Year In Review: Fireside Reads
Featured Article
Treasures Of The National Parks: Yesterday & Today
There have been many times as I have visited a national park over the years that I have wondered how the landscape has changed. What was it like in a world before walkways, hotels, gift shops and parking lots? How would it have been to visit Yellowstone before it was a wildlife reserve; the Grand Canyon when it was more of an obstacle than a wonder of the world; Yosemite when you had it to yourself?
Read the review by Patrick Cone
Natural Wonders of the World
Dr. Dolittle would treasure this book by Don E. Wilson.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
The Mightly Colorado River: From The Glaciers To The Gulf
The Colorado River rolls and tumbles more than 1,400 miles, and drains around 8 percent of the United States; an area of around 244,000 square miles.
Read the review by Patrick Cone
Grandfather Mountain: The History And Guide To An Appalachian Icon
Springer Mountain, Katahdin, the Presidential Range, and the White Mountains are all iconic, all dramatic, in their own geologic and cultural heft, each with their own stories. And then there’s Grandfather Mountain.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Crown Jewel Wilderness: Creating The North Cascades National Park
In Crown Jewel Wilderness, environmental historian Lauren Danner masterfully tells the story of the decades of political wrangling over the North Cascades. She examines North Cascades history in the context of national debates about what agency should be the primary provider of outdoor
recreation – the Forest Service or the National Park Service – what areas should be national park as opposed to national forest, and who should manage wilderness in places like the North Cascades. Conservationists were skeptical that either agency would consider wilderness preservation a priority. The Park Service was, they thought, too focused on developing the national parks for mass recreation, and the Forest Service was pursuing a multiple use policy focused especially, in the North Cascade region, on logging.
Wonderlandscape: Yellowstone National Park And The Evolution Of An American Cultural Icon
While many consider Yellowstone National Park as iconic for its nature, 30 years’ experience of this “wonderlandscape” has led John Clayton to conclude that “Ultimately Yellowstone was [is] a cultural place.” How is this so? While not denying the significance of the natural wonders and beauty of the park, Clayton makes the case that over its 145-year history Yellowstone has achieved status greater than other national parks “by the accumulation of our experiences and values and social interactions – by our culture.”
Three Days In The Shenandoah: Stonewall Jackson At Front Royal And Winchester
More than 150 years after its conclusion, the Civil War continues to be dissected by authors who examine and re-examine the motives and strategies of the major players on both sides of the country-wrenching conflict. In Three Days In The Shenandoah, Gary Ecelbarger clears the fog of time to bring forward a more detailed analysis of General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's 1862 crushing foray on Union forces at Front Royal and Winchester, Virginia.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
National Park Roads: A Legacy In The American Landscape
In "National Park Roads: A Legacy In The American Landscape," Dr. Timothy Davis details the history of a relationship as fragile and monumental as Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road – full of ups and downs, twists and turns, challenges and beauty. It is a story that many of us take for granted; after all, a park’s road serves as a de facto tour guide for most visitors, and that’s due to intricate planning and inventive engineering by park leaders for over 100 years.
Read the review by Scott Johnson
Mountain Man: John Colter, The Lewis & Clark Expedition, And The Call Of The American West
John Colter is one of the icons of the American West, at the leading edge of the mountain man era of exploration of the United States west of the Mississippi River. Some might even view him as the leader of the era, tackling the unknown West much as Daniel Boone had in the East decades earlier. Indeed, the two frontiersmen likely swapped stories of their adventures, as they lived closed to one another in their retiring years.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Your Guide To The National Parks, 2nd Edition
Ok, the holidays are over, the new year is a month old, and you're starting to think about which national park to visit this year. One tool that you can turn to to help reach a decision is the 2nd edition of Your Guide to the National Parks.
Grand Canyon For Sale: Public Lands Vs. Private Interests In The Era Of Climate Change
Stephen Nash wraps up this hard-hitting overview of America’s public lands with the observation that “if we want that waning legacy to endure, we’re going to have to fight hard for it.” As I pondered Nash’s troubling portrayal of public lands I happened to pick up the latest issue of The George Wright Forum, a journal focusing on parks and protected areas, and read a piece by Rolf Diamant in which he quotes historian Dwight Pitcaithley who has written that “the National Park System today is vastly different from the one envisioned and managed by Stephen T. Mather and Horace Albright….The complexity of issues confronted by park and program managers today could not have been envisioned by the first generation of Park Service administrators.” After reading Grand Canyon for Sale I thought, “Pitcaithley is so right!”
Heading Out: A History Of American Camping
Has America seen its heyday of camping peak? Is sleeping under the stars now on a slow downward trajectory, not unlike the dying flames of a campfire? That’s one of the questions Terence Young examines in this heavily footnoted text tracing the history of camping in the United States.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
American Wolf: A True Story Of Survival And Obsession In The West
It has been more than two decades since the wolf recovery operation was launched in Yellowstone National Park, and interest in the predators has not ebbed at all. Park visitors continue to congregate in the predawn and pre-sunset hours in the Lamar Valley on the northern end of Yellowstone. Magazine features and books are still being written about the ongoing fate of the wolves.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Big Walls, Swift Waters: Epic Stories From Yosemite Search And Rescue
When the Yosemite Search and Rescue men and women head out, they might be plucking a hiker from icy waters, evacuating a climber from a sheer cliff, or recovering the body of someone who wasn’t even that lucky.
