Book Reviews

Waters of lion: The Politics of Water in Utah.

Edited by DANIEL C MCCOOL (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995 xii + 202 pp Paper, $24.95.)

In the fall of 1990, when University of Utah political science professor Daniel McCool told his students that the assignment for the quarter was to write a chapter in a book, half the class dropped out the first day. When he told a fellow professor of his plan, the colleague laughed and said, "They'll forget about your book the minute they get a grade." Such was the inauspicious beginning of Waters ofZion: The Politics of Water in Utah. Professor McCool was not deterred, and the students that remained in the course not only finished the class but four years and several revisions later were authors of chapters in the book. McCool said that out of this experience he learned a very important lesson: "never underestimate your students."

The book is divided into four parts: "The Second Driest State," "Conflict over Priorities: The Central Utah Project," "Alternative Uses and Sources," and "Conclusions."

In Part I the authors provide an information base necessary to understand the complex history of water development in Utah and "how much water there is, where it can be found, and what it can be used for." The authors discuss what an exalted position water has assumed in our culture. Water is notjust a key natural resource, it is the "key to all success—if we only had enough water, then a robust economy and happy families would naturally follow." The authors suggest two reasons for this mythical status of water.

The first relates to the West's unique natural features: "its enormous expanses of open space, vertical relief in the form of serrated mountains and deep canyons, dramatic variations in temperature and weather and aridity." Man cannot easily change any of these features, but water can be diverted, dammed, pressurized, and directed Thus, water became the "medium by which we could remake the West into a region more suitable for human habitation." The second reason for water's lofty place in our culture is political Only the federal government had the necessary resources to pay for the huge projects. To get federal support a case had to be made for the importance of water not only to the national economy but also to national security "So supporters of western water development painted a much more grandiose picture: water development would strengthen the nation, fulfill our collective dream of manifest destiny, and make America even greater."

In the last decade these arguments for development have fallen on increasingly deaf ears for two main reasons. First, the federal government is deeply in debt and this indebtedness is finally getting some serious attention. Second, the environmental movement has gained a very strong foothold in Congress that is not likely to diminish anytime soon. With federal money gone and all development projects having to meet environmental concerns, the era of large dam building has substantially come to an end.

Part II treats the Central Utah Project, "the central element of [Utah] water plans since the 1960s." The project was authorized more than three decades ago as one of several projects in the Colorado River Storage Project of 1956 The main purpose of the CUP was to, "get Utah's share of Colorado River water over the Wasatch Mountains into the Wasatch Front." The authors discuss this undertaking and the many problems associated with its development, including funding, the Ute Indians, the repayment battle, and the environmentalists. Each has played a role in slowing the CUP and making it more expensive than ever imagined at the outset. The authors do a very creditable job in describing each of these obstacles and how they were addressed as the project moved forward at a tortoiselike pace They point out the changes that have taken place in the Central Water Conservancy District (the agency created to finance and manage the CUP) over the three decades as it has adjusted to the changing economic and political environment. This part ends by discussing the 1992 Central Utah Project Completion Act. It explains how this act, which authorizes the final stage of funding, is a far cry from the initial funding acts. Environmental issues are addressed, the repayment plan is much more burdensome on the users of the water, and the concerns of the Ute Indians appear to be at least substantially satisfied.

Part III leaves behind the CUP and focuses on ground water, conservation, and instream flow issues—all covered in a simple yet informative manner. Part IV draws the separate parts into a whole by discussing Utah's water politics within a national perspective.

As one who is neither an expert nor a tyro in water history, I found the book to be most informative and insightful Though the CUP is the major focus of the book, there is adequate coverage of other water-related issues such as conservation, instream flow, and ground water It is a book I found worth reading notjust once but twice I encourage others interested in Utah to read it Thank you, Professor McCool, for having faith in your capable students. You and they have made an important contribution to Utah history.

MICHAEL E CHRISTENSEN Utah Foundation Salt Lake City

Confessions of a Coal Camp Doctor and Other Stories.

ByJ. ELDON DORMAN. (Price, Ut. Peczuh Printing Co., 1995 xii + 197 pp Paper, $14.95.)

