Book Reviews

Utah's Heritage. By S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH. Inc., 1972. 510 pp. $12.00.)

'Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith

One of the most welcome volumes to come off the press in 1972 is this long awaited book appropriately titled Utah's Heritage. The volume was designed and written primarily as a Utah history textbook for junior high school use. In addition, the general public will also find it a valuable source of reliable information. It is by far the best one-volume history of our state yet to appear.

Material of the volume is quite logically presented in four major parts, each of which is divided into units (eight altogether) and again subdivided into twenty-six chapters. The coverage is extensive, beginning with the physical setting, followed by "Early Man in the Mountain West" and present-day Indian tribes. In logical, well-organized chapters the reader is then led through Utah's history from the arrival of the first white men (the Dominguez-Velez de Escalante Expedition of 1776) to "Utah in World War II" and "Utah's Heritage Today." Coverage is social, cultural, and economic as well as political and religious. Non-Mormon as well as Mormon contributions are given fair and adequate treatment.

A major and outstanding feature of this book is the number and quality of the photographs, paintings, maps, and other graphic materials found therein—there are over five hundred fifty of them. But, although these are very expertly reproduced, the reader will find it nearly impossible to identify the photographer, artist, donor, or other source of the graphic materials. The individuals who made the donations will be able to locate their names in a "Picture Credits" section at the end of the book—but the reader will not take the time necessary to search out such identification. This is a serious fault.

The careful reader will find a few mistakes of names and events, two of which are here cited. One mistake which must have been either deliberate or carelessness in checking a source is found on page 100 where a quotation from Osborne Russell's journal describing an 1840 Christmas dinner is sandwiched between two paragraphs describing the gay times enjoyed by trappers at a rendezvous. Nothing could be farther from the truth: Russell was merely visiting some friends. This quotation is cited from a secondary source —according to the "Citations" page, but should have been cited directly from Russell's Journal. The mistaken notion that the Peter Skene Ogden- Johnson Gardner (not Gardner Johnson) clash of 1825 on Weber River occurred in Mexican territory is perpetuated in the volume. While it is true that the U.S., by the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, had set out the 42nd parallel as the southern boundary of American claims to the "Oregon Country," Great Britain was not a party to that treaty. The fracas occurred in territory positively included in the jointly occupied territory from the British point of view. The Americans were definitely out of bounds. The first edition of every book always contains some errors, most of which are corrected before subsequent editions. Hopefully this will be the case here.

The format of the book, printing job, binding, etc., are very well done. The volume is a significant contribution to the literature dealing with Utah and the West.

DAVID E. MILLER, Professor of History University of Utah

"Photographed All the Best Scenery": Jack Hillers's Diary of the Powell Expeditions, 1871-1875. Edited by DON D. FOWLER. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1972. xii+ 225 pp. $10.00.)

Publication of this beautiful book brings to the public the last known diary of the Major John Wesley Powell Colorado River expeditions. It is a remarkable portrayal of the photographs of one of the great photographers of the nineteenth-century American West. Jack Hillers met Major Powell in Salt Lake City in 1871 when he was hired as a boat hand for the expedition. After several photographers had found the work too arduous or failed to measure up to the major's expectations, Hillers learned the art. In a surprisingly short time he achieved skill and became not only the official photographer of the second Colorado River expedition but remained in that capacity in the service of the U.S. Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution until 1922. His photographs "played a vital role in documenting the researches of Powell and his staff." While only forty-four of the hundreds of photographs taken by Hillers are illustrated, they are carefully selected and beautifully reproduced in sepia and black. The reproductions may disappoint some historians of photography but very little of their beauty and artistry is lost. The examples of scenic views and Indian portraits show Flillers at his best.

The diary adds little information to the story of the second Powell Colorado River expedition. Through the efforts of the Utah State Historical Society, the documentation of this exploration is incredibly complete. Yet Hillers's diary tells us much about the trials and tribulations of the photographer. The necessity of polishing plates, laboring under great difficulties to take only three or four wet-plates, and the other complications of frontier photography emerge time and again from the matter-of-fact entries in the journal.

