Colorado Books

H.B. Nicholson passed away March 2, 2007. I can state unequivocally that he was the most brilliant Meso-American scholar of his time. He retained his knowledge and clarity to the very end. There has never been another Archeolgist/Scholar who so loved all things Meso-American.

H.B. Nicholson was my father-in-law and my inspiration in my quest for my M.A. in Paleo-Indian Archeology. He is deeply missed.

With all of the books on Amazon purporting to relate "Toltec warrior wisdom," the teachings of Quetzalcoatl, and related New Age nonsense, this book is an important and much-needed breath of fresh air.

The author, H. B. Nicholson, is a distinguished, emeritus anthropologist at UCLA with more than 200 scholarly books and articles to his credit. Unlike many of the purported gurus one can encounter in "Toltec Wisdom" books and on the worldwide web, Nicholson has been steeped in the actual history, mythology and religious outlook of the Toltec civilization since long before Carlos Castaneda ever took his first anthropology course. (And, of course, it bears mentioning that Castaneda himself worked with a Yaqui shaman, not a Toltec one.)

Nicholson wrote his PhD thesis (Harvard University, 1957) on the many difficulties of understanding the fragmentary, frequently contradictory but nevertheless fascinating historical accounts concerning Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl -- a character whose actual historical exploits and philosophical tenets the later Aztecs and Maya would embroider with much myth and legendry, but who nevertheless continues to loom large as a kind of King Arthur of Ancient Mexico: "the once and future lord of the Toltecs," as Nicholson writes.

What set Nicholson's work apart from earlier treatments of Quetzalcoatl was that he laboriously sorted, classified and analyzed all of the historical documents surrounding this important figure, even making full translations of the Spanish, Nahuatl (Aztec) and Mayan accounts. But his dissertation was unfortunately never published, and for decades scholars had to rely on mimeographed versions of Nicholson's thesis to read his account of the exploits of Quetzalcoatl (or, as with this reviewer, had to sneak into Harvard's Tozzer library to make a clandestine photocopy of the protesting buckram-covered tome). But thankfully that is all in the past. This book is a cautiously-updated version of Nicholson's thesis (much of the new material appears in a foreword, and the largely unadulterated original text follows), and can be read with much profit by anyone with an interest in Toltec history, culture and thought.

I would particularly urge any and all Toltec "warrior seers" and "power stalkers" to take a long and earnest look at this important book -- that is, if they do indeed have any genuine interest in what the Toltecs (rather than a Yaqui shaman, as interpreted and channeled by Castaneda and latter-day devotees) actually thought about anything.

A moving memoir of a young vet's odyssey through the despair and disillusionment of serving in an unpopular war, to the emotional healing that comes only through meaningful connection with others and the discovery of one's life purpose.

I was moved by Mr. Schweitzer's use of poetry and prose that takes us into the dark and tangled world of war and its aftermath of personal sorrow. Through his encounters with Molly, Jesse and Jake...his angels along the way, we are able to feel his passion, relive his terror, and experience his ultimate healing and renewed sense of hope.

This is a gritty and compelling tale; sensuously told.

I am not a musician or a poet so I was a bit skeptical when I started to read the book. I was quite surprised to find that the book is more of a story of one person's efforts to find out where he fits in after returning from Vietnam. I am not a Vietnam vet but as a former military member who has remained in Europe since joining the Army in 1977, I can understand a lot of his doubts and views of the world around him. I believe that we all face the same issues and doubts and it is refreshing to read how someone else was able to fight off the old demons and move on with living by focusing on the better points of life.
Mr. Schweitzer may not be a professional story teller but he certainly has a story to tell and does it like an old pro. If you like insightful reading, read it.

Embarking on a new journey, to a new place can be dangerous especially when Jennifer DeSpain travels to Black Hawk, Colorado with her family and friends. Packing and selling everything was easy to do but getting there would be twice the fun. Suddenly when the train comes to a complete stop and is robbed, 'The Kissing Bandit' gets both their money and a kiss.