Young Dr Eldon Dorman arrived in Consumers, Utah, on aJanuary day in 1937, riding in the back of a coal truck because he had wrecked his car on an icy curve in Spanish Fork Canyon He found several patients waiting in the office and before midnight had delivered a baby Accustomed to collecting his bills largely in barter goods, Dorman received "the surprise of my life when the father pressed a twenty-dollar bill in my hand shortly after I severed the umbilical cord. . . . That crisp new bill in my otherwise empty pocket made me think I had come to the right place and indeed, I had" (p. 2).

The three Gordon Creek coal camps—Consumers, Sweets, and National—that Dorman had been hired to serve as a physician were among more than twenty such communities hung on mountainsides or crowded into canyons in the Carbon County coal fields. Some coal camps such as Hiawatha and Kenilworth were well-built and well-maintained company towns that provided some social amenities The Gordon Creek camps were near the bottom of the scale— remote, often snowbound, composed for the most part of huddled tar-paper shacks Photographer Dorothea Lange, who visited the area in 1936, viewed them as exemplifying the worst kind of industrial slums For Dorman, however, the camps were not oppressive places but filled with interesting people and challenges In the process of treating mining and barroom injuries, slogging through deep snow and mud for house calls, and quickly learning "who was doing what to whom and approximately when" (p. 15), he gained a lifelong respect for "the old-time Austrian, Italian, Greek and Welsh coal miners" who asked for nothing but "a chance to work—to dig the coal to pay off his debts, feed and clothe his family and perhaps send his son to school" (p 11) Even though more coal is now produced from the eastern Utah fields than ever before, the coal camps themselves have virtually disappeared. Dorman's anecdotes are an affectionate tribute to a vanished way of life.

Dr Dorman lived in Consumers for only three years before the camp was dismantled. His coal camp memories occupy the first half of the volume The second half moves back in time to Dorman's boyhood experiences on the submarginal homesteading frontier in Colorado and forward to his fifty-year career as an ophthalmologist and civic leader in Price His memoirs reflect the wide range of his personal interests, including the politics of the local medical society, the fellowship of the deer hunt, and the history and prehistory of the region. Perhaps more important, the book captures some of the qualities that have gained Dr Dorman a multitude of friends: an outgoing and unaffected personality, an earthy sense of humor, a certain feistiness, and an unwavering zest for life His friends will find a familiar voice in this book. Readers who have not had an opportunity to make his acquaintance will discover one of Utah's genuine "originals."

EDWARD A GEARY Brigham Young University

Park City Underfoot: Self-guided Tours of Historic Neighborhoods.

By BRENT CORCORAN. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995. xii + 168 pp. Paper, $10.95.)

Like its predecessor guide to Salt Lake City, Park City Underfoot attempts to provide a comprehensive but not academic guide to historic sites in this community The book serves as a reminder to visitors and residents who have forgotten that in its heyday Park City was not only boisterous, vibrant, and congested—as it is today—but it was also a dirty, polluted, and until recently a somewhat ramshackle town off the beaten track Corcoran does not gloss over the less seemly aspects of

Park City's history but instead, through the narratives of individual structures, manages to convey a sense of the community by presenting the many phases the town has experienced since its inception in 1872 The book is geared to a mass audience and promotes the character and flavor of Park City, both contemporary and historic, rather than being a guide to strictly historic sites

Park City Underfoot is divided into walking and bicycle tours, three of each, that highlight about 160 sites; each tour is prefaced by a short description of the topography or physical layout of the area to be toured It also includes an introduction concerning the history of the town and environs, a brief architectural history, a glossary of architectural terms, and a bibliography so that the reader has access to a broader context in which to understand the history of each site Maps guide the walker or cyclist through each tour, and several photographs highlight individual structures and architectural details A practical consideration is the mention in the text of where to park for each tour and the indication of public parking, restrooms, and telephones on each map