Dr. Fowler has chosen his materials well, fully annotated points of interest and concern, and provided generous bibliographic citations. Preceding the diary are concise sketches of the expedition, members of the party, and Hillers's biography and photographs.

Hillers's diary ends abruptly with a letter to his brother, "While I have time I will spin you my log." There follow comments about the Indians at Okmulgee, picture taking, and a hint that Jack was a ladies' man. In a few pages the live Hillers exposes himself in a charming, uninhibited narrative.

"Photographed All the Best Scenery," in addition to its importance among the records of the Powell expeditions, is a fine contribution to the list of monographs on the social history of photography and to the growing realization of the importance of this neglected source of American history. The book will be of special interest to historians of the West and to those interested in applications of photography in the nineteenth century.

WILLIAM C. DARRAH, Professor of Botany Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals, 1827-28 and 1828-29. Edited by

GLYNDWR WILLIAMS. Introduction and notes by DAVID E. MILLER and DAVID H. MILLER. Hudson's Bay Record Society Publications, vol. 28. (London: The Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1971. lxx + 201+xvii pp. $10.00.)

Peter Skene Ogden led six expeditions into the "Snake Country" between 1824 and 1830. The journals of the 1824-25 and 1825-26 expeditions were published in 1950 as volume 13 of the Hudson's Bay Record Society and the 1826-27 expedition in 1961 as volume 23. Now the final two extant Ogden journals, those covering the expeditions of 1827-28 and 1828-29, have been published. The journal of Ogden's sixth expedition to the "Gulph of California" was lost in a whirlpool at the Dalles on July 3, 1830.

Prior to the publication of these attractive and well-edited volumes, scholars were forced to rely upon somewhat truncated versions which appeared in the Oregon Historical Quarterly in 1909-10. These were copied by Agnes Laut from the originals in Beaver House, London, and subsequently edited for publication by T. C. Elliott. This reviewer used these versions in the preparation of a master's thesis on Peter Skene Ogden some years ago and can now only wish that the complete journals had been available to him at that time. The journals as published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly are abridgements with many days' entries deleted and with words and sentences left out, often changing the entire meaning Ogden wished to convey to his superiors at Fort Vancouver. Future students of this topic can now benefit from the careful scholarship of the various editors of the Ogden journals.

In the volume at hand, the Millers, father and son, have made an important contribution to our understanding of the activities of the Hudson's Bay Company and their American rivals in the Northwest as they waged a fur cold war. The role of Peter Skene Ogden as well as the roles played by various American trappers are now better understood and placed in proper perspective as they contended for fur trade and empire in the Oregon country.

An excellent introduction sets the stage for the two expeditions, and a fine summary of the journals is presented. But for the flavor and true character of Peter Skene Ogden, one must read the journals themselves. Here the reader learns of the agonizing decisions confronting a brigade leader, of his leadership abilities, of his interest and concern for the welfare of his men, of his hatred for the Snake Indians, and of his intense loyalty to the British Crown as he competed with equally patriotic and aggressive Americans. The journals are copiously edited with every place name identified by its present name and location. This was made possible by the extensive field work of the Millers during which they retraced virtually every step of the Snake Country Brigade on these expeditions. A large foldout map contained in an end pocket aids the reader in tracing the peregrinations of the brigade and helps locate it precisely at any given moment. An effort is made to identify virtually every individual whose name appears in the journal entries.

The 1827-28

journal

affords

valuable

information concerning southern

Idaho, its flora, fauna, and Indian inhabitants.

The 1828-29 journal records Ogden's adventures along the Humboldt River which he discovered at that time. This stream was known in the trapper period as Ogden's River, or Mary's River after his Indian wife, or as Paul's River after one of his men who died along its banks. Ogden called it Swampy or Unknown River. None of these names was to endure. It remained for John C. Fremont in 1845 to affix the name it is known by today.

The Hudson's Bay Record Society and the Millers are to be congratulated for making available to students of the fur trade such important source material so brilliantly and carefully edited.

TED J. WARNER, Professor of History Brigham Young University

The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West. Edited by LEROY R. HAFEN. (Glendale, California: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1969 and 1971. Vol. 7, 395 pp. $14.50; vol. 8, 396 pp. $14.50.)

