Utah Books

I have both guidebooks available for Desolation Canyon, and I have run the river twice the past two years. I prefer this one to the Belknap waterproof guide. Belknap is in color and lists where the rapids are, but with Rampton's book you get a better description and rating of each rapid. You have marks on the map denoting where you can get out to scout. You have a more thorough list of side trips and hikes available, at least the mile marker at which they are located, although the details of the hikes ie. how long it takes and so forth are not good. It makes a good effort at listing all available camp sites, and even highlights a few of my favorites.

The map has more topographic details as well, and makes it easier to tell exactly where you are as you go downriver.

All in all, a better and more informational guide than its counterpart (which isn't available on Amazon for some reason), but like with all river guides, its limitations include the fact that no river is the same each time. It changes with river volume, season, and the natural erosion and rockshifting that goes on year to year. It's a no frills book in black and white but I highly recommend it to anyone who got lucky and won a permit to run this beautiful river.

Finally, a virtual bible of guidebooks for this infinate land of valleys and cliffs. Eric does a great job with this series. So much info for one book. Countless hours and hours went into these books. This series is one of a Kind!

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.

This lovely contest winner will speak to women as surely as poets have spoken to the author, Suzette Marie Bishop. And the poets do speak to her. Much of her work is inspired by the work of others. With an eye and pen for detail, readers looking for poetry with a delicate touch are certain to love Bishop's book.
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Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of two award-winning books, This is the Place and Harkening

This book on Kiskaddon is more than a nostalgic collection of cowboy poetry. It offers several short stories that help us learn what life was like in the early twentieth century. The stories show cowboys poking fun at each other in an era before there was television and computers to amuse people. As you read the stories and poems you begin to formalize a picture of whom these people are. The stories give us a wonderful snapshot of a period of American life through the eyes of an editor who has caught the period in the works of Kiskaddon and his illustrator Fields.

Ms. Papanikolas writes in such a way that I learn the facts and comprehend the facts while letting the creative story please me or displease me, as the case may be. As Greek Town and history and happenings occurred all around her while growing up in Utah, Ms. Papanikolas soaked in that history. She makes the facts come to life in her fictional characters and stories regarding the immigration of Greeks to America and to Utah. Ms. Papanikolas has written several fictional stories based on fact and some of those stories are found in `Small Bird, Tell Me.' A reader who has no understanding of the Greek immigration history will surely not enjoy the fictional stories as much as a reader who has tried to learn some background regarding the Greek immigration. My advice would be to read some of Ms. Papanikolas's history and then read 'Small Bird, Tell Me'. The short stories will become more thrilling and enlightening to the reader who has done this.

Stone Desert was very realistic. It was hard to follow at first because every (hike) or adventure had a lot of little interesting facts. I would get lost, like the Craig did while he was exploring and hiking in the canyons of the Stone Desert. I could almost feel the cold rocks and how it would feel to find water when there was so little to find. I liked that he found pottery, paintings and left them undisturbed for other people to enjoy. He had a pride that came through to me in the book that I hope other people can enjoy and be proud of. This pride will keep special items and treasures around for other people to see and enjoy. Danny

There seems to be a never-ending flow of books about the constant battle over the use of American public lands, especially in the West. This is one of the better efforts to explain the issues that precipitate such battles and the consequences for the public.
The author has chosen to tell the story of the changing users and shifting policies regarding the million-acre desert wonderland in southeastern Utah known as the San Rafael Swell and the actions of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency responsible for its protection.
The book is timely given the current political and environmental battles between county commissioners and environmental activists, the never-ending conflicts over water rights, and the issue of recreation vs. preservation vs. grazing and mining rights that is currently being debated in the Swell. This is a must-read for those interested in the ultimate uses or misuses of public land in the West. The Swell is little known generally but for those few that know its beauty it is becoming a battle ground. Many fear it is already to late. You be the judge.

This book is really fascinating.
To me.
It almost certainly wouldn't be to everyone, but to those who are borderline-obsessed with the history of southern Utah, this book is a must read.
Each chapter contains the reminiscings of a particular cowboy or cowgirl who grew up near Cataract Canyon, Canyonlands National Park, and upper Glen Canyon.
One features a woman who was once a little girl on her father's ranch, and who slips casually into a comment on her ghostly spirit protector that accompanies her everywhere. Another talks candidly about the environmental problems of southern Utah being very real...even if he did spend his whole lif ehating environmentalists. Some talk about Butch Cassidy, and others talk about grazing and overgrazing.
The book is worth your money just for the account of Ned Chaffin--King of the Cowboy Storytellers--and all the other accounts are very entertaining as well, and offer good insights into the place names of southern Utah, and the Anglo history of the area.

Being interested in Dendrochronolgy I found this book extremely informative and fascinating. It is certainly a must have if you are interested in Archaeology as well, especially in the southwestern United States. I love the fact that this book is available and that this material is accessible.

That being said, I did have some trouble finishing it, simply because the story tends to get bogged down in the details. This really is two books in one, the author seems to be attempting to tell the story at the same time he is trying to give as much information as possible. It is a valiant effort but in my opinion doesn't do full justice on either part and you end up with almost, but not quite, enough technical info and a story that is almost, but not quite, a real page turning academic drama.

Aside from the aforementioned caution, I still highly recommend this book. If you are interested in the field this is a book you need to have! If you are just browsing for a casual light read and unfamiliar with this topic or southwestern archaeology in general, you may want to move on to something a little less involved.