Corcoran includes a few paragraphs concerning each site, occasionally pointing out adjacent structures not included and nearby features such as historic stairways and retaining walls The information in the book differs enough from the text found on the small plaques installed by many owners of historic buildings in Park City that between the book and the plaques the more diligent user can obtain a quick, relatively complete history of an individual site. Generally, Corcoran mentions several previous owners, sometimes provides an anecdote about a former resident or interesting object found during renovation, and often points out architectural details. Although the first item provides a useful starting point, the succession of ownership frequently becomes tedious, particularly if no more information than a name is mentioned. While the anecdotes often veer toward an emphasis on the vices experienced by "Parkites," such as prostitution and drinking, and sometimes take on a sensational tone, they enliven the text and help provide a comprehensive view of life in Park City, particularly during the mining boom days This is especially true in the description of Park City's historic saloons, which, the author points out, provided not only refreshment but served as an important gathering place for men who had only a room in a boarding house to call home. The quotations from the local newspaper are well chosen and round out the narrative; more of these would have been a welcome addition

Although the book is billed as catering to historic sites, Corcoran has no hesitation about including descriptions of recent construction in addition to those buildings that are truly old Some might find this misleading, but this reviewer finds it refreshing. The construction of the Park City and Deer Valley ski resorts has certainly shaped the area's recent past, and the accounts of development and planning battles are helpful in understanding why construction undertaken in the last fifteen years looks the way it does. The author manages to be entertaining as well as diplomatic in relating such sagas, nowhere more so than in the description of the experience of the Mrs. Fields company and her cookie college—one of the best entries in the book

Park City Underfoot, however, could be improved upon First, although the photographs themselves are high quality, more of them would be useful, perhaps in a smaller size if necessary. This would be helpful to the "armchair tourist" who is interested in the town or particular site but has no intention of actually undertaking a tour. Photographs relating more of the surroundings of chosen sites would better convey the town's unique environment, and using historic photographs or a map outlining features such as mine openings and the open canal that ran down Main Street would emphasize the community's prominent mining heritage Including such items would lessen the dependence on the mention of colors of structures and contemporary business names to help those intent on following a tour. Second, the book tends to be uneven in its treatment of sites, especially on the bicycling tours, as to what is described and what is excluded. For example, the bicycle tour of Snyderville Basin has a lengthy history of the Wolf Mountain resort but barely mentions the Hurley Farm.

Overall, however, Park City Underfoot is a readable, informative, and often amusing guide. It will attract readers with both an interest in local history and an affinity for the "Aspenized" aspects of the community

ELIZABETH EGLESTON Salt Lake City

Lowell L. Bennion: Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian.

By MARY LYTHGOE BRADFORD (Salt Lake City: Dialogue Foundation, 1995 xx + 389 pp $24.95.)

Mary Bradford faced a challenge in writing the biography of Lowell Bennion: how to be candid and objective about a saint For many Utahns, Lowell Bennion was the most inspiring Mormon in their lives, some would claim in the twentieth century Although Bennion has been given numerous awards and honors that testify to his stature, it is his love and charity for humanity in this modern day that inspired three generations. To them he elevated the institutions—university, church, institute, and councils—to which he devoted his life. His many books and essays have drawn a large audience, and the weight of his prestige has caused many to seek his endorsement. His career will likely remain a high watermark of moral behavior for many decades in Utah and Mormondom.

So how does this biography measure up? Amazingly well Bradford presents a believable Bennion, not a myth. Readers see Lowell as human, sometimes stumbling, and often less than efficient. It is clear that he had the great advantage of stimulating parents. Milton Bennion created a daunting legacy as one of Mormondom's great educators; Lowell mastered the legacy. As a young man he chose to marry Merle Colton just before he left for his mission to Germany in 1928, something unheard of today but not unusual then Thereafter, the Bennions studied in Europe during the early 1930s, only to be tested with anguish as their infant daughter, Laurel, died there The book then details Bennion's notable career in the LDS education system, chiefly at the University of Utah LDS Institute. His move to the U. faculty in 1963 as assistant dean of students and professor of sociology is detailed, as is his third career, beginning in 1972 and continuing to 1988 at the Community Services Council in downtown Salt Lake City A side indulgence was his founding and managing the Teton Valley Boys Ranch in Idaho from 1961 to 1985.