Arthur H. Clark Company and Leroy Hafen, both experienced publishers and editors of multivolume works, in the early 1960s planned a series to contain biographies of Mountain Men and the fur trade of the West. They projected a series of about four hundred sketches to be incorporated in six or more volumes. They limited the sketches to between one and twenty-five pages, asked that they be based upon sound scholarship, and were most catholic in their inclusion of or definition of Mountain Men. Volume 1 of the series was published in 1965. When Volume 5 appeared, and the total number of biographies reached only 154, it was evident that more than six volumes would be required and that the series could not be completed by the target date of 1969. In the latter year, volume 7 appeared, and volume 8 was published in 1971. These two volumes are here under review. However, in 1972, there appeared volume 9, the last of the textual publications, and the concluding one, containing the index to the entire series is now available. In the total number of volumes, there appear 292 sketches written by eighty-four contributors.

Volume 7 contains thirty - one sketches, and volume 8, twenty-eight articles. These are uniform with the series, all articles being placed in alphabetical order of the names of the biographers. The sketches roam all over the nineteenth century but are principally related to activities in the first half of the century and from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The contributions vary in length, in importance, in style of writing, and in scholarship. This reviewer believes that the best contributions in volume 7 are those of LeRoy and the late Ann Hafen on Fitzpatrick, Janet Lecompte's on Baronet Vasquez, and W. A. Goff's Reuben Smith. The best, or at least most scholarly, in volume 8 are Aubrey L. Haines's biographical sketch of John Colter; Janet Lecompte's on Jules De Mun, Antoine Janis, and James Pursley; Merrill Matte's articles on J. Robidoux and John Dougherty; Harriet Munnick's on the Ermantinger brothers; LeRoy Hafen's Robert Newell; Doyce Nunis's W. Sublette; and Fred Voelker's Old Bill Williams.

In the series many minor characters and some few major ones were not included. In a number of instances it is questionable if the biographees really were Mountain Men. The level of scholarship in such a heterogeneous collection of biographical sketches— ranging in length from three to twentyseven pages in volumes 7 and 8—goes from distinguished to pedestrian, with some articles of high calibre. The quality obviously fluctuates from author to author; this is to be expected. In general, the sketches attempt to emphasize the part each played in the fur trade of the West, with full biographical sketches on the lives of the men included.

There is no overall unity in the volumes. In each, the reader is referred to the long introduction of LeRoy Hafen in volume 1. Each volume contains as many photographs as could be obtained. Mountain AJen constitutes a useful tool and provides biographical sketches of many minor figures.

The series offers a valuable, easily accessible reference work, quite helpful to students of American history. It is to be hoped that the culminating index, which will constitute volume 10, will integrate the series into a more systematic and meaningful work for researcher and student.

A. P. NASATIR, Professor of History California State University, San Diego

Joseph Smith's New England Heritage: Influences of Grandfathers Solomon Mack and Asael Smith. By RICHARD LLOYD ANDERSON. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1971. xx+230 pp. $4.95.)

This is an extremely disappointing book. It might have been one of the most important works on early Mormon history since the old genealogical studies of the 1920s. Instead, we are presented with a nearly inaccessible tangle of reprinted documents, facsimile reproductions of documents, narration, commentary, elaborate footnotes, and pictures. There is so much valuable information embedded in this book that future scholars will have to consult it, but the process will be painful.

The pain begins in the preface with some remarks about non-Mormon "pseudo-experts" on Mormonism and its founder. With so many writers of "imaginative literature as history," explains Anderson, "everyone has to take firsthand evidence and judge for himself." So he reprints certain basic documents in the history of the Prophet Joseph Smith's forebears, including Solomon Mack's famous Narrative (1811), accounts of Lovisa Mack's healing, Asael Smith's letters and verses, and John Smith's family history. In accordance with the subtitle there are two narrative chapters on the family histories of Solomon Mack and Asael Smith; their influential wives, Lydia and Mary, did not make the title page but are given something of their due in the narrative. About a third of the book (a good deal more, considering the smaller print) is devoted to documentary and content footnotes.

