Utah Books

Author does a good job discussing the many factors involved in desert life. General overview of biology, but the human aspect is not up to the level of the rest of the book.

Eric Bjornstad does a superb job documenting most of the routes in the Moab, Utah area. Although some mistakes will be found, which is to be expected in a compilation of this magnitude, the climber will find many known and unknown routes to challenge their skills. The book includes many popular areas like Wall Street as well as many unknown cliffs and spires. It's essential gear for any climber contemplating a long term climbing trip to Moab... Another book, Rock Climbing Utah, offers a good overview to the area also.

I've been using the photos in this book with elementary art students for several years. We do value studies with black and white tempera paints, looking for the progression of values, and nature's shapes, patterns and textures (like rippling and branching). Then we compare our paintings with some by Georgia O'Keeffe and other artists. While I've never actually read the text, the photos have been a good springboard for discussions of aerial perspective, and erosion by wind and water, too.

The traditional view of historians is that in 1492 the Americas were nearly empty continents inhabited by only a few primitive Indians. That view has been challenged and mostly disproven over the last two decades. The historians now believe that the Indians were far more numerous than previously thought and were often living in complex societies.

Disease introduced by the European invaders destroyed the Indians. Some estimates are that 90 percent of Indians died of European diseases. This book is a scholarly study about the impact of disease and depopulation on northwestern Mexico and adjacent Arizona and New Mexico. Due to the accounts of early Spanish explorers and missionaries, we have a better picture of what happened here than in many other regions of the Americas.

The author relies mostly on primary sources to draw a picture of the populous and prosperous Indian societies in this region prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. He descibes the major Indian groups living in this region, chronicles the history of their contact with the Spanish invaders, and documents the famines that caused a steep decline in their numbers. All in all, a competent book that is well worth reading by those with an interest in this subject.

Railroad buffs, and other sorts--fire buffs, gun and edge weapons collectors and renactors are an an obsessive lot of people.
Probably most obsessive are members od the living history and reenactment groups commemorating past times and events. Of all these probably the most intense are those the War Between the States. In addition to spending hundreds of dollars on reproductions of period clothing and equipment of the soldiers, they include their whole families with wives and children dressing in period clothing and living in the conditions of the period also. Yiu have to be ossessive to run around on a hot July day wearing period scratchy wool clothes. Even their underwear is made in the old fashion!
World War Two buffs also include a whole subset who collect and resdore old soft-skinned and armored vwhicles, gathering several times a year at rallies.
Fire buffs mostly seem to be content with atrifacts and books. Those who run antique fire engines usually are members of established volunteer companies who paticipates in rallies known as msuters and compete in fire fighter skills.
Most buffs (those who are prodwssional hiatorians and curators as well as the otherwise employed) think oten on their subjects in the hours they are not eatng, sleeping dong ohter life activites or making a living.
You might well ask, how does a buff differ from a fan. Iit is a continuum. Most fans are content to go rha rah when thier temams win but think of other things mostly. Those who paint themselves up and go half-naked in cold weather, are way beyond buffery.
Buffery mesns thinking constatly of a favorite subject, devoting most of their spare time to the neglect of household chores, and lots of money on trips, activites, and memoribilia.
Most collect bookds on their favorite subjects and willingly spend beaucoup bucks. You have to f0cus or specializw on a place, an activity, or a particular railroad.
The publishers who serve these niche markets mostly strive to turn out definitive accuaate and complete works. But they are oftne private individuals who can't aafford large press runs which end up in remainder. Railroad books, especially are expensive itmes to produce, photograde coated paper, quarto size ans lansxape format are deriguer, while hard bindings are aleays desired.
When I forst bemame railroad books some forty yeara go, compared to the avwrage hardback which then sold for tow or three dollars, they were over ten dollars then and those were printed on non glossy paper. Since buffs are obessive, they buy everything on their favorie subject. But since they soon go out of print, in constrast to the general market, there is no drop on price, instead it keeps going up. The book here is one good example.
It has to be useful and well made or it would be so high in the market. High demand and short supply, a basic rule of economics.
I ddon't have this one, though I am a buff in many respects, my railroad buffery is down in third or fourth priority. The Santa FE is my focus and the B&O cines a dustant secnd,
One must regret the demise of Bonanza Books which forty some years ago would reprint many small runs and hobby books. Only Dover seems to still be in the game, and they stick mostly to public domain titles.

I thought this was one of the better written books on the early history of Latter Days Saints - otherwise known as the Mormons. The book traces the Church's history from the beginning and how they interacted with other sectors of American society as they grew and expanded. The author's premise was that the LDS was part of the America's growing pain during this period (1830-1846). The author maintained that Mormons remains true to the concepts of the Republic even although they were leaning toward theocracy. The book was well written, appears to be well researched and the author maintained an even approach while exploring his premise. Its a good book, quite insightful and should be read by anyone interested in Mormon history.

Although a somewhat mundane journal, Stansbury nevertheless accomplished the tedious task of surveying the entire Great Salt Lake and surrounding area, along with proposing new routes for future wagons and the railroad to California, Oregon and Utah in the years 1849-1850.
While his account is not exactly edge of your seat reading material, it does depict life along the trail accurately. If one has an interest in geology and geography, this journal may be even more engaging as he meticulously describes these subjects throughout his report.
The journal describes many important historical first-hand experiences of the times such as the meeting of numerous returning emigrants, the cholera epidemic, abandoned wagons, dead oxen and a plethora of belongings simply dumped along the way, the many graves along the trail and overall activity along the Emigrant Trail.
His report and conscience on Brigham Young and the Mormons is praiseworthy and commendable as he received much needed assistance from them while pursuing his surveying responsibilities.
Overall a worthy journal with many pages of beautiful drawings. Maps would have been very helpful.

"The Green Book" - a great little book with 16 backcountry canyoneering and hiking routes in Zion. It's a little dated now, but still has great charm. A good source for the non-technical and semi-technical classics (Narrows, Orderville, Subway). Until recently, the only published backcountry guide to Zion, it still holds it own against the commercial interlopers.

This is a well researched and informative work. However, Bigler's thesis and conclusions are somewhat tenuous and not always fully supported by the facts. Bigler's premise that the Mormon "theocracy" was bound to have a run in with the United States sooner or later is probably accurate. However, he reaches beyond the mark in asserting that Brigham Young and his cohorts actively brought about the Utah War in 1857 through their attempts to immediately establish an independent kingdom seperate from the United States. In addition, his conclusion that the Bannock raid on Fort Limhi in February 1858 marked a quantum shift in Young's Utah War policy may also be stretching the facts somewhat, although the occurance no coubt limited Mormon options for a retreat northward. In short, this is a wonderful source for facts about a little known occurence in Mormon history which no doubt played an important part in the Utah War...but take Bigler's premises with caution.

"Genealogy is a technical discipline requiring training in methods of research and analysis. This training can be obtained, however, without formal classroom instruction through the appllication of proven research techniques. The JURISDICTIONAL APPROACH has been developed to provide a do-it-yourself manual of such procedures. Each step of the genealogical research process is described in detail; each step in the order in which it should be taken.
Even the beginner can discover his ancestry with a minimum of expenditure of time and resources by following these step-by-step, common sense methods. The only IF between the researcher and guaranteed success is the survival of relevant research sources- an if over which no one has positive control."