Of the hundreds of professors and church educators in Utah, Lowell Bennion occupied a unique position, perhaps the most respected for both his thought and his impact. As an institutional person, he reflected publicly about roadblocks that plague such organizations His message was that people are what count and institutions sometimes abuse people He was driven by the concept of service to individuals and tried to get organizations to focus on action that helps individuals, particularly those in need His life was devoted to service, modeling that devotion by constant acts of individual compassion.

This idealism often led him into controversy Bradford shows how Bennion's concern for African Americans and the discrimination they suffered in Utah was a long-held theme, one he dealt with deftly, pricking the community's conscience but not polarizing his audience. She also admits that the eventual solution inside the Mormon church came about quite independently of Bennion

The author deals openly with conflicts in Bennion's life, but in context The most famous was his clash with Ernest Wilkinson, who became church commissioner of education in 1953 Bennion did not agree with Wilkinson's strategy for increasing attendance at the LDS Institute. Their styles were so fundamentally different that one of them eventually had to go. Wilkinson was the boss and considered Bennion dispensable Bennion chose to resign rather than accept a transfer; it was a matter of principle. Bradford suggests that Bennion came away from the confrontation more reconciled than those around him She is able to portray the conflict dispassionately, without surrendering to partisanship.

There are other memorable moments in the book: Lowell's friendship with T Edgar Lyon, hisassociation with university colleagues, his teaching in many settings, his relationship with David O. McKay, his dependence on Merle, his bonding with his children at the Millcreek farm The best aspect of the work, however, is the way the author captures Bennion's mind; she weaves his thought into the chapters without repeating his essays. They spice the book and cause the reader to ponder beyond the narrative.

There are two important dimensions of this book: thoughtfulness and candor. The reader savors the meat of Bennion's ethics but also appreciates the author's rigor: facing the conflicting decisions within the church leadership, seeing the high price Merle and the children paid for Lowell's constant devotion to others, dealing with the difficulties of raising their family, admitting his lack of administrative sense Those who have been influenced directly by Lowell Bennion will congratulate the author and cherish the book. Those who have not known him will be brought to understand that some of the most important people in Utah's history were not in the top positions of institutions.

DOUGLAS D. ALDER Dixie College St. George, Utah

Mountain Meadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith.

By ANNA JEAN BACKUS. (Spokane: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1995. 302pp. $32.50.)

Within the first twenty-one pages of this modest tome, consisting of acknowledgments and a personal preface, the reader knows three things: The author is a devout Mormon, is a lineal descendent of the focus of the book—Mormon bishop and participant in the Mountain Meadows massacre (an event that occurred in September 1857)—and is convinced that her great-grandmother, Priscilla Klingensmith Urie, was one of the children "too small to tell tales" who survived the massacre If so, her convictions, though not necessarily conclusive, becomes truly an ironic twist to this biography

The author begins, as background, a history of the formation of the Mormon church, Klingensmith's conversion, and the 1847 trek to the new Zion in what would become the Territory of Utah She tells of the mission assignments of Brigham Young that sent Klingensmith to the southern territory to establish settlements for the faithful

In November 1851, an expedition of eleven wagons and eleven men, Klingensmith among them, led the vanguard that would establish Cedar City. In all, there were thirty-five individuals involved in this initial phase, dubbed the "Iron Mission" inasmuch as there had been discoveries of iron and coal deposits in the area. On May 12, 1852, Klingensmith was ordained first bishop of Cedar City.When he testified in the first John D Lee trial in 1875, he stated that he was acting in that capacity in the fateful year of 1857. In that year he served in the Iron County Militia (a relic of the Nauvoo Legion), commanded by Isaac C Haight