What Anderson has given us here is historical research in the service of denominational apologetics. The phenomenon is hardly restricted to Mormonism, and the bias can be useful. But unlike other Christian religions with a tradition of learning, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has very little room for the application of the best methods of modern historical editing. Thus, there is no scholarly edition (as I have complained elsewhere) of the most important single document in Mormon history (aside from scriptural works), namely, Joseph the prophet's History of the Church. The editors of that work—Brigham H. Roberts was not the sole editor—were extremely defensive about their church history. They rearranged and even altered the prophet's prose and wrote elaborate footnotes to defend their faith, as they piously believed, from calumniating "pseudo-experts." Methodologically speaking, Anderson's work, however praiseworthy for his choice of topic and however impressive his industry, falls squarely in this tradition. The tradition is strangely ironic in the light of the well-known, stupendous Mormon effort, unparalleled in the history of any movement, to collect documents relating to the church and to use them in genealogical and historical research.

Professor Anderson evidently anticipated criticism of his methods. He writes that the documents are reproduced "for an audience not restricted to scholars." Scholars, however, are intensely interested in his topic and findings. And they cannot but be dismayed by his arbitrary judgments on how to correct and "clarify" the texts. His justification might seem innocent: "Like much writing from [Solomon Mack's] time, his prose needs slight editing for good readability." But one becomes suspicious when he states further that he has cautiously changed punctuation and so sought "clarity by breaking down sentences into more readable units." One man's clarity is another man's tampering. On further study the reader is downright upset when Anderson announces the omission of seven of the eleven verse compositions (hymns) in Mack's Narrative on the grounds that they are repetitive. Surely, for a scholar trying to fathom the mind of Mack, that very repetitiveness is in itself significant. Still less justified is Anderson's omission of entire passages from the journal of John Smith. The omitted passages, he asserts, are not directly relevant to the Smith family history; they are mere commentary "on the unfairness of the Mormon expulsion from Missouri or geographical and historical digressions on New England." But these passages throw light on John Smith's conception of his family history—to say nothing of their intrinsic interest to both pious readers and eager historians.

Anderson is engaged in no church conspiracy here; rather he is innocently following tradition: a narrowly genealogical and apologetical view of his topic, emphasizing sweetness and light. "Joseph Smith," he concludes, "was like both grandfathers in patriotism, social concern, industiy, personal initiative, physical courage, indomitable will, loyalty to parents, tenderness to family, reliance on the Bible, and religious convictions so deep that he was impelled to share them with others." This reviewer cannot really disagree with this assessment, but it omits a few weaknesses in both families that the prophet might also have inherited. (And once again the grandmothers fail to make it to the credit line.)

The narrative parts of the book contain useful information, including brief introductions to the documents. Though relatively satisfactory, these parts of the book are ill served by the ruthless oversimplification of maps and genealogical diagrams and by the crudely reproduced illustrations. Some of the illustrations are of historical interest, but one is startled by the inclusion of a Winslow Homer seascape, and all of the pictures are inadequately captioned.

The footnotes, hardly intended for a nonscholarly reader, are the most valuable part of the work. The scholar-specialist, if he carefully collates the narrative text with the content notes, is rewarded with many real contributions. Anderson has done some assiduous digging in ordinary genealogical sources and has corrected many longstanding errors concerning the early life of Solomon Mack, his age at death, and the date of publication of the Narrative. He has done a truly remarkable job of reconstructing the real estate transactions of the Smith and Mack families, a fact which almost excuses the defects of the work.

Anderson's refusal to use the standard criteria of historical editing makes it hard to get at his contributions or even to consult his book for specific data. Thus, in reading his reprint of Mack's Narrative the scholar must, since the footnotes are not tied to the Narrative itself, try to remember whether a birth date in the document is Mack's incorrect date or Anderson's corrected one. Neither bracketed corrections nor footnotes are there to help keep things straight, so the reader must chase down the details in three other parts of the book (pp. 6, 7, and 162).

