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Reviews and Notices author's assumption that the readers will not be novices to American fur trade history or Beckwourth's memoirs. Although there is no question whose side of the story is favored in this biography, Jim's life is presented in a very objective "warts a n d all" manner. Wiiile the author attempts repeatedly to exonerate Beckwourth she still feels no compunction in mentioning his faults a n d weaknesses. Although she does not discuss his supposed connections with the notorious Peg-leg Smith and the U t e chief Walkara a n d their horse-stealing ventures into California, she does mention, however, that he participated in similar dealings at other times. T h e numerous journeys of Beckwourth back a n d forth across the American continent are documented in exacting detail, and new proof is given to substantiate his brief excursion against the Seminoles in the Florida W7ar a n d his part in the apprehension of those responsible for the Reed fam-
ily massacre at Mission San Miguel. There are also excellent chapters providing new insights in the lives of his father, Jennings Beckwith, a n d the itinerant writer T h o m a s D. Bonner who wrote down the original memoirs in 1855 (although there is no mention of Philip Stoner w h o attempted this earlier). O n e of the most exciting elements of this work, however, is an essay listed under Appendix A entitled " T h e Language of Beckwourth." This short piece opens an entirely new area of renown for the Mountain M a n to conquer—that of a literary representative of W,restern Americana. All things considered, the strengths of this work far outnumber any weaknesses, a n d with its publication Beckwourth's renown seems much closer to being insured—too b a d it is 107 years too late. D E L M O N T R. OSWALD
Assistant to the Dean College of Social Sciences Brigham Young University
BOOK NOTICES
"The Place Where Hell Bubbled A History of the First National By DAVID A. CLARY.
Up": Park.
(Washington,
D . C . : National Park Service, U . S . Department of the Interior, 1972. iv + 68 pp. Paper, $1.00.) A quotation from Jim Bridger is used as the title of this attractive little book written by a Park Service historian to capitalize on the interest generated by last year's Yellowstone centennial ob-
servance. I t is generously illustrated with the faces of the m e n behind the concept of the famed preserve, the natural features first photographed by William Henry Jackson a n d sketched by T h o m a s Moran during the 1871 Hayden survey, a n d the early tourists who came by stagecoach, motor bus, or automobile to examine "these wonderful fountains" a n d "immense cauldrons" of boiling m u d a n d water. T h e