When they arrive in a nearby town they have no money until an unusual person saves the day. They finally arrive in Black Hawk and Jennifer realizes they can't keep the building they bought so she has to sell it and rent one. Soon Jason gets everything they need to get the first edition of the Advertiser published. Jason has to deliver the papers by horse and when he's taking the second edition around he has an accident on his horse. Jason is stubborn and not easy to talk while he's bedridden.

While Jason is stuck in bed, two men enter Jennifer's life. One, Lance Rivers, is there for Jennifer's love and the other, the Preacher, is a comfort for her soul. Jennifer tries to work the stubborn press but Jason was the only one who really figured it out. Soon Jason comes around and meets Lance and thinks he's a crafty character. While Jennifer and the kids take a vacation, Jason gets the scoop of a lifetime and makes the newspaper a lot of money.

Things change and so do people. Jennifer's heart changes its mind a few times. Tragedy strikes yet again, challenging Jennifer and her family once again.

I loved this book! The beginning starts out kind've slow but soon the plot thickens. The plot slows down a bit but then towards the end of the book the authors finally let us know who the 'Kissing Bandit' really is.

The impossible happened. Your two books held my attention to the finish. Good Job.

This is a must read book for any Vail skier. I am the son of one of Vail's pioneers (Sigi Faller) and enjoyed many wonderful days on the Mountain in the "Glory Years". The book provides a perspective of Amercian history (Camp Hale and WWII) and relates a romantic business success story, especially for those who are independent, entrepreneural and have a love of the outdoors. It's a fascinating account of finding recreational "gold" in the Colorado Rockies. An excellent collection of photos is included.

This book captures the spirit of Peter Seibert and Earl Eaton and the early days of their lives and their dream to build Vail and Beaver Creek. The trimuphs are great. Hiking Vail for the first time with skins on the skis and seeing the bowls, what a trip! Getting fired from his dream and then getting asked back during the '89 World Championships - wow!! - what a roller coaster of emotions. If you love great stories and you know the Vail Valley and the ski industry - this book is a must read!!

As a former deputy sheriff in the nowood valley, Ten Sleep, Wyoming, I found Mr. Davis' research and presentation outstanding. His descriptions and evaluations were right on the money. As a critical history buff, I was pleasantly surprised to find no faults or criticisms of Mr. Davis' work. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in historical jurisprudence. Things might have changed in "crime detection/investigation" but in the courtroom? not so much.

Wyoming looms large for me, and I've alluded to a recent film about Wyoming "cowboys" in other reviews. Attorney John Davis, from somewhere in the Big Horn Basin, discusses events of 2 April 1909 that put the cowboy canard in its place. Those movie cowboys aren't cowboys because they're all hat and no cattle. They're sheepherders. So were Joe Allemand, shot to death on 2 April 1909, and Joe Enge, murdered and burned in his sheep wagon on Spring Creek.

Spring Creek was the last big battle of the western sheep wars, writes Mr. Davis, and was the first (only) Wyoming raid in which killers of sheepherders were convicted of murder. The murderers of Allemand, Emge, and another herder, burned to death with Emge in his wagon, were real cowboys acting out a drama that was a tragedy of the commons. Much of Wyoming even in 1909 was unfenced open range to which cattlemen claimed rights of preemption. Sheep and their crazy herders (cowboys debated overwhelming questions: Were men already crazy before they herded sheep, or were they made crazy by the sheep they herded?) were latecomers who competed for grass and water in a dry state. Sheep wrecked the range for cattle, eating grass down to the ground and then eating the ground. Then they'd bleat and excrete, wrecking water holes. In the Big Horn Basin commons, cattlemen and cowboys tolerated sheep and sheepherders as long as they knew their place. Where there were no fences, cattlemen helpfully drew deadlines, invisible lines in the sand beyond which sheep were not allowed to cross. Allemand and Emge crossed the line.