Despite his important contributions in the footnotes, Anderson leaves many answ-erable questions unanswered: Did Lovisa Mack Tuttle live in Hadley or South Hadley? Did she die in Montague or Miller's Falls? How can Anderson mention the important petition signed by Asael Smith and Stephen Mack in 1794 without identifying the petition? Why does he not even discuss the location and nature of the variants of the John Smith journal? Or the location and variants of Lucy- Mack Smith's "Preliminary Manuscript" (first, unpublished draft) of her Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith?

Clearly Professor Anderson chose an important and fascinating topic, and scholars are indebted to him for some extremely valuable work in some primary sources. But this only intensifies the disappointment of the reader. For, all in all, Anderson has ended up with a hard-to-use piece of failed scholarship, one that shows no comprehension of the harmfulness of its own idiosyncratic methods.

MARIO S. DE PILLIS, Professor of History University of Massachusetts, Amherst

A Doctor on the California Trail: The Diary of Dr. John Hudson Wayman from Cambridge City, Indiana, to the Gold Fields in 1852. Edited by EDGELEY WOODMAN TODD. (Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1971. xvi + 136 pp. $15.00.)

In 1849 a Hoosier doctor, James Vallores Wayman, set out "to see the Elephant." Three years later his younger brother, Dr. John Hudson Wayman, was also smitten by gold fever. On his trip west John not only kept an account but also wrote home several letters which are reproduced in this volume. His diary recounts details of the overland trail to California following westward from Saint Louis via South Pass and the Humboldt River to the Sierra Nevada.

The Old West Publishing Company, with its customary good taste in book production, has issued this well-printed and beautifully bound book which contains an introduction and copious notes by Edgeley W r oodman Todd. Notwithstanding special efforts of both publisher and editor to make this a useful contribution, it is difficult to lift this diary to any plane of eminence in the literature of the westward movement. It seems rather to be an ordinary account by a person of average literary skill concerning a commonplace experience. Perhaps the diary was considered publishable not because it was unique but rather because it was typical. Much annotation was required to give meaning to a document intended for personal use. With the passage of time and because the account was kept, not always faithfully, by a man whose "life was not spectacular" and who "achieved no position of prominence," it has been difficult to clarify editorially a number of passages.

Editor Todd claims that Wayman was "a good representative of the class of professional people who joined the great migration to California in the middle of the last century." Evidence of his medical background appears in his frecjuent comments on conditions concerning medicine and health.

An especially good map of Wayman's route from Missouri to El Dorado is included, and the editor indicates that the thirty-two-year-old doctor utilized a popular trail book. Piatt and Slater's Travelers' Guide. . . . Once in California Wayman spent little time in Placerville, his first stop, proceeding from there to the Southern Mines at Sonora.

Later Wayman returned to his Indiana home briefly, then went back West, where he married the widow of Major William M. Ormsby in 1862. Final residence of the couple was San Francisco where Dr. Wayman was predeceased by his wife by some seven months, their respective deaths coming in 1866 and 1867.

DONALD C. CUTTER, Professor of History University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth. By THOMAS D. BONNER. Reprint of the 1856 edition. Edited by DELMONT R. OSWALD. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972. xiii4-649 pp. $9.75.)

Whether James Pierson Beckwourth was, as described by J. Frank Dobie, "the champion of all western liars" (introduction, p. viii) or whether J. Cecil Alter is more correct in his observation that, "it is remarkable how closely historians follow him (Beckwourth) when other sources give out" (introduction, p. ix) is a question which will probably never be settled to anyone's complete satisfaction. Professor Delmont R. Oswald in his introduction to the volume is as objective in presenting the conflicting points of viewregarding Beckwourth's veracity as it is possible to be.

The fur trapper's mode of life, his association with and life among the Indians, was an open invitation to exaggeration of personal exploits and the telling of tall tales. Thus, speculation on whether Beckwourth was more, or less, a departure from the norm than such redoubtable storytellers as Joe Meek and Jim Bridger is an issue this reviewer declines to belabor.

At the risk of committing historical heresy, I would suggest that Beckwourth's credibility, or lack of it, as to dates, events, and the part he played in the latter should not be a primary factor in assessing the merits of The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth. Rather, Robert Lowie's observation that Beckwourth "reproduces with admirable correctness the marital atmosphere of the Crow life in the 'twenties and 'thirties of the last century" (introduction, p. ix) points up a major part of the worth of the book.