Read the review by Patrick Cone
Underground Ranger: Adventures In Carlsbad Caverns National Park And Other Remarkable Places
In 1995, National Park Service Ranger Doug Thompson saw the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and thought they were clouds. Little did he know, but for the next six years he would work under those clouds, and beneath those mountains at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. He was looking for a challenge after two decades as a ranger, and found one.
Read the reivew by Patrick Cone
Natural Wonders Of Assateague Island
The cover sold me. Whatever followed in the ensuing pages most likely would be riveting, and Mark Hendricks does not disappoint. As much as writers love to use words to create lasting images in readers' minds, Mr. Hendricks, a photographer, has captured the flora and fauna of Assateague Island National Seashore in a wonderful photo collection to be left visibly out for family and friends to enjoy.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Yellowstone National Park: Through The Lens Of Time
Nearly 150 years later, Bradly J. Boner, a photojournalist based in Jackson Hole, spent four summers (2011-2014) retracing the steps of the 1871 Hayden Survey. He went on a personal “scavenger hunt” to find the exact location of every one of William Henry Jackson’s photographs based on the images themselves and descriptions published by members of the party, then “rephotographed” from each spot to show how the park had (or hadn’t) changed.
Complete Guide To Winter Camping
Winter's cold, snowy weather is shunned by more than a few people, but there are those like Kevin Callan who thrive in it.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
A New Form Of Beauty: Glen Canyon Beyond Climate Change
In a large format (10” X 11”), this book combines a photo essay by Peter Goin with three essays by Peter Federici to explore Glen Canyon in the time of climate change. How can that be, you may ask? Is Glen Canyon not submerged under Lake Powell? As Goin and Federici show us, the answer is yes and no.
Legacy Of The Yosemite Mafia: The Ranger Image And Noble Cause Corruption In The National Park Service
Legacy of the Yosemite Mafia can be viewed as a prequel of sorts to Paul Berkowitz's earlier book about National Park Service malfeasance, and even to Robert Danno's own account of how he was pilloried by agency superiors after he charged that his superintendent ignored well-established federal laws and agency policies and procedures in showing deference to a billionaire.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
The Rocky Mountain National Park Reader
This title will be a great addition to libraries of collectors of anthologies of stories and essays from around the National Park System. Through its nearly 280 pages James H. Pickering has masterfully assembled narratives crafted from those who homesteaded the land within today’s park, from naturalists such as Anne Zwinger, Stephen Trimble, SueEllen Campbell, and even from mountain climbers.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Civil War Battlefields: Walking The Trails Of History
Tranquil as it seemed as I ambled across the rolling meadow that gained the moniker “Bloody Angle” for one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War, the images that crept into my mind were vivid.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
The Kolob Tragedy: The Lost Tale Of A Canyoneering Calamity
As wondrous as the National Park System is, it holds wild and rugged settings that, frankly, can kill you if you're not prepared. That point is clearly driven home in The Kolob Tragedy: The Lost Tale Of A Canyoneering Calamity, which recounts the missteps of a fatal trip through the backcountry of Zion National Park in Utah.
Stewart Udall: Steward Of The Land
Stewart Udall served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, leading advocacy and politics
of conservation and environmental protection in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He was, by all accounts, one of the most significant Interior Secretaries in American history, sharing that status with Harold Ickes, Secretary in the FDR administrations. While very different in background, temperament, and style, both men were masterful politicians who saw their role as stewards of American public lands, and we enjoy many legacies of their work today.
Into The Mist: Takes Of Death And Disaster
Books such as the one David Brill has written are reminders that national park landscapes can be as deadly as they are beautiful.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
National Parks Beyond The Nation: Global Perspectives On "America's Best Idea"
The national park movement has been evolving for more than a century, and it is by no means complete. The movement grows as governments, scientists, and society seek ways to cope with climate change, protect endangered species, manage landscapes, and to simply set aside more space for recreation and preservation.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
Crater Lake & Beyond: The Land Of Fire And Ice
National parks make obvious topics for books, and those books generally tend to be either coffee-table-sized photo books or smaller guides to the parks. Crater Lake & Beyond is somewhat of a hybrid, being a large format guide that shows off the landscape in full color while weaving natural and human history between the photographs.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
New Mexico Kicks On Route 66
Because it runs almost 2,500 miles across the United States, there's wisdom in traveling U.S. Route 66 in bites. Such a strategy not only makes it easier to fit into the typical one- or two-week vacation, but it allows you to take a slower pace to enjoy more of the landscape both directly alongside, and nearby, this iconic highway. If your focus is the Land of Enchantment, a good guide for such a trip is New Mexico Kicks On Route 66.
Read the review by Kurt Repanshek
A Field Guide To Antietam
Gaze across the fields of Antietam National Battlefield and the bucolic landscape in many locations speaks of tranquility and an agrarian 19th century society. Scratch beneath that surface, however, and stories roll out about the bloodiest single day of not just the Civil War, but of all American military engagements.