Allemand was foreign. Some accounts say he was Baszue; Davis writes that he was French. Allemand was an alien in an occupation dominated by Mexicans and Basques whose lives had been cheap. Mr. Allemand, though, was liked and respected by his neighbors despite being from somewhere else and despite sheep. Nobody wrote that he was crazy. Emge was foreign, but had been respected because he had been a cattleman before going to the dark side, sheep. He did not know his place. He kept his bovine arrogance despite turning to a disreputable occupation, sheep, and he openly disrespected his old cowboy cronies and their deadline. Emge, of course, represented something new under the hot Wyoming sun: old certitudes were dying. Wyoming, as territory and state, had run cattle and had been run by cattle. But Wyoming in the new 20th Century was born again; by 1909 Wyoming sheep were worth more than Wyoming cattle, and even founding fathers like cattle kings F.E. Warren & J.M. Carey were changing with the times. By 1909 cattle kings were running sheep.

That's the context of the story Mr. Davis tells. It's the story of an insular area, almost inbred, that was almost ripped apart by the aftermath of an atavistic raid. Davis excerpts Grand Jury transcripts that show communities and neighbors being pushed and pulled by the old and the new. He tells a story far more interesting than the fey fable that was nominated today for eight Academy Awards.

Amilcar Cabral one of the greatest minds of the twenteth century. A complete revolutionary. His works need to be studied by every African. He is a guide for the future for the success of Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau if they would follow his example to overcome the colonialist mentality and to change the minds and to become liberated for a new freedom of thought,for a democracy and economic development of Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde only in their unity in the struggle for success. One can not make it without the other. The youth of both countries must come together in the movement of JAAC. The future of Africa depends on it.

"Warriors at Work" examines the complete functioning of the Guinean people's struggle against Portuguese imperialism. Brilliantly noting the contribution and leadership of Amilcar Cabral, Dhada, as Cabral would have approved, focuses on the mass popular contribution and national role in the process of liberation. Dhada clearly reveals the brilliance of the PAIGC effort. The fighters of Guinea while battling Portuguese aggression simultaneously created a functioning relevant and indigenously produced nation state that would replace the Portuguese colonial machine. Dhada's focus on the mechanics of this process give us the most insightful view of what made the Guinean revolution effective, unique and a theoretical model for all revolutionaries to consider.

Many thanks to Mr. Hawley for producing the book that Earl Dunkle hoped to write, but was too busy working on the next mining project to complete. This is a valuable and unique historical account of the early mining days in Alaska, with primary focus on copper development, as experienced by one of the state's greatest geologist and mining engineers. It is wonderful to have all this detailed and well-documented information under one cover so that it is not lost.

Mr. Dunkle's life was centered on the Herculean task of finding and commercializing copper, gold, coal, and other important minerals at a time when Alaska was a near wilderness. His legendary strength, inquisitive and creative mind, considerable web of contacts with financiers and fellow geologists, rapport with working men, and ability to see a project through earn him a premier place in the state's hall of fame. Mr. Dunkle insight (and courage) in using small airplanes as a tool in mineral exploration and mine development also had a lasting impact on the state. For those of us who now live in Alaska, it is fascinating to encounter in this historical account the names of people, or parents of people, that are part of our lives today, fifty years after Dunkle's death. It is interesting to see how the seeds of a future Alaskan began to sprout in his early life in Pennsylvania and later at Yale University.

The book is not written as a thriller, and does not unrealistically laud the "flying miner". If anything, the drama is understated. This is a focused history book. It is the scale and importance of the events it depicts that give the book its significance. Complete footnotes, a long bibliography, and a good glossary of mining terms add to its value to anyone researching Alaska mining history. Certainly the book should be required reading to anyone planning to visit the Kennicott mining site near McCarthy!