Beckwourth affords a more penetrating first-person insight into the psychological and mental make-up of the Indian and his way of life than most other fur trappers. Not only that, but this "buckskin con man" used this intimate knowledge to advantage for himself, his employer the American Fur Company, and, yes, his friends the Crows. For this picture of Indian character, customs, ceremonials, and superstitions, if nothing else, the book is well worth reading.

However, the most important thing about Beckwourth's account is his accurate predictions concerning the future fate of the Red Man. In this connection, one of his observations (pp. 346-47) is worthy of reproducing verbatim: "Those animals [buffalo] abounded by the thousands at that time where they are now [1853] comparatively scarce, and it is a conclusion forced upon my mind that within half a century the race of buffaloes will be extinguished on this continent. Then farewell to the Red Man! for he must also become extinct, unless he applies himself to the cultivation of the soil, which is beyond the bound of probability. The incessant demand for robes has slain thousands of those noble beasts. . . . Doubtless, when the time arrives, much of the land which they now roam over will be under the white man's cultivation, which will extend inland from both oceans. Where then shall the Indian betake himself? There are no more Mississippis to drive him beyond. Unquestionably he will be taken in a surround, as he now surrounds the buffalo; and as he cannot assimilate with civilization, the Red Man's doom is apparent. It is a question of time, and no very long time either; but the result, as I view it, is a matter of certainty."

This observation was made long before the white hide hunters discovered the commercial, although criminally wasteful, potential of the buffalo hide. It anticipates the failure of the Indian to become an agriculturist and clearly forecasts the future reservation policy. Perhaps Beckwourth's term "surround" is not a generally accepted synonym for "reservation," but in this connection it will serve beautifully until someone comes up with a better one!

Professor Oswald is to be highly commended for his excellent chapter notes which serve to correct Beckwourth's lapses of chronology and attempts at self-glorification. Additionally, his brief prologue carries the narrative from 1853 to Beckwourth's death in 1866.

ALTON B. OVIATT, Professor of History, Montana State University Bozeman

The Passing of the Great West: Selected Papers of George Bird Grinnell. Edited by JOHN F. REIGER. (New York: Winchester Press, 1972. x-l-182 pp. $8.95.)

The yellow of autumn had enveloped the aspens when two young easterners momentarily paused in Utah's eastern Uinta Mountains. They had just sighted a young buck feeding in the warmth of a high mountain meadow. Slowly kneeling one of the pair raised his Henry rifle and sighted along its blued barrel. The buck lunged suddenly at the sharp report, stumbled, and then moved off into the trees. Some thirty yards from the meadow the hunters found the still quivering body of their first kill.

The year was 1871, but in many respects this scene transcends mere chronology. For this young marksman and his companion, George Bird Grinnell, it served as their initiation as hunters. This was their first year in the West.

Grinnell, who later recorded these impressions of his first big game hunt, was to return many times not only as a hunter and outdoorsman but as a scientist, ethnographer, and conservationist. He later founded the Audubon Society, became the editor of the influential outdoors magazine Forest and Stream (predecessor to today's Field and Stream), and was to be the conservation advisor to his good friend and hunting companion, Theodore Roosevelt, with whom he co-founded the Boone and Crockett Club. What Professor Reiger offers us in The Passing of the Great West is a glimpse of Grinnell's interesting life in the West to 1883 as seen through selected documents of this active man. Grinnell's association with the West lasted with true Turnerian breadth through the Marsh, Ludlow, and Custer Black PI ills expeditions, through the great Indian wars, and was to witness the relentless settlement and exploitation of this vast region. His comments on the slaughter of the great buffalo herds or his description of range burning in Middle Park, Colorado, are poignant examples of this. The great variety of this material together with Dr. Reiger's editorial efforts have produced a work which is not only of genuine historical interest but which also strikes a sympathetic note with contemporary ecological concern.