Now the author shifts scenes to an early date in 1857 when a group of Arkansans banded together to form the Fancher party, captained by Alexander Fancher, headed for California When these immigrants arrived in Salt Lake City they found the place in turmoil over the news that Albert SidneyJohnston's federal army was on its way at the direction of President Buchanan to punish the "treasonous Mormons." According to tales related by the author, these immigrants had done little to ingratiate themselves with the Mormons and by the time they reached Cedar City tensions were at fever pitch, in fact, to a point that church officials there had decided to "waste" them Ms Backus gives a good account of the actions of church authorities in creating an atmosphere of fear and anger George A Smith, first cousin of the martyred Joseph Smith, and apostle and first counselor to Brigham Young (as well as commander of the militia in the southern district) was passionately hammering home the fact that Mormons had long been oppressed and this incursion by the federal government was a new persecution to be resisted. Compounding the situation was the randy actions of the immigrants

Klingensmith's testimony in the first Lee trial is a recount of what happened when fifty or so militiamen, in combination with a horde of furious Indians, killed 120 men, women, and children of the Fancher party Klingensmith testified in the face of the other Mormon witnesses who were hostile in their silence and who consistently "disremembered" any details of the affair. Klingensmith was the witness at that trial who broke the vow of silence invoked by Lee and Haight immediately before the massacre. At times his testimony was evasive, sometimes he confessed to an inability to remember (it being eighteen years after the fact), explaining that he was experiencing a "dumb justification."

The common belief at the time was that there were eighteen surviving children; only seventeen were rounded up byJacob Forney, the Indian agent, and returned by the army to their families in Arkansas. The theory is that the eighteenth child remained in southern Utah and was reared in the Mormon faith. Backus is convinced that the child, Priscilla, raised by Phil Klingensmith and his wife Betsy, was actually a Fancher She also believes that Priscilla was the twin sister of Triphenia Fancher, another survivor who was returned to Arkansas. Interestingly, Klingensmith told the court that it was he who parceled out the children to various Mormon families and that he had taken one child, a tiny girl, into his own home and his wife had "brest fed it." Priscilla married John Urie; she was the author's great-grandmother.

The circumstances of Klingensmith's death are shrouded in mystery. The Salt Lake Daily Tribune, August 4, 1881, reported that he was murdered and his body was found in a prospect hole in Sonora, Mexico The author relates another version: his (Klingensmith's) twin sons were told by Indians on the south rim of the Grand Canyon that a man named Klingensmith had lived with them, died, and they had buried him.

History, in its twisting and turnings, makes fascinating reading, and Ms Backus has penned an interesting, thoroughly researched book

HUGH C GARNER Salt Lake City

Educationfor Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928.

By DAVID WALLACE ADAMS. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995. xii + 396 pp $34.95.)

In Education for Extinction, David Wallace Adams moves beyond the usual case study, policy analysis, or reformer biography to combine all the stories into a cohesive in-depth portrait of the world of the off-reservation boarding school Dividing the study into three parts, Adams examines policy formation, strategies of implementation, and Indian responses.

Post-Civil War reformers believed that the only way to save Indians from extinction was to destroy their culture and replace it with a "civilized" one "The next Indian war would be ideological and psychological, and it would be waged against children" (p. 27). But finding that reservation schools did not give them enough control over young minds, reformers sought to separate Indians from their environment Army officer Richard Henry Pratt established the first off-reservation boarding school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1879, and twenty-four others soon followed

When the Indian children first arrived at school, a white man cut their hair, replaced their clothing, Anglicized their names, and forbade them to speak their own language. The children faced alien architecture, strange food, and a plethora of diseases. School officials designed a life filled with "relentless regimentation" and corporal punishment to bring students to an understanding of a world ruled by clocks and schedules In order to teach self-reliance and self-sufficiency, the boys learned manual trades and the girls domestic science.

Indian students resisted by running away or setting fire to the schools, although passive resistance became the norm. Most accommodated themselves to their new situation, usually for pragmatic reasons But upon returning home the children found that the isolated, primitive reservations provided them with few opportunities to utilize new attitudes toward hygiene, better farming methods, or industrial training Rifts grew between parents and children and between progressive and traditional tribal factions. In the end, reformers judged their program a failure because the students did not internalize the white world But the children had changed (even if, by white standards, not enough), and they became "cultural brokers" between their tribes and the white world

