This work provides information that is detailed and well presented. Many historical volumes deal with one or two issues while Mr. Abruzzi has defined settlement, ecology, and development of the Little Colorado Basin and included detailed analyses of the contributing factors. Anyone interested in the history or ecology of the area will find here a reference that eclipses other books on the subject.

Dancing With Principle Hanya Holm in Colorado
240 pages, December 2001, Univ Press of Colorado; ISBN:0870816446
by Claudia Gitelman
Fascinated by her own work with Hanya Holm in Colorado, both as a student and as one of Holm's assistants, Gitelman examined archives held by the Holm family and interviewed more than fifty of Holm's students, associates, and observers of the program. Describing the birth, constant renewal, and lasting legacy of an institution that has been overlooked in studies of American dance culture, Dancing With Principle will appeal to dance lovers, dance specialists, historians, and students.

IF THE NAMES BIG BILL HAYWOOD, EUGENE DEBS, IGNATIUS DONNELLY, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, SOAPY SMITH SOUND FAMILAR, THEY ARE VERY FAMILAR TO DAVIS H. WAITE; a.k.a. BLOODY BRIDLES.

THE POLITICAL LIFE OF WAITE IS DOCUMENTED THROUGH EXTENSIVE RESEARCH OF SOURCES.

THE BIOGRAPHICAL SEGMENT LACKS FOR SOME ACCURACY REGARDING FAMILY HISTORY DETAILS AND ANCEDOTES. THIS SITUATION WILL BE CORRECTED IN THE NEW BIOGRAPHY OF WAITE BY HIS GREAT-GRANDSON, FRANK S. WAITE .

No other backcountry skier has carved as many turns in this region as Lou Dawson. Furthermore, he has dedicated himself with the same level of perfection to assembling useful guidebooks, and COLORADO BACKCOUNTRY SKIING is the latest in a long line of classics. The maps are the best I've seen in any guidebook, the photographs are both art and information, and the text infinitely more revealing than that found in his predecessor guidebook, Colorado High Routes. This is a book useful for novices or extremists, afternoon tours or day-long descents. As if this isn't enough, with inimitable style, the trademark Dawson storytelling and insight gained from over three decades of hard-won backcountry experiences makes this book transcend the genre.

Hal Simmons knows how to keep a reader short on sleep. This tale of betrayal, murder and courage overcoming all is clearly based on serious research. I used to work in the mining industry, and my husband and I now explore old mine as a hobby, so I ought to know! The end was so great I cried with happiness.

I like this the best of the Denver Hiking Guides. It is easy to use, has lots of hikes, maps and graphs so I know what the trails are like. It has driving directions and time which is nice in Denver and tells you if you can bring your dog which is good for me.

This is the most sensitive, funny, heartwarming perspective on being a psychic and the psychic world I have ever read. In reading Sonia's story I realize that I too have a story, a path, and a purpose and have never felt more inspired to go after it. Once i started reading it i couldn't put it down.

Rubén Cobos' short but monumental "Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish" (1983) was a classic the day it was printed. If you have any interest in the Spanish-speaking cultures of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, this book is a great way to learn something about the dialect without plunging into a difficult linguistic study.

Like Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Cobos's is a book you can sit down and read enjoyably. The entries are not just translations of Spanish words into English. Cobos traces their origin and (in most cases) illustrates their meaning by including them in sample sentences. For instance, "murre" (in standard Spanish, "muy"): "Esta muchita es murre gente" ('This child is very friendly'). Additionally, many words are also explained by the use of proverbs and folk-poems.

Cobos also explains the cultural signficance of about a third of the words in the dictionary. For example, "pitarrilla": "Pitarrilla, f. [Obviously, the dictionary has great value not only (nor even primarily) for the linguist, but for the anthropologist and historian, as well. It is completely free of technical linguistic terminology and accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of standard Spanish. (I might emphasize that the book is a guide to local usage only and does not include standard Spanish words.) Although the pronunciation of the New Mexico/southern Colorado dialect is relatively standard, Cobos has taken care to indicate divergences where they exist (e.g., "raices" is pronounced "rái-ces", not "ra-íces"). He includes a short historical and linguistic introduction, tracing the four-hundred year evolution of the dialect. Finally, for a kick, at the start of each alphabetical section you'll find a short proverb -- "P. 'Pa pendejo no se necesita mestro' (To be a fool one needs no school)."

A valuable book that sells for a good price. Five stars.

This book is beginning to attract quite a bit of attention from historians, history buffs, and general readers alike. While there are a multitude of books recounting the history of the California, Santa Fe, Mormon and other historic trails, surprisingly little has been done on a little known Trail that originated in Ft. Smith, Ark., traversed southern Oklahoma, crossed the northern tip of Texas into New Mexico and Arizona and ended at the Colorado River crossing on the California-Arizona border. I predict it is the first of a flurry of studies looking at an amazing story this is largely untold.
In 1857 the War Department, eager to find an alternative route to the main California Trail that was considered risky given the mounting pressure to subdue Mormons in Utah, and the lengthy Southern Route that ran through Apache territory, commissioned a survey that resulted in the Beale Wagon Road. It was to be the first federally funded interstate road to traverse the rugged southwest desert, canyons, and rocky terrain obtained from Mexico at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a retired Navy Lieutenant, was chosed to survey and construct a road that was to attract emigrant wagon trains and save an estimated 200 miles and thirteen days of travel. Not only was the mission unique but also his crew of 50 men traveled with a most unusual contingent of pack animals: 22 camels from the Middle East were used to carry the supplies and equipment for the expedition.
The book traces the history of the Beale Road in general terms and specifically recounts the experiences of the first emigrant wagon train to attempt the crossing in 1858. The story of what came to be known as the Rose-Baley wagon train, comprised of a group of Missouri and Iowa emigrants that met in Albuquerque, is an exciting and tragic account of an effort to arrive in California and the "land of plenty." To say the attempt was a disaster is perhaps charitable. The road was not as passable as the civic leaders in Albuquerque stated; water was much more scarce as originally thought; the so-called experienced guide was lacking in knowledge and directional aptitude; the peaceful Hualapais Indians were more hostile than advertised; and the reception encountered at the Colorado River crossing, instigated by the Mojave Indians, was deadly.
In a highly readable, narrative style Baley recounts the story and reviews its aftermath and legacy not only for the Rose-Baley emigrant party but also for the Mojave's and Beale's Wagon Road. There is an index, bibliography, appendix, extensive endnotes, and helpful maps and photos. This is a major contribution about the first emigrants attempt to traverse what was then known as the 35th paralled. Most now know it as old Route 66 and I-40. Highly recommended.

Discovering Dinosaurs In The Old West: The Field Journals Of Arthur Lakes, deftly edited by Michael F. Kohl (Amateur paleontologist, Head of Special Collections at the Clemson university Library, and the discovered of Lake's missing journals) and John S. McIntosh (Emeritus Professor of Physics, Wesleyan University and a paleontologist specializing in sauropods), is a unique presentation of the original journal entries from 1877 to 1880 by geologist Arthur Lakes and presented with numerous annotations, clarifications, maps, black-and-white photographs and a great deal more. Enhanced with an informative foreword by John Ostrom (Professor Emeritus of Geology and Geophyiscs, Yale University) Discovering Dinosaurs In The Old West is a superbly presented and invaluable addition to personal, professional, and academic paleontology supplemental reading lists and reference collections.