The Grinnell who emerges from Reiger's editorialization is not the preservationist some have thought him but rather the outdoorsman and hunter whose philosophy resembles the multiple-use concept of today's Forest Service. Grinnell witnessed the wanton destruction of the great forests and big game herds of the West, and later as editor of Forest and Stream he crusaded to conserve these resources so that they might be enjoyed by future generations of sportsmen. But Grinnel's conservationist campaigns are not dealt with by Reiger. This is unfortunate, for even though they extend beyond the 1883 cutoff, mention of them would have helped round out Grinnell's character and explain away certain anomalies which exist between the hunter and Grinnell the "father of American conservation."

The quick glimpses afforded of such western figures as Custer, Buffalo Bill, Charlie Reynolds, Uncle Jack Robinson, and Judge Carter of Fort Bridger are tantalizing but brief, and one wishes more had been said of these individuals. There are also instances when Grinnell's prose becomes somewhat stiff and sluggish despite Reiger's excellent editing, but there is also an unmistakable eloquence and a sensitivity which characterize Grinnell's writings on nature, on the Indian, and on the West. Grinnell was obviously ahead of his time as far as his preservationist attitudes are concerned, but he was not strictly a preservationist, for he would not lock up natural resources as the cxclusionist would. Instead, he would use these resources wisely while yet conserving them. The Passing of the Great West is an absorbing account of the molding of one of America's pioneer conservationists.

DAVID E. ATKINSON, Researcher Utah State Historical Society

Polygamy Was Better Than Monotony. By PAUL BAILEY. (LOS Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1972. 200 pp. $7.95.)

Paul Bailey is the author of nearly a score of books devoted to Mormons, Indians, adventurers, and builders of the West. Some are fictional; most are historical and biographical. His newest volume is dedicated to his grandfathers Forbes and Bailey of American Fork and Cache Valley and their plural wives. The provocative

title does not reflect the seriousness of the work; it is neither coy nor insensitive. It is a book of sober cultural appraisal, a nostalgic account by an inquisitive youth who sometimes chafed under the strictures of a typical Mormon community after 1900 when polygamy was becoming a fading relic. Divided loyalties are thoughtfully examined, filial affections tenderly recounted, a maverick father stoutly defended. The probing and introspective introduction, "The First Estate," describes the perils that await the nonconformist in a rigidly authoritarian society.

Bailey writes poignantly of his eighth year, the crucial age of accountability for a child "born under the covenant." His foibles at this juncture are w-orthy of a Mark Twain or a Stevenson: the humiliation of circumcision upon an unsuspecting lad minding his own business, the appalling discovery of tobacco in his pocket at the waters of baptism, the hilarious din of the ill-starred player piano turned loose in the middle of the Sunday sermon, the comfortable times spent in grandma's privy with the comic-papered walls.

Wry humor and drawings spark the pages: the Three Nephites are referred to as "leftovers," who were apt to "pop up with bread and money when one least expected them." Home-town primitives are cleverly depicted by artist Don Louis Perceval.

But there were sorrows too: the loss of an eye while playing ice hockey, the family home reduced to ashes from an overheated stove, the breakup of a marriage scheduled for time and eternity. Flashbacks tell of the "cohabs" hiding from federal agents in henhouses, haystacks, and potato cellars— the two grandpas meeting for the first time in prison.

The final chapters speak of censorship of certain Bailey books in Utah and their eventual acceptance. He closes with words of love for his heritage and the hope that his comfortable old cloak will never be taken from him. Polygamy Was Better Than Monotony is a beautiful book, a classic in the realm of homclv and intimate reminiscence.

LAMAR PETERSEN, Salt Lake City

The 1970 Denver Westerners Brand Book. Edited by JACKSON C. THODE. (Denver: The Westerners, 1971. xviii4-467 pp. $15.95.)

As a charter member of the Denver Posse of Westerners, I am proud of the twenty-six consecutive annual Brand Books produced by this organization. The second "Corral," founded in Denver in 1945, has produced more volumes than any of the other posses scattered throughout the United States and Europe. Editor Thode, in the current issue, has assembled one of the most varied and interesting books in the series.