Adams is forced to draw conclusions carefully due to the nature of the sources available for this study. Indian accounts lean heavily toward a fairly small body of adult autobiographies, and letters written by students lean heavily toward those written to Pratt that he chose to publish as part of his own agenda The author also relies heavily on school newspapers whose editorial policy must surely give a narrow picture. One is also struck by the fact that much of what is available to us from this time period is found in government documents written by those interested in preserving their jobs

This well-written and compelling volume is useful on a number of levels The uninitiated should welcome an introduction to a truly comprehensive array of historiography revealed in the footnotes and to discussions of a wide variety of pertinent topics, including theories of acculturation and "total institutions" as well as nineteenth-century definitions of civilization and savagery The specialist will find an excellent one-volume treatment of Indian-white relations from multiple perspectives during the transition years between reservation and New Deal Indian policies All readers will find fascinating individual tales and interesting discussions of such topics as CarlisleHarvard football games and the uses officials made of national holidays

Well-chosen illustrations add much to the reader's understanding. This short description and analysis of the contents cannot do justice to the depth and richness of Adams's argument or narrative

KIM M GRUENWALD Kent State University Kent, Ohio

Great Excavations: Tales of Early Southwestern Archaeology, 1888-1939.

By MELINDA ELLIOTT (Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 1995. xviii + 251 pp. Cloth, $40.00; paper, $20.00.)

Great Excavations is a well-researched, generally accurate, and nicely written account of the exciting early years of southwestern archaeology Author Elliott treats us to a series of captivating and informative tales about other sites and the characters who studied them, from the earliest "discoveries" of Anasazi cliff dwellings by the Wetherills through the Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley Expedition— the last grand-scale southwestern archaeological expedition The book covers the period from the late 1880s until the start of World War II, a period in which archaeology and its practitioners matured from the wild and undisciplined youthful exuberance of the early days to the more restrained and scientific field it is today.

Each of the eight chapters focuses on a different archaeological site or project. The sites were chosen because of their importance in southwestern prehistory and presented in rough chronological order of when they were studied, giving the reader an introduction to the development of ideas and theories in the region. The book begins with Mesa Verde, where the remote cliff dwelling with names like Cliff Palace and Sun Temple first captured the imaginations of a generation of Americans Lured by popular magazine articles and newspaper advertisements, scientists as well as throngs of tourists and artifact hunters visited the mesa The years following the first visit by Richard Wetherill to Cliff Palace in 1888 saw several archaeological studies and thousands of relatively unsupervised visitors. Large collections of artifacts were made and numerous sites were severely damaged. These depredations outraged many scientists and citizens, and as a result the nation's first law protecting antiquities was passed in 1906

Chapters on the work conducted at Pecos Pueblo, Aztec, Hawikuh, Chaco Canyon, Snaketown, Awatovi, and Monument Valley chronicle changes in the methods and ideas of archaeologists over time. Early consensus was that the monumental architecture and finely crafted tools and ornaments must have been produced by cultures that had come up from Mexico and returned, not the ancestors of the historic American Indians Such speculation was gradually supplanted by scientifically defensible interpretations as scholars refined their methods and their thinking Stratigraphic excavation, first employed on a large scale at Pecos by A V Kidder, is chronicled, as are advances in seriation, ceramic classification, and dendrochronology, all of which contributed significantly to an understanding of the meaning of the archaeological remains

Equally interesting is the way Elliott brings the dry, dusty ruins to life by introducing us to some of the unique personalities of southwestern archaeology, including the Wetherill family, A. V Kidder, Earl Morris, NeilJudd, and John Otis Brew. Many of these early archaeologists were explorers and adventurers as much as scientists, and the ingenuity and perseverance required of them to carry out their studies make for compelling reading. Telling and sometimes amusing anecdotes are scattered throughout the book, with stories about an exceptional camp cook, lazy students, professional enmity, and the two famous Model T's—"Old Blue" and "Pecos Black." Well-chosen photos and figures enrich the text

Enjoyable and informative, Great Excavations illuminates an era in the discovery of our southwestern heritage that is unsurpassed in excitement, adventure, and romance It would make a great traveling companion for your next visit to the farther reaches of the Four Corners.

KEVIN T JONES Utah State Archaeologist