans built a ten foot high rock and rubble dam at the outer base of the rimrock to impound the water. Ken unpacks his tape measure. Pete and I assist.

The dimensions reported by Art Roan in his 1971 report on the excavation and stabilization of Mug House were 22 feet long, 10 feet wide, and about 4 feet deep, with a storage capacity of 6,000 to 7,000 gallons. Based on the measurements we took, Ken figures the present capacity at about 3000 gallons. Accumulated sediment and the park's stabilization work on the embankment may account for the difference. Constant dredging of sediment must have been necessary.

The presence of this water cistern helps to explain how Mug House became a relatively large community of 80 to 100 persons. The only additional water supply consists of two springs approximately one and a half miles away. From tree-ring specimens, dates of occupation were from 736-1277.
These people farmed the mesa tops without irrigation, growing corn, beans, and squash. They domesticated turkeys for a steady supply of meat, supplemented by rabbits, dear, woodrats, and squirrels. They gathered seeds and fruits, including prickly pear, pigweed, goosefoot, beeplant, ground cherry, miner's lettuce, and skunkbush. Few adults survived 40 years of age and, based on burials in the vicinity, half of the children died before reaching 4 years of age.

We hike back up to the top of the mesa and carefully approach the edge of the rimrock to see if we can spot from above the pour-off into the water cistern far below. We see a channel chipped into the rock and two parallel dirt berms, plus a rock wall built on the very edge of the rimrock.

These water features are shaped to collect and funnel water over the rimrock, but the Puebloans may not have constructed them. They may have been built during the park restoration of Mug House to direct water away from eroding this site. Note for further research!

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Two Story House

We head for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Park headquarters located between Cortez and Tawaoc to meet our Ute guides at 8:30 a.m.
The Ute Tribal Park encompasses 125,000 acres centering along a 25-mile stretch of the Mancos River. The Ute Mountain Ute preserve it as a primitive area to protect its cultural and environmental resources. Full day and half day guided tours are available to the public.
Due to recent hip operations, Ruth and Bobbie decide not undertake the climb into Two Story House. Instead they go with a guide to four cliff dwellings that are accessible from the top of Johnson Mesa. A couple from Pennsylvania, Ren and Caroline Lackey, accompanies them. The way turns out to be challenging. Descent into these remote places is by ladder from the top of the mesa down cliff faces and back out.

Our guide for the climb to Two Story House is Rickey Hayes. Eric Janes joins Ken and me for this venture onto the rimrock where W.H. Jackson in 1874 explored the first of the cliff houses ever reported to the United States public.

Rickey is part Ute and part Cheyenne. He story-tells us up an hour and a half of switchback traverses. The Utes have always been here from the earliest times, he says. Our people are from Central America. We are related to the Aztec and Maya. We are mountain people. There were seven bands of the Utes.

This was our land all across Colorado and onto the plains. We hunted and traded with other tribes. We knew all of these places up these canyons where the people came through on their migrations. But we left them alone out of respect. The Wetherills were not looking for cattle when they came through here. They were looking for what they could take and sell.

Rickey explains how the juniper berry is brewed for medicine tea; how sprigs of this sweet smelling evergreen the creator placed here for the people are used for purification. He tells of drummers who drum through the night. Next month he will go up on Sleeping Ute Mountain for the sundance. He is a sundancer.

All along the trail, pottery sherds--red, brown, black and white designs on the outside and inside of once-whole pots, broken ladle pieces, fragments of corn-grinding stones.

Belly to the ground, a snake refuses to leave our path until Rickey thumps the ground with his walking staff. He takes many opportunities to stop, so we can rest and see how the Mancos River canyon opens up the higher we get. Willow and cottonwood bud those tender baby greens of Spring.

Rickey says the river has steadily lost flow these 13 years he has guided people here. Up in the La Platas all the glaciers have melted.
Now we come to the edge of the rimrock, thread our way carefully along its sheer-wall face. I get crazy with heights like this, so I concentrate on where I put my feet to.

High on the cliff face, an horizontal ladder bridges the top of two impossibly-placed dwellings. Into a crack the people have wedged a tree-trunk ladder to get up to them.

We continue along the rimrock, turn a bend. Perched to its niche is elegant Two Story House.

We climb into it by a series of rock toeholds. Nine rooms are compressed into a small bi-level vertical space. We enter. Through window holes the arcing noonday sun slants in.

One by one we squeeze into the tall circular back room Jackson called a reservoir. Unlike the water cistern at Mug House, which is out in the open below a pour-off spout, this structure is tucked within the alcove and directly adjoins the dwelling places.

Water falling down the cliff faces would not run into it. If it did, the water would soak into the earthen walls, undermining the foundations.
Any water stored in this room would be stored in water jars. This room would also make a fine lookout onto a good length of the canyon floor below, and for seeing the stars.

We lunch on the open apron to the entry of Two Story House. Rickey tells us the migration story.

This is the fourth world. The three before were destroyed by fire, ice, and flood. These people did not leave because of drought or warfare. After dwelling in this place on their journey, they went farther south to the mesas when it was time to. The Hopi still come back to tell us how the people were on their journey when they came through here.

They kept the story of their migrations secret for a long time, but when the atom bombs exploded they started to share their prophecies. They interpret the stone panel pictures for us.
We must protect the earth and each other and not give in to greed and the easy life.

As we descend from Two Story House, Rickey explains that the gulley to the east of us has check dams the people built into it, and a series of natural sandstone potholes that trap water. That's the water source they used.

As we drive out of Mancos Canyon, Rickey stops the tribal truck for us to see the etched-in-sandstone picture panel rock the winter solstice illuminates. It tells the song of creation and emergence.

Here is Spider Woman, companion of Taiowa and the mother of the worlds to come. Next to her, Massoua, earth-god. Then the four circles of the four worlds tucked within one another. There is rain cloud with her butterfly wings. Kokopelli on his back playing his flute. See those three people emerging from that slanting crack sculpted into the end of the panel. That is the sipapu.

We get a flat tire. The van carrying Ruth and Bobbie comes along as we fiddle with how to lower the spare tire from underneath the truck. They carry us out of the canyon. Rickey stays behind.

Within these pages hides a book in desperate search of an editor.

I received this book as a gift, and I really wanted to read it because I am very interested in the subject. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a tough slog which could only be overcome by gritty determination to find the kernels of information hidden within.

The first thing one has to overcome is the author's pedantic, pompous, arrogant and self-absorbed prose. It is so far over the edge that it is laughable at times, sadly so. Worse, it constantly has the feel of a college term paper that was aggressively padded to make it longer. This resulted in writing which is indirect and obscure, by dint of trying to overly complicate statements and elliptically restate them so that 30 words would replace six. Repetition is endemic throughout the book. The many photographs suffer from what appears to be substandard reproduction that results in details being murky and not very informative, at best. This only serves to make the limitations of the original photos and their photographers even more prominent. Also, a goodly number of the photos only served to underline the whole feeling of padding and stretching that one finds throughout the prose.

You have to really want to know more about the subject to read this book.