The first section of three articles is devoted to legends. How intriguing they are. Histoiy and legend are often so intertwined that separation of the two is difficult. The first of the three states that Rudyard Kipling wooed and won his wife in Salida, Colorado. Mr. Mooney, author of this article, traces the origin of the story (at the time of Kipling's death in 1936) and its subsequent embellishment: and then demolishes the myth.

The second article discusses the intriguing and picturesque character O. W. Daggett and his Floly Cross Trail. The third presentation is a discussion by Dr. Rist that a Denver "newspaper man forty years ago started a commotion of international and incalculable significance. Through a sheer journalistic stunt, wholly innocent in its intent, he started the Boxer Rebellion in China!"

The longest article (176 pages) and a most fascinating one, is Jackson C. Thode's "A Century of Passenger Trains, a Study of 100 Years of Passenger Service on the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, its Heirs, Successors and Assigns." The informative storyis enlivened by seventy-six illustrations, many of them full-page pictures of trains. It is a delight for railroad buffs and historians. Similar in character is the story by M. W. Abbott of the "Incline Railways at Manitou Springs."

An article on Montana pioneer members of the Berkin and Allen families has Utah interest. It tells of William Berkin's freighting outfit, using sixty bull teams with three wagons and operating between Salt Lake City and the Montana mines. The remarkable contributions of the Jews to the development of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is presented in an article by M. W. Gallon.

The story of notable Isadore Bolten, cattle king, is graphically told by Herbert P. White. An interesting biography of Dr. M. A. Couney, "The Incubator Doctor," is by Dr. L. J. Butterfield.

The intriguing story of Sylvia Smith, editor of the Marble City Times, her fight with the principal business in the "company town," her expulsion from the place, and the subsequent court fight she won are traced out and told by J. F. Bennett. A detailed account is given by Nancy and Edwin Bathke of the rescue of two miners entombed in a Leadville mine for fourteen days. Finally, Mrs. Inez Hunt presents several delightful sketches of noteworthy persons in her article, "The Marryin' and the Buryin'."

LEROY R. HAFEN, Professor Flmeritus of History Brigham Young University

The Mighty Sierra: Portrait of a Mountain World. By PAUL WEBSTER and the EDITORS OF THE AMERICAN WEST. (Palo Alto: American W'est Publishing Company, 1972. 288 pp. $17.50.)

The book is most refreshing and enlightening. Interest is captured from the very beginning with clear description and illustration that instill a longing to visit the Sierra. The reader receives the feeling to explore and investigate further or to revisit the area even though he may have visited, hiked, worked, or lived there previously. The book is directed towards various disciplines such as history, geology, biology, sightseeing, photography, sports, etc.

The format differs from the wellused introduction of historical facts followed by details. The various geographic areas are treated as distinct units with description spattered with enjoyable bits of geologic and cultural history. The chapter organization into specific locality or subject matter is helpful for rapid finding or recall of data. In addition, such things as the glossary (short though useful), the index, and the sources and suggested reading (so needed in such a book) contribute to the use of the book as an excellent reference for the beginner or the more knowledgeable explorer of the Sierra.

Breathtaking color as well as effective black and white photographs lend a welcome break to the monotony of the printed page; however, they are grouped so as to avoid breaking the trend of thought. Although the photographs are excellent, many word pictures match or even excel those captured in the photographs. Charts, tables, and sketches give quick access to abundant data as do the maps by clarifying the location of various areas discussed.

The author catches the feel of the Sierra, probably supported by many personal visits, that engenders a certain awe yet respect for the area. The comparison of geologic time with that of everyday living lends a spirit of reality to the various historical events of the area. The book has a beneficial effect by introducing the reader to the lesser known areas, thus reducing the impact of tourism on the more specific and better publicized localities. Throughout the entire book the impact of man on the Sierra is brought to mind, thereby giving a greater realization of the potential danger of man's misuse of nature and its resources.

As long as man lives on the earth, future generations will contain those individuals who will long for the firsthand experiences with the wonders of nature found only in back country such as the Sierra. This well-written book can and will delightfully introduce to them the Mighty Sierra.

RICHARD W. MOYLE, Professor of Geology Weber State College