Charles Hawley provides his readers with an incredibly detailed fact-filled account of the life of one of the most famous and brilliant Americans in history - Wes Dunkle. The book is packed with interesting facts, photos, and anecdotes of the life and times of one of the true genius minds in pioneer history. The book provides excellent historical facts and records while at the same time offers very entertaining reading. A must have for anyone interested in mining, pioneering or the history of Alaska.
Peter Besler, Toronto Canada

there is a real voice here,emotion and feelings so tangible, i found myself moved in many ways ...this is honest reading,it takes you into another place and you emerge from the final pages changed

Short and precise! The concept of neuropsychology, spirituality, philosophy, is well put forth...In an exciting adventure where the main character goes through his own created Hell, to depths that only the fearless can experience...it's a book about love, fear, and the occult side of science...The possible future where fear no longer dwells within our minds...

Richard Maurer's new book chronicles Powell's second expedition through the eyes, words, and illustrations of Fred Dellenbaugh - a 17-year-old boy from Buffalo, NY who, along with some rowing experience on the turbulent Niagara River and a facility for drawing, had the gumption to make his dream come true. This story is very well written and quite compelling and will appeal to those who love adventure stories set in the Old West. The photographs and illustrations are remarkable. My hats off to the author!

I read Dellenbaugh's reprinted "Canyon Voyage" (the much abbreviated title) as a young man in the flatlands of western Kansas in the 1960's. The romance of the period of Dellenbaugh's youth, and the Powell Expeditions in particular (1869-72), stimulated in me an ongoing interest in the history of the region. I have read the edited and published diaries of most of the participants of the two expeditions, and continue to invest in an array of scholarly and coffee table books that even remotely address the subject. My annual crossings of the Colorado and Dirty Devil rivers to pursue research interests in southeastern Utah never fail to regenerate my own wish to have participated in such an epic adventure. Thus, when I saw the notice of publication of Maurer's book about Dellenbaugh on the second Powell expedition, with the expression in the title "the true adventures," I was expecting something on the order of D.D. Fowler's book about Jack Hiller's, another expedition participant. That is, a pretty serious biography of the man and a pretty faithful reproduction of the daily diary kept during his time in the field. Well, it might be the former, but it is certainly not the latter. Unlike the other expeditioners who kept diaries, Dellenbaugh's original diary has never been published. Perhaps this is because his 1908 "Canyon Voyage" was a timeline-based (albeit compressed) narrative and researchers may have believed there was nothing more of value in the original diary. While Maurer read the diaries of all the participants, including Dellenbaugh's, as well as Dellenbaugh's "Canyon Voyage" and the earlier "Romance of the Colorado River," Maurer's timeline is even more compressed than Dellenbaugh's. Consequently the book lacks the rich detail of Dellenbaugh's diary and earlier publications. For example, unlike the present book, the consecutive daily diary entries of "Looked for the Major today but of course he did not come; carried the rations over," "Looked for the Major again," and "Still waiting,"conveys a real sense of frustration at being in the same camp, on the bank of the Colorado, day after day, laying up under a boat to avoid the oppressive August heat, with nothing to do, waiting for the Major and Prof to come in so the party can continue the trip down the river through the Grand Canyon. Maurer acknowledged that in the writing of the book he "sometimes resorted to the methods of historical fiction to flesh out some of the stories" and that "footnotes would be out of place in a book like this." Thus despite having the best possible materials at hand from which to draw, this book was never intended as a scholarly work. In that context, the writing was a success. Maurer did locate some great historical photographs and drawings not published elsewhere, and that alone is an important contribution. More than that, though, the book was a really entertaining read. I can well imagine some person, like me once, never having heard of either Powell or Dellenbaugh, picking up the book and just marveling at what they did. And, interest aroused, they have an avocation.

I very much enjoyed the technical information and the more human aspects also included. I would have enjoyed more pictures but I know it is already a large volume. It is worth taking with you if you plan to travel the canyon. One can more fully appreciate the beauty and struggle that went on in the building of the highway.

Haley's book on Glenwood Canyon is extremely well-written, attractively illustrated, and exhaustively researched. He does an excellent job of detailing the design and engineering problems, the concerns of the environmentalists, the personalities of the myriad individuals and organizations that provided unput during the planning and construction processs Finally, he shows the reader the engineering marvel that is Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon.